The Importance of Play: Games for Children with Autism
Website: http://www.autismgames.org
“Play is important throughout life but in childhood, it is nature's unparalleled way of teaching a child about body, mind, and spirit.” ~Tahirih Bushey~
Play is a valuable element of a child’s life, it involves a different type of creative learning which is distant from the academic environment of school. Autism Games is an incredible website because it provides ideas and visuals for parents/caregivers of ways to promote and develop play skills by taking the child into a positive, fun, and imaginative world where anything is possible.
The blog serves as a companion to Autism Games at autismgames.org where you will find more games and parent tips. Some important posts that are recommended to read prior to choosing a game on autismgames.org are the following posts below:
- Why Games? is a discussion about why playing with your child is important and how structured games can make your play times more successful.
- Creating Common Ground is a discussion of how to get started with children who are not yet talking and often move away, ignore you, or protest when you try to play.
- Not Too Easy, Not Too Hard is a discussion about how to find games that are at the right level of difficulty for your child.
Some of the sections that you will find as you explore the website, Autism Games are listed below:
- Blog: Lots of great information and it serves as a companion for Autism Games
- Game Collections: The core of this site where you can explore, learn about and see demonstrations of different kinds of social play for children with Autism. All of the games included on this website have been pre-tested. The games are organized by difficulty (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) and the collections are arranged so that you can see how similar games can be modified according to level of play.
- Parent Tips: Included in this section is an assortment of articles on strategies, concepts, and even toys or tools that Tahirih frequently tells parents about in her professional work as a Speech Language Pathologist.
- Learning Objectives: The list on this page represents the kinds of goals and objectives that were in mind when the games were initially played in a clinic setting.
- Video Index: This allows you to quickly find a video model of a game that you want to show your child and/or so you can review the game demonstrated before you start to play the game.