Tips for Community Outings for Children with Autism

(from www.lifetips.com )

Community Settings

Years ago, the autistic individual was kept out of community settings. Most were housed in institutions and left in a highly structured environments. Many families preferred to keep their children with autism in the home and away from the challenges in the community. Community settings include stores, parks as well as locations for occupational and speech therapy. Community outings should not be restricted to doctor's appointments and therapy.

Today, parents and therapists are encouraged to integrate the autistic individual into the community settings. There are challenges to be faced but there are many more learning opportunities and positive experiences to be shared.

Introducing an individual to community settings can be easier if it is approached in systematically. Some planning and forethought is required and the challenges that the community setting poses.

Preparing for Community Settings
Some preventative measures can be taken to help the individual with autism thrive in the community setting without incident. Some steps can be taken to insure that the likeliness of a tantrum will be lessened and some interventions can be used when a tantrum is forming while in the community setting:

• Planning ahead for the outing involves preparing the individual for the activities and experiences. Social stories are used as preventative measures through building expectations and rehearsing responses.
• Safety awareness drills can be completed in a safe environment and practiced until the outing takes place in the community setting. The familiar verbal cues and visual aids along with motivating rewards help the individual follow safety instructions in the community setting.
• Organizing a visual schedule as well as valuable PECS is a big part of planning for a community setting and choosing the most opportune time of the day is important as well.
• Considering the individual with autism's prime time of day may take a little time and a lot of observation. Avoid taking the child on a trip when he is typically tired or hungry 
• Preparing some sensory integration activities like a quick stop at a park can serve as a release as well as an reward. Community settings can offer great opportunities for an individual with autism to learn and play.

Activities That Fill Dead Time
There are interventions and activities that can be helpful in filling dead time when in community settings. Planning ahead by bringing some supplies is helpful but you can engage the child with autism in the community setting in a number of ways.

Bringing play items and interesting materials on a trip is a great way to engage the child while addressing sensory needs as well. Dead time can be filled with simple tactile experiences. A rattle stimulates both vision and hearing.

Dead time can also be filled with language. Ask the child questions and encourage him to attend to specific objects and sounds. A child with autism may enjoy counting the number of times that a speaker is used while in a retail or grocery store. Encouraging him to tell you when he hears the speaker helps him attend to a sound and communicate with others.

Keeping the child with autism engaged at all times is not realistic. However, a community outing will be more interesting and beneficial if there is less dead time.

Safety Awareness
One of the most important factors to consider in the community setting is safety. Many children with autism are not fully aware of their surroundings. They also have difficulty with body awareness (the relation of their self to their environment).

Cars and steep hills do not feel threatening to many children with autism and they often do not understand the rules when it comes to crossing the street or entering and exiting buildings. Many individuals with autism also like the sensory feedback they receive from running, especially with the added sensation of being outdoors.

Drilling the individual with autism on issues about safety awareness is crucial when embarking on community outings. The drills typically involve a lot of physical and verbal prompting to help the child understand what is expected.

Rewards and positive reinforcement are important when engaging in safety awareness drills. It is a good idea to save very special treats for the safety awareness drills. The child does not receive the same treat in other settings. Bringing that specific treat into the community setting will help the individual with autism make a strong connection to the powerful motivator.

For example, a therapist or parent may want to focus on the command "stop" and they want to associate that command with chocolate chips. The drill would include an image of a stop sign, the verbal cue "stop" and the sign for stop as well.

When the cues and pictures are used in the community setting with the presence of the reward, the individual with autism is more likely to attend and follow through.

Social Stories

One of the most valuable tools that can be used to prepare for community settings is social stories developed by Carol Gray. These stories are effective in helping the individual with autism build expectations.

The autistic person uses a script to help him anticipate the events that are about to occur. This is a valuable way to ease stress in these unfamiliar surroundings. The social stories are also useful in helping the individual with autism understand what others around him might be thinking and feeling.

The social stories serve as a guide that helps the individual with autism rehearse what to say and what actions to take in the community setting. The focus of the stories is on the various "Wh" questions that are so baffling to many autistic individuals: who, what, where, and when.

The stories detail where and when the community outing will take place. They describe who will be there and what activities will occur. This information is often taken for granted but it is so valuable for an individual with autism.

Many choose to use social stories with higher functioning autistic cases. However, some therapists believe that they can benefit almost all children with autism. The child may not respond to the story but he may receptively process some of the valuable information.

Visual Schedules
Taking a visual schedule into the community setting may not seem like the most convenient approach but it can be very helpful. The visual schedule is valuable because it provides concrete images of what to expect and what is expected in the community setting. The schedule can be as detailed or as brief as necessary. These familiar items are used in the home and school settings and they are helpful in building expectations and providing instruction.

Transitions are always difficult but if a visual schedule is designed that outlines the events that are about to occur the individual with autism will make smoother transitions. A simple schedule would include the following:
Car
Walk
Shopping Cart
Wait
Cashier
Walk
Car
Home
All Done

The focus of this visual schedule is the transitional moments. As each event is accomplished, the child can remove the picture from the visual schedule.

November 2008 �?Kane County Autism Information and Support Group