What Kind Of Community Activities Are Beneficial For My Child With Autism?
Dr. Morrier answers the question: 'Community Activities For Autistic Kids?'
Oct. 23, 2008 -- Question: What kind of community activities are beneficial for my child with autism?
Answer: Enrolling your child in community-based activities is actually a very good thing to do for children with autism. It's especially important to pick activities that you know your child is going to like to do and that there's a majority of children without disabilities enrolled in those activities as well. The community activities that you have your child involved in will allow them extra practice at the social interactions they have with same-age peers and give them sort of a place that they can learn or practice the skills that they're learning in school or in therapy or in their treatment program as well.
One thing to keep in mind, though, is to make sure the community activity is low-cost because if your child doesn't like it, you want to be able to pull out without losing a lot of money at it. And also, it's something that occurs on a regular basis -- you know, once a week or once a month or something like that -- and has the same children involved in it every time so your child can develop friendships with those kids in the activity there.
So, it's really good to be thinking about different activities that your child could be involved in. Some activities children with autism have benefited from are things like swimming, gymnastics, karate, tennis, soccer, t-ball -- you know, different group activities like that.
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