The Importance of Fostering the Creation of Imaginary Worlds
By Claire Golomb, Professor Emerita of the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, USA, and author of the new book The Creation of Imaginary…
Tag: child psychology
Four good reasons for using play during therapy with children and adolescents
By Colby Pearce, author of A Short Introduction to Promoting Resilience in Children. Many children and adolescents are reluctant, at-least initially, to attend and be…
How to Make School Inclusion a Success for Children with Autism – An Interview with Kay Al-Ghani and Lynda Kenward
“Children with ASD are not good at generalising. They cannot transfer knowledge from one situation to another. Something as simple as having a different symbol to show ‘choosing’ for example, may result in the child being unable to understand what is expected. Not all schools have access to symbol writing programmes or they may be different from those used by early years practitioners. Parents usually have no access at all and are not even aware of the visual symbols they could be using to aid their child’s understanding at home…The aim of the book is to promote and foster collaboration between the home and the school. This will result in improved generalisation of skills and opportunities to exchange ideas and to decide what methodology works best for the child.”
How Social Enjoyment Groups Work: An Interview with John Merges
In December, JKP author John Merges shared some thoughts about his passion: helping young people on the autism spectrum enjoy social interactions – an important skill…
Mary Mountstephen on her new book ‘How to Detect Developmental Delay and What to Do Next’
“The important thing for me is that every child is valued and that we look at the causes of their difficulties rather than just the presenting symptoms: Why are they struggling in school and what can we do about it that is simple and easily implemented as the first stage in supporting them?”
A New Take on Language Function and Literacy: An Interview with Dr. Ellyn Lucas Arwood
“The bottom-line, is that the programs, materials, and curricula that are sound-based do not match with the way the children think to learn. So, teachers work harder but don’t always receive the positive success they deserve. Older students work harder to produce the sound-based patterns for tests, homework, and so forth without the conceptual learning. Working harder but not smarter stresses everyone–students, families, and teachers.”
John Merges on Social Enjoyment Groups for young people with Autism Spectrum Disorders
“Social enjoyment, as both an important life and employment skill, needs to be taught and practiced as early as possible. We need to provide our young people with safe, predictable situations to practice enjoying a social interaction. The successes I’ve seen in my own work demonstrate that social enjoyment is indeed a skill – and thus, can be learned.”
Pioneering Play and Dramatherapist Dr Sue Jennings on Healthy Attachments and her theory of Neuro-Dramatic-Play (NDP)
“True empathy is part of a very genuine understanding of the other person. And we learn this through dramatic playing which we can observe in the first few hours after a baby is born: they will try to imitate the expression on the mothers face…the baby is responding as if they are the mother; this ‘dramatic response’ continues to develop in those early weeks and months, like a life rehearsal for the development of empathy.”
How Teachers and TAs can help Students with Asperger Syndrome access the curriculum in inclusive classrooms
By Gill D. Ansell, author of Working with Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom: An Insider’s Guide Being a Teaching Assistant is not what it once…
How Educators Can Help Students with Asperger Syndrome Relieve Anxieties at School (and Avoid Meltdowns at Home!)
By Gill D. Ansell, author of Working with Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom: An Insider’s Guide. Often, a child with Asperger Syndrome (AS) will seem…