Early Intervention Games E-Book

Barbara Sher

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

A resource of fun games for parents or teachers to help young children learn social and motor skills

Barbara Sher, an expert occupational therapist and teacher, has written a handy resource filled with games to play with young children who have Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or other sensory processing disorders (SPD). The games are designed to help children feel comfortable in social situations and teach other basic lessons including beginning and end, spatial relationships, hand-eye coordination, and more. Games can also be used in regular classrooms to encourage inclusion.

• A collection of fun, simple games that can improve the lives of children with ASD or other SPDs.
• Games can be played by parents or teachers and with individual children or groups.
• Games are designed to make children more comfortable in social situations and to develop motor and language skills
• Also included are a variety of interactive games to play in water, whether in a backyard kiddie pool, community swimming pool, or lake
• All the games are easy-to-do, utilizing common, inexpensive materials, and include several variations and modifications

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Games

CHAPTER 1 - Understanding Sensory Processing Issues

Sensory Processing Disorder

Types of Sensory Processing Disorders

The Three Major Sensory Systems

How Sensory Processing Disorders Affect Socialization

CHAPTER 2 - How the Games Help Sensory Processing Challenges

Goals and Methods of Early Intervention Games

Major Goals of Games

Main Methods Used in the Games

Concurrent Therapies

How the Games Address Specific Characteristics of Children with ASD and SPD

How the Games Address Sensory Processing Challenges

CHAPTER 3 - Social Gross Motor Games

A Kid Sandwich

Are You My Mummy?

Balloon Baseball

Blanket Ride

Boat Ride

Box Ride

Going Through the Tunnel of Legs

Hammock Swing

Hit the Homemade Piñata

“I’m Here!”

Jump to Colors

Leap the Shoes

Massages

Name Game

Obstacle Course

Races

Rolling Children

RurRurRurRurRUN!

Sausage Roll (or Sushi Wrap, Hot Dog, Burrito ... )

Scarf Toss

Shape Targets

Stack the Cans

Stop and Go

Target Games

Throw the Balls into the Box

Throwing into the Tubes

Throwing Through the Tube

Tug-of-War

Walk with Rhythm

We Are Rocking

Who Is This?

Who’s in the Box?

Wiggling Snake

CHAPTER 4 - Social Fine Motor Games

Bingo Game

Bubble Blowing

Cereal Box Puzzles

Cereal Necklace

Colored Slots

Drawing Faces

Dump and Fill

Eyedropper Squirts

Feather Blowing

Listening Game

Lost in Rice

Penny Flick

Point to the Cup

Pudding Party

Secret Message

Sink the Boat

Smelling Game

Sound Makers

Straw Sucking

Styrofoam Hammering

Tile Painting

Toothpick Treats

What’s in the Sock?

Yes-No Game

CHAPTER 5 - Water Games

Blow Bubbles and Hum

Boogie Board Ride

Bury the Body

Catch a Fish

Choo-Choo Train

Fill the Bucket

Floating on Your Back

Gecko Walking

In and Out and Crash

Into the Hole

The Kids in the Water Go Splashy Clap

The Little Dutch Boy

Little Jumps, Big Jumps

London Bridge

Make a Pond

Monkey Walking

One, Two, Three—Change

Parallel Swim

Ping-Pong Play

Ready? Set. Jump!

Riding the Horse Noodles

Ring-Around-a-Rosy

Save Your Life

Shark Attack

The Sponge Pass

The Squirting Game

Tug the Tube

Wa-Wa-Wa-Water!

APPENDIX I - Index of Games by Sensory System or Skill Stimulated

APPENDIX II - Additional Resources

The Author

Bibliography

Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by Jossey-Bass

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sher, Barbara.

Early intervention games : fun, joyful ways to develop social and motor skills in children with autism, spectrum, or, sensory processing disorders / Barbara Sher. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-39126-6 (pbk.)

1. Autistic children. 2. Children with disabilities—Development. 3. Motor ability in children. 4. Social skills in children. I. Title.

RJ506.A9S526 2009

649’.154—dc22

2009023238

FIRST EDITION

PB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Preface

Attitudes toward autism have gone through many changes. In my first twenty years as an occupational therapist, I had two clients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). They were considered exotic birds; their rocking, spinning, and hand flapping were called “self-stimming;” and their behavior was blamed squarely on the coldness of their “refrigerator moms.”

Now, these once atypical children are common in my caseload, and self stimulating behavior is more accurately acknowledged as self calming. Instead of being blamed, their moms are honored for their ability to cope with their sensitive children.

The jury is still out on the cause of autism, but what is apparent is that the brains of these children process information differently. Now that we understand the plasticity of the brain, modern therapies are aimed toward helping these children connect the dots in ways that other children do, so they can better fit into our world.

There are even people nowadays who propose that children on the spectrum and with Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD) are more rather than advanced less than their peers. A growing awareness of autistic savants, with genius mixed into their social differences, adds some muscle to that theory.

It’s an interesting thought. I think of Reggie, one of “my” kids. I was watching him blow bubbles recently and saw him mesmerized by the way the light refracted off the iridescent bubbles. If you really pay attention, bubbles are amazingly beautiful, and Reggie was just as delighted and appreciative of the fortieth bubble blown as he was of the first. (Talk about being in the present moment!) Reggie’s ability to notice details also makes him the only one in his preschool class to know the names and sounds of every letter in the alphabet. I envy his contentment in solitary play and his not seeming to care or notice what others think of him.

What would it be like if kids like Reggie were just seen as one in a variety of human possibilities? I won’t be surprised if sometime in the not too distant future, it might be considered “cool” to be autistic or to have unique ways of processing the world. Such terms as Sensory Processing Differences will be used instead of Disorders, and we all will learn to be sensitive to our needs and how to regulate and calm our systems.

Meanwhile, we parents and therapists and friends who love these children can make them feel welcomed and find ways to help them acquire needed skills. One way will always be playing. Play is the brain’s way of learning and our way to enjoy our lives and to give love to each other. Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant points out in his book, Born on a Blue Day, that what made his childhood miserable were the children who couldn’t accept him as he was, but what made his development flourish were his parents who did.

May the games in this book bring you and yours many loving, playful moments.

Barbara Sher

Acknowledgments

It’s one thing to come up with games to play with children and another to find a staff willing to play with you. Playing requires willingness to break into song at any moment and being alert, innovative, and flexible to each child’s unique needs. Our Early Childhood and Special Education staff of aides, teachers, and therapists in the CNMI public school system feel so good about the progress we’ve seen in “our” children that we modestly call ourselves the Dream Team.

To honor our staff’s playfulness and competence, I dedicate this book to them. It was their willingness to happily play every game, many times, which gave me the ability to make games that work best.

Thank you, Joe Cruz, Yoli Lely, Mercy Tisa, Melinda Diaz, Jacob Villagomez, Mark and Patty Staal, Jerry and Rose Diaz, Dora Won, and Judy Hawkins, and helpers, Rita Olipai and Reyda Calibo.

I also want to express special appreciation to early intervention teacher Mark Staal, who had the vision and was instrumental in setting up the local program for children with ASD and SPD. He and Jerry Diaz made important suggestions about aspects to include in the book.

Huge acknowledgment also goes to fellow occupational therapist and dear friend, Karen Beardsley. Karen has a wide range of therapeutic experience, and I was thrilled when she agreed to be my first reader. She assiduously went through the text and, in her characteristically intelligent style, added a sentence, a thought, or a clearer articulation of a therapeutic intervention. For this, I’m very grateful.

Along with Karen’s, I received helpful feedback from Carol Kranowitz and Mary Sue Williams, both authors and outstanding professionals in the field. Their comments were invaluable.

I also truly appreciate Kate Bradford, my editor, who did her usual meticulous and thoughtful tidying and rearranging to add the spit and polish to my vision.

And always I’m grateful to my illustrator, Ralph Butler, who knows to include the wide swath of cultures in his lively illustrations. He knows how to exemplify so clearly in pictures what I say in words.

I appreciate the strong support given to me by my new friend and kindred soul, Ida Zelaya. With her pulse on parental needs through her sensorystreet.com Web site, she understands the power of play with children who have sensory processing differences and shares my words with other parents.

My appreciation wholeheartedly extends to the people in my life who have always given me love, applause, and unending encouragement—my family. My daughters, Roxanne and Marissa, are my continual source of joy, including their husbands, Ehren and Mark, and, especially, my grandson Oliver. I so appreciate my brother Monty and sister in law Glo my sisters Bonnie and Trisha, and brother in law David, my stepdaughter Jessica, and Stuart, Max, and Griff. Also, sweet thanks to my Mom and, in spirit, my Dad and my Richard. I adore them all.

It takes a gazillion hours to birth a book, and each time I’m finished, I forget, like a woman after labor is over, how much effort it “was . . . until” I have already joyously begun the next book. It’s easy to see why I’m especially glad for my loving partner and favorite playmate, Don Cohen, who keeps me company and well fed when I’m writing and joins me on fun outings when I’m not. He is a joy and a comfort for me, and I am deeply appreciative and pleased.

Introduction

Kids who are diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) come in all shapes, sizes, and strengths. Like children everywhere, they are all uniquely themselves, with their own preferences, their own needs, and their own sensitivities. A difference between typically developing children and these children is that children with ASD or SPD let you know, without a doubt, what their preferences, needs, and sensitivities are. They wear their needs on their sleeves.