Worth Repeating: Fitness and Friends: Socialization Through Exercise - featured October 11, 2010
< Back to Previous PageFitness and Friends: Socialization through Exercise
Source: Autism at Home Series
We thank Your Therapy Source for directing us to this article.
Social initiation and interaction are two of the most pervasive and challenging deficits among individuals on the autism spectrum. Through exercise and physical activity, it is possible to shape social skills. Interaction can be taught in several different ways including incidental teaching in the natural environment and/or using discrete trial or chaining tasks. While these situations can be used to teach the rote language and orientation skills, there often lacks meaningful exchange. When two children are making eye contact because they are playing catch together, or helping one another during an obstacle course. Physical fitness is a gateway towards many social skills that are otherwise difficult to teach.
Socialization is a difficult concept to generalize because human interaction is nuanced and varies tremendously across people, situations, and environments. A child may learn to initiate interaction by saying “Hello, my name is Max” to any and all people when he walks into a room. Immediately some concerns arise. If Max walks out to go to the bathroom and reenters the room, does he then say “Hello, my name is Max” to everyone again? If he is in the company of family or an already familiar person, does he use the same greeting? I’ve seen all of these scenarios plus some other novel variations. The common theme is overgeneralization of the skill. There is also the problem of conceptualizing social interaction.
Read the Full Article HERE
Source: Autism at Home Series
We thank Your Therapy Source for directing us to this article.
Social initiation and interaction are two of the most pervasive and challenging deficits among individuals on the autism spectrum. Through exercise and physical activity, it is possible to shape social skills. Interaction can be taught in several different ways including incidental teaching in the natural environment and/or using discrete trial or chaining tasks. While these situations can be used to teach the rote language and orientation skills, there often lacks meaningful exchange. When two children are making eye contact because they are playing catch together, or helping one another during an obstacle course. Physical fitness is a gateway towards many social skills that are otherwise difficult to teach.
Socialization is a difficult concept to generalize because human interaction is nuanced and varies tremendously across people, situations, and environments. A child may learn to initiate interaction by saying “Hello, my name is Max” to any and all people when he walks into a room. Immediately some concerns arise. If Max walks out to go to the bathroom and reenters the room, does he then say “Hello, my name is Max” to everyone again? If he is in the company of family or an already familiar person, does he use the same greeting? I’ve seen all of these scenarios plus some other novel variations. The common theme is overgeneralization of the skill. There is also the problem of conceptualizing social interaction.
Read the Full Article HERE
