Circles of Communication

What is a circle of communication? The first half of the circle is an initiation (someone knocks on the door) and the second half is the response (someone else opens the door). There are all different sizes of circles. Some are big and obvious, and some are more subtle and sometimes we miss them if we're not paying close attention. A big circle might be calling someone's name and them turning around and saying "what?" A smaller circle might be when you're playing chase and your child glances back at you to see if you're still coming. A really subtle circle might be when you glance at your child and you see them briefly look back at you.

Circles can be really hard to count at times, but the important thing is this back and forth interaction. As we look at our world around us, it is all about these back and forth interactions with others. Relationships are based on these back and forth interactions. With some kids, this may be a difficult thing to master. They may not see a purpose in it, they may not find enjoyment in it, or they may just not know how to do it.

Dr. Stanley Greenspan introduces the functional developmental levels through DIR/Floortime. Circles of communication begin at functional developmental level 3. As we work with kids to help them progress through the functional developmental levels, it is important that we are aware of how many circles of communication they are getting. We use simple techniques to encourage more circles of communication. As the child increases the number of circles of communication they are having, we also bump them up to a higher functional developmental level.

These circles do not have to be verbal circles, a kid who does not talk yet can get hundreds of back and forth circles without saying a word. How do we do it? We do it through PLAY. It is important that as children learn to increase their circles of communication that we are giving them opportunities to express themselves on their own. We can tell a kid what to do every step of the way, but how much more rich and motivating would it be if the child is giving us cues of what they want instead. We need to follow their lead.

One of the many techniques that you can use is called 'playful obstruction.'  In many ways, that just means playing dumb. We're all good at that, even when we don't mean to be, right? Instead of doing all the mind reading that we tend to do, play dumb. Make the child open a few more circles to get what they want. Give them the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, make them expand, make them work. Just by playing dumb, you can extend the interaction. If it's really really motivating, then expect even more. Be aware of where that breaking point is, and take them to the limits. If you lose them, that's ok, then you know that next time you'll pull back a little sooner.

Having these circles of communication is really important, and is a pre-requisite to having conversations, or engaging in higher levels of play. Try to count how many consecutive circles your child has a time, and try to expand on that. If there's so many it's hard to count, great! Instead of working on the quantity of cirlces, start to work on the quality.

What is a circle of communication? The first half of the circle is an initiation (someone knocks on the door) and the second half is the response (someone else opens the door). There are all different sizes of circles. Some are big and obvious, and some are more subtle and sometimes we miss them if we're not paying close attention. A big circle might be calling someone's name and them turning around and saying "what?" A smaller circle might be when you're playing chase and your child glances back at you to see if you're still coming. A really subtle circle might be when you glance at your child and you see them briefly look back at you.

Circles can be really hard to count at times, but the important thing is this back and forth interaction. As we look at our world around us, it is all about these back and forth interactions with others. Relationships are based on these back and forth interactions. With some kids, this may be a difficult thing to master. They may not see a purpose in it, they may not find enjoyment in it, or they may just not know how to do it.

Dr. Stanley Greenspan introduces the functional developmental levels through DIR/Floortime. Circles of communication begin at functional developmental level 3. As we work with kids to help them progress through the functional developmental levels, it is important that we are aware of how many circles of communication they are getting. We use simple techniques to encourage more circles of communication. As the child increases the number of circles of communication they are having, we also bump them up to a higher functional developmental level.

These circles do not have to be verbal circles, a kid who does not talk yet can get hundreds of back and forth circles without saying a word. How do we do it? We do it through PLAY. It is important that as children learn to increase their circles of communication that we are giving them opportunities to express themselves on their own. We can tell a kid what to do every step of the way, but how much more rich and motivating would it be if the child is giving us cues of what they want instead. We need to follow their lead.

One of the many techniques that you can use is called 'playful obstruction.'  In many ways, that just means playing dumb. We're all good at that, even when we don't mean to be, right? Instead of doing all the mind reading that we tend to do, play dumb. Make the child open a few more circles to get what they want. Give them the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, make them expand, make them work. Just by playing dumb, you can extend the interaction. If it's really really motivating, then expect even more. Be aware of where that breaking point is, and take them to the limits. If you lose them, that's ok, then you know that next time you'll pull back a little sooner.

Having these circles of communication is really important, and is a pre-requisite to having conversations, or engaging in higher levels of play. Try to count how many consecutive circles your child has a time, and try to expand on that. If there's so many it's hard to count, great! Instead of working on the quantity of cirlces, start to work on the quality.

Show and Tell: Go Away Big Green Monster

A preschool favorite is always Go Away Big Green Monster! Last year I found the Go Away Big Green Monster app, and my students loved it. Their favorite part was the song, and I loved hearing them sing it at the top of their lungs. I wish the app was a little more interactive, like if the kids could move the body parts where they should go, or something like that. However, the song alone is worth the $2. The interactive part of the app is that you can touch the nose and it wiggles, or touch the hair and it wiggles and makes a noise.

The picture above is from a while ago when we made green monster faces. Last year I did this activity with my students, except I used a green paper plate and put velcro on it. We laminated the pieces and put velcro on them so that the kids were able to use their own monsters to put on and take off the body parts while we read the story together. The kids really liked that.

Things we learn from Go Away Big Green Monster:

• Body parts: eyes, nose, ears, hair, mouth, teeth
• Colors: yellow, bluish-greenish (?), red, white, purple, green
• Sequencing: Predicting what goes next
• Emotions: have the kids act out different emotions
• Reading: All my students could "read" this book independently. The receptive phrases make it an easy one to memorize.

One of the repetitive phrases is "Go Away" which one of my students would go home and yell "Go Away!" to everyone. The mom wasn't sure why he was doing this until we performed the song for the parents one day. Then it all made sense. So if you have a student that you do not want to teach this phrase to, you may want to reconsider reading this book ;)

You can buy Go Away Big Green Monster at my Amazon Affiliate site. They also have a puppet kit at Lakeshore Learning, I have that as well, it's a little more durable than a paper plate :) But the paper plate face is a great activity for those creative kids you have.

A preschool favorite is always Go Away Big Green Monster! Last year I found the Go Away Big Green Monster app, and my students loved it. Their favorite part was the song, and I loved hearing them sing it at the top of their lungs. I wish the app was a little more interactive, like if the kids could move the body parts where they should go, or something like that. However, the song alone is worth the $2. The interactive part of the app is that you can touch the nose and it wiggles, or touch the hair and it wiggles and makes a noise.

The picture above is from a while ago when we made green monster faces. Last year I did this activity with my students, except I used a green paper plate and put velcro on it. We laminated the pieces and put velcro on them so that the kids were able to use their own monsters to put on and take off the body parts while we read the story together. The kids really liked that.

Things we learn from Go Away Big Green Monster:

• Body parts: eyes, nose, ears, hair, mouth, teeth
• Colors: yellow, bluish-greenish (?), red, white, purple, green
• Sequencing: Predicting what goes next
• Emotions: have the kids act out different emotions
• Reading: All my students could "read" this book independently. The receptive phrases make it an easy one to memorize.

One of the repetitive phrases is "Go Away" which one of my students would go home and yell "Go Away!" to everyone. The mom wasn't sure why he was doing this until we performed the song for the parents one day. Then it all made sense. So if you have a student that you do not want to teach this phrase to, you may want to reconsider reading this book ;)

You can buy Go Away Big Green Monster at my Amazon Affiliate site. They also have a puppet kit at Lakeshore Learning, I have that as well, it's a little more durable than a paper plate :) But the paper plate face is a great activity for those creative kids you have.

An Amazing Utah School For Kids With Autism

Wow, I did not do well at blogging in May!  Luckily, it's a new month, and I am ready to go.  It's been an interesting month for me, full of change, but exciting changes.  One of those changes will take place in August, but it was this month that I had to make that decision.

At the beginning of the month I was contacted by Clear Horizons Academy and I was asked if I would be interested in coming to their school to help create a preschool program.  Clear Horizons is a private school in Utah County for kids with autism.  They serve all ages, and they are continually growing each year.  I was flattered by this invitation.

It wasn't as easy a decision as it seems like it should have been, partly because it's just another big life change for me and would require some sacrifices in other areas of my life.  Another factor for me was that I don't live in Utah County.  All in all though, I feel like I will be sacrificing very little for a big opportunity in the end.  For years I have wanted to start my own school, and that's still in the works, but I think this opportunity to work in a private school and to help create something I love will help prepare me for future endeavors.  The other thing about Clear Horizons is that they are the only school in Utah that I know of who's foundation is based on DIR/Floortime, which is what PLAY Project is based on.

So for any of you families who are looking for a preschool program for your little ones with autism, come check out Clear Horizons!

I am really excited for this new adventure.  Because of time, it will force me to limit my private clients, however I have some ideas formulating.  I'm hoping to be able to offer some group therapy sessions with families after school, and some parenting classes as well.  Clear Horizons is great, and they are willing to allow me to rent out space in their incredible building.  They built this building just last year, and it was specifically made for kids with autism in mind.  It has a specialized playground, a sensory room, classrooms with swings, and lots of natural light.  I love it.

I'm excited for new opportunities.

Wow, I did not do well at blogging in May!  Luckily, it's a new month, and I am ready to go.  It's been an interesting month for me, full of change, but exciting changes.  One of those changes will take place in August, but it was this month that I had to make that decision.

At the beginning of the month I was contacted by Clear Horizons Academy and I was asked if I would be interested in coming to their school to help create a preschool program.  Clear Horizons is a private school in Utah County for kids with autism.  They serve all ages, and they are continually growing each year.  I was flattered by this invitation.

It wasn't as easy a decision as it seems like it should have been, partly because it's just another big life change for me and would require some sacrifices in other areas of my life.  Another factor for me was that I don't live in Utah County.  All in all though, I feel like I will be sacrificing very little for a big opportunity in the end.  For years I have wanted to start my own school, and that's still in the works, but I think this opportunity to work in a private school and to help create something I love will help prepare me for future endeavors.  The other thing about Clear Horizons is that they are the only school in Utah that I know of who's foundation is based on DIR/Floortime, which is what PLAY Project is based on.

So for any of you families who are looking for a preschool program for your little ones with autism, come check out Clear Horizons!

I am really excited for this new adventure.  Because of time, it will force me to limit my private clients, however I have some ideas formulating.  I'm hoping to be able to offer some group therapy sessions with families after school, and some parenting classes as well.  Clear Horizons is great, and they are willing to allow me to rent out space in their incredible building.  They built this building just last year, and it was specifically made for kids with autism in mind.  It has a specialized playground, a sensory room, classrooms with swings, and lots of natural light.  I love it.

I'm excited for new opportunities.

Sensory Friendly Concert

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to lunch with Jaycie Voorhees.  She's a music therapist in Utah.  She is so great, and I am so excited for what she is doing in our community.  We're hoping that we'll be able to do some work together in the future :)

She's putting on a Sensory Friendly Concert next week.  Everyone is invited.  It sounds like a lot of fun with great entertainment and it will be interactive for the kiddos.  Bring the whole family, and help spread the word!  Jaycie is hoping that this will be something they can start doing on a regular basis if there is enough interest.

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to lunch with Jaycie Voorhees.  She's a music therapist in Utah.  She is so great, and I am so excited for what she is doing in our community.  We're hoping that we'll be able to do some work together in the future :)

She's putting on a Sensory Friendly Concert next week.  Everyone is invited.  It sounds like a lot of fun with great entertainment and it will be interactive for the kiddos.  Bring the whole family, and help spread the word!  Jaycie is hoping that this will be something they can start doing on a regular basis if there is enough interest.

Community Ed Class Begins Next Week

Sorry for all the presentation flyers, but just another reminder that next week my Community Ed Class begins on April 2, 2013.  You can register by going to register.playwithjoy.com.  I hope to see you there!

Sorry for all the presentation flyers, but just another reminder that next week my Community Ed Class begins on April 2, 2013.  You can register by going to register.playwithjoy.com.  I hope to see you there!

PLAY Presentation in Weber County, Utah

Just a reminder I am presenting this coming Wednesday in Weber County.  If you are interested in learning about what the P.L.A.Y. Project is, please join us at 7 pm.  Thanks!

Just a reminder I am presenting this coming Wednesday in Weber County.  If you are interested in learning about what the P.L.A.Y. Project is, please join us at 7 pm.  Thanks!

Parent Testimonial of the PLAY Project

“My Name is Rachael, I have a 4 year old Autistic son named Tyler. I started doing Play Project two years ago with Joy.  Play Project for me has been a new life, a new life style, and a necessity in our lives.  Before we started working with Tyler on Play Project we could not get him to respond to his name, show us what he wanted, or even calm him down.  Play Project is something that I work on each and every day, all throughout the day.  We have learned that this is just our new way of life and our way to play with our sweet TY TY!  If I look back at when we started Play Project, I can remember how completely lost I was.  I had no idea how to PULL Tyler out of his world...and then through Play Project I have learned that I don't need or want to pull him out of his world ... I want to enter into his! I am so grateful for Play Project and for Joy, teaching me how to play with my son. Tyler now gives us eye contact on a regular basis, he shows me what he wants with either picture exchange or by pulling my hand, and he is now responding to his name!  Another thing that Play Project has helped us with is his meltdowns, Tyler used to hit his head on walls with frustration, he has not done that for over 1 year! The more we PLAY the better he does! I love Play Project!”

~Rachael

“My Name is Rachael, I have a 4 year old Autistic son named Tyler. I started doing Play Project two years ago with Joy.  Play Project for me has been a new life, a new life style, and a necessity in our lives.  Before we started working with Tyler on Play Project we could not get him to respond to his name, show us what he wanted, or even calm him down.  Play Project is something that I work on each and every day, all throughout the day.  We have learned that this is just our new way of life and our way to play with our sweet TY TY!  If I look back at when we started Play Project, I can remember how completely lost I was.  I had no idea how to PULL Tyler out of his world...and then through Play Project I have learned that I don't need or want to pull him out of his world ... I want to enter into his! I am so grateful for Play Project and for Joy, teaching me how to play with my son. Tyler now gives us eye contact on a regular basis, he shows me what he wants with either picture exchange or by pulling my hand, and he is now responding to his name!  Another thing that Play Project has helped us with is his meltdowns, Tyler used to hit his head on walls with frustration, he has not done that for over 1 year! The more we PLAY the better he does! I love Play Project!”

~Rachael

Special Education Acronyms

When your child has a CA of 3, you will have his IEP at the CDC where you will discuss the LRE with the LEA for your child with ASD because he will no longer be on an IFSP.  OK? OK...

I worked with people with developmental disabilities in various settings before I started working in Education.  Yeah we had acronyms too, but when I started teaching, EVERYTHING had an acronym.  I did the alternative route to licensure, so I taught my class while I was going to school to get my Educators License.  So basically, I was just thrown into the school environment, acronyms and all.  Most of the time I would just smile and nod, and then I'd go look up the acronyms later.  Confusing...it was confusing.

I'm sure many parents use my same technique of smile and nod, smile and nod.  Especially when they're new to the world of special ed.  Now some teachers are better at explaining things than others, but some teachers forget that not everyone speaks the acronym language.

So here we go, here are a few of the acronyms.  I couldn't do all of them since there are hundreds of them, but it's a start :)

For more acronyms, you can go to the Utah State Office of Education site, or the Utah Parent Center site.  This list was compiled from their two lists.

Joy Mano
Utah PLAY Project Home Consultant
Early Intervention Treatment for Children With Autism

When your child has a CA of 3, you will have his IEP at the CDC where you will discuss the LRE with the LEA for your child with ASD because he will no longer be on an IFSP.  OK? OK...

I worked with people with developmental disabilities in various settings before I started working in Education.  Yeah we had acronyms too, but when I started teaching, EVERYTHING had an acronym.  I did the alternative route to licensure, so I taught my class while I was going to school to get my Educators License.  So basically, I was just thrown into the school environment, acronyms and all.  Most of the time I would just smile and nod, and then I'd go look up the acronyms later.  Confusing...it was confusing.

I'm sure many parents use my same technique of smile and nod, smile and nod.  Especially when they're new to the world of special ed.  Now some teachers are better at explaining things than others, but some teachers forget that not everyone speaks the acronym language.

So here we go, here are a few of the acronyms.  I couldn't do all of them since there are hundreds of them, but it's a start :)

For more acronyms, you can go to the Utah State Office of Education site, or the Utah Parent Center site.  This list was compiled from their two lists.

Joy Mano
Utah PLAY Project Home Consultant
Early Intervention Treatment for Children With Autism

Guardianship and Kids With Special Needs

I've worked with a lot of parents but because I have mainly worked with really young kids or adults after High School, I hadn't thought much about this before.  Guardianship is something that parents should be thinking about even if their child is still young.  Start learning now so that when the time comes it isn't a surprise or added stress. Bret Hortin specializes in working with families with children with disabilities.  

This will be a great workshop to attend. If you are in Utah, RSVP now.  If you're unable to make it to the workshop, feel free to contact Bret to set up an appointment so he can start helping you and your family.

If you're not in Utah, I would recommend finding someone in your area that can offer help with Guardianship and also with creating a plan for your family if something were to happen to you.  I know it's hard to think about things like that, but being prepared could greatly affect your child's future and well being.

Joy Mano
Utah PLAY Project Home Consultant
Early Intervention Treatment for Children With Autism

I've worked with a lot of parents but because I have mainly worked with really young kids or adults after High School, I hadn't thought much about this before.  Guardianship is something that parents should be thinking about even if their child is still young.  Start learning now so that when the time comes it isn't a surprise or added stress. Bret Hortin specializes in working with families with children with disabilities.  

This will be a great workshop to attend. If you are in Utah, RSVP now.  If you're unable to make it to the workshop, feel free to contact Bret to set up an appointment so he can start helping you and your family.

If you're not in Utah, I would recommend finding someone in your area that can offer help with Guardianship and also with creating a plan for your family if something were to happen to you.  I know it's hard to think about things like that, but being prepared could greatly affect your child's future and well being.

Joy Mano
Utah PLAY Project Home Consultant
Early Intervention Treatment for Children With Autism

Parenting Workshop

This special workshop for parents is coming up quick!  Really quick, it's on Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Register today!

This special workshop for parents is coming up quick!  Really quick, it's on Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Register today!

How autism was explained to me

The first time I remember learning about Autism was when I was working at a summer camp for people with disabilities in Salt Lake City, Utah.  We were preparing for a week when several of the kids coming had autism.  They had someone come in to talk to us counselors about autism.  At this point in my life, I had already been working with people with various developmental disabilities, but none of the people I had worked with had autism.

I don't remember the name of the lady who came to talk to us, but I remember one of her explanations of autism.  This was back in 2004.

It went something like this:

Imagine you are in a foreign country, maybe Russia or something like that.  You're going along minding your own business when suddenly all these people start coming towards you.  They're saying something and they look upset but you don't understand them.  They start raising their voices as if that will help you understand what they're saying, but you don't speak their language.  They start waving their arms, and you can tell they're upset, but you still don't know why.  How are you supposed to fix it when you don't know what happened?  So, what do you do?  Fight or flight.  You may curl up in a ball, hiding your face from them.  You may plug your ears to tune them out.  You may start screaming back at them in your own language.  You may try to run away.  You may start doing something to help yourself calm down.    We all react in different ways.

You can see how this situation may be a bit frightening, uncomfortable, and intimidating.  She went on to explain that this may be how some of these kiddos are feeling.  Sometimes they don't understand our language, or our culture.  We may get upset because they did something that according to us was not right, but they may not understand why.  And sometimes even when we are explaining it to them, we are not speaking the same language and they still don't understand.  When they become overwhelmed and frightened, they may start doing things like plugging their ears, screaming, running away, rocking, looking away, etc.

When she told us this scenario, my eyes were opened.  I felt like this didn't just apply to autism, but to a lot of situations.  It put me in a situation that I could imagine myself in, and it made me have more empathy for all the people I had ever worked with and would work with.  As Temple Grandin said in her presentation the other week, her "fear center" is 3 times as big as is expected in a brain.  Can you imagine how certain situations that may seem "normal" to us can be very frightening for someone with autism?

I don't know how accurate this little story is, but I'm grateful for it because it changed me early in my career as how to approach various situations and how to have more empathy for those reacting differently than I would to those situations.

Joy Mano
Utah P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consultant
Early Childhood Autism Intervention

 photo credit: massdistraction via photopin cc

The first time I remember learning about Autism was when I was working at a summer camp for people with disabilities in Salt Lake City, Utah.  We were preparing for a week when several of the kids coming had autism.  They had someone come in to talk to us counselors about autism.  At this point in my life, I had already been working with people with various developmental disabilities, but none of the people I had worked with had autism.

I don't remember the name of the lady who came to talk to us, but I remember one of her explanations of autism.  This was back in 2004.

It went something like this:

Imagine you are in a foreign country, maybe Russia or something like that.  You're going along minding your own business when suddenly all these people start coming towards you.  They're saying something and they look upset but you don't understand them.  They start raising their voices as if that will help you understand what they're saying, but you don't speak their language.  They start waving their arms, and you can tell they're upset, but you still don't know why.  How are you supposed to fix it when you don't know what happened?  So, what do you do?  Fight or flight.  You may curl up in a ball, hiding your face from them.  You may plug your ears to tune them out.  You may start screaming back at them in your own language.  You may try to run away.  You may start doing something to help yourself calm down.    We all react in different ways.

You can see how this situation may be a bit frightening, uncomfortable, and intimidating.  She went on to explain that this may be how some of these kiddos are feeling.  Sometimes they don't understand our language, or our culture.  We may get upset because they did something that according to us was not right, but they may not understand why.  And sometimes even when we are explaining it to them, we are not speaking the same language and they still don't understand.  When they become overwhelmed and frightened, they may start doing things like plugging their ears, screaming, running away, rocking, looking away, etc.

When she told us this scenario, my eyes were opened.  I felt like this didn't just apply to autism, but to a lot of situations.  It put me in a situation that I could imagine myself in, and it made me have more empathy for all the people I had ever worked with and would work with.  As Temple Grandin said in her presentation the other week, her "fear center" is 3 times as big as is expected in a brain.  Can you imagine how certain situations that may seem "normal" to us can be very frightening for someone with autism?

I don't know how accurate this little story is, but I'm grateful for it because it changed me early in my career as how to approach various situations and how to have more empathy for those reacting differently than I would to those situations.

Joy Mano
Utah P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consultant
Early Childhood Autism Intervention

 photo credit: massdistraction via photopin cc

Eye Contact

It's really quite amazing how much we use our eyes to communicate.  We can know if someone is happy, sad, annoyed, tired, mad, etc. all by looking into someone's eyes.  We can point with our eyes, we can show interest in something (or someone), we can say "come here", we can say "help", we can say a lot with just a tiny movement of our eyes.  Our eyes are not only used to be able to see the amazing things in our world, but also to express how we are feeling about our world.

There are many individuals with autism who lack eye contact.  It can be difficult for those trying to communicate with these individuals, and they may feel that they are being ignored or that the individual is not paying attention or is distracted.  That's usually what we would think if someone is not looking at us when we are speaking to them.  There may be various reasons why someone with autism may not give eye contact, but it's not always because they're ignoring you.

So, the question is...should we force eye contact?  Should we focus on making a child give us eye contact when we're talking to them?  There may be some that disagree with me, and that's fine, but my answer would be no.  The eye contact is not the underlying issue, communication generally is.

I'm not talking about speech here, I'm not talking about being able to form words with our mouths, I'm talking about back and forth interactions, gestural communication.  

As we focus on those back and forth interactions, you will usually find that eye contact improves.  I'm not saying it's going to be perfect, but it will generally increase.  As a child starts to find you more interesting, realizes that their actions and words have power, and that they want to see your reactions, you'll see that they will look to you more often.

Need some ideas on where to start?  There are a lot of place you can start, but here's just one idea.  Try interacting using sensory motor activities.  Activities/toys that involve a lot of visual stimulation can be very difficult to compete against, you want to make the environment a place where YOU are more exciting than the flashy toys around you.

Here are 10 sensory-motor activities you can try starting with

• wrestling
• jumping together (on the trampoline, couch, bed, where ever)
• burrito wrap - get a large blanket, roll the child up, then start adding "topping" and give him/her a lot of deep pressure, then "eat" him/her up.
• bury him/her with pillows
• throw him/her onto the couch and wait for him/her to ask for more
• chase
• build a tower of pillows and run together and knock it down
• play stop and go while you spin him/her on an office chair
• swing him/her in a blanket
• crawl through a tunnel (this blocks out other distractions and they can look at you at the end of the tunnel as they crawl towards you)

Find an activity that your child will want more of. Play, play, play, and then pull back a little to see if your child will initiate more.  Don't force him/her to say more, watch their gestures and take them as cues.  Don't discount gestural communication, it's the beginning of communication skills and it's part of the foundation that they need to strengthen.

Joy Mano

Utah P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consultant

Early Childhood Autism Intervention

It's really quite amazing how much we use our eyes to communicate.  We can know if someone is happy, sad, annoyed, tired, mad, etc. all by looking into someone's eyes.  We can point with our eyes, we can show interest in something (or someone), we can say "come here", we can say "help", we can say a lot with just a tiny movement of our eyes.  Our eyes are not only used to be able to see the amazing things in our world, but also to express how we are feeling about our world.

There are many individuals with autism who lack eye contact.  It can be difficult for those trying to communicate with these individuals, and they may feel that they are being ignored or that the individual is not paying attention or is distracted.  That's usually what we would think if someone is not looking at us when we are speaking to them.  There may be various reasons why someone with autism may not give eye contact, but it's not always because they're ignoring you.

So, the question is...should we force eye contact?  Should we focus on making a child give us eye contact when we're talking to them?  There may be some that disagree with me, and that's fine, but my answer would be no.  The eye contact is not the underlying issue, communication generally is.

I'm not talking about speech here, I'm not talking about being able to form words with our mouths, I'm talking about back and forth interactions, gestural communication.  

As we focus on those back and forth interactions, you will usually find that eye contact improves.  I'm not saying it's going to be perfect, but it will generally increase.  As a child starts to find you more interesting, realizes that their actions and words have power, and that they want to see your reactions, you'll see that they will look to you more often.

Need some ideas on where to start?  There are a lot of place you can start, but here's just one idea.  Try interacting using sensory motor activities.  Activities/toys that involve a lot of visual stimulation can be very difficult to compete against, you want to make the environment a place where YOU are more exciting than the flashy toys around you.

Here are 10 sensory-motor activities you can try starting with

• wrestling
• jumping together (on the trampoline, couch, bed, where ever)
• burrito wrap - get a large blanket, roll the child up, then start adding "topping" and give him/her a lot of deep pressure, then "eat" him/her up.
• bury him/her with pillows
• throw him/her onto the couch and wait for him/her to ask for more
• chase
• build a tower of pillows and run together and knock it down
• play stop and go while you spin him/her on an office chair
• swing him/her in a blanket
• crawl through a tunnel (this blocks out other distractions and they can look at you at the end of the tunnel as they crawl towards you)

Find an activity that your child will want more of. Play, play, play, and then pull back a little to see if your child will initiate more.  Don't force him/her to say more, watch their gestures and take them as cues.  Don't discount gestural communication, it's the beginning of communication skills and it's part of the foundation that they need to strengthen.

Joy Mano

Utah P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consultant

Early Childhood Autism Intervention

Hope

Jed Baker, PhD, the author of No More Meltdowns, and Social Skills Picture Book came and presented with Temple Grandin at the Utah Autism and Aspberger's Conference last week.  I really enjoyed his presentation on behavior and social skills.  He has great ideas, and you can tell he has made a big impact on many lives through the people he has worked with one on one and also through his presentations to parents and professionals.

One of the main themes of his presentation was HOPE.  Why do we do what we do? Hope.  How is it that we get through the hard times and we endure the challenging behaviors?  Hope.  We may work and work and work with a child whether they are a student or your own child, we will continue to find ways to work with that child because we have HOPE that what we are doing is making a difference for that child, and that's what makes everything worth it.

There was so much information in this presentation that I won't be able to convey it all right now, so I'm just going to point out one other thing he talked about.  He said "90% of teaching and parenting is tolerance."  We have to be able to "tolerate our own discomfort long enough to think about what to do."  "The individual's behavior is not intended to simply challenge your authority, but is rather a reflection of his/her lack of coping skills."  He went on to say that "our responsibility is to teach a child coping skills, not to establish a hierarchy."

Dr. Baker also talked about the 20/80 rule.  80% of kids, your average rules and consequences will work.  However, it's those 20% of kids that you need to re-evaluate what you're doing and change your interventions accordingly.

Something else that I think is very important is trust.  Dr. Baker said, "It is very hard to impact another human being without trust."  This where we always need to start.  Every relationship should start with trust.

Here is a list of Jed Baker's books
Social Skills picture books
Social skills training for children and adolescents with Aspbergers syndrome 
Preparing for life
The social skills picture book for high school and beyond
No more meltdowns

Here his DVD

Social skills training and frustration management

Joy Mano

Utah P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consultant

Early Childhood Autism Intervention

Jed Baker, PhD, the author of No More Meltdowns, and Social Skills Picture Book came and presented with Temple Grandin at the Utah Autism and Aspberger's Conference last week.  I really enjoyed his presentation on behavior and social skills.  He has great ideas, and you can tell he has made a big impact on many lives through the people he has worked with one on one and also through his presentations to parents and professionals.

One of the main themes of his presentation was HOPE.  Why do we do what we do? Hope.  How is it that we get through the hard times and we endure the challenging behaviors?  Hope.  We may work and work and work with a child whether they are a student or your own child, we will continue to find ways to work with that child because we have HOPE that what we are doing is making a difference for that child, and that's what makes everything worth it.

There was so much information in this presentation that I won't be able to convey it all right now, so I'm just going to point out one other thing he talked about.  He said "90% of teaching and parenting is tolerance."  We have to be able to "tolerate our own discomfort long enough to think about what to do."  "The individual's behavior is not intended to simply challenge your authority, but is rather a reflection of his/her lack of coping skills."  He went on to say that "our responsibility is to teach a child coping skills, not to establish a hierarchy."

Dr. Baker also talked about the 20/80 rule.  80% of kids, your average rules and consequences will work.  However, it's those 20% of kids that you need to re-evaluate what you're doing and change your interventions accordingly.

Something else that I think is very important is trust.  Dr. Baker said, "It is very hard to impact another human being without trust."  This where we always need to start.  Every relationship should start with trust.

Here is a list of Jed Baker's books
Social Skills picture books
Social skills training for children and adolescents with Aspbergers syndrome 
Preparing for life
The social skills picture book for high school and beyond
No more meltdowns

Here his DVD

Social skills training and frustration management

Joy Mano

Utah P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consultant

Early Childhood Autism Intervention

Notes from Temple Grandin's presentation

Temple Grandin spoke at the Utah Autism and Aspberger's Conference last week on November 30, 2012 in Provo Utah.  When she began her presentation, she started by talking about the importance of Early Intervention.  She said "the worst thing you can do is wait." "I cannot emphasize the importance of early intervention and one on one interactions."

Temple Grandin was diagnosed with autism when she was 2 years old.  She attended a structured nursery school which she feels helped her early in life.  When talking about her early life and her recommendations, Temple Grandin said:

• A good teacher is gently insistent
• Early intervention is essential
• Children should have a minimum of 20 hours weekly of one to one teaching

She went on to talk about the different sensory issues and how these systems can be affected in every day life, and especially in learning.  Temple said "my mind works like Google for Images."  This is part of the reason she has been so successful in her line of work.  She continued to say:

• All my thinking uses specific examples to create concepts
• It is bottom up thinking and not top down thinking
• I learn ALL concepts using specific examples

Many people with autism have difficulties with generalization of skills.  Temple said for her the more experiences she would have the more information she could put in her database (in her head) and the more she could make those generalizations.  She explained "It is memorization and scripting, but as more information is memorized, it can be assembled into more and more categories which will help thinking to become more flexible.

It was a great presentation, and I was glad I was able to go.  I think one of the things that surprised me and will help me have more empathy for some of the children I work with is she said "Fear is the main emotion in autism.  My amygdala (fear center) is three times larger."  I don't think that many people understand this fact, we don't understand why some kids react the way they do.  Their fear may be 3 times larger than another child their age.  We need to help them feel safe so that they can experience things and learn without that added stress.  This is one of the reasons that Temple invented the squeeze machine.  This helped her to be able to control the deep pressure that she needed and "helped reduce anxiety and panic attacks."

Temple Grandin has many books available, and there is also a movie that came out in 2010.

Here is a list of her books

Thinking in Pictures

Developing Talents

Animals in Translation

Unwritten Social Rules

Emergency Labeled Autistic

The Way I See It, 2nd Edition

Animals Make Us Human

Here is the DVD

Temple Grandin

Joy Mano

Utah P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consultant

Early Childhood Autism Intervention

Temple Grandin spoke at the Utah Autism and Aspberger's Conference last week on November 30, 2012 in Provo Utah.  When she began her presentation, she started by talking about the importance of Early Intervention.  She said "the worst thing you can do is wait." "I cannot emphasize the importance of early intervention and one on one interactions."

Temple Grandin was diagnosed with autism when she was 2 years old.  She attended a structured nursery school which she feels helped her early in life.  When talking about her early life and her recommendations, Temple Grandin said:

• A good teacher is gently insistent
• Early intervention is essential
• Children should have a minimum of 20 hours weekly of one to one teaching

She went on to talk about the different sensory issues and how these systems can be affected in every day life, and especially in learning.  Temple said "my mind works like Google for Images."  This is part of the reason she has been so successful in her line of work.  She continued to say:

• All my thinking uses specific examples to create concepts
• It is bottom up thinking and not top down thinking
• I learn ALL concepts using specific examples

Many people with autism have difficulties with generalization of skills.  Temple said for her the more experiences she would have the more information she could put in her database (in her head) and the more she could make those generalizations.  She explained "It is memorization and scripting, but as more information is memorized, it can be assembled into more and more categories which will help thinking to become more flexible.

It was a great presentation, and I was glad I was able to go.  I think one of the things that surprised me and will help me have more empathy for some of the children I work with is she said "Fear is the main emotion in autism.  My amygdala (fear center) is three times larger."  I don't think that many people understand this fact, we don't understand why some kids react the way they do.  Their fear may be 3 times larger than another child their age.  We need to help them feel safe so that they can experience things and learn without that added stress.  This is one of the reasons that Temple invented the squeeze machine.  This helped her to be able to control the deep pressure that she needed and "helped reduce anxiety and panic attacks."

Temple Grandin has many books available, and there is also a movie that came out in 2010.

Here is a list of her books

Thinking in Pictures

Developing Talents

Animals in Translation

Unwritten Social Rules

Emergency Labeled Autistic

The Way I See It, 2nd Edition

Animals Make Us Human

Here is the DVD

Temple Grandin

Joy Mano

Utah P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consultant

Early Childhood Autism Intervention

Temple Grandin in Utah

If you're new to the Autism community, you may come across the name Temple Grandin, and wonder who she is.  Temple Grandin has been a big influence on understanding Autism today.  What makes her so different? Well she has Autism and she is able to communicate how she feels and how she thinks.   As Autism has become more prevalent,

If you're new to the Autism community, you may come across the name Temple Grandin, and wonder who she is.  Temple Grandin has been a big influence on understanding Autism today.  What makes her so different? Well she has Autism and she is able to communicate how she feels and how she thinks.   As Autism has become more prevalent,

A Day of Thanks

There is so much to be thankful for.  I feel so blessed to be doing what I love.  It has been a dream of mine to be able to work one on one with families.  When I was just out of High School I started working at a group home for adults with developmental disabilities.  I loved it, and from there my work has continued and expanded.  I have had the opportunity to work in various settings including care centers, recreational settings, educational settings, orphanages, and homes.  I started specializing in

There is so much to be thankful for.  I feel so blessed to be doing what I love.  It has been a dream of mine to be able to work one on one with families.  When I was just out of High School I started working at a group home for adults with developmental disabilities.  I loved it, and from there my work has continued and expanded.  I have had the opportunity to work in various settings including care centers, recreational settings, educational settings, orphanages, and homes.  I started specializing in