If the activity becomes really repetitive, but your child wants to continue, offer a new activity that will be very attractive to the child so that she stays motivated to play with you. Present the new toy to your child while she is still playing repetitively with the first one. Offer it to her, operate it, and make it look really great. See if your child will reach for it—if so, do a trade, giving her the new toy and taking away the old one (get it out of sight fast). Chances are that this will work well, and you will then be at the initiation phase of a new joint activity. If it doesn’t work well and your child protests, go ahead and give a piece or two back (but a minimal amount), and then try again in a few minutes with a different toy. Eventually your child will get bored.
When you transition to another activity, how do you decide whether to do a sensory social routine or a joint activity with objects? We recommend going back and forth between sensory social routines and object-focused joint activity routines to keep things lively and varied. Sensory social routines are best at times when you want to optimize your child’s arousal and motivation for learning. Some children have a preference for one or the other. For example, for a child who prefers object-oriented joint activity routines, you may have to make a concerted effort to add sensory social routines; for a child who does not enjoy objects, you’ll have to build up object-focused joint activity routines more gradually. Over time, and as your child’s play gets more mature and sophisticated, you will find that you will naturally start incorporating more and more social exchanges into object-focused joint activity routines. The two kinds of routines will naturally become more similar over time. Think about preschool children playing dress-up or action figures. There are as many social elements to their play as there are object-focused actions. However, all the way through preschool and into kindergarten, school programs provide both kinds of activities. Free play often involves more actions on objects, and circle time generally involves songs, finger plays, and other sensory social routines. Book activities and pretend play often blend both. Making sure that you are using the same kinds of play routines other children your child’s age are using, in both your sensory social and your object-focused joint activity routines, prepares your child for group learning experiences.
Summary of Step 5
If you have followed along and carried out the preceding activities, you will have developed all of the stages or steps of a joint activity and now have several routines that you and your child can do daily and share with one another. See if you agree with most of the statements in the following checklist. If so, you are now armed with important skills for taking turns and teaching inside joint activities. If not, start experimenting during play and caregiving routines until you have found some methods that work for each statement.
Activity Checklist: Am I Closing the Joint Activity
and Moving On?
____ I know when my child is losing interest in a joint activity.
____ I know when the activity is becoming too repetitive or too over- or understimulating for my child to learn from.
____ My child helps me clean up the joint activity.
____ If my child resists closing an activity, I use repair strategies (offer a choice, activate new toy, trade materials) to help my child transition to the next joint activity.
____ I can help my child transition to a new joint activity while maintaining my child’s attention and interaction.
What about Kylie? Kylie’s parents were concerned about her lack of interest in sensory social routines. Without objects, she just didn’t seem to care. But they had seen how much Kylie enjoyed being tickled with objects, and recently she loved it when Dad used an animal puzzle piece and made the animal sound before placing it in the puzzle. They knew from reading Chapter 5 that props can be used to support children’s attention to people’s faces and bodies during these routines, so Mom began taking turns with Kylie hitting her toy drum with a stick or hands. After a few rounds of this exchange, Mom covered her face with the drum and started a game of peekaboo. She did this a few times, exaggerating the “boo” and even tickling Kylie after appearing from behind the drum. Next Mom placed the drum in front of Kylie’s face and said “boo” for her as she pulled the drum away and tickled her daughter. Kylie liked this game for a few minutes, but then started backing away as if to say she was done. Mom responded by acknowledging that Kylie was “all done with peekaboo” and took out a party horn to blow. Kylie had not seen this toy before and quickly approached Mom to take the horn. Kylie’s mom blew it a few times; each time, she first sang, “If you’re happy and you know it, blow your horn,” followed by the “toot-toot” of the horn. Then she held the horn for Kylie to blow, and each time Kylie exhaled air, Mom would blow the horn and sing a verse of the song. She wasn’t sure Kylie really liked the song, but it didn’t matter so much now, because at least there were two sensory social routines that Mom could do in between more object-related games. Mom also realized the importance of practicing these more often throughout the day, so that Kylie could become more familiar with the routines and over time enjoy them more.
Step 6. Create Joint Activities during Other Daily Routines,
to Foster Multiple Areas of Development
Rationale. All kinds of daily caregiving routines have a joint activity structure. For example, mealtimes have an initiation (getting your child into his chair, putting on a bib, wiping off hands), a theme (putting food out so your child begins to eat), one or more variations (you eventually sit down too, usually near your child; interact with your child; eat something yourself, and perhaps share some of your food with your child; respond to your child’s requests and refusals; offer a cup and something different to eat), and a closing (asking, “Are you all done?”; wiping off hands and face; untying the bib; taking off the tray; getting the child down).
In Chapter 5 we have discussed the importance of finding ways to include as much time as you can for brief social interactions with your child during your everyday caregiving routines. Thinking about each daily routine as an opportunity for a joint activity may help you think of new ways to carry out these interactions. It is sometimes difficult to set aside enough time to sit down and play with your child, so figuring out how to engage in joint activities during the daily care routines that make up your day is a way of ensuring that your child gets plenty of practice and learning opportunities. We have just reviewed the four phases of a mealtime that fit within each of the four steps for carrying out a joint activity. Take a minute and think through bath time. See if you can think of how the four steps (initiating/setting up a joint activity, establishing a theme, elaborating on/varying the theme, and closing the activity/moving on) would fit there. After you think it through, read on and see how yours is similar to, and different from, our “script”:
Initiation/setup: Going to the bathroom, turning on the water, taking off clothes
Theme: Getting into the water, soaping up, and rinsing off
Variation/elaboration: Talking about body parts as you wash them; playing with the suds and bubbles; playing with the bath toys; pouring and dumping water; splashing, kicking, and blowing bubbles; and many more
Closing transition: Getting out, drying off, and putting on PJs
Now how do you create the kind of interaction we have described earlier, so your child is really participating and taking turns in the activity? Your child could participate in the initiation by walking into the bathroom with you (instead of being carried), by helping turn on the water, or by putting her hands under the water and feeling it; by throwing bath toys into the water; by helping take her clothes off, even if it just means pulling her shirt over her head or socks off her toes and putting the clothes in the hamper; and by responding with outstretched hands and maybe some words to your offer to be picked up and put in the water (rather than picking up your child from behind and placing her in the water).
How can your child participate in the theme phase? By taking a turn washing her belly, ch
est, arms, and legs with the washcloth; by handing you the soap; by helping rub the shampoo into her hair; by holding the cup while you fill it with water; by pouring water on her soapy chest or belly. These are all opportunities for turn taking, with accompanying language and modeling.
The variation phase is probably the easiest to think through, because it is the playtime that goes with bath time. It is an excellent time for playing together in this back-and-forth way. Instead of putting soap on the child’s belly, put it on her head. While playing with the rubber ducky, place soap on top of the ducky (“Soap on ducky!”).
The closing can involve your child in putting the bath toys in a container; putting the soap in the soap dish; sitting down for drying; offering hands and feet when you request them for drying; helping to pat wet hair with a towel; rubbing lotion on belly and legs; helping comb through hair; and so forth. All the activities you typically do can also include your child and become very rich in language and social learning experiences.
Does this take more time? Absolutely—it’s taking all your typical activities and turning them into back-and-forth play and teaching opportunities that your child can absorb. It’s much easier to do these caregiving routines without much of a structure; after all, we often just want to get the bath finished! It is easy and fast to change, dress, or feed your child while a video is on and your child is watching. However, when you add the four steps of a joint activity and the turn-taking structure into your daily routines with your child, you’re providing a number of important learning elements for your child. You are helping your child learn what is coming, how the whole activity goes, when it will begin, and when it will end. This makes it more predictable for your child and gives your child ways to participate instead of being a passive receiver of your care. You’re helping your child learn the meaning of words, of gestures, and the structure of daily life. You’re helping your child learn to imitate, to watch and do, to pay attention to other people, and to respond when someone addresses her.
Almost every activity you do with your child can become a joint activity routine: brushing teeth, having your child help with a cooking project, dressing and undressing, going for a walk, bedtime routines, and outings. When a child’s daily life includes all these learning opportunities in ongoing interactions with you and other caregivers, your child is getting intervention all day long. You are also likely to find this more fun, because you will be finding your child’s smile throughout these exchanges, and nothing is more satisfying to a parent than a happy, enthusiastic child! The following activity will give you tools for identifying potential joint activity steps inside your daily play and caregiving activities with your child.
Activity: Figure Out a Joint Activity Structure for
Your Daily Activities
Spend a few minutes over the next few days observing how you and your child do the six types of activities discussed in Chapter 4:
1. Toy or other object play
2. Social play
3. Meals
4. Caregiving (bathing/dressing/changing/bedtime)
5. Book activities
6. Household chores
Here are some suggestions for thinking about your daily routines in terms of joint activities:
For each of the six types of activities just listed, think about how much you use the four-part joint activity structure within them. Which of these include a setup, theme, variation, and closing/transition to the next activity? Which ones lack this structure and might benefit from it? As you identify activities that would benefit from more of a joint activity structure, use the form on page 136 to think through and plan out how you could build a joint activity structure around it. (Make extra copies of the form if you need more space.) Start by making a list of potential themes—the actions you could do in each step that your child would enjoy. If you’re not sure how your child might respond, don’t worry. You can always try it and make changes based on what worked and didn’t work. After you have identified the theme, identify a variation for that theme. Then think about the closing. How can you and your child together close up the activity so your child is participating in the closing? Finally, think about the setup the same way. How can you and your child together begin the activity so your child is expecting what is coming next and is ready to participate?
Next, try to answer these questions from your observations during this step. For each of the six activities:
• How can my child and I set up the joint activity?
• What is the theme of the joint activity? How do we take turns with the theme?
• How can I vary or expand the joint activity? How will we take turns in the variation?
• How can my child and I end and transition to the next joint activity together?
Now here are some specific ideas for structuring your daily routines as joint activities:
Book activities:
Setup: Choose a book from a choice of two, and then get positioned face to face.
Theme: (Child’s turn) Child opens book and looks at picture, which you point to and label. (Your turn) You point out next picture and label. Repeat a few times.
Variation: You add something different—perform an action in an action book, or add sound effects, or count the ducklings, or add a related song. Variations also include going farther in the book, adding more pages, having your child point, asking questions. Don’t struggle to think of variations unless the book activity seems to be getting too repetitive.
Closing/transition: Your child helps put the book back where it belongs, and goes to choose another toy.
Diapering:
Setup: Hand your child the diaper (this tells your child what is coming next), and walk together, hand in hand, to the diapering area. Get your child to extend hands for the pickup.
Theme: Have your child hand you the diaper, the wipe, and so on.
Variation: Play a social game while your child is still lying down after the clean diaper is on (pattycake, chase/“I’m gonna get you,” bumblebee, etc.).
Closing/transition: Your child sits up, put hands up to be lifted off, throws the dirty diaper in the trash, and leaves the area.
Meals:
Setup: Your child puts hands up to be lifted into high chair, helps put bib on, chooses drink or food first.
Theme: First your child and then you begin to eat or drink.
Variation: New food, new choices, giving you bites, imitation games, using spoon or fork, trying new foods, pretending to give a doll or stuffed animal a bite.
Closing/transition: Have your child hand you the dish, the cup, the spoon; help wipe hands and face; help wipe tray; reach for the pickup to get down.
Outdoors:
Setup: Get shoes and socks; have child sit down near door; put on jacket, shoes, and socks while child helps with each. Open door, close door.
Theme: Whatever activity your child chooses. Turn taking can involve signaling to you for pushes on the swing (swing the child from the front rather than the back so you can interact, touch feet, etc.), throwing the ball back and forth, digging together in the sand, catching your child at the bottom of the slide, or the like.
Variation: A second activity.
Closing/transition: Put away the balls, shovel, or other equipment. Take hands to walk inside. Take off shoes, socks, jacket, and put away. Wash hands and get drink of water.
Dressing:
Setup: Get clothes out and put on floor, bed, or wherever you dress.
Theme: Hand child shirt and help child put shirt on head; wait for child to pull shirt over head; and so on.
Variation: Each additional piece of clothing.
Closing/transition: Finish with a song, applause, closing drawers or closet doors, looking in the mirror and labeling clothes, or other ritual.
Summary of Step 6
If you have followed along and carried out the activities above, you now have ideas or “blueprints” for what kinds of joint activity routines you can embed in all you
r daily activities. You are now thinking about these activities more as child participation opportunities. These activities will serve as the framework for taking turns and teaching various skills to your child. See if you agree with most of the statements in the following checklist. If so, you are now armed with plans for using the joint activity structure to engage your child in many more back-and-forth learning opportunities throughout your daily activities. If not, start experimenting with the joint activity structure during play and caregiving routines until you have found some methods that work for each.
Activity Checklist: What Kinds of Joint Activities Can I Do
with My Child?
____ I know how to set up a number of games with toys or other objects my child likes to play with, or social games without toys.
____ I know how to carry out the theme or main action of the game that will make my child smile.
____ I have ideas for how to vary these activities or add new materials or play actions that I think my child will like.
____ I have ideas for how my child will help me end the activity and choose the next one.
____ I have ideas for how to use the four-part joint activity structure during my child’s mealtimes.
____ I have plans for how to use the four-part joint activity structure for outdoor play.
____ I have tried the four-part joint activity structure for book activities.
An Early Start for Your Child with Autism: Using Everyday Activities to Help Kids Connect, Communicate, and Learn Page 16