Activity Schedules for Children with Autism: Teaching Independent Behavior

The goal of raising any child is to guide them into independance, and though many autistic children will never reach complete independance, it remains an important goal. Independance is an important factor in self-esteem and is essential for entering any portion of adult life. I was consistantly frustrated with therapy manuals which required my complete and undivided attention at all times. I'm under no delusion that I will be forever available to my autistic son, and it would be nice for me to feel that he could get up and at least dress himself at some point without my verbally prompting him.The clear instructions and logical directives in "Activity Schedules for Children with Autism" place it on my 'highly recommended' list. While not a book I would recommend for a parent whose child has been newly diagnosed, I certainly recommend it to those parents with other therapeutic programs already in place. The activity schedules are very easily integrated into existing therapies and school environments, greatly boosting their success. I've also implimented an advanced version of activity schedules, verbally explained, with my five-year-old typical daughter - as a result the morning 'dilly-dallies' and afternoon 'hum-drums' have all but disappeared. I would recommend that existing image programs be used whenever possible, only to cut down on the time it takes to prepare the schedules. I use Flash! Pro2, which can be found online, though there are many other graphic programs that could be used as well. (As a webmaster I've found that many of the 'web-ready' image collections contained pictures that were appropriate for this program as well as ABA and DTT programs.)All-in-all, excellent book, flexible program, expertly explained.

I used to teach a parent training class at a school for children with autism that was centered around the ideas in this book. I used this book for several years with my own son who has autism. This isn't a book you can just read and put away, to really benefit from it you need to implement the ideas. This program could be adapted to work successfully for just about anyone - in fact, most of the adults I know (including myself) could benefit from some of these simple ideas. This concept is especially beneficial for helping someone who has autism develop better generalization skills. This book will teach you how to make schedules that your child can complete on their own. Schedules that will eventually prepare them for a life in the future where they can mangage their own schedule using a regular day planner or other "socially appropriate system. The books says "As a parent of a child with autism, you have learned many coping skills that help you deal with the demands of everyday life. Teaching your child to use an activity schedule initially increases those demands, but ultimately creates some freedom for you." It does take a little work to set up the schedules at first, but it does create freedom for you and for your child - and that is a great benefit!

This book is a "must have" for parents and professionals who work with children with autism. Activity schedules not only enable autistic children to independently play, but also to independently engage in self-care,school, and prevocational tasks. This book describes the prerequisite skills children must have to use activity schedules, methods for teaching these skills, and provides step by step instruction on teaching the use of activity schedules. Examples of how people of various ages use activity schedules to structure play, school, and work tasks are included.

Though my youngster could talk, he rarely spoke spontaneously. This book helped enormously in getting my youngster to begin using all kinds of speech...he now comments on his work, invites me to play with him, tells me what he is going to do...its amazing! The structure of the activity schedule facilitated all of this new spontaneous speech. Its hard work but well worth the effort

Activity schedules are very useful. They helped our three-year old son (with PDD) talk more appropriately, make choices, become more independent and self-disciplined, engage in less stereotypy, and be meaningfully occupied when he is at home. They are a great complement to a formal behavioral intervention program. The book is great because it explains clearly how to develop them, how to teach them, what to do and what not to do, in plain english. The authors avoided technical jargon without sacrificing the high scientific standards they are respected for. You can use what you have read immediately. A must read, not only for parents of children with autism or PDD, but for special education teachers, therapists and other autism professionals.