Learning How to Play

I have begun my quest for seminars and conferences that will provide useful information on Asperger's for my family. If the planners of these events will just start scheduling the ones I want to attend at 5 star spas, we'll be in serious business. I was fortunate to attend one in Dallas this spring, at which Tony Attwood was speaking. He is one of my autism heros, and I would probably fly to the moon to hear him speak again, spa locale optional.

At the conference one of the many helpful resources I found was a book called The Social Skills Picture Book: Teaching play, emotion, and communication to children with autism by Jed Baker, Ph. D.

Ian loves this book.

It provides photographs of social situations that can be challenging for kids on the autism spectrum. They are what the author calls "social skills picture stories", and they are excellent for teaching concepts to visual learners. Included are conversation bubbles, like in cartoons, which reinforce the text above the pictures. Part of the book's appeal to my 6 year-old are the children in the pictures, as they are at or around his age.

The picture stories are divided into 3 areas: Communication Related Skills, Play Related Skills, and Emotion Related Skills. Each situation is very similar to an encounter Ian has had with other people over the last couple of years. We can recall those situations and maximize the value of each exercise. He will spend half an hour or more reading the book on his own, but he learns more if an adult participates by asking him questions about each situation.

Just now, as I was working on this post, I heard Ainsley begin to cry in the living room. She had been running and fell. Before I reached the room, I overheard Ian saying, "It will be o.k., Ainsley. Don't cry," with such empathy I could hardly believe this was my son. He then leaned over and kissed Ainsley's scraped toe. "There," he said. "Now your boo-boo will feel better."

Ian has seen me do this a million times with each of them; but rarely does he take such a keen interest when Ainsley is hurt - mainly because she is always crying to get attention. He really seemed concerned, and Ainsley was definately comforted by his compassion.



I'll have to remember these moments the next time they are pummeling each other over a toy or trying to kill each other some way.