Promoting Positive Interaction through Play and Creativity

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Promoting Positive Interaction through Play and
Creativity

• Diana Seach
• Autism Cymru
• 2008

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The foundations of social, emotional and
cognitive development
emotion
awareness of self
awareness of others

interaction
motivation
flexibility
shared language
behaviour
empathy
Diana Seach 2007
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Interactive Play involves

• modelling positive communication
• mutually affective cueing
• reciprocity
• non-verbal communication
• following the childs attentional lead
• shared focus on objects or activity
• meaningful narrative
• spontaneity

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The neuroscience of play

• developmental - following the childs lead
  increases communication, shared understanding
  and mutual engagement (Stern, 2003)
• emotional - creating empathy and enjoyment
  between the child and play partner increases
  neural connectivity (Panskepp, 1998)
• cognitive - the link between sensory
  exploration, interaction and emotional
  responsiveness is key to conceptual development
  and more flexible and imaginative ways of
  thinking (Hobson, 2002)

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Play and learning
Child-initiated spontaneous individual incidental
learning intrinsically motivating experimental co
ntrol
Adult-led planned activities group/society task-b
ased learning learned response skill
acquisition compliance
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When only the rational aspects of learning and
development are stressed we deprive children of
the full range of human ability to think.
Gulbenkian 1982
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Stories and Narratives

It is through stories and narratives that
children with autism are able to communicate
their inner mind and express their unique
understanding of the world around them.

• sand trays
• drama
• magnetic storyboard
• sound stories
• puppets
• art

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Promoting positive interaction and emotional
well-being

• Establishing connection
• Shared play experiences influence the
  psychobiological attunement between the child and
  the supporter and are implicit in the development
  of affect and cognition.
• Enabling communication
• The emotional synchronicity that takes place
  through imitation, shared attention, and mutual
  enjoyment provides opportunities for mastery of
  new experiences, exploration and creativity.

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Developing play and creativity

• Creating meaning
• by encouraging sensory exploration this helps to
  build concepts, create coherence and develop
  competence
• Developing imagination
• the development of symbolic play emerges through
  a shared experience that helps the child to
  extend their thinking about how to represent
  familiar objects

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Play develops creativity, intellectual
competence, emotional strength and stability and
feelings of joy and pleasure, the habit of being
happy. Piers and
Landau.1980
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Diana Seach Education and Family
Consultant autism-smile tel [phone]
531925 email info_at_autism-smile.co.uk
www.autism-smile.co.uk