Hey everyone,

We often laugh in my office as I rehash events that took place in people's playroom, but today I couldn't stop laughing enough to tell the story. I had brought in a game I had made, including a book titled with stickers that said "SUPER SPELLS". However when I first walked in, the beautiful boy from England was holding himself and wiggling. I offered him the toilet, when he looked at me I again reminded him that he could put his pee in the toilet (pee being an American word, English folk might say wee). He said "P?" I said yes, let's go put our pee in the toilet. He then proceeded to take the letter P off of my spell book and put it in the toilet! I had to giggle, it was so sweet.

My friend with autism has been so literal this week that it has been a challenge for him to stretch his imagination to symbolic play. I was often told today that objects were not what I was saying they were. "That is not a fire hose, it's a drum stick", "that is not a map, its paper", "that is not a screw driver its a bubble wand". Every time I would agree with him, and suggest we could pretend it was the new object. Most of the time that idea was shot down. This did not mean I could not try again. What I love about the  playroom is that the child always has full control, but I can always try again later! And even if it doesn't happen today, there is always tomorrow!

Wishing you all a fun and persistently challenging day!
love,
Katrina

Many times when I tell people about my job (that I do play therapy with children with autism) they respond...."Oh, you must have a lot of patience."  As if its something we are born with.  As if when God was handing out patience he gave some people a little and some a lot.  These people make it sound like my job is a hard one that they could never do because they weren't blessed with the "gift of patience".   Hmmm, every time I hear this I stop myself from rolling my eyes and saying something snarky such as "Yes, and I'm exercising my patience right now by listening to you say this same silly thing"
   To me, patience is a choice.  It is choosing to be in the moment, choosing to accept whatever is happening and make the best of it.  Believe me I don't have it all the time.  Just last night I really wanted to watch a movie and my 2 year old kept interrupting me so I could try her pretend food that she was "cooking" me.  Then she decided to forgo her potty training and pee on the kitchen floor.  I was frustrated and really wanted to step out the door and scream.  Then I caught myself, and thought about it, why was I frustrated? Because I wanted to do something different, I wanted my life to be different in that moment.  I was prioritizing my wants over my daughters.  Now, while I think that is okay to choose sometimes too, it didn't give me an easy pleasant feeling in that moment.  And I realized patience is a choice.
     Instead I decided I could watch the movie later, and I went to help my daughter.  Just like that my frustration was gone, and my "patience" had returned.  We can apply this in all aspects of our life, when we are feeling impatient, ask ourselves why?  And see if there is an easy way to mentally adjust our priorities to help ourselves feel calm. If you find yourself frustrated in the playroom, could it be because you are trying to push your agenda versus going with your child?  If you find yourself stressing while trying to get your child dressed in the morning, take a second to appreciate your child's perspective of the situation.   Take a moment to realize that you haven't used up all the patience God gave you yet.  Its always there for you to have when you need it.  
I hope this helps you as it helped me last night!
Love and Best wishes,
Katrina

Hello everyone,
    I am excited to announce that in August 2012, Inspired Spectrums will be moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota.  I will be continuing to offer my services in person and over the internet worldwide, but I will be looking to make a more permanent base in Minneapolis, MN.  I am so excited to move back to the land of 10,000 lakes where I first was introduced to the world of autism.  I am hoping to connect with old friends and also make many new ones.  I am so thrilled to bring autism play based therapy to Minnesota.  If you or anyone you know lives in Minnesota and would like a free consultation let me know!

Hi Everyone,  this is my good friend Connor, he LOVES angry birds!  Here is a game that I created for him that can be used in so many ways.  An easy place to start is to use it as an attention span game (or physical participation) in which whatever you hit when you throw the ball you get that payoff (in this case angry bird tickles.)
         I created this board by drawing a bullseye and putting velcro in the white areas and on the opposite side of a few light balls. (You can play without the velcro, you will just need to pay attention to where the ball hits the board.)  Then I drew some Angry Birds and put them around the board (angry birds are Connor's motivation, use whatever motivates your child - songs titles, words like tickles, squeezes, or maybe types of dancing (experiment with words and pictures to see what your child likes best - I find pictures more fun myself).  If you want to elongate the game and if your child is willing, have them help in some way (choosing the motivations, or coloring the pictures - Connor told me how to color each bird, so we worked on language skills too!)
     Tape the bullseye to the wall. Then model the game a few times by throwing the ball and wherever it hits on the board give your child that motivation.  After you've done it a few times ask your child to throw the ball to pick the motivation.  It's that simple, and fun!

ways to vary the game:

• Wear a velcro headband over your eyes to keep the balls on when not in use, to encourage your child to look more
  
• Use one motivation such as tickles or squeeze and have body parts (places to tickle) taped to the board
• For children in higher stages, have numbers on the board and throw 3 balls, add the numbers up that all 3 balls hit and have a correlating sheet that has motivations for different numbers (e.g. 3 = singing "in the jungle", 5 = making up your own handshake, 7= doing silly faces, etc.

Have fun, let me know how it goes, and if you have a creative way you varied the game, please share!
love,
Katrina

Hey all you fun loving people out there. Want to know a quick technique to encourage more clear, single words and keep your own complicated talking to a minimum?

Try modeling the word you are encouraging to the tune of a song. You can either replace every word with the word you are modeling, or most of the words, or occasionally replace words.

An easy song to use is "row, row, row your boat", but you can use more complicated songs as well (especially motivating for older children). I sometimes have fun myself just thinking of different songs that are fun to use to model words to. ("We like to move it, move it" "In the jungle the music jungle, the music sleeps tonight", or "shake, shake, shake, ...shake, shake, shake, shake your arms", or say the word "ride" to the tune of the lone ranger. There are sooo many ways to do this!!!)
 
I have also seen this work with kids who have echolalia, try singing the phrase that you are modeling (such as "Let's play jumping ghost") then pause and ask them what they want (then the phrase won't be the last thing you said), but they can remember the whole phrase easier!


Have fun rocking out your words!
 Love,
 Katrina