Friday, August 29, 2014

Natural Play Therapy Class Review

Rachel and I have completed our series of 14 Natural Play Therapy (NPT) interactive web classes this week.  A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this possible for us!  We had a great experience and learned so much that we are applying as we work with George. Rachel is using what she has learned from NPT with the clients she works with in the community.   I will share a bit about what I specifically learned and post my last video I made for class.

This is a picture of my classmates.  Julie Sando is the top middle and her co-teacher is Kristen Lee Langelier.
Kristen is in the second row first picture.




We had a great mix of volunteers, parents with children on the spectrum and former certified NPT child coaches.  Our group represented three different countries, Australia, Canada and 3 time zones in the USA.   Technology at its best.

I learned valuable information from all of my classmates, from their stories, experiences, perspectives and the videos they shared.  I fell in love with their amazing children and thoroughly enjoyed watching them work with and learn from their children.  Not only did I learn about working with people in a respectful, non-judgmental way, but I learned so much about taking care of myself and relationships in general.

We also watched some videos from our NPT instructors working with children.  The videos helped me a great deal and were amazing to watch how they gently integrated their goals for the children into their play in such a fun, respectful and non-judgmental way.  Our children on the spectrum are so sensitive and pick up so much of our thoughts and feelings without us even speaking. All the more reason to be coming from a place of respect, love and acceptance for where they are at and who they are at this point in time and celebrating all their accomplishments no matter how small they may seem.

Speaking of celebrating, I have been celebrating since yesterday the fact that George is now putting the bubble wand to his mouth, sometimes in his mouth.  It sounds so trivial but it is a step along the way to our goal for him to blow a bubble off the wand on his own.  He had such an aversion to doing this for years then yesterday while I was blowing bubbles for him, I set the container down and he pulled the wand out and instead of giving it to me he pulled it right to his mouth and kept doing it, taking turns with me.  Today he did the same.  Yeah!  Small steps reaching towards our goal.

During the time span we were taking our classes, I had some exciting play sessions with 4 children other than George.  I would have loved to do more but it was not realistic right now.  Maybe in the future I will be able to work with other children and parents.  What I can do now is share our story and how NPT is helping us to connect with George and realize our goals for him.

I will look forward to taking more NPT classes in the future as the time is right.  I am so impressed with all the people I meet involved in NPT.  Their love for people on the spectrum and their positive attitude is contagious.  It sure beats having people tell you how worried they are about your child and that no one in the area we live could help him.  I know someone who can....ME and my amazing helpers at Team George including his brothers and Dad.

Below is my video I submitted in my last NPT class.   I had several goals I was working on in this segment, at the same time I was watching George to gauge if he was connected and if I could request more interaction from him.  One of the goals I was working towards was for George to touch a food item, pasta, on the palms of his hands.  The idea is for him to get used to touching all different foods beginning with dry and moving to different textures like crumbly, wet, foods he could mash on his own etc...  The goal is for at some point for him to start bringing the food to his mouth on his own with no pressure.  So the pasta was the beginning and he did awesome even using both his hands.

Another goal I was working on was having him follow my directions.  There was a natural opportunity to teach him to shake and he happily followed my lead and let me show him.  I also went into the activity hoping to allow each of us to get what we wanted, his current joy of pouring and watching the movement and my desire for him to happily touch a food item and follow instructions.

Take a look and see what you think.  I believe we had a good balance.


It felt amazing to share this interaction with him.  He was engaged and interested in what we were doing.  He also added a twist to the activity by letting me know he wanted his feet in the tub.  When he was done, there was no pressure and we went right on to the next activity and had some more fun together.

Please leave a comment below sharing your thoughts on the video and/or blog, ask a question or share an experience of you working with your child.  I would love to hear from you.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Mommy & George in the Playroom!

I am so thankful to have two young ladies helping me with cleaning two times a week.  This is freeing me up to play more with George.  One of the young ladies is also volunteering to play with George 2 hours a week. Awesome! So glad to have Rebekah playing with George.  I am excited to watch them build a relationship!

I took a couple of clips from my last play session with George.  George and I spent 1 1/2 hours together in this session.  Below are two clips that I especially liked.

In the first video I played with clapping.  George will not clap on his own to songs but likes it when we do. We are working on him participating more.  It is as if his brain struggles to tell his body what to do.  In this clip I wait and give him plenty of time to respond and 'help' me to clap.  I play with him to anticipate me being silly too, which he really likes as you can hear from his precious giggle.

Some of you may notice the same music cd as in my Moments in the Playroom video.  George looks through our cd case and picks what he wants.  He picks this one on purpose and is really into in right now. That is another new thing he has started to do.  Yeah, love to see his progress!


I just love to hear George giggle in that video!

This second video is an example of something we do in the playroom called recharging and deepening.  We do this when George is less connected and doing solitary play.  Sometimes we join him and explore what he is doing and do some parallel play, but other times we do what feels right to us, which may mean giving ourselves a break like he does.  

I had been putting a wooden train track together for quite awhile as he was turned away rocking back and forth on the mattress.  I created even more space between us by turning my back to him.  When the video begins you can see him start to spectate and check out what I was doing.  

I didn't put any pressure on George to come interact with me.  Also, very important, inside my mind I wasn't expecting him to come join me.  I was going to have fun playing whether he joined me or not and be happy with my decision.  With this mindset I don't feel guilty if he doesn't come interact with me, feeling like I am not accomplishing anything with him.  Him watching me and practicing in spectator play is an accomplishment, however if he remained rocking in solitary play that would also be an accomplishment.  He is being treated like a person in any real relationship.  Sometimes I want to be alone and other times I want to interact with people. This is huge as a parent to be able to ENJOY just being with my child and not feel like I have to MAKE something happen and teach him something amazing when I am with him and feel like a failure if it doesn't happen.

So take a look at how my recharging time went.

                                    

I had a great time and look forward to more time in the playroom with George!

Please leave any comments, questions or share your experience while playing with your child/children!  I would love to hear from you.



Thursday, July 10, 2014

Watch Us Play!

I have put together a video of short clips from George's amazing team members playing with him.  Before you watch it, I wanted to give you some background on the stages of play.  Then watch the video and see if you can pick out some of these stages.  I had a lot of fun doing this.

In Natural Play Therapy (NPT) we have the opportunity to give George a chance to work through the 5 developmental stages of play that we all go through and they continue into our adult relationships.  The five stages are:

Solitary Play - This is present in infancy but we do this all our lives.  This is when people may be in the same room 'together' but are each absorbed in what they are doing.  Typically people with autism spend a lot of time in solitary play even though it may not look like 'play' to us.

Spectator Play - This stage typically emerges about 2-2.5 years of age and goes into adulthood.  This is observing others doing activities but not interacting.  In NPT we have ways to allow George to learn by being a spectator and not pressuring him to interact with us.  This is something that is missing in other therapies.

Parallel Play - This may start around 2.5 - 3 years old and go into adulthood.  This is when people may be doing the same or similar activity in the same area, maybe even copying some of their actions but not interacting with them.  We do a lot of parallel play with George in the playroom when he is less connected with us.  We take it as an opportunity to explore his world and take an interest in what he likes to do.  We are working to create a 50/50 relationship and taking an interest in what he likes is part of that.

Associative Play - This may begin around age 3-4 and go to adulthood.  This is playing a game or doing an activity the way it should be done with someone, talking or interacting with one another but not really working together to create something.  This stage allows George to start taking an interest in what we like and working towards that 50/50 relationship.

Cooperative Play - Around ages 4-5 and into adulthood you will see cooperative play.  This is playing cooperatively with others.  This play is organized and structured and you are communicating as you work towards a common goal.  This is when children learn to respect others' property, realize they need to ask permission to use their things and are more willing to share their things.

There is not one stage that we are aiming for in NPT.  They are ALL important and in a play session you will go in and out of many of these stages just as you would if you spent a long period of time with a friend. Adults do not spend all their time in parallel play.  We all need 'down' time and the freedom to go in and out of all of these stages.

Typical children also spend a lot of time in solitary and spectator play and may not exhibit lots of eye contact playing with their friends.  Sometimes parents of children on the spectrum may have been led to believe that their kids don't have ANYTHING in common with 'typically' developing children.  Not true.

Have fun watching these video clips and see if you can pick out the different stages of play!


I would love to read any comments you may have about the video or play stages.  Please post below and add to the discussion!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

It's Official---George is Tooting Now

I have tried to get George to blow for several years now.  It is a skill that helps with speech.  I even ordered the whole 'blowing' speech kit with all sorts of blowing objects that are to be done in order of difficulty to refine this skill.  I lost interest in the kit when I could not get him to blow at all.

When we started Natural Play Therapy last year we just had fun modeling blowing by using bubbles, whistles, recorders and harmonicas.  Sometimes he would mouth the recorder but not blow.

Just about a month ago he began blowing.  I was hesitant to announce this because at first I thought it was a fluke and it may have been that he blew it accidentally at first.  I remember when my boys saw him do it in the living room and they got so excited.

Now he blows the recorder in the playroom with Rachel pretty regular now.  He blew on it with Caleb the other day and Caleb was surprised.  

The video below shows George blowing back and forth with me for the first time.  He was kind of having a fussy time when we were trying to video.  Nothing was really clicking.  Then I just sat in the corner to watch him play with Rachel and he joined me and we had a special moment of blowing!


Our next step will be to transfer this skill to blowing bubbles and other objects.  It will be fun to watch him make the connection that he can blow other objects and make things happen.

My next blog will feature video clips from all of George's wonderful team members!


Thursday, April 3, 2014

Life Changing Opportunity

We are looking for individuals in search of a life changing opportunity.  This opportunity has the ability to transform all of your relationships, enrich your life and who knows what else it may lead to.

We are looking for volunteers to come and PLAY.  How great is that?  Leave your worries behind and escape for a couple of hours.  George is a very affectionate guy who gives amazing hugs.  His hugs are the best medicine for just about anything!  Come get yours weekly, monthly, whatever is best for you.  

What is so great about Natural Play Therapy is that George gets an opportunity to learn how fun and unique people are and the more variety the more opportunity he will have for learning.  Everyone plays differently and has different gifts to offer him!  More volunteers means a larger 'Team George' that can brainstorm ideas to best help him.  We will learn from each other as we use Natural Play Therapy guidelines. We will learn and practice 5 stages of play in the playroom that correspond to normal human development and they actually continue into adulthood.

Many therapies use rewards for a child to 'get through' the therapy with the therapist.  Once the child does the required task then they are rewarded with what motivates them which may be stimming on a toy in their own world or eating some candy etc....  In Natural Play Therapy 'WE' are George's reward.  We don't want him to have to 'perform' for us we want him to WANT to interact with us.  We reward him daily by giving him respect, building his trust and giving him space.  We actually are very careful with making requests of him until he is ready and motivated.

Think about your relationships.  Do you like to be manipulated?  Can you feel when people are manipulating you and trying to get you to do something you do not want to do?  Are you more motivated to do something for others when it is your idea and you really WANT to do it because of the relationship you have with that person?  I don't think anyone enjoys being manipulated and even people like George can sense when they are being manipulated.  I want George to learn to have real, healthy relationships based on trust and respect.

I often hear people talk about kids with special needs and about their stubbornness in a negative way.   I see it more as a positive because it means they want to take some control of their life.  In our playroom we can give George control, something that he has so little of in other areas of his life.

Come be a part of Team George and please share with others that you think would benefit from this opportunity.

I would love to write recommendations for students who volunteer who may be able to get some school credit or scholarships for this experience.

Please check out the FAQ's section of my blog for more information about what volunteering may look like.  We live about 20 minutes north of Mt. Vernon, Missouri.  Please email Yvonne Marshall at love4George2013@gmail.com or call 417-569-2147 if you have an interest in this volunteer opportunity.

Come watch George climb some more milestones!




Sunday, March 2, 2014

What is up with George?

Wow, it has been 3 months since I have blogged.  REALLY?  Where did the time go?

Well Rachel, our amazing Team Leader, went out of state for 2 weeks in December.  Yikes! I learned that I will have a back up in the future.  Rachel interacts with George about 15 hours a week.  So, we reverted to pre-Natural Play Therapy (NPT) days without help and it was rough!

We spent most of our time doing this: