Motivation is Key!

Very often, we ask the question, "How to we encourage learning?"

Thus for this post, I shall discuss with you the key to encouragement of learning - Motivation.

The Rationale Behind Motivation .

We all are motivated in one way or another to fulfill our duties in life. We work for a salary. We complete our assignment on time to score a good grade. We go back to school for higher learning to achieve better career opportunities. We work through the hours, waiting for time to knock off. Everyday we are motivated by different kinds of reinforcements to keep us working or fulfilling our duties no matter who we are.

The token system is one of the most common form of reward structures that is being used by professionals and parents. Actually, everyone uses it in one way or another. The token system may exist in our daily life in more abstract forms. For example, we work to earn money and the salary we accumulate can then be spent on things we like or want.

Why the token system?
1) Children need to know what they are working for. Many children with autism who have no understanding of time will need more concrete information on when and how they will be able to get what they want.

2) The token system also facilitates the learning of rules. Following rules is another abstract concept. It cannot be seen, felt or touched. It is a concept that many people fail or refuse to follow if there exists no consequences. There has to be motivation in order for rules to be followed. For example to win a game and feel good about yourself or to win a prize, you will have to follow the rules of the game you are playing. So to feel happy getting what he has requested for, the child needs to follow the rules by earning all the tokens first.

3) Teaches delaying of gratification. Very often we are faced with children who simply can't wait. It is not that they can't, but because they refuse to. Impatience is a reaction to a situation in which you cannot get what you want when you want it. And patience is not an innate virtue we are all born with. Instead, patience is a behaviour we learn, practice and maintain throughout our lifespan. Teaching your child to be patient is key if you want your child to do well in all aspects of his or her life. In an upcoming post, I am going to discuss how a reward structure can facilitate teaching patience.

4) Encourages your child to think. In a previous post, we talk about how making choices encourages your child to think. If you have missed that post or need to refresh your memory, click here. Also It encourages flexible thinking.  As the child get familiarized with the token system and how it functions, the adults can tweak the system around to help the child accommodate different forms of reward structures. We will be talking more about reward structures in the upcoming post.

So be sure to visit this blog real soon as I will be discussing the various form of token systems and reward structures that you could use to help motivate your child.

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

Time to focus! Concentrate!

Often times we find it hard to get a child with autism to focus and concentrate on what he is looking at, listening to or doing. Whatever the cause for the lack of attention, it is important to inculcate the discipline to pay attention. Lack of concentration can result in poor achievement rates in whatever a person is doing. Poor attention skills are also one of the many reasons why one is unable to communicate efficiently.

There are exercises we can do to help children work on their concentration skills. Here are a few suggestions.

1) Maintaining eye contact. Getting the child to maintain her line of vision by following an object. Make it into a game. For example, you can shift the coin slot around the table and challenge her to slot in as many coins as possible.

2) Hand- eye coordination. There are so many games and toys out there in the market that promote hand eye coordination. For example, magnetic dartboard, ball and hoop and miniature bowling set.

3) Spot the difference. Engage the child in a game of 'spot the difference' between two identical pictures. Begin easy by using very basic and obvious pictures before moving to more advanced ones. You do not want to cause the child to lose interest or get bored easily. Another variation of this game is finding an object in a whole picture in which the child has to scan the whole picture visually to find the hidden object. You can also set up a treasure hunt game by hiding an object in a specific area that the child has to look in.

4) Listening comprehension. Tell the child a very short story. Start with only a few short sentences. For example, "John is going to the market. He wants to buy apples", to which you ask, " where is John going?" and " what does John want to buy?". Gradually progress to longer sentences and more questions. The key here though is not to overwhelm the child with too much information at one go. Ease the child into the fundamentals of listening carefully.

5) Reading comprehension. Read a simple book with the child. Depending on the child's focus level, you might want to read a few pages ( in some cases, one page) at a time. Ask simple questions pertaining to the pages read. Practicing this reading comprehension once a day might really propel your child towards better focus.

I hope that these suggestions give you a general idea on what exercises you can do with your child to work on his concentration skills. Remember, it is beneficial to practice concentration skills everyday or consistently to see results. Practice and exercises with your child can be as interesting as you want and make them to be.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions that you would like to share with me and other readers out there , 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.

Till the next post, I send you my deepest regards,
Daven.

How Experience is a Splendid Thing!

How do we let a child know what a dog looks like? Well, by showing him a dog and by telling him that what he is looking at is a dog! However, children with autism may have difficulty accommodating the fact that dogs look differently or that there are many different kinds of dogs.  Showing the child pictures of different dogs may aid in accommodation of the idea that there are more kinds than that one dog he had been exposed to. Thus this brings us back to the importance of categorization- when teaching a child to categorize the different kinds of dogs (for example, big dogs vs small dogs or dogs of different breeds) facilitates the gathering and locking in mentally of information regarding dogs. 

As discussed in the previous post about choice making, information is crucial in the process of choosing. Not just children with autism or other special needs but all children and all adults – everyone – have to rely on their past experiences to retrieve what they know and like about something in order to choose what they prefer. 

Of course, it may be so much easier to make a choice when presenting the items in front of the child. However, the purpose of not presenting the items - if you remember from the previous post – is to encourage thinking. Furthermore, at times it is difficult to present the selection available or allowed within sight due to several reasons such as it is impractical to bring out the items from the pantry and playroom and line them up in front of a child whenever a choice has to be made. Furthermore we want to teach the child to initiate thinking and communication. Yes, a child may get tempted to try a piece of tasty looking candy or she may get excited over a cause and effect toy being demonstrated in front of her. But the real world is a place that, most of the time, demands people to rely on their past experiences to initiate choice making.  

Also, a child’s ability to make use of more complex language in making choices depends on their degree of exposure to various experiences. Think the difference between “I want biscuit” versus “I want to eat chocolate biscuit” or “I want ball” versus “I want to play basketball”.  Thus this leads us to the following formula – 

Experience →Thinking → Choice (motivation) → Language (Communication)

Simply put, positive experiences motivates a child to think on how to get the preferred item or activity that he wants and language is the common tool used to achieve that goal. In other words, experiences that are meaningful play a huge role in eliciting communication from a child whether he is verbal or nonverbal (understanding the fact that nonverbal children always have other options of communication available to them). 

There are so many reasons why we must conscientiously, purposefully and constantly expose our children to various new experiences. The above examples are just a few. It is time we as adults take more responsibilty and action in engaging our children with activities and information we often take for granted as we were growing up neurotypically. We must also not forget that taking time out to enagage our children with activities that create positive experiences helps in the cultivation of positive relationships between the adults and the children. Surely positive relationship is another key to increased positive behaviour towards learning!

If you like what you have read today, please help spread the words around. And please do bookmark this blog and come visit regularly for teaching and autism based content. Also, do not hesitate to email me with any feedbacks or questions. I will also be adding more contents to my website. However for now, you may still want to visit it to find out more about the services that I provide.

Till the next post, I wish you and your children all the best. :)

Encourage Thinking Through Making Choices

This post, I have decided to look at how making choices in our daily lives facilitates thinking and how allowing children to make informed choices about what they enjoy or desire might encourage thinking. 

However, first we have to understand why we think. We think because the result or outcome is meaningful to us. As we get older, the opportunities for us to think increase. We no longer and should not rely on our parents to think for us. To be independent, we have to initiate thinking.

So, how do we encourage thinking? We could do so through everyday events and activities. For example, during art and craft, instead of listing out the things that you want the child to draw, read out a scenerio for the child to think of what could be drawn. For example, instead of saying to the child, "Draw a sun, a boy and a dog", we could say, "It is a sunny day. A boy is bringing his dog out for a walk in the park".  Instead of telling the child what colours to give to the pictures, ask the child to choose what he or she wants the colours to be. It doesn't matter if the sun is green or the trees are black. It is about being encouraged to taking the initiative to make a choice on his or her own.

Thus, making choices is a great avenue to encourage thinking. Life is all about choices -what to eat, what movies to watch, what activities to engage in, when to take a shower, ETC - and this is also why life is all about thinking as well. Simply put, to make a choice, we have to think. Our days are made up of many minor events linked together to make meaning. We wake up, brush our teeth, go to work, get off work, meet our friends, go home, take a shower, brush our teeth then go to bed - all little events linked up together to make a day meaningful. This is why choices are so important because they motivate us to think so as to move our daily life forward.
Making choices does not just involve choosing the things that are available within sight, they are also things that are not within reach at the moment or more abstract concept such as activities not carried out yet but could be if we choose to do them. Encourage or teach your child to make a choice by not offering what are available within sight -

Adult: What do you want to do now? (If child is having difficulty knowing what options are available, suggest, "Do you want to play, eat, read, drink...?)

Child: I want to eat.

Adult: What do you want to eat?

Child: Hmm...

Adult: Come on, think. What do you want to eat? (Offer options verbally if child is really having difficulty).

Child: Potato chips!

Adult: Good! What flavour? We have ....

Child: Barbeque!

Of course, the child must have tasted barbeque flavoured chips before to make an informed choice. It is no use getting a kid to choose the flavour of chips when he or she does not know what flavour means. This brings us to the importance of exposing our children to new experiences. To make choices that we really want, we have to have the information. Without information, we are just making choices for the sake of making them. That will impede thinking. Information allows us to think and then to make choices. With no information, there is no thinking and with no thinking, there is not choice making and even if there is, the choice has no meaning to the child and thus, the event has no meaning to him or her.

And how do we encourage a non verbal child or a verbal child who lacks the capacity to communicate effectively with speech to make a choice from a selection that is not presented before him or her? A communication book with pictures or word cards of what he or she likes and know about may be helpful in allowing him or her to express his or her wants. As above, the child has to be exposed to as much information as possible to make a meaningful choice.

Thus, essentially this post's discussion will bring us to the next topic of discussion - exposing your child to various experiences and information. If you have any prior questions or feedbacks regarding this next topic you need help in addressing to on the blog, please do not hesitate to contact me at davensim@triumphantkids.com. Also, please do visit my wesite www.triumphantkids.com to find out more about the services that I provide.

Types of Categories and How to Teach Them

Last post I discuss about the importance of learning to categorize. Thus what are the types of categories  we can find in our everyday life that we can use to teach the children the skill of categorization? Here are just some of the few suggestions for you to explore teaching your child.

Types of Categories:
1) Basic categorization by assigning items to their respective broad categories. For example dog, lion and owl are all animals.

2) Categorize items according to their attributes such as colours and shapes.

3) Categorize items according to their use. For example food is for eating, toys are for playing and clothes are for wearing.

4) Categorize items according to where they can be found.

5) Categorize items by their sub categories. For example fish, turtle and octopus are animals that swim. Sub categories can be further developed based on the above groups. For example, broccoli, long beans and lettuce are all vegetables but they are also green food.
All the above groupings could be combined with one another to create a sorting category. Another example will be clothes we wear on a sunny (attribute) day versus clothes we wear on a wet, cold day.

How to teach categorization.
There are many methods to teach categorization. Other than the following suggested methods, you can come up with more interesting and fun ways to teach your child about categorization.

1) Matching and sorting.
Have 2 to 3 set of pictures on the table. Hand the child a card to match to the same category it belongs to. For sorting, place a small pile in front of the child and get him or her to sort the cards according to their respective categories.

There are other methods of sorting and matching. Can you think of a couple?

2) Labelling of items individually while assigning them to a category. Inform the child that you are going to talk about animals. "Let’s talk about animals. Tell/show me some animals". Place pictures down individually under the heading of the category together with child and label the animals together. Prompt is faded once child displays ability to label items independently. To test if the child understands concept, ask the child to label items without picture cues.

3) Walk around the house and look for items belonging to a particular category and then write them down. "Let’s look for furniture around the house. What furniture can we find? I see furniture! The chair is furniture." ETC.

Of course there are so many wide ranging ideas to teach categorization. If one idea doesn't work, don't give up. We can always work around an idea to make it suit the child's learning level.

If you have any suggestions or feedback about today's post, please do not hesitate to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com.

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

Categorization: A Fundamental Skill

Very often, we tend to take the skills we have for granted and being able to categorize is one of them.
Category matching is one of the essential skills in everyday life. Many things we do everyday rely on mentally categorizing items or events. For example, grocery shopping- knowing which aisles the things on your shopping list belong to - and traveling - knowing which bus direction you should be taking for a particular trip.

In fact, the importance of categorization goes beyond the basics. More abstract skills such as being able to think flexibly, requires categorization skills. To be able to blend well in a social group setting, an individual needs to understand that sometimes, routine could be disrupted. During play time for example, children might choose to substitute the materials of a particular game for another. Flexible thinking in this case is required for any child to understand that we can use the hula hoop like a skipping rope or use a skipping rope for tug of war game.

One can never stop stressing the importance of flexible thinking. Flexible thinking may help lower the stress level of a child when he or she understands that there are more alternatives to one set of rules. For example, if we cannot find crayons to colour a picture, maybe we could use colour pencils or even paint instead. It may seem like a very ordinary event to us but to some children with autism, slight change of routine could result in high level of unwanted stress and even meltdown. Being able to think flexibly may help to relieve them from these stressful situations.

Categorization may also be useful in learning about safety and one's own well-being. For example, although an abstract idea, a child may learn, as he or she grows up to discriminate between good and bad behaviours of other people so as to have a better idea of who is an ideal peer to stick around with and who is not.

Categorization also extends to the grading system thus facilitating the regulation of one's own behaviour. For example, the volume of one's voice is dependent on the places he or she is at. Quiet places like the library and the theatre requires the lowest volume which is whisper and busy places like the market may allow a much higher volume level.

The importance of being able to categorize although being taken granted by most of us may be a skill that needs hard work to be mastered by many children with autism. Once mastered, we must always practice and maintain the skill with them, expanding on the repertoire of how this skill can be utilized in various ways and situations. More often than not, by practicing this skill with them, we too may learn a thing or two about being mentally and emotionally flexible ourselves!

If you have any suggestions or feedback regarding today's post, please feel free to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com

And please do visit my website www.triumphantkids.com to learn more about the services I provide.

Next post, I am going to discuss about ways we can teach categorization (jump to post by clicking here). Please come visit soon and spread the words around if you like what you have been reading on ths blog so far.

Cheers!