Daily Excerpt: Choice and Structure for Children with Autism (McNeil) - Long Days at Home

 


Excerpt from Choice and Structure for Children with Autism (McNeil) - 

Chapter 1

Introduction

Choice & Structure for Children with Autism is about identifying and celebrating the role of structure in supporting autistic children. We want children with autism to do more than exist—not just live, but confidently engage in home life. We desire for them to do more than survive. We hold out hope that they grow to the best of their individual potentials. Research and experience have shown autism advocates that structure is a great tool to that end. Children with autism absolutely thrive within high levels of structure. In the following chapters, I hope to show how that structure does not need to be rigid, overbearing, or difficult.

 

Many Long Days at Home

Our regular routines of school and work during the week and predictable weekend activities help all of us maintain balance. We know the schedule, we plan for the expectations, and we live these routines comfortably. What happens when these routines are disrupted? How do we and our children manage when weekends extend beyond Saturday and Sunday, or vacation days break the certainty in our activities?

Many long days of free play at home during weekends, holidays, school vacations and health quarantines can become challenging for children and their parents. All the toys have been played with, all the movies watched, and the overindulgence of home-bound activities has driven children to lose interest in the things around them. Toys, games, movies, and crafts are everywhere but kids complain that they are bored, quickly get into squabbles with their siblings and argue more with their parents.

 

Children with autism are no exception. Unfortunately, though, autistic children may express greater levels of frustration and stronger distressing emotions than their siblings and peers. Many children with autism typically have purposefully directed lives. Autistic children engage best in environments that are highly structured with predictable schedules and a high level of adult guidance. They spend their weekdays in school as do other children. And, they attend after school and weekend therapy, daily living skills instruction, behavioral services and specially designed recreational activities. It takes a variety of people with different knowledge bases to work with autistic children throughout the day. Due to their autism, these children already struggle with unstructured time and unpredictable situations. They easily become overwhelmed with too many things around them and a lack of direction. Long strings of days off schedule sets the stage for just the unstructured and unpredictable circumstances that are so challenging for children with autism.

 

After many hours of unstructured time, families may notice their children with autism distance themselves through heightened levels of self-stimulation (stim) behaviors. Autistic children may become more obsessive about keeping hold of particular toys or may become increasingly less-responsive to parent and sibling attempts at interaction. Toys may be played with briefly then discarded for another, and another, and another until the child becomes agitated. The child may choose to stim on one single toy, or have all their toys laid out across the floor not playing with anything. When approached or having requests made of them, children with autism may become quickly agitated or demanding, and express protest behaviors.

 

Often, without structure and predictability, autistic children will cycle through periods of isolation, self-stimulation and agitated engagement. Chaotic unsuccessful attempts of self-entertainment may be followed by making demands of parents, and tantrums. If this cycle is repeated daily it will become the new predictable routine: stim, seek entertainment, obsession, protest, melt down, stim, seek entertainment, obsession, protest, melt down etc... Many days in a row at this intensity could drain the best of us. When we add in the needs of the siblings, and stress of the parents, this situation could become exhausting very quickly. Difficult times often accompany long unstructured days at home. How can families improve upon this stressful prediction? How can they provide the supports needed to help children with autism stay emotionally well regulated, appropriately engaged, and cooperatively interactive with family members? 



PINNACLE BOOK ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

For more posts by and about Colette McNeil, click HERE.


Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter
(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)

Follow MSI Press on Twitter, Face Book, and Instagram. 

Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?
Check out information on how to submit a proposal.

Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start?
Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process.

Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book
 in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book?
Contact editor@msipress.com.

Want an author-signed copy of this book?
Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25)
and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.
Want to communicate with one of our authors?
You can!
Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.

   
MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.
Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Memoriam: Carl Don Leaver

Image
  1948-2021 It is with great sadness that MSI Press notes the death of Carl Leaver, CEO of the Press and typesetter and graphic designer par excellence . Many authors have expressed not only condolences but also a sense of legacy from covers he designed that they love.  Here is his obituary: On August 16, 2021, Carl Don Leaver of San Juan Bautista passed into eternal rest. A forester with the US Forest Service in Idaho and Montana, he turned to nature photography while working in the Bitterroot National Forest. His photographs graced national magazine covers and on a weekly basis the local paper of Hamilton, MT, the Ravalli Republican. He later worked on photography projects for the US Army (AFEES) and taught photography at the New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan. His final career change led him to computer graphics and publishing as co-owner of MSI Press LLC; his many typeset books and book covers have helped MSI Press authors win a large number of awards over t...
Read more

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Book Marketing vs Book Promotion

Image
It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's post looks at the difference between book marketing and book promotion, two terms that are frequently confused. Leading to the confusion is that some of the same activities are needed for both. In fact, good marketing is dependent upon good promotion. Perhaps the essential difference is that marketing focuses on sales, and promotion focuses on awareness --  noting that without awareness, sales generally do not happen. Book Marketing Book marketing includes promotion, sales, and increasing awareness of the availability of the book. It generally starts with a marketing plan that identifies the target audiences and selects marketing ...
Read more