A vivid exploration of working with autistic children using empowering techniques from a range of creative therapies. Each chapter in this heartening book is the story of a child with autism and how therapy was pivotal in confronting his or her individual dilemma. Covering many of the behaviours characteristic to autism, such as uncontrolled anger and obsessive tendencies, the therapies used range from drawing and dancing to meditation and martial arts, depending on the needs and interests of each child. The key message is that investing in the relationship between the therapist and the child - so that they grow, play and develop together - is transformative.
Walton gives families living with autism a road map to rediscover joy, fun, and togetherness that bypasses the information on therapy and advocacy that dominates other books, and puts the focus on back family fun, featuring more than 50 activities, adventures, and celebrations.
Introducing the Special Interest Communication Theory (SICT) Facilitative Framework, this guide will help you to support autistic clients and meet their needs through special interests and pop culture. Turning away from a culture that has often sought to suppress autistic special interests, Stallings asks that therapists meet autistic children and adults on their own terms. Creating an autism positive environment and engaging with special interests - from video games to K-Pop - builds rapport and helps identify therapeutic goals. Jessica Woolhiser Stallings combines this practical guide to her evidence-based framework with an overview of the history and applications of therapies and arts therapies used with autism. From a perspective that respects autistic self-advocacy and the role of art therapy in supporting individual emotional health, this guide offers tools to address anxiety, social interaction, communication, identity and more.
Almost all troubled children thrive in storytelling. However experience has shown that children with Aspergers' or autistic tendencies neither enjoy nor benefit from storytelling, they need a different approach; also children in crisis are better helped in one to one counselling. The Adventure Tales Resource is a practical guide to providing a weekly therapeutic storytelling group for troubled children aged 7-12 years, through one school term. The Guide provides a succinct, step by step method of setting up, organizing and running a storytelling group. It facilitates the production of the finished story for the group. It offers ways of how to be therapeutically with the group. It includes practical administration support with photocopiable proforma such as letters to parents, evaluation sheets. This practical resource will help to: develop inter and intra relationships; enhance emotional literacy; resolve emotional issues; improve ability to think round own problems; improve tolerance of difference; increase trust in others; stimulate the imagination; increase self esteem; increase the ability to express views clearly and calmly; increase confidence in literacy skills, especially reading.
This engaging picture book shows everyday life with little crow siblings when one of them is on the autism spectrum. My Brother Otto is a child-friendly, endearing, and fun picture book for children about the love, acceptance, and understanding a sister, Piper, has for her little brother Otto, who is on the autism spectrum. The book provides explanations for Otto’s differences and quirkiness in an easy-to-understand language, and highlights Otto’s desires for adventure and love—just like his peers. To be more specific, My Brother Otto is a sweet story about a sister and a brother who engage in common, everyday experiences in their own unique way with the idea that kindness and understanding always win! Lexile: 570L Meg Raby holds a Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology with a certification in Autism Spectrum Disorders from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and has several years of experience working with children ages 2–17 on the autism spectrum. Meg recently started a booming handle on Instagram, called @bedtime.stories.forevermore, promoting literacy and highlighting only the best in children’s books. This is her first book. Elisa Pallmer studied design at Escuela de Diseño del INBA and English Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her focus is on illustrations for children, and she lives in Mexico City.
Creative Response Activities for Children on the Spectrum is a clear, comprehensive and intuitive guide that offers a wide selection of hands-on interventions to be used in any therapeutic or educational setting with children who are ‘on the spectrum’. From drawing and writing poetry to skiing and skateboarding, this book describes these and many other creative activities geared towards children with autistic features, attention deficits, hyperactivity, paediatric bipolar disorder and other related conditions. This new resource provides an innovative blend of theory and illustrative case examples designed to help therapists and educators assess children’s needs, formulate therapeutic and aesthetic interventions, and analyze creative outcomes.
Routledge International Handbook of Play, Therapeutic Play and Play Therapy is the first book of its kind to provide an overview of key aspects of play and play therapy, considering play on a continuum from generic aspects through to more specific applied and therapeutic techniques and as a stand-alone discipline. Presented in four parts, the book provides a unique overview of, and ascribes equal value to, the fields of play, therapeutic play, play in therapy and play therapy. Chapters by academics, play practitioners, counsellors, arts therapists and play therapists from countries as diverse as Japan, Cameroon, India, the Czech Republic, Israel, USA, Ireland, Turkey, Greece and the UK explore areas of each topic, drawing links and alliances between each. The book includes complex case studies with children, adolescents and adults in therapy with arts and play therapists, research with children on play, work in schools, outdoor play and play therapy, animal-assisted play therapy, work with street children and play in therapeutic communities around the world. Routledge International Handbook of Play, Therapeutic Play and Play Therapy demonstrates the centrality of play in human development, reminds us of the creative power of play and offers new and innovative applications of research and practical technique. It will be of great interest to academics and students of play, play therapy, child development, education and the therapeutic arts. It will also be a key text for play and creative arts therapists, both in practice and in training, play practitioners, social workers, teachers and anyone working with children.
In this book parents who have chosen the home education option for their children on the autistic spectrum candidly relate their experiences: how they reached the decision to educate at home, how they set about the task, and their feelings about the issues raised by their actions.
A story never before told and a memoir to help change our understanding of the world around us, 13-year-old Naoki Higashida's astonishing, empathetic book takes us into the mind of a boy with severe autism. With an introduction by David Mitchell, author of the global phenomenon, Cloud Atlas, and translated by his wife, KA Yoshida. Naoki Higashida was only a middle-schooler when he began to write The Reason I Jump. Autistic and with very low verbal fluency, Naoki used an alphabet grid to painstakingly spell out his answers to the questions he imagines others most often wonder about him: why do you talk so loud? Is it true you hate being touched? Would you like to be normal? The result is an inspiring, attitude-transforming book that will be embraced by anyone interested in understanding their fellow human beings, and by parents, caregivers, teachers, and friends of autistic children. Naoki examines issues as diverse and complex as self-harm, perceptions of time and beauty, and the challenges of communication, and in doing so, discredits the popular belief that autistic people are anti-social loners who lack empathy. This book is mesmerizing proof that inside an autistic body is a mind as subtle, curious, and caring as anyone else's.
The Children of Raquette Lake: One Summer That Helped Change the Course of Treatment for Autism is an inspiring account of author Mira Rothenberg's experience with eleven autistic and schizophrenic children during the summer of 1958. In order to avoid the regression that often occurred during the summer months, Rothenberg, a trained psychologist, and her colleagues Zev Spanier and Tev Goldsman, decided to bring their young patients to a camp in Raquette Lake, located in the Adirondack region of Northern New York. As Rothenberg explains, this was a time when severely disturbed children were considered untreatable and often sent to live out their lives in institutions where their needs were neglected and ignored. Many of Rothenberg's patients exhibited signs of abuse and emotional trauma. On the island, Rothenberg, Spanier, and Goldsman discovered that by applying what was then an unconventional treatment of loving care and tolerance, their young patients improved and were able to heal many of the emotional and physical issues associated with their conditions. Written like a narrative journal that follows the children's progress from week to week, The Children of Raquette Lake is interwoven with personal histories and fascinating case stories that demonstrate the healing power of the human heart. The book also provides a valuable list of resources for therapists and parents of autistic children.
