Autism Simulation Activites

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My mom is a teacher, and went to a workshop the other day on autism ( i wanted to go but was in school at the time). In it they did a bunch of simulations. I was wondering what simulation type activities people here have done.

The ones my mom did.

1.) Put a cup or 2 of uncooked rice in a brown paper bag. Now add paper clips. Mix it up so the paper clips aren't just sitting on top. Now try and pull the paper clips out......... Done. Its VERY hard to do cause all the rice confuses your tactile sense.

2.) Draw a polygon on a piece of paper, now draw the same shape, just bigger, centered in the same place. The second one should be about half an inch bigger ( there should be about half and inch gap between the lines of figure a and figure b).

Now get a mirror and place it at a point on the larger figure so that you can see the figures in the mirror. Now have a friend start flashing the lights on and off and a radio ( or some other noise generating thing. Now trace a line between the figures looking only at the mirror ( ie don't look at the paper itself, look at it through the mirror.

This is supposed to simulate sensory sensitivity.

She did a few more but didnt describe them.

Anyone have any others, and what do you think of these?

I did a cool one where people were given Glow in the dark cheshire cat grins to wear. They also had cards with glow in the dark designs on the backs. We turned out the lights and instructed people to play cards. The entire time they were trying to make up their own rules, and we would interrupt them and tell them they were doing it wrong and that they were to play cards. After about 5 minutes, someone usually says, we are playing cards, but evidently not the right kind.

The idea being that first of all, the only sensory input you have is the glow in the dark grins, which is just way too much for anyone and the glow in the dark cards with designs but no faces; and so when instructed to play cards, humans (at least the NT ones) automatically try to make their own rules. My question always is, don't you know how to play cards? Someone always says, "What kind of cards?" to which I always reply, "Cards". Usually people get frustrated and I ask them how hard it was to play cards when they didn't know the rules. They always agree it's frustrating. At least 5 people in every audience complain about the grins, too. I just throw that in to spot check for the ASD people in the groups. If they are annoyed by it, they are usually on the spectrum!