Hi All,
The below post is related to a topic which was part of the Conference / Workshop organized by Vasantham. Below are the details of the session:
Conference – Workshop cum conference on Best Practices in the rehabilitation of individuals with special needs
Topic – The power of play in enhancing cognitive linguistic skills
Date – 17th March 2023 11:30 PM
Mode of Presentation – Offline Venue – Sengai Meenakshi Mahal, Mogappair, Chennai – 37
Speaker – Vijaya Ramachandran, Speech Language Pathologist and Audiologist with 30+ years experience, Senior consultant in Sundaram Medical Foundation.
Below are the points shared in the presentation:
She began her presentation by asking how many parents are sending their children to additional classes like tuitions, coaching, therapy etc. after school. Most of them lifted their hands. Then she asked, how many of them are sending their children to Play after school, very few have raised their hands. Every body is sending their children to classes but not everybody is making their children to play. The Play time for children has come down extremely from what it used to be. Due to Covid lockdown, the situation has gone even worse as children have glued on to the Gadgets.
Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning. It is the easiest and the only way to teach the children. She loves playing with the children, which is why she chose this topic for the presentation.
We must also realize that whatever a child is supposed to learn cannot be always taught by us. Everybody is training their child on various aspects through therapy, special education etc. But after a while the same parents come and complain that the child is not initiating things, he does not ask any question by himself, he only answers when question is asked, does not able to comprehend what was taught. This is primarily because the child lacks exposure. For Example, if you are visiting the school teacher along with the your child, and the moment you see the teacher you are prompting your child to say “Good Morning” to the teacher. This is where the issue starts. You should not be prompting things more than once i.e. on his first day of school you could say it, which is totally fine, but never after that. It is not your duty to remind your child to do this every time. By you repeating or prompting each time, you have inadvertently taught the child that he should do things only when the parent issues a command and not otherwise, but we expect him to do everything without being told as well. Our actions does not match with our expectations.
She believes that Child is always right, they did not perform any offence. His progress is a reflection of our effort. If the child does not know something which you expect he should be knowing, we need to analyze why and find an approach that will help the child to learn it.
When you go for an assessment or visit a developmental pediatrician, they will ask questions like when he began smiling, what month he rolled over, crawled, began walking, began eating solid foods, etc.. All these were asked to find out whether the child is in sync with the developmental stages or milestones. Similarly for play also we have milestones.
STAGES OF PLAY
Every child will pass through these stages in play, if you have a child or student imagine his current level of play and try to map to which stage, he is in currently. This will help you to find out what is the next stage that we should move to.
Unoccupied Play
Happens around 3+months, where the child simply moves hands and legs.
Solitary Play
Exploring phase, where kid will take everything, he can and lick it, put it inside mouth, throw it, tap it on floor etc.
Onlooker Play
In this phase, child will keenly observe how other children are playing, but he/she does not join them. Parents often think this as “My child is shy” and they to force the child into it which does no good.
Parallel Play
Two children sit next to each other, both are playing a same game independently, without looking at or talking to each other. This is a prime example, where the child will focus only on the object / material aspects and not the people. Never force your child to interact. In parallel play, the role of the parent is to imitate what actions the child is going. Similar to the cricket narrative/commentary, you just keep saying how you are playing with the toy and let him observe and learn from it.
Associative Play
This is an important stage, as
a) Child starts to share toys with others
b) Child starts to play with others
c) Child develops interest in people than activities
d) First stage of social interaction begins
Cooperative Play
This is another critical stage where,
a) Child starts playing together with other children.
b) Child starts playing with others following the same rules.
c) Child exchange ideas
d) Child shares information/thoughts/experiences willingly.
e) When you force the child in to play they will get irritated and will not co-operate. The sharing has to happen willingly for the child to learn, play and be happy in the process.
PLAY IN CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
We must understand that similar to delay in development, which will have delay in the play function as well. A 5-year-old child will not be able to play like other 5 year old children. For some kid’s certain things comes naturally whereas for other kids it needs to be taught by us.
- Most importantly they should play with us.
- They may need to be taught as to “How to Play”.
- They should be provided with extra opportunities to play.
- They go to therapy, massages, special education classes, extra classes etc.. as a result, they do not get that free time which a a neurotypical child gets, but in reality a child with special need requires more play time than neurotypical in order for them to be regulated and progress further.
- Most speech therapists would have asked you as a parent to speak more words with your child every day, but in reality you would have done this for 4-5 days or at the max 10 days, after that you would have stopped doing this. The reason is when the child does not reciprocate, it is very difficult for the parent to keep going further. But in reality, this is a child who requires more stimulation. Irrespective of the receptive or reciprocated response, the stimulation needs to be provided until we reach the outcome.
HOW TO PROVIDE OPPURTUNITIEIS TO CHILD
Free Play
Free Play is when children have full freedom to play in whatever way they want.
Provides freedom and control.
Helps understand child’s likes and dislikes.
Increases creativity.
For Example, pretending to be a teacher by simply holding a stick-on hand, drawing or scribbling anything on a white piece of paper.
Structured Play
Structured or goal-oriented play involves following rules or instructions to reach a particular goal.
For Example, colouring a page based on a pattern.
GUIDELINES ON HOW TO PLAY
Make play as part of routine.
Establish a timetable for all days of the week, one day for visual skills, one for listening, one of motor skills, one for free play etc. Parents should participate when the child plays. Child needs your uninterrupted attention and interaction. Play time has to be with you as a parent. Play time does not mean that child plays with somebody when you are busy with browsing Instagram feeds. Also when playing with the child as a parent it is your duty to fail, loose or make mistakes, which gives the opportunity for your children to fix)
Follow your child’s Lead
You may have planned for a game or activity to be played with the child, but you should look at the mood and interest of the child and change accordingly. If you play a game according to the child mood and interests, it will have a positive outcome, better engagement and better language acquisition. Keep child’s needs first
Use child interests
Engage in child’s strengths. Our kids are strong in alphabets, numbers, colors etc, so try to create activities and games keeping those in mind.
Choose activity within child’s cognitive development and ability to maintain focus.
Check the sitting tolerance your child has, based on which select the game. Thumb rule is that, age of the child multiplied by 2 is the number of minutes a child can have focus on a given activity. For 3 year old child, 3 X 2 = 6 minutes will be their attention span.
Use visual cues, actions , gestures, pictures, touch pictures and not just speech.
Eliminate unnecessary talking and keep it short.
Encourage child to show what he/she wants.
Shape actions physically (Hand on Hand)
Practice Turn taking skills
Pre-requisites to learning anything inclusive of speech.
Help Socialize with peers
Work on cognitive flexibility
Once a child establishes a routine, he cannot come out of it. On a speech therapy day, if you bought him ice cream on day one, you have to buy ice cream forever on days in which he is going to get speech therapy. They will sit in a particular way, they sit in corner, they like specific items, they will not share etc… all these will create a negative impact when these children steps in to school. They will not play with other children, they will not share their stuff with other children, they will not agree changing seats inside classroom etc. We can break that rigidity of the brain pattern through games.
You take a toy which the child has always played it in one particular way. Now you use that toy to play different types of games which the child has never done in the past. Also these variations in play has to be done immediately one after the other without any intervals for the brain to re-wire.
Make Small changes in play routine
Do not ask too many questions. Play is not an exam, it is about having fun. The goal is to learn and have fun.
Re-direct inappropriate behavior
Do not say what they should not do. Don’t cry, Don’t shout, Don’t jump etc.. instead speak softly, come by walking, sit down. Only tell them what they have to do. It will have a better reach.
IMPACT OF PLAY ON THE BRAIN
- New neural pathways
- Receive oxytocin and feel happy
- Both sides of my brain
HOW DOES PLAY HELP CHILDREN
Physical – Improves Motor Skill, Strength, co-ordination
Emotional – Handle feelings and Acceptance of Failure
Intellectual – Problem Solving, Creativity, sharing, team work
TOO MANY TOYS:
Every house has a small toy shop. As a result house becomes a mess and child will not have focus.
Most parents buy the exact same toys that is used in therapy centers, which will create boredom for the child.
Not more than 7-10 toys at a time.
Divide your toys in to three groups:
Group 1 – Child plays with
Group 2 – Toys which you use for teaching
Group 3 – Excess toys that are to be kept in the Loft
Every 2 weeks rotate these group of toys.
Don’t buy toys for some period of time, You do not need many toys.
If you have observed, children play less time with expensive toys and more time with vessels in the kitchen. We can use those to teach the child.
In General more toys results in the below:
- Makes it tough to concentrate
- Overstimulation
- Cannot self regulate
- Poor quality of play time
- No batter toys
- Open ended toys
CONCLUSION
Learning and playing go hand in hand. Regular Playtime is must and it is a necessity. You can make small adjustments to an activity according to child and play. Forced speech is equivalent to vomit, a speech that comes naturally and in a happy state is only considered as speech.
She has a youtube channel called “Come Let’s make Learning Fun “ where she shares ideas / activities/games and benefits behind doing certain activities etc. (https://www.youtube.com/@comeletsmakelearningfun2851)
She demonstrated multiple activities that is possible using simple items that we have at home.
MY PERSONAL FEEDBACK:
She made the session very interactive and fun. She was full of energy and the same did not come down until the session got over. She was very spontaneous when demonstrating with simple items on how many different activities are possible and its potential benefits for the child. It clearly shows that she has been doing it for a very long time.
Regards,
Saranya and Karthikeyan
Autism Spectrum Disorder - Personal Experiences (Chennai Family) 