10 novel ways to teach skills to teach a child with autism and make it fun

Written on 23rd Jul 2014 by Sylvia Lowery

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Alex has always found it hard to learn new skills in the traditional way. He struggles to focus on things if he is not really interested.

 

 

 

Here are 10 novel ways we helped Alex to learn. What we have done but it was based around Alex’s interests. Following a child with autism’s interest is essential beacause when an individual with autism is interested they will learn.

 

1. Alex had a pond when he was younger. We used building the pond and looking after the fish and frogs to teach him language, responsibility, life cycles and sequencing.  Alex always struggled to remember messages, he was taught to carry a message about his pond by repeating the two most relevant words to himself while he walked.

He would repeat the words  “Fish, food” as he walked to me to remind him of what he needed to ask for.

2. Alex learnt about counties of the world by playing with a talking globe. This globe would teach the Capital City, Population, traditional songs and religion of each country.

 

3. Music -Alex always loved music he learnt the days of the week, months of the year, how to count, science and history through songs that he listened on a tape.

 

4. IT – Alex learnt a lot about IT by watching YOUTUBE films. He would keep stopping the film until he had learnt the skill.

 

5. Audio books – Alex struggled to read books, he still does. Alex was a member of the  ‘Listening Books‘ charity he listened to a lot of Audiobooks. This helped Alex to gain the same knowledge as other readers without having to read.

 

6. Dressing Up – Alex always loved to dress up and play at history. He learnt a lot about history by planning a special banquet. One of his favourite memories was a Medieval Banquet. We all dressed up and ate medieval food and had a lot of fun. All the time we were learning about history. Alex loved to visit Castles and dress up as a Knight.

 

7. Cooking – Alex has always struggled with Maths. Cooking allowed him to work on all kinds of skills. Planning the menu, writing the shopping list, literacy. Going shopping worked on social skills. Maths could be brought into getting the shopping. Very good for rounding money in a real world situation. Cooking the food involves maths, measuring, counting, weighing and time. Every day living skills and food hygiene are also taught.

 

8. Animation (Stop motion pro) – Alex became very interested in this as a teenager. We were able to work on a number of skills by encouraging Alex to follow this interest. We taught Alex how to write a story board. This helped him to grasp sequencing which had always been a problem. He also learnt patience, because a good animation needs to be planned properly. Alex had to learn how to make clay models, his first models fell apart after being moved slightly for each photo. Alex had to try various ways of making his models strong enough to stay together. He tried garden wire inside the clay but this wasn’t strong enough. He learnt that if a head that is too heavy will just fall over. Finally he got a modelling frame for his birthday which worked better.Alex also learnt how to accept things not working and having to try again. A skill that is essential to suceed in life.

 

9. Art and craft – Alex always loved any kind of art so long as his hands didn’t get messy. We used this interest to teach so many subjects. One of my favourite projects was a ‘Then and Now’ picture project. Alex who was  about eight at the time did two pictures one of a hundred years ago and one of now. He went to the local library and learnt about our local town. There were old photos showing the horse and cart compared to modern cars. We visited museums and looked at old irons, fireplaces, beds and toys. All this information was put into the picture. Alex learnt the concept that things were different in the past and this was a very important lesson for him.

 

10. Me book – Every year we made a’Me book’ with Alex, he would make a book about his life. What his favourite things were, trips he had been on, who was in his life. This book would take a few weeks to make and Alex would choose the photos and what had to go in it. Alex still has all his ‘Me books’ he remembers what year things happened and has a good sense of his life and what happened. I believe these books have helped Alex to develop this. He also learnt how to make choices and and it helped with literacy and numeracy. Throughout the years Alex would re-read his ‘Me book’ until he knew it off by heart.

 

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