This post, I am going to discuss some of the challenges faced by children with autism during activities in group settings. This is an important topic to address as very often, parents and caregivers are faced with the frustrating question as to why their children are not interacting 'appropriately' with the rest of their peers or classmates.
Very often, children with autism have difficulty coping in group settings that require them to keep up with the social cues and rules accompanying the activities. Various behaviors ranging from non-response to temperamental meltdowns are then observed within the setting. Parents become worried and anxious about the fact that their children not keeping up with their peers or that their children's difficult behaviours are "not normal". Teachers who observe such behaviour over a period of time may also suggest pulling the child out from the group for the benefit of the smooth running of future sessions. This can then result in further frustration and helplessness felt by the parents as they are quite certain for now that their children do not "fit in" with the rest of their peers.
Why Do Children With Autism Behave in this manner?
Many children with autism require time and patience, to be gradually eased into a setting for group activities by being taught the social rules, cues and skills not easily understood by them. Many social skills that are easily picked up by people who are neurotypically developed are often taken for granted. Most adults think that "if I am able to do this when I was this age, then my child must have no problem doing it too". However, very often, we as adult do not understand autism as well as we should or wish to.
Many children with autism are easily affected by the disruption of routine and group activities usually increase the possibility of such situation as there are many people doing a few different things simultaneously. A child with autism might find that he has little control over the situation as compared to when all the classmates are sitting at their own desk listening to the teacher and following instructions.
The child may be experiencing sensory problems or distractions. The noise of an activity group such as children chattering and voices exchanging feedbacks across the room might be too disturbing for the child's sensitive sense of hearing or perhaps too much movement of people around him may cause discomfort and thus a sense of insecurity.
The child may also be experiencing a feeling of inadequacy. Not being able to understand social cues and rules as quickly as the other children do might cause a sense of insecurity within the child leading to frustration and emotional meltdown.
The child might just dislike being in a social setting or a setting that is too crowded for his liking and he does not know how to express his dissatisfaction. It could be a learned behaviour to cry and struggle before saying "No, I don't want to do this" for verbal children but when probed further as to why, their limited range of vocabulary and the lack of emotion understanding often hinder them in adequately expressing how they are feeling at that moment. In this case, they are being termed as being "difficult" and thus leading to more feeling of frustrations as the adults fail to take further steps in understanding how the child feels exactly. Or for a non-verbal child, crying and struggling would usually be a common way for them to say no. Of course, there are also the non-responsive children who choose non-violence as a form of protest!
What Can We Do to Encourage Learning of Social Skills?
Parents and caregivers can teach the basics at home. Very often, a child can learn effective, basic social concept in the home setting with the participation of his or her parents and caregivers. As the home is less intimidating than an outside setting such as the school, the child can practice following social rules and cues at home before venturing into more demanding settings such as a small size social group catering to children with special needs or bringing the child into the community such as the park so that he or she may have more chances of interaction with other children. However, rememer that patience is key and the child needs to be gradually eased into group settings, no matter how small the size or how casual the nature.
Parents and caregivers can play games with the child at home to teach social skills and concept. Have the child's silings or other children relatives to join in the fun. Have other adults to join in the games. However, please be reminded again to begin slow. Start by playing with one adult, then two and gradually introduce more participants into the play. The increase in people participation could be over a few days, weeks or even months. Do not rush. The most important aspect is to keep the child engaged and interested.
Games are a fun way to teach different concepts to children with or without autism. However, according to the child's understanding level and coping capacity, format and rules of games should be tweaked at times.
Why is playing games important?
1) Teaches the child to follow basic rules and instructions.
2) Teaches basic turn taking which is another essential skill in everyday living for everyone no matter what age. We will discuss more about turn taking for our next topic.
3) Practices concentration skills.
4) Prepares the child for social interaction through understanding of and response to social cues.
5) Trains reaction time and speed of response.
6) Works on visual spatial and receptive skill.
7) Teaches reciprocity such as turn taking and role reversal.
8) Prepares the child towards a routine that is more school structured like. For example in Kindergarten or child care where there are more group based activities such as games and 'music and movement'.
That is all for now about learning and teaching social concepts. I shall discuss more about this in future posts. So do keep coming back to visit to find out more. If you have any suggestions or feedback regarding today's and past posts, please email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com. Please do visit my website www.triumphantkids.com for the services I provide as well.
Very often, children with autism have difficulty coping in group settings that require them to keep up with the social cues and rules accompanying the activities. Various behaviors ranging from non-response to temperamental meltdowns are then observed within the setting. Parents become worried and anxious about the fact that their children not keeping up with their peers or that their children's difficult behaviours are "not normal". Teachers who observe such behaviour over a period of time may also suggest pulling the child out from the group for the benefit of the smooth running of future sessions. This can then result in further frustration and helplessness felt by the parents as they are quite certain for now that their children do not "fit in" with the rest of their peers.
Why Do Children With Autism Behave in this manner?
Many children with autism require time and patience, to be gradually eased into a setting for group activities by being taught the social rules, cues and skills not easily understood by them. Many social skills that are easily picked up by people who are neurotypically developed are often taken for granted. Most adults think that "if I am able to do this when I was this age, then my child must have no problem doing it too". However, very often, we as adult do not understand autism as well as we should or wish to.
Many children with autism are easily affected by the disruption of routine and group activities usually increase the possibility of such situation as there are many people doing a few different things simultaneously. A child with autism might find that he has little control over the situation as compared to when all the classmates are sitting at their own desk listening to the teacher and following instructions.
The child may be experiencing sensory problems or distractions. The noise of an activity group such as children chattering and voices exchanging feedbacks across the room might be too disturbing for the child's sensitive sense of hearing or perhaps too much movement of people around him may cause discomfort and thus a sense of insecurity.
The child may also be experiencing a feeling of inadequacy. Not being able to understand social cues and rules as quickly as the other children do might cause a sense of insecurity within the child leading to frustration and emotional meltdown.
The child might just dislike being in a social setting or a setting that is too crowded for his liking and he does not know how to express his dissatisfaction. It could be a learned behaviour to cry and struggle before saying "No, I don't want to do this" for verbal children but when probed further as to why, their limited range of vocabulary and the lack of emotion understanding often hinder them in adequately expressing how they are feeling at that moment. In this case, they are being termed as being "difficult" and thus leading to more feeling of frustrations as the adults fail to take further steps in understanding how the child feels exactly. Or for a non-verbal child, crying and struggling would usually be a common way for them to say no. Of course, there are also the non-responsive children who choose non-violence as a form of protest!
What Can We Do to Encourage Learning of Social Skills?
Parents and caregivers can teach the basics at home. Very often, a child can learn effective, basic social concept in the home setting with the participation of his or her parents and caregivers. As the home is less intimidating than an outside setting such as the school, the child can practice following social rules and cues at home before venturing into more demanding settings such as a small size social group catering to children with special needs or bringing the child into the community such as the park so that he or she may have more chances of interaction with other children. However, rememer that patience is key and the child needs to be gradually eased into group settings, no matter how small the size or how casual the nature.
Parents and caregivers can play games with the child at home to teach social skills and concept. Have the child's silings or other children relatives to join in the fun. Have other adults to join in the games. However, please be reminded again to begin slow. Start by playing with one adult, then two and gradually introduce more participants into the play. The increase in people participation could be over a few days, weeks or even months. Do not rush. The most important aspect is to keep the child engaged and interested.
Games are a fun way to teach different concepts to children with or without autism. However, according to the child's understanding level and coping capacity, format and rules of games should be tweaked at times.
Why is playing games important?
1) Teaches the child to follow basic rules and instructions.
2) Teaches basic turn taking which is another essential skill in everyday living for everyone no matter what age. We will discuss more about turn taking for our next topic.
3) Practices concentration skills.
4) Prepares the child for social interaction through understanding of and response to social cues.
5) Trains reaction time and speed of response.
6) Works on visual spatial and receptive skill.
7) Teaches reciprocity such as turn taking and role reversal.
8) Prepares the child towards a routine that is more school structured like. For example in Kindergarten or child care where there are more group based activities such as games and 'music and movement'.
That is all for now about learning and teaching social concepts. I shall discuss more about this in future posts. So do keep coming back to visit to find out more. If you have any suggestions or feedback regarding today's and past posts, please email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com. Please do visit my website www.triumphantkids.com for the services I provide as well.
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