We have introduced “Attention Autism” within Victoria Park alongside our speech and language therapists.
Attention Autism is a communication approach for learners who are on the Autistic Spectrum, created by Gina Davis who is a specialist speech and language therapist.
Attention Autism helps to develop a child’s attention, communication and social skills in a fun and motivating way. Gina Davies speaks about how to motivate our children to develop their attention, without demanding, through her approach, that they give their attention to things that just don’t interest them!
We have used Stage 1 with some of the children and have been really impressed with the progress made by children who might find it difficult to fix their attention on another persons actions.
Stage 1 involves using a bag/bucket with motivating objects inside. Children sit in a group and an adult takes one object out at a time and plays with the toy, repeats words and sounds as they play with it to help increase the child’s focus on the object. It is only the adult who plays with the objects during this activity.
Stage 2 involves an activity that looks interesting to help increase the child’s attention further. This activity is often messy!
There are another 2 more stages.
If you want to find out more about Attention Autism and the other stages here are some links
https://ginadavies.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/ginadaviesautism/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFYnc4xcZ6k
Below is a video which shows how to introduce Stage 1
