It is that time of year when we all enjoy being outside more. This picture of George was taken last summer. He loves to play in the water.My friend Rachel spent time playing with George yesterday and we are quickly seeing the importance of having special non-distracting spaces to work with George.
With Natural Play Therapy George's areas need to be "Yes" environments where he is in control. Many kids with autism or special needs have very little control of their lives and hear "NO" all day. George's special areas will be places where we won't have to say "NO." He will take the lead and show us his world and as he is ready we will show him the way to our world.
We now have a make shift indoor space. There are some distractions like the air unit, cord and curtains. We hopefully will remedy those soon. Getting the mirrors up, shelving, and flooring will make a big difference. We will use high shelves with toys in clear storage containers, so he will have to communicate with us when he wants something down. The other day he took my hand to the bottom of his indoor ladder and pulled my hand up, showing me he wanted me to make them into money bars. It was pretty cool!
Outdoors is another story. Yesterday, Rachel and I discussed the outdoor challenges as she spent time with him. There are so many things for him to get into outside like chicken poop and of course he goes right for it. He wants to get into the most dirtiest (chicken coop) and dangerous places like climbing all over the mowers, tractor and junk in the old garage. He pulls us to these places and if there is a door like the chicken coop then he puts our hand on the latch waiting for us to open. For him to communicate with us this way is a big step for him and we are seeing more of it daily. To say no we are not going to go there or do that is tough, because he is actually telling us what he wants!
Thanks to our donations, I will be having my first training call with Julie Sando this afternoon. Yeah! One of my questions will be asking for ideas on what we can do until we have our outdoor play area ready. I look forward to sharing what we learn as we implement new techniques into our playtime with George.
