Participating in play dates can help children with autism gain invaluable social skills. The best way for children on the autism spectrum to learn how to manage their emotions and make friends is to practice those skills over and over with their peers.
A sample list of play date activities designed to improve social-emotional, play, cognitive, and motor skills is below. The description of ideas is just a guide. The list of potential games, sports, and other activities is endless. The list below includes activities that in some cases require a minimum level of education and communication.
Activities should be customized to the interests and needs of students. A list of ten or so major activities can be given to kids who should have some leeway to take turns choosing activities. In a two-hour play date, usually about six activities can be accomplished.
Physical activities to enhance motor skills
Beginning a play date with exercises can be a good warm-up, and exercises that have their roots in yoga can help calm children before beginning play sessions. Taking deep breaths as a prelude to exercises can focus children and it’s also an excellent strategy for kids to use when they get upset.
Using the swing or trampoline is a way to calm kids before or during play dates, especially for those who need that type of sensory stimulation.
Playing catch improves hand-eye coordination, and having kids answer questions while throwing or catching a ball activates different parts of the brain at the same time.
Taking a walk to a park can enable kids to explore different activities while a facilitator can help integrate children with autism with typical peers through conversations.
Sports and exercise can improve social skills for children with autism. Soccer is a fairly straightforward sport that can be played in its simplest form with two kids kicking a ball back and forth.
Riding bikes can improve balance, but at least one of the bikes should have training wheels while the facilitator can help the child on the bike without training wheels.
An obstacle course provides a fun way to develop gross motor and sensory skills.
Educational activities to enhance cognitive skills
Reading is an integral play date activity for learning social skills. Some of the best books are those that help students understand and regulate emotions. Allowing participants to choose from several books can help ensure they are interested and motivated in what they are reading. Kids can take turns reading and the facilitator can jump in when necessary.
A “Judy Clock” serves as an interactive way to learn to tell time. Using coins to pretend to buy items can help kids learn math skills in a way that can be used in the real world. Taking that concept a step further, a trip to the store to help kids actually buy items helps develop life skills in a natural environment.
A therapist can also ask students simple math word problems and use objects to help kids understand the answers. For evenly matched children a whiteboard can be used to tally correct answers and motivate kids through healthy competition. Facilitators can also ask kids questions on topics as diverse as food, animals, or geography, to encourage rapid responses and unprompted reactions.
Beanbags with colors, numbers and shapes are examples of learning tools that can be used in conjunction with motor skills, activating different parts of the brain at the same time.
At first glance, viewing objects through a microscope may not seem like an ideal activity for students with autism spectrum disorders. However, science is an underused and under-appreciated educational area for kids who are often far behind in math and English. Looking at hair or insect legs through a microscope can help give kids a perspective of the world around them.
Play activities to enhance social skills
Play activities help children with autism learn much needed emotional and social skills.
Myriad board games line the shelves of stores and can help kids learn turn taking and sharing skills. "Candyland" is a perfect introductory game, "Great States Jr." is an example of an intermediate level game that also teaches geography, and "Guess Who?" requires children to use process of elimination and ask questions as a strategy to determine the identify of a character in the game.
Providing index cards with questions on them for children with autism to ask each other can spur conversations. Once kids have practiced the ability to read questions, they can gradually be prompted to develop conversational skills in a more spontaneous, organic way.
Children with adequate verbal communication skills can also practice talking on the phone as a way to enhance social skills. A facilitator can write out a script, followed by the child writing his or her own script, with more spontaneous interaction gradually encouraged.
Creative activities to enhance spontaneous and imaginative skills
Creative, spontaneous, and interactive play is a must for children with autism who often get overloaded with structured drills in both school and home therapy programs. The late Dr. Stanley Greenspan was a leader in showing parents and therapists the importance of getting children engaged and interactive to bring out not just social and emotional skills but cognitive learning.
Greenspan was a proponent of developmental approaches that focus on the child’s skills rather than isolating surface behaviors. Greenspan believed in integrating social, motor, and cognitive skills together so that children could use them in a meaningful way. Play date facilitators can integrate these ideas into some of the more structured routines that children are taught in traditional behavioral therapy.
Using puppets can be an extremely effective way to help children who think literally and concretely into the world of abstract ideas. Playing with puppets helps kids understand the concept of symbolic, or role-play, and humor can also be a great motivator.
Playing music can be an excellent way to get children to engage in activities, and can also help reading ability, for example, by taking a popular song and having the kids sing the lyrics they read.
Art therapy can be a great way for kids with autism who think in a visual way to express themselves when they have a hard time communicating verbally.
Above all, play dates should be fun and motivational for children with autism. If facilitators are having fun, it is more likely the kids are enjoying activities as well.
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