Mindfulness → The Mindfulness part of the Busy Book can help your child to regulate. I particularly love the Yoga page for this. I will start a session with this page and as we match the pictures, we do the Yoga movement. It is a great way to help a high energy child to regulate to the optimal zone for learning (but may not be the best way to get a low energy child to the optimal zone. Maybe make it more high energy yoga for those kids!).
Time → Schedules and time are often highly important for our Autistic kids. We love to know when something is going to happen, so that we can appropriately prepare ourselves. Learning to tell time, to understand minutes, hours, days, etc., is an imperative skill. It will help daily tasks be more successful when your Autistic child can understand what you mean when you say, “We will leave for Nana’s house in one hour”.
Schedules and time are often highly important for our Autistic kids. We love to know when something is going to happen, so that we can appropriately prepare ourselves.
Using the Busy Books to build on our kids’ skills will help them and you create an atmosphere of acceptance and inclusion, which will allow your child to thrive and grow as the wonderful, unique person they are. Autism may feel negative, it may feel hard, but there are numerous strengths to be found in each and every Autistic person – you just have to know how to find them.
Written by Samantha Rowntree, Speech Therapist of www.instagram.com/the_aussiespeechie.
You can check out the My Body Mindfulness Time Busy Book and other by Busy Books Australia at www.busybooksaustralia.com.au.
