An Early Start for Your Child with Autism: Using Everyday Activities to Help Kids Connect, Communicate, and Learn

by Rogers, Sally J.

  Another way to add variation and complexity is to increase the number of actions your child is doing with each toy, both the goal toys and the maintenance toys. There are three ways to add complexity to a toy: (1) adding more pieces, (2) adding more actions, and (3) adding more “phases,” or stages, to the play. Building play complexity encourages your child’s thinking, memory, organization, and planning. It also holds your child’s attention on a toy for longer and longer periods, so building complexity is building your child’s thinking ability!

  Adding more pieces is an easy way to build complexity, and it was mentioned in the steps above. Children begin with a new cause-and-effect toy by learning how one piece goes in or out or around. However, when your child works with multiple pieces, the whole play becomes more complex. If the toy is a puzzle or a small pegboard or the like, adding all the pieces introduces the idea of “completion”: all of the pieces being placed, not just one. The goal has become much more complex, and your child has to maintain the goal of “completing” until all the pieces are placed. Build up the number of pieces as slowly as you need to to help your child sustain attention and motivation to “finish.” The number of pieces remaining will define the “finish point” for a while. After your child learns the toy, the number of holes to be filled, if visible, also defines the finish point.

  In addition to adding more pieces, you can start to think about adding more actions. What actions are involved in a five-hole pegboard? If you lay out the board, place one peg first, and then hand your child a peg, your child has one action to complete: put in. If you hand your child the five pieces one at a time, and she puts each in, then she has completed five actions, all involving putting in. If the five pieces are lying on the table and your child takes each in turn and places it, she has completed 10 actions, each involving a two-action sequence—pick up and put in. If after completing the pegboard you encourage your child to take each one out and put it on the table, you have added another 10 actions: 5 take outs and 5 put downs. So, as you are teaching the toys, you can build complexity by adding related actions to the play and encouraging your child to develop simple sequences of actions involving each toy, which builds independence in play as well as planning and sustained attention. For each toy you and your child play with, whether goal or maintenance toys, think about how to add these simple action sequences so your child is carrying out more related actions with each piece and each toy.

  The final way to build complexity is to add more phases, or stages, to the toy play. Your setup and closing/transition routines are two such phases. In setup, selecting a toy from a shelf, carrying it to the floor or a table, opening it up, and getting the pieces out is a whole set of actions in itself for your child to learn. Picking up, carrying, placing on a table, and laying the pieces out for play is another series, or sequence, of related actions involved in preparing to play. These may involve 10 different actions for your child to carry out before the play even begins, adding more complexity to the play, mental stimulation for your child, language learning opportunities, and sustained attention toward the goal of the toy play.

  Your closing/transition phase is similar. When you and your child decide you are done with a certain toy, and your child helps put the pieces back into the container, closes it, stands up, picks up the materials, and puts them away, your child has completed another series of actions and has benefited from the thinking, planning, attending, and communication that accompany it.

  Each of your variations in play is also a phase, or stage, that allows for additional complexity. For example, let’s say you are using play dough together, and the first theme after the setup is rolling the dough into snakes and then joining the ends to make O’s. This involves multiple repeated actions for your child: (1) squeezing a lump of dough in her hand, (2) putting it on the table, (3) flattening her hand and rolling the dough back and forth until the dough is now a “snake,” and then (4) using both hands to grasp the ends and pinch them together—four actions for every snake. For the variation, you demonstrate cutting the snakes into little pieces with a child’s scissors (it helps your child learn to cut). Now your child has to take the first three actions to make a snake and then (4) pick up the scissors, (5) pick up a snake, (6) cut the snake, and (7) cut the snake again. These seven actions occur in an action sequence for each of the snakes.

  So, if your child has had a setup phase, a closing/transition phase, the theme, and a variation phase, he may well have completed 100 actions, with your help, in this 15-minute activity—a very complex chain of actions with multiple goals, plans, language and communication opportunities, and sustained attention. This is where you are headed, over much time and practice with your child, into complex toy play that your child understands, carries out independently, and enjoys. See how well this prepares your child for both independent play and play in preschool with other children.

  In this section we have been discussing how to teach your child to play with an increasing number of typical toddler—preschooler cause-and-effect toys, with increasing play complexity. For these kinds of toys, the theme of the play is in the cause-and-effect actions that the object presents, and the variations stay with that cause-and-effect theme. However, there is another type of play that children do with objects, which involves learning the conventional social use of objects—such as using a play phone, stove, cash register, and so on. This is often called functional play or conventional play. It’s discussed in connection with pretend play in Chapter 12.

  What You Can Do to Help Your Child Play Independently

  Besides playing with others, your child needs to be able to play alone constructively with toys once or twice a day so that you can do something else—laundry, cooking, making beds, taking a shower, answering email, talking to a friend, and so on. Although most children will readily watch a video independently, constructive independent play does not mean watching videos repeatedly. Independent play that is appropriate and varied allows your child to continue to learn during these periods and to play as others do. To do that, your child needs to come up with appropriate play on his own, without imitating you. A reasonable goal is 10–15 minutes of independent play.

  A good time to start to target this is once your child can easily and frequently imitate the actions you are modeling, has built up a number of play routines with different toys, and can sequence a number of actions with each toy, including setup and closing/transition with your support. To work on spontaneous and independent play, you will change strategies. Your new strategy will be to support your child to choose a toy, set it up, and begin to play without your taking any role as a model. How can you foster this? Here are five steps:

  Step 1. Organize for independence.

  Step 2. Ease out of the play partner role.

  Step 3. Decrease support for the setup and closing/transition phases.

  Step 4. Change toys frequently.

  Step 5. Move farther away from your child.

  Step 1. Organize for Independence

  How you organize your child’s toys can make a big difference in your child’s independent play.

  Here are some ideas:

  Limit the number of toys that are accessible. Too many choices leads to disorganized play and makes it harder for your child to focus on one toy at a time. Store extra toys in a closet or on a high shelf somewhere. Having six toys available to choose from is plenty.

  Organize the toys on a low shelf that your child can reach; try to get them off the floor. Don’t stack toys; separate them so your child can easily pick one and put it back.

  Put out a few different cause-and-effect toys that your child likes and that have a number of different actions, all of which your child can carry out alone. Here are some examples: a puzzle, a shape sorter, beads for stringing, plastic bricks for building, and pegs and a pegboard. Avoid using electronic toys when you are beginning to teach independent play.

  Place the pieces in containers, bins, or baskets so your child can easi
ly select a toy and put it away. Put multiple pieces in baggies; use clear shoeboxes to contain all the parts. Your child should be able to get the toy from shelf to floor alone in one trip. If the pieces fall out, or he has to make several trips, chances are that he will lose focus toward his goal. Watch what happens when your child tries to choose a toy and set it up for play; if it is hard for him, consider how you can make it easier. Does it need to be easier to reach? Fewer parts? Less difficult to make work properly?

  Make sure your child can open and close the containers independently.

  Be sure there is a little table and chair for your child nearby, or a rug or blanket or mat on the floor a little distance away (4–6 feet is a good distance from play area to toys). This is the setup for independent play.

  Do not have the TV on, and do not have food available. These are big distractions. Try to situate the play area so that other people do not need to walk through it as they do their activities at home.

  If you need some ideas for activities, look at what other children your child’s age are playing with. Objects that involve multiple steps are the right kinds of toys for expanding children’s constructive play skills. Good choices include some of the ones listed in the Appendix at the end of this book, including board books with large pictures, blocks, multishape block sets, nesting toys, cups, simple shape sorters, Legos/Duplos, Magna Doodle, pegboards with multicolor pegs, and puzzles. If you need more ideas, check out websites for parents. Begin by reading the ideas for children your child’s age. If those ideas seem too mature for your child, drop back an age level until you find something that fits with your knowledge about what your child can do and enjoys doing. When your child knows how to play as other children do, and with the same materials, your child has the skills needed to join other children in play and to learn from them by imitating them—and the other children can learn from your child as well, because you will have developed your child’s play skills over many toys and many actions.

  Step 2. Ease Out of the Play Partner Role

  Your new strategy will be to support your child to choose a toy, set it up, and begin to play without your taking any role as a model or partner.

  Here are some ideas:

  Try this when you and your child are playing with a favorite toy that your child can use easily. Once she starts playing, scoot back a little and turn your body a little to the side, so that you are not so available. Watch quietly and see what your child does. Does your child continue to play with the object for a few minutes without your help? If so, your child has succeeded in playing spontaneously! Hold back a little longer, and then comment approvingly about what your child has done (“Yes, ball in the bucket!” or “You shook it! Shake, shake, shake!”). This attention and narration should provide reinforcement for your child’s independent behavior.

  If your child does not continue to play independently when you stop taking turns, no problem. You can build up this skill. Start again as you did before. If your child does not continue to play after you pull back, then prompt your child to continue, taking a turn if you need to. In your child’s next turn, be more active as an observer: Narrate, show interest, smile, and nod approval, but don’t take a turn until your child stops playing. Try to keep your child playing for a few minutes, giving as few prompts as your child needs to play in an appropriate and varied way. Then support your child through the closing and a transition to a new toy.

  Pay attention to how many times you need to help your child continue playing for 3–5 minutes of play. Over time, you want to see this number shrink as your child gets used to playing without your turn-taking support.

  As your child’s interest wanes, encourage your child to clean up the toy and take it to the shelf himself. Help him if he needs it, but help from the side or from behind. If your child does not put the box on the shelf, prompt him to do so and then to choose another toy. Congratulations! Your child has just shown you some appropriate, motivated independent play!

  Step 3. Decrease Support for the Setup

  and Closing/Transition Phases

  Once your child can play out the theme and variation phases with a toy nicely and independently, and can sustain this for a few minutes, she needs to learn to carry out the setup and closing/transition steps independently to sustain independent play.

  Here are some suggestions for all four steps:

  Setup: Have your child come over to look at the boxes, and physically choose one by picking it up. Support your child as needed, from behind, to carry the toy to the play space. See where your child is headed (table or floor), and then support your child as needed to put the box on the table or floor, sit down, get out all the pieces, and lay them out in front of him. Sit with your child, but not right in front and not too close. Beside is a good place for now, but eventually you will want to be behind your child.

  Theme: Wait for your child to begin and watch your child build the theme, narrating occasionally.

  Variation: Encourage a variation through language, prompts, and gestures. Try to go through these types of prompts before taking a direct turn:

  Say or verbalize an action for your child to do: “Can the car drive fast?”

  Offer, show, give, or point to what the child might do: “Look [point], the car can drive there,” or “Can the car crash into the block [hand block]?”

  Model or gesture as you need to so your child adds a variation, but don’t then take turns. Continue to observe and comment.

  Closing/transition: As your child’s interest wanes, encourage her to put the materials back in the box to clean up. Then have your child stand up, pick up the box, take it over and put it where it was, and pick another box. Notice that the closing leads into a transition to a new setup. By prompting as needed from behind or beside your child, rather than in front, you are teaching your child how to carry out this transition on her own. This is the key to independent play—your child’s ability to sustain play across multiple toys.

  Step 4. Change Toys Frequently

  Change one or two of the toy choices every day or two, but don’t change them all. Do make sure to rotate all the toys, even your child’s absolute favorites, so your child develops a wider and wider range of toys he plays with independently. When your child gets a new toy, join your child in turn-taking play until your child knows how to do all the steps. Then it can also become a choice for independent play.

  Step 5. Move Farther Away from Your Child

  Here are some suggestions:

  Gradually move farther away once your child starts with a toy, and make yourself less readily available (read a magazine page or two, put something away, move something to another room). Do not provide more support than your child needs; actually, try to provide a little less. It is okay for your child to struggle a little once the routine is very well established, so she can solve problems that arise in independent play. Helping your child learn to make transitions between toys independently is the key here, and soon it may be the only time you need to support your child in this.

  Remember that the goal here is child independence. Don’t expect your child to play as creatively alone as he does with you, though he may. The goal here is playing alone constructively, not practicing every skill you have taught.

  After your child is playing well independently, choosing several different toys, and managing the transitions well alone, you can add an electronic toy to the set of choices if you want, to see what happens. If your child starts to choose it preferentially and “gets stuck,” put it away again. This is true for any toy that your child uses in a highly repetitive fashion and cannot move away from. Repetitive play doesn’t give your child many learning opportunities. That is why you are rotating choices frequently: to prevent repetitive play, to increase your child’s play repertoire and flexibility, and to prevent boredom.

  Summary of Steps 1–5

  If you have followed along and carried out the preceding activities, you are establishing joint activity routines and
teaching your child to play with toys flexibly and independently. See if you agree with most of the statements in the following checklist. If so, you are now armed with important skills for expanding your child’s play—knowledge you will use in the next chapter. If not, start experimenting during play and caregiving routines until you have found some methods that work for each statement.

  Activity Checklist: Am I Teaching My Child to Play Flexibly and Independently?

  ____ I am teaching new actions with toys by first encouraging my child to imitate an action he or she already knows, and then introducing new actions with the toys.

  ____ If my child doesn’t imitate the new actions I am modeling, I prompt my child to carry out the action and then fade my prompts over time.

  ____ I use the joint activity framework (setup, theme, variation, and closing/transition) to teach conventional actions with objects.

  ____ I am encouraging independent play by organizing the play setting, slowly easing out of the partner role, and decreasing support for setup and closing/transition from one activity to another.

  ____ I remember to rotate toys over time to sustain my child’s interest in the toys.

  ____ My child is able to play more independently as I step out of the play.

  Questions You May Have

  What about siblings? Your child with ASD will probably learn independent play more quickly if you can focus on teaching this when siblings aren’t demanding your attention—such as when siblings are napping or off on their own activities. If you can’t, however, you can teach both children to carry out the independent play routine, coaching the sibling with language while you prompt your child with ASD from a closer position. This will also provide opportunities to teach each child to respect the other child’s materials—to wait until the other has finished if they both want the same toy.