Flexible Thinking Series 3: Role Reversal

Role reversal encourages children with autism to adopt the role of an inquisitor, cultivating a skill necessary for daily living. The goals are many and include for the child to

1) master confidence in initiating communication instead of being prompted to be engaged in communication
2) develop interest in things and people around her
3) understand social rules and cues that facilitate more spontaneous partaking in activities with peers
4) develop better language skills through verbal and social interaction.
5) develop problem solving techniques by learning to ask questions and by demanding a response for the question posed.

And of course, challenges the child to think from another perspective, in another person's position. Children with autism often have difficulty putting themselves in another person's shoes as a result of rigid thought patterns that rely heavily on routines and structures. It also allows the child to feel a sense of achievement for being able to be in charge in the completion of a task. It puts the child in a limelight without too much expectations placed on them.

Role reversal activities
Mastered tasks. Provide sentence strips as visual cue and script to read from then while delivering instructions to the adult.

Play pretend. Taking turns to tell each other what to pretend. For example, "Mum, pretend that you are a chimpanzee!"

Just like pretend play but this one teaches the child reading skill as well. Have a pile of action verb word cards face down on the table. Take turns to flip one over and then deliver the instruction to the follower, "Dad, sing". Praise each other for the correct action done. Make mistakes sometimes so that the child can correct you, "No, try again".

Asking questions/ playing detective. The "Hide the Treasure" game. Take turns hiding puzzle around the room and asking each other "Where is the puzzle piece"? Praise and reward each other for puzzle pieces found.


There are many other tasks and activities that teach role reversal. Can you think of some? Why not send me some suggestions to my email at davensim@triumphantkids.com?

Also, please do visit my website www.triumphantkids.com and find out more about the services I provide.


Till the next post of the series, with deepest regards,
Daven.



www.triumphantkids.com Email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com

The Flexible Thinking Series Part 2: The Many Facades of Sounds

Flexible thinking activities allow the child to grasp the idea that there are many variations to a single concept. In this part of the series, we are going to explore how sounds can be used as a fun tool to promote learning to variations of a concept.

(Sound is everywhere and very often, children with autism are caused to feel anxious by incoming sounds and noises that are unfamiliar to them. By teaching them about the various transformations of sounds, they may be able to learn in the long run that the unfamiliar sounds they are hearing could actually be related to ones that they are familiar with).

Sound Discrimination:

Play the sound and let the child guess what sound it is. Then play variations of the same sound. For example, the sound of one person clapping, the sound of many people applauding and the sound of fast versus slow clapping. 

Play Pretending with Imitation of Sounds:

      Have the child pretend to be an animal or doing an action while making its sound. For example,   

1.  Pretending to be a lion and then making roaring sound, growling sound and any other loud, angry sound.
2. Pretending you are driving a car, “Vroom, vroom”, “Rrrrrreh vroom” and “beep beep”, “honk honk”.
3. Pretending you are a musician playing different kinds of instruments and making sounds from them.

Same Tune Different Lyrics.

Use same tune for different songs. You can replace the lyrics to a song that your child knows to make a song of your own. For example, while playing with toy car, sing “The car on the road goes vroom, vroom, vroom…” to the tune of Wheels on the Bus. Teach your child lots of different tunes and then gradually incorporate singing into playtime. Encourage your child to think of a tune to sing together so that you can make up lyrics together while playing.

That's all for now. If you have any comments and suggestions, please drop me an email at davensim@triumphantkids.com. Also, please do visit my website for more details about the services I provide in Singapore. Together we can empower your child towards a brighter future.

Till the next post, regards,

Daven.  

The flexible thinking series: Part 1

Teaching flexible thinking through shapes and colours

For this part of the Flexible Thinking Series, I am going to suggest some methods we can use the concepts of shapes and colours to encourage flexible thinking.

1) Identifying different shapes that can be spotted in a picture.

 Ask the child what shapes he can spot in the picture. Then, trace the shape with a coloured pen or pencil to make it more concretely for the child.

2) What can we draw with a 'shape' exercise. Ask the child to choose a shape. Then inform the child that you are going to use the shape to draw things that you can think of together. "What can we use the triangle to draw?" Start off by showing the child what you mean, " I know! We can use the triangle to draw a roof!" Continue with the prompt till the child gets an idea of what the exercise is about. Then gradually let the child take charge.

After drawing some items with the shape, have the child colour the pictures but only part of the pictures that are the shape you were talking about - in this case, only the triangles. After the colouring, praise the child and go through with her the things you have drawn with the shapes. The purpose of the exercise will seem even more concrete with the shapes being coloured.

3) Colouring pictures of items that have different colours. For example, colouring two apples in a picture," Jane is eating a green apple and billy is eating a red apple". Let the child choose the colours, for example,  of different shirts, "John is wearing a -- shirt and Fabian is wearing a -- shirt". Make up stories for the child to follow so that he has the cue to choose, "It is a rainy day. What do you think the clouds look like? Pick a colour."

4) Playing with paint or water colours. Letting the child mix the paints to get different shades and types of colours can be a fun and exploratory experience for the child.

There are so many ideas we can use with shapes and colours to teach flexible thinking and creativity. I am sure you can come up with lots of more interesting ideas while playing and working with your child. The most important thing when it comes to creativity is having fun and exploring the endless possibilities you can create with your child.

I hope you have liked the Flexible Thinking Series so far. If you have any suggestions or comments regarding the series or anything in particular, please do not hesitate to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com.

Also, please visit my website, www.triumphantkids.com to find out more about the services that I provide.

With deepest rewards,
Daven

The Flexible Thinking Series: An Introduction.

The importance of stretching one's mind.

One of the problems children with autism face is rigidity in thinking. This might lead to learning difficulties and often times difficulties with communication and social interaction. Creativity in thinking is important both academically and socially. Lacking creativity, one might find looking for solutions to problems and interacting with others challenges that could be resolved if only thoughts are more flexible.

However flexible thinking is not something that one masters overnight or in a few sessions of therapy. Flexible thinking is an on going training of the mind, an exercise that has to be continually done and the skill consistently practiced and applied in everyday life. I would like to call flexible thinking as the soul of creativity. Can anyone stop being creative? Of course - because the mind has stop thinking flexibly.

It is no longer enough to just think. While thinking has to be encouraged at all times, thinking flexibly has to be emphasized.

What are some advantages of flexible thinking?

Reduce incidents of anxiety and temper tantrums. A child who is less rigid may be more willing to try out other options than melt down just because standard routine has been disrupted.

Better learning behaviour. A child who is less rigid in thinking may be more willing to try out other options of using a skill other than the methods he is used to for learning. for example, a child who thinks flexibly is more willing to draw a circle using the clockwise motion as opposed to the anti clockwise motion which he has been so used to.

Promotes better social and interactive skills. A child who is more flexible in thinking may be more willing to accommodate the change of rules in games. A child who is less rigid may also be more sporting when it comes to losing a game.

Can you think of more advantages that flexible thinking might bring?

Flexible thinking is a powerful brain tool that is going to benefit anyone and everyone but in order to harness the power that is of flexible thinking, we have to teach the child when as young as possible. Not to say that it is not helpful if we start later but it is always good to get a head start.

There will be more posts regarding flexible thinking coming up on the Triumphant Kids blog. I am going to discuss more about what can be done to teach flexible thinking. I hope that the suggestions will benefit your child in many aspects of his or her life and learning journey. So do watch out for more 'Flexible Thinking Series' posts brought to you only by the Triumphant Kids Blog!

Till then, if you have any queries or comment, please do not hesitate to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com.
Also, please do visit my website to find out the services I provide.

Deepest regards,
Daven