Activity

Ideas:

Question: Write down on a piece of paper (and discuss) what you think goal setting is. On the same sheet of paper write down what you think self regulation is.

Rachel is a nine-year-old girl who has a diagnosis of autistic disorder. Rachel lives at home with her parents and two siblings. She is non-verbal, but she communicates using eye gaze and gestures and its beginning to use Picture Exchange Communication System (Bondy and Frost, 1997). She has a very high activity level, has great difficulty attending to structured tasks, and initiates a limited range of purposeful activities. She engages in various stereotypic or self-stimulatory behaviours, including rocking, jumping and hand flapping. Rachel is highly sensitive to auditory stimuli and startles to unexpected noises. She is a client of a centre that provides services to individuals with pervasive developmental disorders and their families. An occupational therapy consultation for Rachel was requested due to concerns regarding her increasing self-abusive behaviour, poor sleeping patterns, and fine motor delays.

Source: Yack, E., Aquilla, P., Sutton, S. Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration: Therapy for Children with Autism and Other Pervasive Developmental Disorders. 2002. Future Horizons Inc.

Quick activity during sensory: Take 2 minutes to think about different things you could do for each of your senses to calm yourself down. Someone from each table can share. Now, what type of things do you think would alert yourself through your senses?

Conclusion: What are some misconceptions you had about goal setting and self regulation beforehand? What have you learned?