I am so excited to share that I have launched a new book series on Amazon Kindle! The series is "Let's Play Ball! How To Engage Autism Through Play & Everyday Activities".
The best part is the books are free with Kindle Unlimited! The series consists of 3 books plus a Parent Guide which explains step by step how to play ball with your apprentice. I chose ball to begin with because it consistently is the activity kids have difficulty with during the RDA Assessment. The back and forth and dynamic nature of playing ball makes it more challenging for our kids with autism.
However, as we always say, the activity is not the focus. Think of playing ball as the backdrop to learning mindful guiding basics. The Parent Guide that goes with the series goes into detail about mindful guiding basics such as zone of connection, scaffolding, one step ahead learning, communication, adding variations, spotlighting moments, saving memories, doing re-enactments and more!
I had a lot of fun creating the picture books that go along with the Parent Guide and Jake helped me out by doing all of the illustrations!
The books are simple, straight forward and are repetitive in nature to help our apprentices gain a sense of familiarity and competence. But, of course, our main goal is to actually do the engagement with our apprentice. The picture books are meant to act as a visual cue for our apprentice prior to the "real" engagement.
During your engagement build those relational memories, and feelings of competence within your apprentice as they begin to build a sense of self and motivation to engage with you.
The books are not perfect and that's why I love them. Guiding isn't perfect and it shouldn't be. The books aren't perfect but they are what Dr. Gutstein would say is "good enough" or a starting point to think about how you can begin to engage with your child. Because, as we know, parents are the best guides! And, more importantly, our brains are experience dependent organs that grow and develop during these parent -child mindguiding engagements.
Have fun with the books. Start small and build from your successes.
Enjoy guiding your child! And remember, if WE can do it, YOU can do it!