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

Speech & Language Pathologist


Moving Together Is Fun!

Long ago, I worked with a three year old who had a diagnosis of autism. He was my first preschool student with ASD. I did not know how to get his attention.

He ignored me studiously and did not glance at my toys. He kept himself busy moving--pacing around my therapy room. He sometimes went to the door and cried and was more upset when I tried to console him. He ran away whenever I approached.

But he looked at me when I said, You want Mommy.

So I picked him up, (flailing at first) and walked with him up and down the halls of the school where I worked, calling out, Mommy! Where are you?

We would stop and look in each of the tiny windows in the doors to various classrooms and I would say Oh No! No mommy here!

It would be a while before I hit upon the idea of keeping moms or dads with me in the therapy room but this little boy might have set the seeds of that idea with his rapt attention to the task of finding his mom. Once he understood that he and I shared the goal of finding mommy, he was content to let me carry him around and he looked with me for his mom and soon at everything.

With this little boy, I created a moving together game that became our first game of every therapy session for months. I started marching and saying March, March, March, Stop!

If he looked right, I marched to the right.  If he looked left, I turned left. Ready… Set… Go! I would say as I started each day. Run I would say as I ran.

Our halls were full of interesting people, like babies from the daycare in their six pack stroller cart. Hi Babies! I would say. Hi Babies! he would repeat.

Hi Marty! I would say as I walked past one of the other Speech Pathologist in the hall. Hi Marty! he would repeat. Hi Eric! she would answer.

Build a Mountain is an early Moving Together game that is from an RDI Book of activities.  I would have used it with Eric if I had known it.

Piggy Back Games have long been a staple of family life

With a Piggy Back Game, as with carrying a child on your hip, the child is able to keep up despite short legs. Children with ASD are able, when carried around, to be in the same place at the same time as the adult.

As parents of little wanderers and mad dashers know, a young child with ASD may often be off doing something in a different place in the room. Putting a child on your back offers many communication opportunities.

For children who like being held and being high up, this game is fun; moving is fun, and getting parents to move the way you want is thrilling.

Many a light-weight child, including my daughter, learned on my hip to say words like march, stop, go, fast, turn around, up, down, swing as their first words.

As simple as it sounds, picking up a child and moving around together is a good early language building strategy. This strategy can be used with children at the Social Partner Level of development.  Click here for an explanation of Levels.

It is Easier to Learn While Moving

It is a grown-up perspective to think that learning is easier while sitting at a table. Kids believe, correctly, that learning is faster and retained better when it involves movement.

The Step On Letters Game teaches vocabulary (you can sit on letters, cover up letters, not step on one letter but step on another letter, step on numbers/photos of anything and anyone, step on letters when I make a happy face, step on letters if I touch your head).

Step On Letters teaches children about taking turns, giving verbal directions, and taking verbal directions. In other words, Step On Letters is a prototype for a thousand Moving Together Games that you can play to teach anything you want to teach.

This game is good for children at the Language Partner Level of development.  Click here for an explanation of Levels.

Relationship Development Intervention Games


Some of the best moving together games that I know are from the RDI literature and workshops. These games are described very well in the RDI Intervention Books.

I am gradually posting video clips of these games as they are played by kids at my clinic but I still refer you to the RDI Activity Book because it is useful to read all the ways to play the same games and all the reasons to play these games.

Row, Row, Row, Your Boat

This game is inherently a Moving Together Game. In the clip here, you can see how the mother has used the moving routine to keep her son engaged for a long period of time.

Notice the use of music, the emotion sharing, and the way that novel language is embedded in the framework of the repeated phrases. All of these things are helping this little boy attend to the language and participate.

This little boy is at the Language Partner of development and this is a good game for this level.  A simple version of this game, good for Social Partners, could be created where the child is simply required to look at you or gesture in some way to keep the game going. Click here for explanation of Levels.

Hot!

A favorite RDI game in our clinic is Hot. I never know how many family members will show up for a session with some of my clients. When I have a large group, I sit Grandma, Mom, Dad, and older brother all down on different bean bag chairs with the child on his own or on a bean bag chair with a parent. The bean bag chairs are in a circle. When anyone yells Hot! everyone moves to a new bean bag chair.

Most children love this game. Occasionally, the rapid, chaotic movement where everyone is looking for a new bean bag chair is upsetting to a child. If this is true for your child, move slowly. Move one chair over. Add a song as you move.

Hot can be played by children at the Social Partner Level of development but these kids will need to be guided in order to know when to move.  Mostly it is a good early Language Partner game.  Click here for an explanation of levels.

As children get more familiar with this game, the game evolves. One way it has evolved is into What’s your Rule?

This is a game for more verbal children who are at the Conversational Partner Level. In this game, each player takes a turn making a rule for when everyone will move.

Dad, what’s your rule? we might ask.

Dad then says something like My rule is, when I say the name of a zoo animal, we move!

Dad begins to list things that are not zoo animals.

Dora is not a zoo animal! everyone says, when Dad lists Dora.

Light bulb is not a zoo animal, everyone calls back as Dad tries the words, light bulb.

Palm Tree? NO, THAT IS NOT A ZOO ANIMAL!

Finally, Dad says Zebra.

This is the equivalent of saying Hot! and everyone moves.

Someone new makes the next rule.

When I scratch like a puppy, everyone move! This time, the game is non-verbal.

The game can be used to teach children about listening skills, phrase structure, shifting attention to a different speaker each turn, the cognitive skill of listing things that do not belong in a category, getting excited and then calming down again to listen (emotional regulation), shared emotion (frustration, enjoyment), and playing as a whole family.

What's Your Rule? can be moved outside as in the game below:

Can We Go?

In the game, Can We Go? two people move across the floor (or yard) step-by-step holding hands and facing one another.

One person asks, Can we Go? and the other person nods yes (after which they both move a step) or the person asked shakes his or her head no (after which the person asking has to ask again).

The important thing about this game is that the child must learn to move or not move with another person. Eventually the child learns to understand and use non-verbal yes/no.

It is important for the child to learn to be in both the asking and the answering role in the game - although teaching the child both roles might not happen for several weeks. It can take some children a long time to understand who is asking a question and who is answering.

Use the video clip here or make your own video model to teach this game. It takes children quite a few sessions to learn the game otherwise.  The game in this form, is appropriate for children at the Language Partner Level of development but one version shown on this Blog Post, is appropriate for children very early in the Language Partner Level or even for some children at the Social Partner Level if the child has learned to stay with an adult and is making good gains in learning Joint Attention.  Explanation of Levels.

This game has nearly endless variations. I usually start the game in a room where the child and parent move toward a big beanbag chair step-by-step and fall into the beanbag at the end for a tickle and hug together.

We may eventually have two children playing this game together moving across the room. Eventually, one may be on one side of the room, asking to move and the other child on the other side of the room, answering yes or no by nodding or shaking his head.  Children usually need to be at the Conversational Level of development to master this game.

Learning to respond to nonverbal yes and no from the other side of the room is quite an accomplishment for a child — but children that I never thought could, learn this game and play it with glee.

The trick to making this game valuable, of course, is for parents to continue using nonverbal yes and no at home and in many different situations.

One situation that astonishes me but happens often is when, after I start using the nonverbal yes/no with a child in games, the child asks to do something highly desirable, like play on our clinic computer.

I say no nonverbally and the child pouts but accepts this without a fuss. While saying no would have precipitated a meltdown previously, after learning to accept a nonverbal no in a game, when I would squat down, take the child's hands in mine and shake my head no sadly, the child just pouts and moves on.

Up Step

We created a game that we call Up Step at the clinic. Up Step is a game that can be made quite simple or quite complex so you can use it for children at all levels of development.  You can read more about on this blog post. Below you can see the game played with two players and then one played with just one player.