Playing with kids

After a year and a half of classes, I'm ready to apply to occupational therapy school for next fall. The application is due on January 15th so that has been a big priority during this break. Besides getting a decent GPA in the prerequisite classes and having a BA degree in anything, I also need some volunteer hours doing something related to OT. In early December I found out that one of the schools I'm applying to requires two different volunteer experiences of at least 25 hours each. I've spent over 100 hours helping out in the OT department at the Hennepin County Medical Center so I needed to find something else working with people who have disabilities. A friend of mine works at The Lazarus Project, a center for young children with autism, and her boss was gracious enough to let me hang out there for several days during my break.

I had never spent much time with anyone with autism but by observing and interacting with the kids I learned a lot. One of the key characteristics of autism is having difficulty developing and using language. These children covered a wide spectrum. Some of them were quite verbal and spoke clearly. Others struggled. One boy would look at me and say what sounded like, "Cherry me," which meant "chase me." Once I got him to say something closer to "chase" I'd gladly chase him around the room. Other kids couldn't say a word and were learning sign language. It took them a long time to learn a sign and each sign needed to be continually reenforced.

A behavioral therapist worked individually with each child. Much of the time was spent playing while getting the child to verbalize his wishes. A favorite activity of all the kids was to be on the swing. The therapist would push them for a bit and then stop the swing and ask them what they wanted. An appropriate response was something along the lines of, "Push me" or "I want a push." If they said that without being prompted they got a bigger and longer push than if they had to be prompted to say (or sign) it. In addition, lots of verbal praise was showered on them each time they gave an appropriate response. The same principles were applied when playing with other toys, drawing or playing with play dough (or moon dough).

Each child also had table time which involved more formal learning. The children learned to identify, match and categorize a wide range of objects. They also learned to pay attention and follow directions. In many ways it seemed the kids were being bribed to do this. Before beginning an activity the therapist would ask, "What do you want?" (The choices ranged from a movie to a treat to playing with a favorite toy.) Once that had been identified, the child was told she needed to earn it. For the most part it worked - at least the kids were motivated to do things that weren't as much fun as just playing. And, unless they were having a bad day, they thoroughly enjoyed the praise that was lavished on them when they mastered something that had been hard for them before.

The last day I was at the Lazarus Project I got a clear picture of another key characteristic of autism which is difficulty with social interaction. Five of the more advanced children were put into a group with the goal of learning how to appropriately interact with others. They watched a short clip of two children sharing and then the therapists tried to get the kids to replicate it. The first activity they did was to go into the book room where there is a couch and a couple of comfortable chairs and they were to read books together - or rather next to each other. It was exhausting watching them. Many of them would rather hit a child than have that child sit close to them. They did better once they moved to taking turns going down the slide. One of the more advanced boys did really well one-on-one with a therapist. At other times I'd watched him appropriately play a game with another child. But he went crazy during the hour or so that he was to be interacting with 4 other kids. I lost track of the number of times he had to sit in a chair turned away from the rest of the group because he had hit someone else or thrown something. There were many tears and "behaviors." Once he was back with just a therapist for the rest of the afternoon he was fine.

All in all it was a good experience. I saw how many of these children would benefit from occupational therapy. I'm grateful for the chance to see how my friend spends her days. I also learned that as much as I like kids, interacting with them intensely all day is exhausting for me.