On paeds placement at a child development centre, my first patient at this setting was a 4yo child with autism who was generally small for his age and had developmental delay. I was to see this patient following initial assessment from another physiotherapist. When reading through his file it was evident that he had problems with jumping, kicking, hoping, climbing and stairs.
I subsequently set up the gym with equipment I thought could be useful having not seen the patient. Having created a curcuit I had to think of strategies for this child to engage him in play. What would I do?
I made a checklist for the child with all the activties drawn on the sheet, which included SLS, trampoline, jumping through series, hopping, strairs with and without railing, basketball and soccer. Next to each activity I put a square so I could either get the child to tick it once he had done it or put a stamp/sticker on completion.
This suprisingly worked well. I allowed the child to do what they would like first rather then trying to have some flow to my session. The child I felt they were more in control of the play session because they could choose what they were doing, but he also knew he had to complete all the tasks on the sheet. This was my first strategy I used to deal with a child with autism and by the end of the session I had achieved the goals I had set out to do.
From this session I learnt that treating children half the battle is motivation and attention. By creating an environment mimicing a fun play session I achieved what I had set out to assess and treat and the child was allowed to play, and I think will be more likely to attend physio again.
Next time I see this child or in fact any other children with motivation and attentional problems I could use this strategy. But also I think its important to have a couple of strategies that you can call upon. Some of these which I have used subsequently with this child are, playing whats the time Mr. wolf with heel-toe walking, and hide and seek at the end of the session.
1 comment:
Successfully keeping children focused on the task at hand is a difficult task and it not only requires the construction of a friendly inviting environment but also effective hands on and communication skills from you.
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