I work as a company director for a business providing marketing services. During the past year I have volunteered to support two autistic boys to enable them communicate more effectively.
My interest to involve myself in working with autistic children evolved as I was observing my friend’s 7 year old, able and verbal autistic son Matthew (name changed to protect the confidentiality) trying to play with other children and failing it every time due to his limited communication skills. As I perceive play as a fundamental need that allows the child to develop his sense of identity and find friends, build understanding of the world and feel included in it, I decided to look for the naturalistic ways to improve the communication skills both for Matthew and my other, 9 year old, able and verbal autistic student Ben (name changed to protect the child’s confidentiality) so that they could interact with peers more successfully. As my knowledge and understanding of the condition has increased I have changed the overall structure of the tuition which subsequently encompassed modern, proven …show more content…
To illustrate, through the SCERTS parents’ questionnaires I could identify Lego® as one of Matthew’s interests which gave me an idea of using Lego® Therapy to improve his cooperation with peers. The original Lego®-based therapy aims at supporting children with ASD and some other conditions in social development (LeGoff et.al, 2014). As the therapy implied using popular high interest play materials, I was expecting the boys to display higher interest to initiating and sustaining interaction with neurotypical playmates as well as higher levels of flexibility throughout the problem solving parts of the game. During the Lego therapy activity participants are generally expected to collaborate while completing a specific project together as each of the group members would act in
My interest to involve myself in working with autistic children evolved as I was observing my friend’s 7 year old, able and verbal autistic son Matthew (name changed to protect the confidentiality) trying to play with other children and failing it every time due to his limited communication skills. As I perceive play as a fundamental need that allows the child to develop his sense of identity and find friends, build understanding of the world and feel included in it, I decided to look for the naturalistic ways to improve the communication skills both for Matthew and my other, 9 year old, able and verbal autistic student Ben (name changed to protect the child’s confidentiality) so that they could interact with peers more successfully. As my knowledge and understanding of the condition has increased I have changed the overall structure of the tuition which subsequently encompassed modern, proven …show more content…
To illustrate, through the SCERTS parents’ questionnaires I could identify Lego® as one of Matthew’s interests which gave me an idea of using Lego® Therapy to improve his cooperation with peers. The original Lego®-based therapy aims at supporting children with ASD and some other conditions in social development (LeGoff et.al, 2014). As the therapy implied using popular high interest play materials, I was expecting the boys to display higher interest to initiating and sustaining interaction with neurotypical playmates as well as higher levels of flexibility throughout the problem solving parts of the game. During the Lego therapy activity participants are generally expected to collaborate while completing a specific project together as each of the group members would act in