Doing 'Dab Dance' was fun: Being Naughty together: Asperger's Syndrome!!-

Wow!! Wow!! Wow!!

He made my day!! This lovely kid, 11 years old, Aspergers Syndrome is awesome. Ideally, I am his advisor as I help him refine his communication skills. We don’t use the word therapy as he is more comfortable that way. We used to meet once in a week from April 2017 to Dec 2017 and since January 2018, we are meeting twice a week now. He came in with a tight body language, flat face, no expressions at all, hard core facts, limited body space and movements etc. 

Play became my medium to enter his world. We engaged in lots of different play including juggling balls, dancing, listening to music, paper mashie, Lego, learning football stunts, clicking selfies, making boomerangs, doing experiments with mentors and coke, making toothpick towers, tattoos, making lamps, discussing about our new sunhouse cafe and it’s menu. And with every activity we explored together his life begin to open up. 

He is way more flexible now. He is open to trying new games and things. He has gained conviction in himself. He is happier and more expressive. His body language is comfortable and he expresses his desire to do new things.

He is happy clicking selfies now with interesting faces.

We did ‘DAB DANCE’ yesterday. He had come after playing a football match so he was sharing how they all cheered each other in the end. So when I said even I want to do it, he let me touch him, we dab danced together. He was being naughty yesterday.  He was teasing me, happy and laughing and running around so I am not able to take the irritating squeezy toy from him. I was more happy than irritated to see him open up, being his notorious self and the best part—- he narrated the change himself. I think for the first time I am being so notorious. I am loving it.

This pic is where I am hugging him from back and he is happy irritated. Yahoooooooooo!!!!!! 

#playissurvival #hurray #victory #selfie #naughty #kidlike #kidswithspecialneeds #specialneeds #apergers #ASD #spectrum #expandinglives #openingup #happyface #laughter #runningaround

Aspergers Syndrome: Being Creative "Lets play with shadows"

A child with Aspergers is special because he looks at the world differently. He draws out creative significance of the things in his awareness. 

I asked that I want to make a boomerang video of something that’s moving. And the world around seemed still for that very second, when I looked around. So my dear 11 year old friend with Aspergers Sydrome said "let’s play with shadows" ‍♂️

#boomerang #aspergers #ASD #timeout #docrazythings #suntime #fun #lookingatworlddifferently #beautyliesintheeyesofthebeholder #shadows #play #creativity #creativeplay #learningtoplay #playingtolearn

Co-creating Joy through Play: From being passive to Active

This little girl with Autism, 5 years old, had to be hand held or forced to work. She wouldn’t want to engage in anything. The only sentence she used to communicate was ‘nai karna’ (I don’t want to do it.) When I started working with her in October 2017, I figured after a number of discussions with the mother that she doesn’t enjoy any part of the day and is only stressed about anything she does. The force by her teachers, parents and therapists is making her angry and dull. 

Initially the goal was to co-create joy with her in every play activity we do. The emotion of joy had to be introduced to her, so she experiences it. Along with this as the Major focus, we began target other executive functions. And here comes a video that of today. After 100 days, taking consistent therapy 2 times a week for 45 min, she wants to participate in different activities. She looks forward to engaging in new things. 

#frompassivetoactive #fromhypertocalm #co-creatingjoy #playissurvival #playingtolearn #learningtoplay #play #learn #doingthingstogether #together #autism #ASD #spectrum #specialchildren #kidswithspecialneeds #scribbling #colours #writing

Creative Play with a Rusted Pair of Cart Wheels

When you find play in everything you do. I took a stroll out in the park and look what an interesting thing I found. My 11 year friend with Aspergers Sydrome called it abandoned wheels. I called it a rusted pulley, or wheels of the cart. This piece of art was very old. It seemed to have stood their thru summer, winter, autumn and spring. The most interesting bit was we used it to play. But how will we play with this heavy, rusted, soiled pair of wheels???

We both placed one foot each on one wheel each. We then tried to coordinate our foot movements. And as we reached the 6th count we are getting a grip of each other’s speed. There is more to go!! My dear friend wanted to continue this foot play. But why?

After some time of practice we were much better coordinated. My friend wanted to continue because he felt his calf muscles were getting stretched and it was a good exercise. So we continued. This is one of the activities that we did and he wanted to continue willingly. We enjoyed it thoroughly. We talked about so many things while we stood their exercising our legs.

As we reached the final lap We were faster. It was fun!!
                                   

 #valueofplaying #exercise 
#playmakesmestrong #loveforplay #joy #coordinatedmovementswithpeer #associativeplay #socialcontinumofplay #valueofplay #moreplay #coordinated movement #peers #aspergers #ASD #spectrum #wheels #wheelsofthecart #rustedpulley #abandonedwheels #whyplay #associativeplay #socialcontinumofplay #playingtolearn #learningtoplay #innovation #creativity #together #play #fun #learn #playissurvival

To check out the pictures and videos do check my Instagram account @play_is_survival.

Becoming Stronger and confident with play: Cerebral Palsy

I see a child with Cerebral Palsy, 3 Years 5 months, twice a week. He is a quadriplegic with limited motor movements. He is taking Neurodevelopmental Treatment, Occupational Therapy for Sensory Integration, and Play-Language and Social

communication Therapy. 

His joint attention is an emerging skill. Presently I am working on sustenance in an activity, inhibition, delayed gratification, expansion of language and emotional regulation.

He feels happy when he is able to break towers, push blocks or do a foot fight. He is so proud of every tower he breaks. Such play involving motor movements are making him confident to move his limbs when he is taking his NDT (Neuro-developmental Treatment). His muscles are becoming stronger as we use more playful activities for confident motor movements. 

It’s beautiful to see how play has a spillover effect in so many areas. #playissurvival

#cerebralpalsy #quadraplegic #play
#learningwithplay
#playmakesmestrong
#experientiallearning #language
#socialcommunication #fun
#emotion #spillovereffect       

For video visit my instagram profile
@play_is_survival

LEARNING TO ENJOY LITTLE THINGS: Cherish the Journey and the Outcome itself becomes fulfilling!!

Kunal is a 11 year old boy who came in with a diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome. He came in with a limited number of topics and would quickly jump from one topic to another abruptly. The only topic that Kunal wanted to talk about was football.

Winning or losing in games and judgements from people around, Kunal tends to underestimate himself. He is critical about himself and others. If he feels that the task is unclear, or he is not giving a good result, he prefers to quit and change.

Kunal comes in 6 times in a month. I am sharing this account after  Focus was on enjoying the process of the game. We together experienced and learned that the outcome of the task at times is not important. Enjoying the task is crucial. As caregivers/ professionals/ parents it is important for us to understand that as the process becomes joyful, the child becomes more productive in his task.

Focus was be on removing judgments from the activities and making the process of activities fun, rather than just the end product. We also learned that things are not always perfect. We did activities together, for e.g. purposefully putting more sugar or salt in something we cook. Then we discussed that that the process was fun even though the end product isn’t so good, or could have been better.

Kunal and I play a lot of games, and at times he enjoys so much that he loses track of time. Some instances of co-creating joy with Kunal were: when we blew bubbles with straw and made mountains of it. He loved the activity and the joy and happiness was evident in his relaxed body language and a big smile. That was one such session when he wanted to stay back and extend the class. Another time, we did an experiment of putting mentos in coke, and though the experiment failed, we enjoyed the process of collecting the material and doing it together. In another class, we made a glitter lamp, which was super fun. One of the days we sat in a pool of balls and had ball juggling competitions. 

We danced on songs, and Kunal wanted to show me some dance steps that he had made, and we even tried ball dance with each other. Another interest that cropped up for both of us was Musical Instruments. We both decided an instrument each. He shared he is learning tabla on you tube, and I was trying to learn mouth organ using YouTube. We would come back and share what we learned in the last week. He asks me what kind of a therapist am I. I tell him “I am a fun therapist.”