Early Intervention Games: Fun, Joyful Ways to Develop Social and Motor Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum or Sensory Processing Disorders Paperback – October 26, 2009

I have a 3 year old with social and language delays. I bought this book to get some ideas on how to engage him and help him learn at the same time. This book is amazing. It provides a ton of games/ideas and also provides modifications for each depending on your child's learning level. All the materials used/suggested can truly be found around your home. My 1 year old even gets involved. This is a great book for those looking for ways to engage a special needs child or even a typical child. It's also an easy read, so I would suggest it to educators and parents both. Our favorite game is "put the balls into the box".

I was just browsing when this book caught my attention. I purchased it after looking inside and finding the content interesting. For parents or educators who have to teach and interact with a child or children who have Autism, whether it be mild, moderate or severe on the spectrum or even working with a child or children with mild, moderate or severe learning disabilities,this is a good resource book. I like this book because the activities seem to be fun and there is also an interactive element to it. Parents and educators will find this book very effective if used the right way.

This is one of several books and resources I purchased shortly after my son was diagnosed with Sensory Modulation Disorder in 2013. I purchase a variety of things and ideas to support my son in his conditions because I don't feel like any one person has the market on good ideas, myself included, and I absolutely love it when people feel comfortable sharing one with me. Sometimes it may be something I've already tried or have been working on extensively, sometimes it's something I never heard of or thought of and found myself thinking, THANK YOU for being awesome enough to share because you have made me better at what I need to do. And I'm willing to dig through one book or article after another to search for things that I think could help me address challenges we're facing, because we've had no shortage of those. And this is one of the things I've dug through.So the first thing you have to understand is that I write this from the perspective of a parent whose child has faced sensory issues with symptoms that fall along the extreme end of the bell curve. Even though he has gone on to be diagnosed with other things, his sensory issues have been a huge factor in how we've had to work at addressing all other concerns. There are so many different ways a child's medical conditions can produce heartache, so I do not mean to imply in any way that mine is worse then any other, just different. And I feel like I need to represent a group of parents that I am concerned might have trouble finding resources on the market to meet their needs: the parents of children with more extreme behaviors or challenges.I remember on my third visit to the first pediatric clinic my son visited, one of the therapists, who was not directly involved in my son's care, turned to me with her voice filled with emotion and said, “I feel soooo *sorry* for you.” And I remember thinking, “Holy Crap, how bad must this be?” To be perfectly honest, I hadn't given any sort of thought at that point as to how his situation compared to other people, I was just trying to survive his symptoms and help him survive them as well. And to this day I still feel bad about the janitorial staff who had to clean up how much he puked all over their lobby after those three cute little grandmotherly types decided to walk up and coo over his cuteness, as I was rushing to say “Don't get too cl...” too late. I was super grateful when he went to in home therapy several months later for a little while, because it took enough pressure off of him from outside things he was struggling with that we could concentrate more on getting him used to other people, and we could control that environment during those sessions to avoid things that provoked his worst reactions. And then they would leave, and I would continue the process of trying to desensitize my son to everything that provoked his most dramatic reactions.So, my one criticism of this book is that there isn't really enough guidance for parents dealing with extreme reactions to sensory input. Because for those kiddos, they may need months or years of work desensitizing them to certain things before they can even begin to participate in these types of activities. And that can be a very slow process, and if that is you and your child, I would look for an occupational therapist who has experience with that type of desensitizing. So at the time I bought this, I really didn't have a good use for it. I think her explanations of some of the challenges and different therapeutic approaches for SPD and ASD are great and easily understood, seeing as our kiddo also has Autism, but I think some of the outcomes as described assume a much higher level of functioning then some parents are dealing with. For example, she describes a process of getting a child who is aversive to a whacking game to tolerate it in one session. For my kiddo, that process might actually take months. So what would make this most helpful I think to the full market of parents of children on the spectrum is for information that represents the time frames and challenges of lower functioning children, or children whose sensory reactions are severe.I do think she does a great job of explaining her games, and giving reasons and modifications for them. Some of them, like scarf toss, I'm totally looking forward to adding into our activities this summer when his big sister will be home to interact with him more, because I think it could be super useful in helping some of his turn taking and catching, etc. skills. But some of these games are still not things we can use, because he's still far to sensitive to those stimuli, so it's too soon to try and tackle them from a social game perspective. So I think this is definitely a great resource for a higher functioning child who has just been diagnosed, or a child who has been working at desensitizing himself to extremely upsetting stimuli for a while.

The item arrived on time. It is as described.

I am disappointed in this book. I work in early intervention and I was looking for some new game ideas for some of my clients. Most of the suggestions in this book are activities I already have therapists doing in my program. A lot of the "games" listed I personally would not even consider games, but more "activities". Some of them are even more like crafts (Cereal necklaces, drawing faces, etc. ). I was looking for new games similar to Simon Says, Duck Duck Goose, Ring around the Rosie, etc. I did not need a book to give me the idea of "Obstacle Courses" "Drawing faces", or "Throwing balls in a Box". Perhaps this would be an ok book for someone who has never worked with children before, or someone without strong play skills. But, if you are a somewhat creative person experienced in working with children with special needs, I cannot say that I think this will really be worth buying. There's really nothing new in this book.

I have found this book to be an excellent addition to my resources. I have already used more than five of the authors ideas in my lesson plans created for deaf and hard of hearing 3 year old children, all whom have additional needs. It is well organized and it has included goals and meaning for each of the activities. I highly recommend it!

Barbara Sher finds ways to enhance and encourage the development of all children with fun and comfort in mind. Many of the parents who come to our Child Disability Resource Center continue to use this as a manual for having fun, connecting with our children and encouraging my child's development. No fuss, no complicated language, it's perfect.

Well, this book is on loan. Do hope I get it back! A special education teacher looked at it and wanted to borrow it. She must have found something useful. I can't remember too much about it, but it seems there were many creative suggestions for game play with parents, siblings, or classmates and teachers. Some solitary play as well. I've found these types of books may not help the first time you try the tips. Reintroduction when the child is more ready or older can help.