Sharing strategies

[Guest Spiral]

Hi there,

 

we have a child who is in the process of being referred. They are high functioning (can count to 100 and backwards from 100), but cannot understand the concept of sharing. For example, they wish to play with all of the cars and line them up but if another child tries to take a car they cry incessantly.

 

Communication is very limited and we are using signs and symbols (although they can speak to say a number or colour).

 

Does anyone have a sharing strategy that may help?

 

Thank you, Spiral

[korkycat]

We use a 5 minute sand timer. The child gets it after 5 minutes and has to pass it on after 5 minutes. It's worked with a child on spectrum and the others too! Being able to see sand going through seemed to help.

Hope that's useful.

korkycat

[twinthinguk]

gosh thats a challenge to have to deal with x not sure if i can contribute, other than to say we use timers and visual aids ( may be some sort of photo flip book might help) i have one on a lanyard that i use for one of my boys who stuggles with transitions during the session, does your child get upset if other children play along side and not touch the rescources they are using? we had a little chap who obsessed over certain items and could not have anyone touch them even if he was not using them.....it was very hard to manage! good luck x sorry i cant be of more help x

[finleysmaid]

Are cars the only trigger?

 

Try working with him one to one. Ask him for one car what happens? try to get eye contact and hold your hand out. What does he do?

can you have control of the box. Give him one then you one then him one. Use my turn your turn as the vocal clue. with lots of lovely smiling and encouraging voice! Then try to play with your cars for a minute.

If he can tolerate this do the same with you him and one other (patient) child.

Try this and see what happens.

You could also try to seperate the cars into several small boxes so that each child that wants to play has their own group of cars. This way he doesn't OWN them all from the beginning and he is not overwhelmed by the choice.

Edited October 12, 2013 by finleysmaid

[Guest]

Some great ideas, as finleysmaid asked, I wonder if cars are the only trigger and if he can share with a familiar adult on a one to one basis. The cars may be a way for him to reduce his levels of anxiety, lining them up in the same way each session so when another child takes one he becomes very anxious/distressed and the only way he can express this is by crying. How do parent/s reacts with similar incidents at home?

 

I think it would be useful to look at his developmental level in PSED, particularly in Making Relationships/Managing Feelings and Behaviour, just to make sure you're expectations are realistic. Take it from one who's learnt the hard way, it's no use trying to work on a 30 - 50 month skills such as: "Begins to accept the needs of others and can take turns and share resources, sometimes with support from others" when developmentally they're at an 8 - 20 month level. It just sets you and the child up to fail.

 

Once you've look at where he is developmentally, you can decide if sharing is a realistic target or if he needs more activities to develop turntaking, sharing and awareness of others.