Maximising Learning and Connection with Picture Books – Part1

Wow! Only 4 more sleeps until Christmas!

I thought I’d squeeze in one more autism tip to help get you through the holiday period.

This week’s video is about getting the most out of your interactions with your child with autism while reading picture books with them. And because this is an activity that almost all children and parents enjoy doing together quite frequently, I’m sure you’ll find this one very helpful.

Take a look…

Duration – about 10 min

Here a little peak inside this weeks video…

There are essentially 4 types of interactions a child with autism can have whilst reading a book.

Which one does your child experience the most?

1. They enjoy the physical, visual experience of turning the pages ad looking through the book and it’s usually an activity they prefer doing on their own.
2. They don’t mind if you sit with them, but they like to control the reading of the book and don’t really involve you in the experience.
3. They enjoy reading books because they like the process of rote learning, the sequence of events and knowing what is on the next page. They don’t mind if you get involved but they are really only using you as a tool to help them get from page to page and it is not a true shared experience.
4. Your child genuinely enjoys reading books with you and it is usually a highly interactive experience with lots of back and forth conversation and emotion sharing.

If you said number 1, 2 or 3 that’s fine. However number 4 is the type of interaction we want to aim for. This is where your child is going to get the most out of the experience and will get the most opportunities to maximise their learning and their ability to really ‘connect’ with you and eventually other people too!

So I’ve really tried to focus this video on giving you some simple steps that should really help improve the quality of your interactions with your child whilst reading together. So what are you waiting for. Go back up and click play now!

Stay tuned for Part 2 – which I’ll be releasing next week.
Until then, stay safe and have a really great holiday break.

Part 2 is now available here – Watch Part 2

All the best
Monique