Autism Games: I'll Tell You What To Do

By Tahirih Bushey M.A.C.C.C.

Speech & Language Pathologist

The Role of Teller versus Listener

There are two roles in each of the games in this section. There is the Teller and the Listener.

The Tellergives verbal directions and theListener follows verbal directions. After your child watches a video clip like theDrum Together Game, your child might want to be the Teller. In every game, when possible, try to help your child learn both communication roles. It is actually very confusing for many children with ASD to understand these two roles.

The video clip of Fruit Train demonstrates how easy it is to create a game where one person is the teller and the other the listener. This game is a much higher level game, however than the non-verbal Drum Imitation Game described next.

The non-verbal drum game

Drum Imitation Game is a great initial game that helps children learn to follow or give directions to another person.

There are several ways this game can be played. You will want to choose the level of difficulty that is appropriate for your child.

With very young children, I often introduce a simple non-verbal follow-the-leader game. In this version, the child is the teller and I am the listener.

With two drums, start by simply imitating whatever your child does with his or her drum. If your child starts to beat the drum, you beat the drum in just the same way. If your child throws the drum on the floor, you throw the drum on the floor. If your child picks up the drum and starts thumping, you do the same.

(I start this game of imitation with drums but the game can be played with anything, such as two pans and spoons. The point is that the child can see that he or she is being imitated.)

Children usually start to pay much more attention to everything mom or dad does if one or both parents spend ten minutes or so every day simply imitating anything the child does.

The video clip version of Drum Together includes a little language. You may want to show your child this video clip before you play the game together. Of course, this imitation game does not require these drums but may be done with any two musical instruments, two pans and spoons, or you may imitate your child at the dinner table eating and drinking together at the same time. Imitation games can be done with anything that pleases and motivates your child.

The Drumming Game shown here is one I learned in the RDI game books (see acknowledgements).

Hide 'n Seek games

Hide 'n Seek games work when you hide something your child wants to find. You help your child find the desired object by telling the child where to find it.

There are endless variations of Hide 'n Seek games. The video clips are meant to teach a child how to play Hide 'n Seek with a puzzle.

Too often in therapy tasks, a child is asked to follow a verbal direction that the child does not want to follow. This becomes a test of compliance. This is no fun for anyone. It becomes hard to tell if the child does not want to do what he or she is told or if the child does not understand the language.

It is far more motivating, if, say, you create a game where your child is trying to find a cookie, a favorite toy, a beloved video, or shoes to go outside in. You, knowing where the item is hidden, say, Cookie is under the hat... look under hat... find it!

Put on and Take Off

In the Put On and Take Off game, one person tells the other person to put on or take off some wearable item.

Although the clip demonstrates this game with little animal nose masks, this game can be played with anything that can be easily put on and taken off (such as funny glasses, scarves, shoes, and so on).

This and the following game of animal noses are versions of an Attention to Faces RDI game (see acknowledgements

I first bought the animal masks in order to help one of my young friends to look at faces. He was terrified of full masks so that did not work out so well. He was much less scared of the animal noses because he could see who was behind the nose.

He was very interested in these noses and often wanted to play with them with some physical distance between himself and whoever wore the mask. Even from a distance, he would suddenly want his mom or me to "TAKE IT OFF!" as he'd start to feel scared.

I provided a Talking Button so that he could yell at us to take it off and not have to remember the words. Like many children, he had a harder time remembering words when he was in a state of panic.

We played this game for long periods of time. He would order me to "Put kitty on" and "TAKE KITTY OFF!" from across the room.

When he finally got brave enough to put one on himself, he spontaneously to pretended to be a cat. We had not seen any pretend play before that day. It is interesting how toys that children are initially a little afraid of, can become favorites if the child can feel control over the toy.

Playing Animal Noses Together

Playing Animal Noses Together is a higher level game. Not only is there a Tellerand a Listener, but the play partners discuss (non-verbally) and decide what to play and what not to play together.

Show your child this video clip to help him or her to understand the non-verbal signals. This will save you lots of teaching time.

I have found that children who do not understand the non-verbal signals often indicate by looking away, putting hands over ears, or getting upset while watching this video model (even if other video clips are of interest to the child).

To me, these children are telling me, "Not yet, Tahirih. Try this game later."

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