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qmom
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11 Feb 2009, 3:39 pm

Hi everyone! I'm with a group who is trying to put together a presentation to help older kids (10 and up) understand what it's like to have autism or aspergers. If there are any exercises or activities you can think of that would help please let me know. They can deal with anything. Thank you so much!
(I have a 3 year old on the spectrum, who is also legally blind. I'm so grateful Junior High is still 10 years away!)



RudolfsDad
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11 Feb 2009, 4:08 pm

At my son's school, there is an autism consultant that gives presentations to classrooms to teach children about their classmates with autism. Apparently, she puts together a "sensory overload" demonstration. She does things like plays an audio tape of a large number of people talking at once, rubs people's arms with a weird, prickly brush, while showing them confusing video. Basically, it gives even the NT children a taste of what sensory overload feels like. Then she asks them what this feels like. Inevitably, they say they feel "confused", "a little scared" and "overwhelmed".

Then she explains that some people with autism experience something like this a lot in everyday situations where other people wouldn't. She tells me that the children are usually far more understanding of their classmates with autism after this. I haven't witnessed this presentation myself but that's my understanding of what she does.



pgd
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StuartN
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13 Aug 2010, 4:56 pm

qmom wrote:
Hi everyone! I'm with a group who is trying to put together a presentation to help older kids (10 and up) understand what it's like to have autism or aspergers.


I remember a scissors puzzle game from childhood - everyone sits in a circle and passes a pair of scissors around the circle saying "crossed" or "uncrossed", trying to guess what the code is. Obviously it is not if the scissor blades are crossed or uncrossed, it might be if the bearer's ankles or fingers are crossed or uncrossed, or winks.

That is a simple, but maybe something more taxing where one half of a class have the task of asking for something from a paired member of the other half, except that the other half use different meanings for all the necessary words (e.g. being shocked at a "rude" word like "please", although that is probably over-dramatic).