PLAYDATES--CONFERENCE WORKSHOP

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PLAYDATES"First of Three Parts

Pre-Conference Workshop. FEAT of Oregon
Innovative and Effective Interventions for Autism
January 28, 1999

This first presentation was by Shawn Horn who trained under Lovaas. These are my handwritten notes.

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Why have structured play dates?

1. Provides intense practice with socialization on a one-to-one basis
2. To establish friendships that can also carry over to school (and bring more friends in!)
3. Provides an opportunity to generalize
4. Provides for new information learning in a small group
5. Provides increased awareness of peers (the child get used to peers rather than adults)
6. Provides for increased non-explicit learning (observational)
7. Reinforces the positive aspect of positive peer interaction

B. Do you need trained personnel?

8. The tutors must have instructional control over both children
9. The tutors must be creative and able to motivate
10. The tutors must be aware of the child,s skill level/language and level of engagement.

C. How do you take data?

11. You must keep data
12. Set concrete goals (ie duration of unprompted participation, independent responding to initiation, independent initiations, independent turn taking, etc)
13. Set graduated goals that allow room for improvement with time. (ie eye contace, proximity to peer, ability to play with same toy structure as peer, etc.)
14. Expect slow, incremental progress (initially imitative and parallel, gradually becoming complimentary/reciprocal and more imaginative)
15. Create pre-made data sheets"don,t lose sight of the goals
16. Conduct play dates in person"you must be in the room/area to monitor and provide feedback throughout the playdate. (ie don,t use a monitoring system)

II. PLAY SKILLS

The child must have some skills prior to peer play. Begin peer play when the child has mastered toy play and socialization programs with his/her therapists. A peer is then faded in at that point.

A. Basic Toy Skills

17. Begin early in the program
18. Use imitation first, then receptive language as child progresses (need to start distancing yourself)
19. Start with closed-ended toys (shape sorters, ring stackers, pop-up toys, peg board puzzles)"can fade yourself out with these activities
20. Teach the child to manipulate the toy correctly from the beginning.
21. Limit access to the toy if the child prefers to manipulate the toy incorrectly
22. Practice toy play often and fade the child, proximity to a therapist across time

B. Imitative Play

23. Begin once you establish toy play
24. Teach car play imitatively (push on table, floor, ramp, tracks, pretend roads, follow the leader)
25. Teach block play imitatively ( imitative simple structures, then progress to imaginary structures, trains, boat, etc.)
26. Teach simple doll play imitatively (feed, kiss, hug, put in bed, etc.)

C. Playstations

27. Start this once the child is able to play with a variety of toys
28. Set up 3-5 toys and ask "come play with me"
29. Teach the child to move through the activities without transition issues
30. You want the child to learn to follow someone when they are playing (the buddy system)

D. Board Games

31. Teach proper rules from the begining.
32. Start with simple games (hungry hungry hippos, tic tac Tony, barnyard bingo, penguin shuffle)
33. Pay attention to turn-taking, and whether the child needs to be reminded to take his turn or not
34. Start with two players, adding more when less prompting is required

E. Preschool Games

35. These games may require a high leveof comprehension
36. Start with simple games (duck duck goose, red rover, tag)
37. Teach ball play"use two people at first, then prompt child to catch, kick, roll, and throw a ball
38. Progress to more complex games (red light--green light, simon says, hide n seek) when e child is able to understand the rules

F. Role Play, Scripted play, imaginative play

39. Teach simple routines with structure first adding appropriate words to actions (car and garage, trains and tracks, dolls and dollhouse)
40. Increase language to character talk"puppets and dolls"to act out short scenes. Keep the scenes consistent (ie scripted) so that the child is able to learn the words
41. Combine the structures and characters to create pretend situations (doctor,s visit, going to McDonalds, visit to the beach, camping trip, etc.)
42. Increase the complexity of the scenes until you and the child are acting out rehearsed bit using props and appropriate language (ie using a pirate ship and figures)

III. SUMMARY OF SOCIALIZATION AND PLAY SKILLS

A. Verbal child

43. Basic toy play
44. Ability to follow instructions
45. Pretend Play
46. Ability to express desires
47. Games
48. Singing Songs
49. Listen to a story
50. Participate in circle time activities
51. Art skills (coloring, painting, cutting, pasting)
52. Scripted Play
53. Imaginary Play
54. Play descriptions
55. Conversation skills (answer questions, make analogous statement/comments, ask questions)

B.NonVerbal Child

56. Basic toy play
57. Ability to follow instructions
58. Pretend play
59. Ability to express desires
60. Games
61. Singing Songs
62. Listen to a story
63. Participate in circle time activities
64. Art skills (coloring, painting, cutting, and pasting)
65. Take these skills to your playdate!

The next two presentations discussed the nuts and bolts structure of a playdate and suggested activites, recruiting and training peers, and "peer therapy" (which includes but is not limited to playdates"it also involves the peer in therapy ).

 PLAYDATES"Second of Three Parts

Pre-Conference Workshop. FEAT of Oregon
Innovative and Effective Interventions for Autism
January 28, 1999

This second presentation was by Gabi Morgan who received her training at Project PACE. These are my handwritten notes. I did some combining of the presentations here to be more coherant, since there was overlap in topics and ideas. I will try to credit who said what.

PLAYDATE STRUCTURE

I. Before you start

66. Spend time finding the right playmate(s). (I will combine my notes from all three presenters about this topic in the next part)
67. Set up choices and activites before you start.
68. Always have default activites.
69. Have a reinforcement schedule for BOTH children (can even use a token system for peer)
70. At first, you will do the activity choosing, but eventually let the children control the structure (you can have a bucket, of activites they can chose from, or pics, or a visual schedule with pics and flaps to cover each activity when it is done. They can take turns picking the activities and putting them on the schedule)

II. Possible playdate structures

A. GENERAL PLAYDATE STRUCTURE per Ms. Horn

71. start peer play sessions on a small scale and then increase them in duration and complexity of play
72. when you begin peer play start with simple tasks
73. divide the play date into sections such as free play, parallel play, interactive play, circle time, arts and crafts, snack, and outside play

Activites to include in a play date

74. imitative play
75. board games
76. imaginative and scripted play
77. pre-school games
78. athletic games
79. classroom practice
80. community trips
81. art projects
82. and of course SNACK!

B. PRESCHOOL STRUCTURE --per Ms. Morgan

(this particular example is structured like a preschool day. This type of playdate helps practice skills that the child might be having trouble with at school. It would be helpful to have the shadow aide run this if the child has one).

Free play

1. activities are on the floor or all on a table
2. these are toys that the child should be able to play with independently
3. chose toys that the peer will enjoy too (you can lose, your peer if the toys are too simple)
4. Proximity is the goal; interaction between the children is not required here. The goal is to have the children hang out, together.
5. this can be done outside on a play structure (if it is reasonably compact and the children can remain near each other)
6. for very young children or those those first starting peer interactions, this free play, activity may be ALL that you do in a playdate for a while. That is fine! You want to slowly increase the time spent in proximity to another child and reinforce any spontaneous interaction.

Storytime

7. children choose the books
8. have them read the stories (if possible)
9. ask questions for observational learning (ie. ask a question to the peer, after he answers, then ask same question to the child to see if he is learning from observation of the peer)
10. ask questions (or prompt the peer to ask) from programs

Songs

11. songs from school (or those that you have taught child in his therapy)
12. get a children,s song book from the library
13. children take turns choosing songs
14. seasonal or theme songs
15. reinforce singing WITH the group

Snack

16. practice conversation skills (such as classic one-upmanship preschool statement-statement conversations "ex. "my daddy is a dentist"...."yea...well MY daddy is a fireman!")
17. peer and the child direct questions to each other (the therapist should try to be a facilitator rather than an interpreter, the conversation should not be through the therapist)
18. strong inducement for the peer to return
19. there are children,s cookbooks for playdate cooking.
20. Note"Ms. Horn recommended doing snack last"as it,s a natural reinforcer!

Games

21. Beginning level--going shopping, (receptive objects)
22. Intermediate level picture simon says, (receptive/expressive body parts and actions)
23. Advanced level the category game, (categories)
24. Game rules are described below

Art Projects

25. keep all art projects short
26. seasonal/holiday related projects (snomen, valentines, etc)
27. active activites are good (like a nature walk to collect things, then make a collage)
28. plan for the art skill of both children
29. practice art time conversation
30. emphasize process not product
31. good ideas in 1,2,3 Art,

General reminders

32. goal is for children to choose all activities
33. facilitator fade out whenever possible
34. if children are enjoying themself, don,t end activities just to stay on schedule
35. kids should be having fun
36. reinforce both children for all spontaneous interactions
37. direct children to talk to EACH OTHER instead of through the therapist
38. all playdates depend on age, skill level, and interests of the child

III. GAME RULES

Going shopping"Beginner level

Materials"toy shopping cart or wagon, objects that have been mastered receptively, and a toy cash register (or make one out of a box)

How to play"have the child push the shopping cart to a table with the items on it. Prompt the peer to request the items (ie. buy a shoe, ). The child picks up the shoe and puts it in the cart (prompt as necessary). When the items are all in the cart, have the child push the cart to the cash register, . If the child is verbal, have him be the cashier. The child now requests the items from the cart and the peer gives them to him. If the child is non-verbal, the peer is the cashier and requests the items again.

Picture simon says,"intermediate level

Materials needed"pictures of people performing actions and touching body parts (these should be mastered items from therapy)

How to play"the peer is simon, first. Everyone else stands in a line side by side. The cards are on a table by simon,. Simon, turns over the top card and requests everyone to perform the action on the card. Prompt the child as necessary. (note--there is NO tricking in this version of the game...,simon, says simon says, EVERY time). Allow simon, about three turns and then switch players. Verbal children will say the actions when he/she is simon,. Non-verbal children will simply turn over the cards and show them to the players.

The Category Game"advanced level

How to play"one person is it, and stands at one end of the room. The other players stand in a line on the other side. A marker (such as an eraser) is placed on the floor between it, and the line of players. "It" announces a category. The players all choose mentally an item from the category. "It" starts naming things from the category. When a players item is called out"that child tries to run to get the marker and return to his place in line before "it" tags him.

 IV. MATERIAL RESOURCES

39. ABC school supplies
40. 500 Five minute games (book)
41. Hopscotch, Hangman, Hot Potato, and HaHa"Rules of Children,s Games (book)
42. Totline books
43. Theme-a-saurus
44. 1,2,3, Art

The last presentation included peer selection, peer therapy, and peer dates.

 PLAYDATES-Third of Three Parts

Pre-Conference Workshop. FEAT of Oregon
Innovative and Effective Interventions for Autism
January 28, 1999

The third presentation was by Kathy Jablonsky of Progressive Learning Therapy and a mother of a recovered child with autism. I will include some comments from the other participants in regards to peer selection. Ms. Jablonsky discussed using peers not just for playdates but in peer therapy,. She talked about both of these together so I hope the following isn,t too confusing.

EFFECTIVE PEER/CHILD INTERACTION USING PEER THERAPY AND PLAYDATES

I. CHOOSING PEERS

A. Choosing peers (Ms. Jablonsky)

45. peers should be 5 years old or older
46. outgoing and cheerful
47. good attendance and attention
48. quick learners
49. patient and understanding

B. Choosing peers (Ms. Morgan)

50. Peers are generally older (they need some maturity and hopefully aren,t dealing with the same developmental issues as the child)
51. try to get a pool, of kids

C. Choosing peers (Ms. Horn)

52. there are many different kinds of peers
53. recruit several in order to find the right peer and avoid burnout
54. schedule regular times/week
55. peers might burnout if they participate in more than one or two play dates/week for a long period of time
56. create a pool of peers
57. types:
58. mini-therapist"this type is willing to be bossy, and give several instructions to thchild. This type is good in the beginning of peer play, when the sessions are more like therapy (when you are transferring the instructions from therapy to play sessions.) (this is analogous to Ms. Jablonsky,s Peer Therapist described below)
59. the athlete"good for games like basketball, dodge ball, handball, tag, Nintendo and other competitive games
60. the actor"great model for imaginary and scripted play
61. the talker"provides practice for conversational skills. They excel in such games as Guess, Name Three Things, I spy, etc.

D. Where to find optimal peers

62. Siblings
63. children of friends
64. TAG meetings"(talented and gifted). Ms. Jabonsky got some third graders in the TAG program at her school to work with her daughter in kindergarten . These children apparently were allowed to be pulled from class to give therapy for Lablonsky,s daughter because they were in the TAG program.
65. neighborhood/athlete organizations/
66. schoolmates/buddy system"find a peer that can accompany child for recess/lunch/circle time for social interaction.
67. Ms. Jablonsky showed a video of her child receiving therapy from her aide during school with two ESL (english as a second language) students acting as peers taking therapy with her

E. Special Peer Considerations

Peers are:

68. less predictable
69. less likely to sustain interaction
70. unlikely to initiate interaction after non-response (ie from child)
71. may be turned off by unusual and/or inappropriate behaviors and use of language (you need to warn then about these things, and also have appropriate reinforcement for them)

Remember:

72. peer training ensures a positive experience for both children
73. peers should be reinforced for participation and successful implementation of specific techniques
74. peers should always have the option to discontinue
75. use more than one peer to increase variety of play and language

Eventually:

76. fade the presence of the adult
77. fade prompting of peer
78. teach in multiple environments with several peers
79. teach peer self management

II. PEER TRAINING (this is usually needed prior to starting peer play and/ or peer therapy)

A. Teach and Review Peer Manual

80. The Peer Manual is a little booklet (2-3 pages) Ms. Jablonsky uses to tell about the child and his behavior to the peer.
81. Make a big deal out of this"Ms. Jablonsky gave out little "Official Peer Therapist" certificates after reviewing the manual and she also paid them (like 25cents/hour).
82. Ask questions after reviewing the manual, to test the peer,s understanding
83. Ask peer to give specific examples

B. Role Play and Practice--The peer practices with an adult

84. using materials and toys
85. provide feedback
86. provide peer with an escape mechanism, to use when necessary (to leave a therapy situation)

C. Introduce peer to child

87. provide area free of distraction
88. provide materials and toys that interest both peer and child
89. provide feedback to peer
90. be prepared for peer reaction to child
91. Be sure to teach CHILD appropriate ways of responding if interactions are not accepted
92. Remember that less socially competent intitiations frequently result in unwillingness by peer (ie if the child makes a less socially competent intitiation the peer will be unwilling to respond)
93. This mean that the child needs some prerequisites and skills to be able to respond to peer (just as the peer needs training)
94. focus on the child,s quality of play and not the frequency of interaction
95. remember that peer responsivity will increase motivation of child to interact (termed reciprocal determinism)
96. (my note"I think what she is saying is that how the peer responds will determine how the child responds, but I,m not sure)

D. EXAMPLES OF RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM (going from worse interactions to better)

Peer: "wanna play?"
Child: "NO!"

Peer: "wanna play?"
Child: "not now" (note"teach this response to the child)
Peer: "when?"
Child: gives in and hands peer a toy

Peer: "I,m Peter Pan
Child: stares at Peer, no response
Peer: "Hey, I,m Peter Pan!"
Child: runs away

Peer: "I,m Peter Pan
Child: "I,m Johnny"
Peer: "I know that...pretend to be something"
Therapist prompts Peer "Johnny likes to wrestle"
Peer: "Peter Pan,s gonna get you"
Child: "Johnny get you"

E. Settings for Social Interaction (moving from more to less structure)

97. Peer therapy
98. SI/adaptive PE/OT
99. Playground/recess/lunch
100. outings/library/park/McDonalds

III. PEER THERAPY

A. What is peer therapy?

101. provides a more structured environment
102. provides a great means of transitioning (note"I think to more unstructured social interaction"ie playdates and beyond)
103. teaches the peer the child,s strengths and abilities
104. Boosts child,s overall well being

B. Beginner levels of Peer Therapy

105. Encourage joint attention by alternating SDs (between peer and child), or giving SDs simultaneously
106. SDs "do this" " clap hands"
107. Have peer wear funny clothes/hat/glasses or mask to promote eye contact (don,t overdo it)
108. use peer to imitate child and vice versa
109. always reinforce any glances or interactions

C. Intermediate and Advanced levels of Peer therapy

110. encourages advanced joint attention and observational learning
111. alternating SDs or giving SDs simultaneously
112. SDs "show me sleepy"
113. "Suzie, give me the red ball"
114. " Johnny, give me what you eat with"
115. "Johnny, give Suzie what you eat with"
116. Use peer for model/demonstration purposes or vice versa
117. use peer for in context" prompting
118. prompt child to ask peer for help and vice versa
119. start using more than one peer (like the ESL students above)
120. have peer play alongside child using same toys for longer interactions
121. have peer comment briefly on toys or offer toy for trade
122. Remember to intersperse targets to be generalized with maintenanced targets to reduce frustration and increase motivation

IV. MOTIVATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

A. Social motivation is a key issue

123. The hierarchy of social motivation
124. to meet the childs needs and wants
125. for the child,s own pleasure
126. for the child,s pleasure in others
127. to please Mom and Dad
128. to please others
129. for child,s self fullfillment/pride

B. Without social motivation you don,t get:

130. joint attention
131. observational learning
132. team playing/working
133. awareness and independence
134. See social motivation heirarchy above
135. Characteristics of poor motivation are crying, temper tantrums, noncompliance, inattention, staring, fidgeting, lethargy, and escaping, teaching situations. These children really need social motivation.
136. Frustration due to play difficulties may lead to avoidance of task
137. Targeting the child,s motivation will lead to dramatic effects on learning
138. Shared control is the child,s ability to have a role in choosing the task or toy to play with. It can also serve as a positive consequence for good behavior. Ms. Jablonsky uses flap charts. They are velcro cards which toy/activity pics can be affixed to by the child and peer taking turns picking activities. When the toy/activity is done, there is a flap that covers that activity and the kids know to move to the next one. It,s a visual schedule.
139. Turn taking involves the give and take, interaction between the child and educator while involved with the task the child has chosen
140. Stereotyped play involves repetitive play that can used for motivational purposes. Such play may include perservative/obsessional play. You may use stereotyped play to get a child started, then slowly vary child,s play. Ms. Jablonsky,s daughter obsessed with ropes (she once found her daughter,s playmate tied to a post with her daughter nowhere in sight). See example below of using obsessional play to start varied play.

C. Increase in social interaction

141. child preferred
142. child,s natural reinforcer
143. maintenance task
144. Perservative/obsessional play
145. increases time engaged in social play
146. leads to spontaneous intitiations by child
147. forms reciprocal relationships which will result in generalization

EXAMPLE:

Peer: "can I wiggle your rope" (child is stimming on rope)
Child : " ok"
Peer: " lets pretend it a snake"
Child "no!"
(ok its a start though)

Therapist hands peer a separate rope : "this is your snake"

Peer: "see, snakes wiggle too"
Child: "snake wiggling"

LATER

Peer: "can I play snake with you?"
Child: "snake wiggling"
Peer: "I,m gonna get you snake!"

Therapist prompts "oh no...snake,s gonna bite you!"

Child: "snakes gonna bite you"

D. Distractions/Stim

148. When you start to use too much language with the peer...ie too many instructions consider using flashcards if the peer can read (and the child cannot!)
149. flashcards are either DO __________or SAY "_________". Examples are DO POINT TO or SAY "help me"
150. show the flashcard to the peer to prompt him what to say or do
151. one of the "do" cards was DO STIM. In this situation, the peer fakes a stim and the therapist does whatever behavior modification procedure that is normally used on the child on the PEER! This will frequently get the child,s attention that he is not the only one that gets a consequence for stimming!

E. Remember to:

152. rotate toys often and use different variations
153. start with physical activities such as ring around the rosy and london bridge since they focus less on cognitive skills and can be done without abstract interaction
154. it is important to teach social interactions in a way that closely match the successes that will be encountered in natural conditions. In the end, you want to use untrained peers acting naturally.

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