“Incorporating fun and playful variations to re-occurring activities that you regularly play with your child will ensure that you don’t become repetitive and rigid yourself when playing with them, and this will model to your child that being flexible is fun…
“If you have been implementing The Son-Rise Program with your child on the autism spectrum, you have probably already practiced the Entertaining technique to lengthen their Interactive Attention Span. You might have tried Entertaining your child with various activities many times. You might have realized that sometimes, despite your best efforts and fun engagement, your child does not pay attention to you or the fun activities you are introducing… Until one day, ta-dahhh!!! You initiate a new activity, and your child watches you for a longer period; maybe your child even participates in that activity with you! When this happens, it is very tempting to keep going back to the same activity over and over again… It becomes your (and your child’s) comfort zone where both of you know what to expect, and you know your child is more likely to attend and play with you if you do this everyday activity…
“Hey! It is great that you have found a new motivation for your child and want to help them keep engaging with you! You also want to become aware that whenever your child is in a Green Light (ready and open to engaging with you), you will be able to inspire them to learn new skills and become more flexible if you, yourself, don’t become repetitive in the way you engage with your child!
“If you have played a game of chase with your child 100 or 1000 times, and you know every time you initiate this game, your child *will* look at you and *will* play with you, be willing to bring in some variations into this activity! For example, you can dress up as different animals (or use animal masks) each time you play chase with your child. If you always read the same book to your child or say the same line because you know they love it and will engage with you when you do this… Be willing to change it up a bit! Maybe one day, you will act out some of the scenes of that book’s story… Another day you use sound effects as you read that story to your child… Later, try having a stuffed animal read the story… Keep changing it daily, and resist the temptation to keep going to the same comfortable and familiar game…
“When you make a point of varying the way you engage with your child and change the activities that you present to them, you will be inspiring your child to expand on the repertoire of activities they are willing to play, and therefore be more open and flexible to the world around them…
“Have fun inspiring flexibility and being comfort around changes for your child!”
Camila Titone, Senior Son-Rise Program Teacher