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.

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!