ATTENTION AUTISM
Attention Autism was designed to help develop children’s attention and engagement in a fun and captivating way.
SETUP
The children and supporting adults sit in a semi-circle. The leading adult sits on the floor in the center of the circle. This means that everyone can see clearly and the adult has lots of space to work. Within the home environment use family members or even teddies as your audience.
THE WHITEBOARD
We start the session by drawing/ writing what’s going to happen in each stage. The children watch the adult do this and we cross off each activity when it is finished. This aids the structure of the structure of the session and helps the children maintain attention as they are anticipating what will happen next
STAGE 1 – THE BUCKET
This focuses the children’s attention on the adult led agenda (much like a lesson intro). Joint attention is developed through shared enjoyment of the items in the bucket. The adult keeps hold of the items as this ensures that the whole group is engaged together. Bucket items can be themed to the later activities, this gives a chance to model appropriate vocabulary and allows the children to start to make links. For older groups you might want to use a toolbox or treasure box instead of a bucket.
STAGE 2 – THE ATTENTION BUILDER
Stage two involves a fun, visually interesting activity demonstrated by the adult. Children have to shift their attention to this activity and then sustain it throughout. The adult does not ask questions but leaves pauses allowing the children to fill in the gaps. The activities are topic themed and the fun, engaging nature of them means that children are more likely to remember the vocabulary and concepts that are demonstrated to them. Short activities can be repeated several times to reinforce this.
STAGE 3 – THE INTERACTIVE GAME
Stage 3 activities are similar to stage 2 activities except some of the children are able to come up and take a turn in front of the whole group. An adult from the class takes the first turn in order to demonstrate to the children what is expected of them. Children have to shift their attention between their own turn and then back to the group. They also learn to enjoy watching their peers and develop their turn taking skills.
STAGE 4 – TABLE TOP ACTIVITIES
In stage 4 each child is given a ‘kit’ to take back to their table and complete themselves. This involves them shifting and refocusing their own attention and encourages independent work as they are copying the adult model. They should therefore be working as independently as possible. At the end of their session each child brings their work back to the circle so that it can be shared and celebrated.
THE STORY (OPTIONAL)
This can be added in before stage 1. This is an interactive story which children are encouraged to join in with props that are left under their chair or actions in the story. Pauses are left which allows children to join in and comment. Children are actively involved in the story telling. This supports their comprehension and memory. The story can be added onto each session. During story sessions the later stages are all linked to the theme of the story
Examples/videos of all the stages can be found on the ‘Gina Davis Autism Centre’ Facebook page.
We have also created our own St Christopher video for you to watch and enjoy
IDEAS FOR ATTENTION AUTISM AT HOME
Hopefully these are all items you might find around your house and are just a few ideas. Let your imagination run wild. The great thing about attention autism is you might plan to do one thing and it evolves into something else.
BUCKET
- Bottles filled with water and glitter (shake it and watch the glitter float around)
- Wind-up toys
- Bells, Shakers
- Bottle filled with pasta/ rice (homemade shaker)
- Whistle/ party blower
- Push down/ jumping toys
- Light up/ spinny toys
- Funny hats/ dress up
- Necklaces/ beads
- Anything you think may be fun and engaging to watch
STAGE 2/3 IDEAS
- Mix cornflour and water in a tray. Turn upside down onto a mat (something to catch the mess) and watch it drop like rain. You can also mix different food colourings in and turn it different colours.
- Add 3 mentos into a bottle of lemonade and watch it explode
- Drop leaves/ tissue paper/ feathers from a height and watch them fall
- Flour sieving – drop flour over items then lift them up carefully to reveal the shape underneath
- Salt sprinkling – Drop salt onto a paper then draw different shapes or images within the salt
- Car paint – Roll cars through paint and make patterns
- Flour castles – build and splat
- Butterfly print – Paint half a butterfly then fold the paper over
- Shooting worms – use a flower pot with holes or a plastic cup with hole cut at the bottom. Use a solid cup and squirt shaving foam on top. Push down the cup/garden pot with holes on top and watch the shaving foam squirt up like a shooting worm
- Bubble snake. Cut the bottom off a lemonade bottle and put an old sock over the end. Dip it in water with washing up liquid. Then blow through the bottle and watch the bubble snake appear.