Trying to Find Exciting Toys Post EI era

Recently I'm changing all my son's toys and re thinking and re planning what will work for us in the post Early Intervention phase. I' ve been noticing that many toys we used are just not tolerable for him. At least to work with me he has been showing some resistance which I think it's normal, some things just reminds him of the "work" we used to do.

The relationship now has to change between me and him and toys and he and his father. We have to try to be more sneaky still teaching him but trying to find now things that goes with the flow and things
we can play together and we can teach him that it's fun to play but not forcing him to say words or that kind of pressure.

Autistic kids have a hard time enjoying toys, that's a fact. I've heard parents that said well my kid never liked toys so he had a computer since young and things like that. Well yes these gadgets are more interesting for them but will I give up on him learning how to play with toys: NO.
I think this is some us as parents of Autistic children have to continue to try, even though the hunt is so hard, money spent many times in things we think they will enjoy and they don't like it at all, but it's part of the process.

But why we should keep trying?!

• Because is a form of engagement and socialization with them. 
• It teaches them to socialize and rules of social interactions.
• It teaches taking turns
• It teaches  Speech
• Overall shows them to have fun !! Toys are fun!!

Anyway, then it came the Hex bugs I came across them searching on Amazon. And got this:

This is the travel set which is supper convenient because it folds and I have even taken this to friends house. But it just comes with 1 bug and I got some more they are so inexpensive I buy on Amazon because Targets always  they are sold out.

The nice thing also you can attach other hex bugs hives in this one. Like this is on my wish list:




He loves spirals and to see this bugs go around will be very fun .
At first I thought he was going to be scared but now he actually likes to grab and put them in certain places and going down the little slide. What are things they can help?

• Eye coordination
• Sensory issues because the bugs vibrate
• Speech: bugs, go, your turn, my turn, say the colors of the bugs  yellow bug, black bug, go down, turning, go fast, go up and so on.
• Fine motor skills

Another one that seems fun is this one:

Does he play for a long time? Of course not but the point is no matter how long he plays he is engaged.

Jana

Podcast 1 Introduction

I decided to start a series of podcast hopefully that will help more people

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Sorting Toys

I love sorting, I think it teaches so much for the kids, and there is great options out there. But you have really to take advantage so the toy can last and teach many kinds of sorting. Because many times the toys pretty much just sort colors, but we want much more than that. Also sorting board games can be great activities for speech, because as you sort by repeating the words we make children learn the words and try to speak them.
This particular one in the picture I love it because right now we use for basic things, but later with the boards that comes with we can do more advanced sorting and that's help how even a toy maybe you can think your kid is too old  for it can really work in your advantage.
This one is the Farm sorting center. And is just cure to have this animals, they also come in different sizes so we wil work later on big and small.
They also have the Vehicle sorting center which seems to be fun for later on.

Also I found some good alternatives




The super sorting pie we have as well, and it' s so good at first we started with colors, but now we are going to shares and also starting to practice fine motor skills asking him to pick up the fruits with the holders. It's a excellent toy that will last a lot. Also you can use sorting toys to work with math.

Here is a article on benefits of sorting.

The Challenge Floor Puzzles

Floor puzzles was introduced to me by one of our formers EI therapist.  At first I thought that would be too challenging for him and that he would not be able to do. But again is all about seen the toy with other eyes. He doesn't do what we suppose to do right now but he will but while this we work with collaboration, waiting, sharing, turn taking. All this you can accomplish with floor puzzles.

With him is all about patience and collaboration we don't want them to do the puzzle by themselves because of course they can't but it's about asking for help, waiting ..

So at first he cried a lot I think was frustrating for him, he knows is something harder than what he is used to. But we encourage him to help us, basically we doing the puzzle and he just kind of helping pressing down the pieces. 

For Speech we can say things like my turn, help me, we are almost done, your turn.

Of course here you can see we used Thomas because always is a extra encouragement. With time using the puzzle again we notice a decrease in the complaining and the crying. But you have to keep it up so they don't loose that skill. And it's great to improve memorization.

Here are some ideas:

This one is great quality and so many opportunities I actually bought to give his Speech Therapist so she could use not just with him there but with other kids, she loved it !

This is the one we have from Thomas

This is another great one for the alphabets with Thomas

And here some other ones that are on my wish list:

thanks

Handmade Fine Motor and Attention toy

Here is a simple way to exercise fine motor skills with things that you have at home, I got great tips on Laura's tip of the week. I washed a cashew bucket from target and got some straws there on the craft section .
This activity gave Lucas also a opportunity to practice concentration I never thought he would enjoy so much and stay for such a long time, he loves so much he wants to grab all the sticks out for a second and third time.

A activity that I use as well for speech is asking him to clean up and teaching him to open the jar. Sometimes counting as we clean and teaching turn.
I say : my turn to clean - I put in
I say your turn or Lucas' turn

So cheap and help the kids so much.

The Importance of Fine Motor Skills

Well there is many articles out there to talk about the importance of fine motor skills, what is Fine Motor Skills, why is so important. I think myself as  a parent is very tricky thing to catch because we don't really think about that when we don't have that problem. We kind of take for granted. So we have to pay attention how our kids grab things or how they do small tasks so we can prevent. Most kids with Autism have some weakness with fine motor development, usually Occupational therapy helps with that and there is a lof things out there that we can do at home to help.

We want to prevent this to happen.

As you can see here my son is grabbing the fish with the wrong finger which he should use the pointer the difficult he has with that reacts in many other things like his inability to point. But it's a constant work and training the brain. We've noticed that one hand is better than other so correction helps and hand over hand and soon he was doing the correct way which made grabbing the fishes easier for him.

here is the correct way

We have to see toys sometimes with other eyes, my husband at first thought this toy is for older kids. But when I see a toy I don't always look for the age level because many times I won't use the toys as it's  suppose to be, which makes the toy have a longer use because right now he does't get the concept of this game in a group but later we can play together, for now this toys I use for color matching, and fine motor skills and visual skills (when turning on the table it goes in a circle motion). Later we can even use for math skills. So this is what I'm learning is to see the potential and if the toy can help him with something because there is many toys out there that really doesn't teach anything and are just noisy.

Other toys that are great for fine motor.

Jana

The fear of hair cut

Well some kids but specially  kids with sensory issues have a hard time cutting the hair.
I can just speak for my son, I think when we try to use the machine (which we stopped) literary freaks him out. Then what happens is his hair cut gets even worse because he moves and fights and scream so much.
It  would be a dream to take him to a salon and have someone do the job: yes but this is not our reality so
the way I do now is what is giving me the most success.

First I went and got things that would really distract him in the bath tub, things that he is really into right now in his case Thomas of course and abcs and pots to transfer water and bubble bath and thicker soaps.(the ones like shaving cream)





This Thomas boat is really cute and really got him distracted





What I do than is get my scissors and cut little by little each day some days he lets me cut more some days less i do it real fast and he gets annoyed I play more and cut more, I get the chunks on my hand and put in the trash so not all goes to the bath tube.
So far has been working and the important thing here is the association with cutting with good things, the problem I think in insisting on cutting when the child is screaming is that he or she associates with something bad. And we don't want that.
Another ideas of things that helps and which also you can work with speech while giving a bath.




Hope that helps
Jana