The other day, as I was spending time with one of my clients, I found myself thinking about adaptability and what it really means. After giving it some thought, I decided that there are two main types of adaptability: physical and mental.
For this blog, I’d like to talk about mental adaptability.
One of the many things I notice in the children I start working with is their lack of adaptability and flexibility when it comes to the activities we do. However, this doesn’t stop me from working to improve their adaptability - often in fun and sneaky ways.
Here are five tactics I use to increase a child's adaptability:
Gradually Expose Children to New Experiences
Many of the children I work with are fresh off their iPads and have very limited outdoor experiences. One of my first goals when I meet them is to help them experience success at something they don’t usually do. This might involve balancing on the back of a chair (while holding my hand), climbing a tree, walking through mud, or even picking up a hermit crab. If they aren’t ready to fully commit to the challenge, I reduce the “expectation” to something they feel comfortable doing. Over time, our sessions become filled with so much variety and change that it becomes the norm for them.
Role-Playing and Modeling
Interestingly enough, when you put children on an island in a forest, they often gravitate towards survival games. This is a great opportunity for me to work on their adaptability by introducing as many challenges as I can think of during their survival game.
Encourage Exploration
Building rapport with the children is a great way to help them feel safe and comfortable. When they feel this way, they are more likely to try new things and respond positively to adverse situations.
Building Emotional Resilience
Often, when we are climbing trees together, the kids will reach a point where they become ‘stuck.’ The only thing that has changed is their mindset. When we reach this point, I spend time asking them questions about what, how, and where they are feeling. It’s important to identify these sensations to help them move forward.
Another little trick I like to use when they get “stuck” is to have them say, “shut up, brain” (or “be quiet, brain,” if “shut up” isn’t allowed in the house). This small action is often enough to help them reset and keep climbing.
Interactive Games
I love setting climbing challenges for kids. One scenario I use is that the world is ending, and the only way off is the last rocket ship. I then start a countdown timer, and they have to problem-solve the path to get to the rocket ship. Being as sneaky as I am, and not wanting to waste an opportunity to build resilience, I often move the “launch” point and make them climb to a different location.
When it comes to building resilience in autistic children, it’s something that can’t be rushed.
Patience, trust, and rapport are all needed to achieve this goal. Once you have achieved one level of resilience, it’s important to keep growing it.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this for your child in particular or children you work with if you're an educator. I'd be more than happy to chat with you.
Clint
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