Home | Be Informed | Warrior Mothers Unite! Fostering Creativity in your Special Needs Child…

For many special needs children, including children on the autism spectrum, imaginative and creative play skills can be difficult to learn because they are abstract and complex. But hard does not mean impossible, and teaching our special needs children how to imagine and create are both cognitively and socially vital.

Many therapies introduce and aid in developing these skills, including:

• Applied Behavior Analysis: ABA techniques focus on applying positive and systematic interventions to improve behaviors.
• Floortime: Floortime techniques are based on the Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based (DIR) Model that focus on a child’s interactions through gestures, words, and pretend play.
• Occupational Therapy: OT focuses on fine motor skills and sensory development.

But, let’s face it, our children spend the majority of time with us…before school, after school, before therapy, after therapy, evenings, nights, weekends. So as our child’s parent, primary caregiver, role model, and advocate, we must be the ones that continue “therapy,” teaching, and playing with our children… 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And this, warrior mothers, includes fostering skills that lead to imagination and creativity.

Here are some practical, real-life suggestions:

• Communicate with your child through talking, and don’t stop, just keep talk…talk…talking. Use nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Describe the surroundings, actions, and feelings. The more words that your child is exposed to, the larger their vocabulary will be when it comes to imagination and creativity.
• Read, read, read. At the very least, make it a routine to read to your child before bed each night. Reading enhances language development, attention span, and imagination.
• Create art! Draw, paint, glue, and cut. Art activities promote creativity and fine motor skills.

• When your child is playing, get involved. If your child is playing with trains, for instance, get on the floor and play with the trains too. Immerse yourself into their world, but don’t stop there. Change the train playing routine. Say, “Choo-Choo”, build a bridge, or add a red caboose. Your intention should be to break into your child’s world with positive play, positive changes, and positive interactions.

• Encourage pretend play. Pretend a block is a car or an airplane. Have a pretend tea party with stuffed animals and empty cups. Using a bowl, spoon, water, and soap, have your child make you pretend macaroni and cheese (My son loves to do this). Play dress-up.

• Ask your child to pretend to be an animal. (If she needs a prompt, prompt her with motion and sound). Say, “Freeze”, and teach your child to stand still and be quiet between each animal cue. This is a great game for facilitating imaginary and creative play, teaching your child the concept of stopping and starting, and preparing your child for a popular school and social game.

Parent: “Be a dinosaur!”

Child: Stomps and says, “Rawr!”

Parent: “Freeze.”

Child: Stands still and quiet.

Parent: “Now, be a cat!”

Always be aware of, and seek, opportunities to foster your child’s imagination and creativity. Your effort will foster their cognitive and social skills now and into the future.

Some sites that I like:

American Library Association: Great Web Sites for Kids

ipl2: For Kids

International Children’s Digital Library

National Gallery of Art: NGAkids

Crayola

DLTK’s Printable Crafts for Kids

Kristina is the mother of a fantastic special needs son. She is not a medical professional, and she does not offer medical advice. For medical advice, talk to your doctor. For more information regarding special needs and autism, visit Kristina’s blog, Live, Love, Laugh,and Autism.

Home | Be Informed | Warrior Mothers Unite! Fostering Creativity in your Special Needs Child…