There is a book I recommend to parents called, “Just Give Him the Whale: 20 ways to Use Fascinations, Areas of Expertise and Strengths to Support Children with Autism” by Paula Kluth and Patrick Scharz. It’s an easy read which gives ideas for teaching skills using interest areas of children diagnosed with ASD. I strongly believe that using the child’s own interests is the IN that we need to get them learning. I see most kids for 30 to 60 minutes per week max, so I want to make the best use of my therapy time by gaining their interest and attention right away. As they begin to trust me more, we may experiment to see if we can expand their interest levels.
My new favorite product is: Squinkies. They are really, really tiny figurines, so you could buy one of each set and they would fit in a pencil case. They just started coming out with “accessories” which makes them great for following directions and basic spatial concepts. Plus, they have sets for most of the “interest” areas for most of my caseload: Cars, Super heroes, Nemo, Disney princesses, Sponge bob, Power rangers, WWF, Toy Story, Barbies among others.
Mainly I’ve been using for following directions, spatial concepts and answering where questions, but I’m sure there are lots of other ways to use these.
