As a parent, providing opportunities to develop my child’s physical literacy is something I’m often thinking about. I can certainly feel frustrated when he wants more “screen time” than “green time” outside! However, for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), these challenges can be amplified and sometimes seem overwhelming.
As a professional that supports families with children with ASD, I find that making time for physical play, recreation opportunities, and outdoor adventures, can take the back seat to the large list of communication or behavioural goals a family is working on. While ASD is truly a spectrum, meaning that no two children are the same, there are some common strategies that can help many kids become more active and engaged in new activities!
1. Make the “unknown” a bit more familiar
Are you signing up for swim classes? Before the class starts, visit the community centre. Take pictures and show them to your child a few times as you tell them about the exciting swim lessons to come. Can’t get there beforehand? Look up video clips of children’s swim lessons on YouTube. You could even practice wearing swimsuits and goggles around the house in the weeks leading up to the start of lessons!
The more pieces of the activity that you can get your child used to, the less overwhelming the new activity might seem to them.
2. Incorporate “favourites” into any activity
Many children with autism have topics, items, and other things that they are particularly interested in. Take advantage of these “favourites” by creatively embedding them into almost any active activity.
Does your child love trains? Pretend that a forest path is a train track and “chug” through the trees. Are they interested in a certain TV show? Make a scavenger hunt with pictures of different characters hidden in your backyard, and an instruction of a silly action to do when each character is found.
3. Celebrate small successes, then build on them
Don’t be afraid to celebrate tiny positive moments in a day. When trying new activities, set up short, low-risk opportunities to get your child oriented to the expectations. This could be walking around the block before doing a hike or visiting a playground when there are no other children then coming back when it is likely to be crowded.
The more than you can give positive feedback, and frame activities as a success, the more likely your child (and you) are going to be willing to try again the next time.
4. If things don’t go well the first time, try again
Sometimes, the best planned activities just don’t really work out. It can be disheartening to see your child struggle with an event or activity you thought would be a success.
Take a deep breath, and after a day or two, think back to what made that day unsuccessful. Was the swimming pool too loud and echo-y? Was the hike a bit too long? Think about how you can adapt those small aspects of the activity, and then get out and try again.
There are countless great reasons for all children to get active and outdoors. For children with ASD, getting active can also help with sensory self- regulation, developing fine and gross motor skills, learning to adapt to new activities, and providing natural environments for social skills practice – and it’s great fun to connect with your children through physical play.
Lauren is a behaviour analyst working in British Columbia. She has spent her career working with children with autism and other special needs and is passionate about supporting individuals with disabilities to be active and visible members of their communities.
