Autism Treatment Center of America Forum

[slmr55]

Kristoffer is 35 years old we have been doing the sonrise for over a year. He has gone from 1 word to 3 word sentences. He is more focused and says he is ready to go to college. (his dream)
We are planning on integrating some classwork in the "game" room and would love some ideas on how to motivate him. The games we have been doing are"juvenile" and do not motivate him. His interests are shirts, dad, food (fries and chips)., He wants to study Economics and algebra. He facilitates more now and William suggested emphacising that for communication. We did get Monopoly but he doesn't want to play that. What are some age appropriate activities to do with him in the classroom. He has a seditary nature and it is hard to get him moving or doing anything.
His main "ism" is rolling his sleeves on his shirt. We reintroduced his sweat shirts and hoodies for the fall and he spent the whole time fiddling with his shirt,. we joined him and loved it. I asked him if it would help his focus if we took all the hoodies and sweatshirts out of the game room and he can go through them and roll at the end of the day when he is done with his workers. He said OK but still asks for them. We eliminated the juvenile toys and now his room is pretty emplty.
Was it ok to take his shirts and toys. what can we put in the game room and do with him? any suggestions would be appreciated.

[BeckyDamgaard]

Hi There,

It is so wonderful to hear about the work you have been doing with Kristoffer! How amazing that you have helped him expand his language!

Some ideas of things to have in the work room would be paper and markers, different books and magazines, things to do self help skills with (e.g. items to shave with, hairbrush, etc). You could experiemt with one of those foot spas if you have one. Balls/badminton/jump rope,any sports games. Weights for working out, musical instruments, anything to dress up in (e.g. wigs, sunglasses, hats).

We would definitely recommend keeping a couple of shirts in the work room as it sounds like rolling them is his main ism. We do not want to limit his ability to ism because it's his way to gain control in a world that it unpredictable and to soothe himself. Building a loving realtionship with him by joining when he wants to roll the sleeves is the thing to do when he is not available to interact with you (e.g. not looking, paying attention to you, responding to you, etc).

I would start with having interactions that don't involve school work, just to get some kind of interactive attention span going with you when he us ready, One idea is to bring in some basic white shirts (you could get some cheap ones from the thrift store). Then when he gives you the green light (is looking, talking or paying attention to you in some way), you can draw a design on the shirt with the markers in a fun way. If he responds, invite him to decorate a shirt and then you could both wear them once you have finished. If he likes it, you could advance to doing Algebra sums on one of them.

I hope this helps! have fun!

Becky Damgaard
Son-Rise Program Teacher