3 Ideas to help your autistic learner in their natural setting
Children Need to Experience Natural Elements in Learning
Recently, I have been visiting lots of preschools in the Mountain View Area. One of the things I love about the Bay Area is how naturalistic the schools are. Children are provided with a just-right environment and they are allowed their own freedom to visit different groups or stations in order to learn and play. This is especially notable in preschools. One of the preschools that I go to has only natural materials. I love that! Children need to feel nature! They need to experience how wood feels with its different textures. How it smells and the sound it makes when it breaks. This is especially helpful for autistic children.
Children love clunking rocks or dropping them in water, they love the feeling of natural pine needles or leaves. The philosophy of many of these schools also involves allowing the freedom of the learner. There is no pressure. Children are naturally allowed to enjoy what they enjoy, which is essential in the early years!
Naturalistic Environments Help Autistic Childen Explore
Autistic children definitely need to experience these naturalistic environments. Allowing them this freedom to play and use their bodies in a natural way is important to their development. They need to explore what is good for their bodies. Autistic children learn things in different ways. Some autistic learners want to feel objects on their face or they like to get right in and explore things wholeheartedly with their whole bodies. It’s just part of their sensory experience!
Autistic children avoid things that might be uncomfortable for them or frustrating. I struggle with this. Having been trained as a Floortime therapist, we are taught to always follow the autistic learners’ lead. To see what they are interested in and to follow that lead and then engage them in it and eventually to see the growth and maturation within that interest.
But what if your autistic learner never comes to engage in certain things that we deem “typical” in schools and learning? For example, your 4-year-old autistic learner is in an integrated/ natural placement. HOWEVER, he never wants to hold a crayon, marker, or scissors? Doesn’t care to hold a fork or spoon? He LOVES legos and magnatiles, but does not go near the coloring station? HMMM… NOW WHAT?
3 great ideas to help your autistic learner in their natural setting
- Think about their sensory experience. Is the classroom too loud, bright, or visually stimulating? Perhaps your learner would enjoy an opportunity to crawl into a quiet corner-a tent in the room with blankets and pillows where a pair of noise-canceling headphones and a lap desk are waiting for your child to hold tiny crayons (great for helping with a three-finger grasp) and a favorite picture of his favorite character has been provided for him to color.
2. Think about the developmental ladder. The developmental ladder is the imaginary ladder that all kids need to meet certain underlying criteria in order to be able to master a skill. (Ex. One must walk before they run). Is the activity being offered at your child’s skill level? Can it be adapted? Does the activity spark interest for your child? Example: You’re working on cutting with scissors. Your autistic learner does not know how to hold the scissors by himself, has to watch his hand open and close when he is cutting; which causes him to go off the line. Providing the child with a pair of adaptive scissors such as these may help. Giving your child some elbow support; thickening the line with a bright-colored marker so they can see it best, and taping the paper to the table hanging towards the floor with a lego person taped to the top as a target may help get them on their way!
Find their strengths and help them use them
3. Does your child understand what they are supposed to do? Really understand? Try visual support! Visual supports are simple! Here are a few examples.
- A schedule. (big picture of the day). “Today we have school, lunch, a doctor’s appointment and time for a bike ride”.
- A “to-do” list (tells them what to do when they get there). “During small group table time we paint, use scissors, count with gems, and build with magna tiles.”
- Instructions- the instruction tells a child how to do a particular activity. “Pull down pants, sit on the potty, wipe, pull up pants, wash hands”. These are usually in object, picture or written form. Nothing fancy. I draw stick figures on Post it notes. Use what works!!
Autistic learners can benefit from the adults in their life finding their strengths and then using those strengths to build skills. They progress when their body feels calm and their environment is such that they can focus on the task at hand…not the sensory bombardment around them. They thrive when they know what is expected of them and have built-in sensory regulation times.
