Thriving with Autism - 90 activities to encourage your child's communication, engagement and play book is written by Katie Cook, a board certified ABA therapist. I know that ABA evokes pretty strong emotions, either for or against it. I am not here to justify or deny it but just want to say that if you are a parent/therapist who uses ABA for their child and are looking for ways to expand the activities at home; or if you are a parent in the early stages of your journey and want to try ABA but don't know how to approach it - then this book is a good fit for you. This is the first ABA book I have read that incorporates the elements of Play Therapy and is child-centric!
The best part about the book is that there are separate chapters for key areas that our kids need additional help and the activities are grouped by age, i.e., developmental age of your child. The skills covered in this book are:
1. Communication skills - making requests to meet his/her needs, describing skills, etc.
2. Engagement Skills - joint attention and understanding perspective of others, etc.
3. Play Skills - parallel play, pretend play, cooperative play, etc.
4. Social Skills - improving eye contact by using face painting activity and how to be a good active listener, etc.
5. Motor Skills - both fine motor and gross motor skills games are included.
6. Sensory Integration activities
7. Self- Regulation Skills - includes activities that promote calming strategies and role-playing practical solutions to everyday frustrating problems; using social stories, etc.
8. Academic Skills - mathematics, reading, writing, paying attention to teacher ,etc.
9. Self-help Skills - toilet training, brushing teeth, getting dressed as well as telling time, using money, etc.
Well, as you saw from the list of chapters, it is a very comprehensive book, as each chapter has nine activities that are suitable for children of different developmental ages.
I hope you found this book review helpful. As always, do reach out using the contact form on the blog. You can purchase the book on Amazon India
