AUTISM - Follow my eyes

Follow my eyes to the prize... (thanks to Phil Commander for inspiration to these targets)
Kick-starting Lewis's ability to reference other people when he is completing a task.
Lewis is starting to use this much more outside teaching sessions.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• autism
• RDI
• ABA
• VB
• tteaching

[snigidah]

i would be careful about using any type of pattern, most of my kids would pick up on that pretty fast and would no longer pay attention to where my eyes were looking. great activity, but i would recommend glancing at the pieces at random. ex. left right middle middle right left left right middle left etc. ) this ensures the child is truly following your eye gaze and not just repeating a pattern.

[phieq]

@snigidah I was not aware of doing the pattern when i did this task. Obviously that should be avoided. However we only did this task in this structured way a few times before generalizing it to natural situations so it was never a problem. As you can see in the video Lewis has certainly not caught on to the pattern...

[angelofautism]

I LOVE the way yor are working. great job...*****

[phieq]

Thank you. I make the mistake of saying LOOK AT ME ... twice. Better if i get his attention in other ways. Old ABA habits die hard :)

[phieq]

no, thank YOU! Your old videos were just amazing - it is such a shame that they got taken off utube. They have given our intervention a whole new side.

[mlynn881]

do you intentionally use a pattern for the puzzle pieces? (left, right middle)?

[Rahkayelle]

He is such a doll! :) I'm studying Autism and Behavioural Science in a few years to work with Autistic children. I love watching these videos, they really help me a lot to prepare for the field. Awesome! :)

[Abnormaldiversity]

Wow, I'd find that incredibly difficult. I'm high functioning autistic and usually have absolutely no clue where someone's looking.

About the only area where not knowing where someone's looking has caused significant problems for me is when interacting with this one boy with severe CP who primarily communicates by gaze. Maybe I should do this with someone to train me in that.

[reconnectautism]

This is really great to see referencing in action...I hope its OK that I share this video to our friends as a great example of it. Keep up the great work.

[phieq]

sorry for being so slow in replying! When we first began doing this programme Lewis already had some spontaneous eye contact (but needed to use it more functionally) so it was not to hard to get him to look. I think it is vital to use teaching material that is motivating to the child so it does not become "work" to use eye contact. You may hear me say LOOK AT ME in the video..try and avoid that. Regarding NET / we immediately started using it in daily situations where possible. good luck

[PhilCommander2]

I understand why you might see this video that way Neilgs. The truth is though that this activity is just one in a longer sequence of activities that do address the concerns you pointed out. Overall RDI activities aim to accomplish the exact things you raise concerns about.

[Neilgs]

You are prompting meaningless responses from this child that has Nothing to do with an understanding of his underlying Emotional Developmental differences. This would involve engaging him in pleasurable based interactions based upon (you following) his natural intent and thus further encouraging natural affect-gestural and verbal communicative circles. Thus involving him as a person not prompting him to respond in lock-step fashion as an "automaton" to gain surface compliance.

[MotownCountry]

this sure would have helped me. just for the whole looking people in the eye...i cannot do that.