Professional Documents
Culture Documents
18 July 2016
Subject: Engaging children with Autism through play to develop communication and language
Workshop Proceedings
The fishing Game
The facilitator first presented a video of a three and half year old boy that had autism and could not
communicate. She used play therapy where the examiner engaged the child in the fishing game. The
examiner first guided the child to catch a fish in a pond using a rod. The examiner would reward
whenever he caught a fish and used encouraging comments like „more fish‟, that encouraged the child
to catch more fish. The child later on would initiate the catching of the fish. The issue of modelling
played a part resulting in the child engaging in meaningful play.
Picture Game
The aim of the game was to establish the child‟s intent hence modify behaviour, help with decision
making and bring the aspect of discipline. The child would exchange a picture for a wanted item. For
example the child would exchange a picture of a sweet for a real sweet. At first the examiner guided
the child in the picture sweet exchange until she could initiate the process on her own. If the child
engaged in the desired behaviour, it was reinforced through rewarding with a sweet. In some
instances when the child would not do the desired behaviour of exchanging the picture for a real
thing, the examiner would stop the child from getting the reward, which is punishing the child for an
unwanted behaviour.
Comprehension Building
The aim of this aspect was to build language from simple to complex using things that emanated from
home environment like spoon, cup, plate to things outside the home e.g, animals, mode of transport
Stages of the game
1. Begin with objects that the child uses daily at home
2. Proceed to complex objects outside the home
3. Give instructions like “give me a cup” and not “what is this”
4. Proceed to “give me the small spoon”
5. Proceed to “take the fork and the spoon and put in a box”
6. Proceed to “show me the one that flies”
7. Proceed to “make the tiger jump” … the child should be able to do action words that are the
source of language building
NB: Do not give cues and increase items they have to look at hence following instructions indicates a
level of child‟s comprehension