Gina Davies: Attention Autism — Therapy Ideas Live

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Attention skills are so important.
They're an integral part

of how we get connected with people,
and the world around us,

and how we learn.
So when they go wrong,

things get difficult very quickly,
and in autism,

they go wrong very frequently.

How can it be?
But if we go back to basics,

and ask ourselves,
"Are our activities actually irresistible?

Are they worthy of the child's attention?

Are they so good they'd
want to do them anyway?"

And, again, if we're
reflecting back to basics,

we should remember that when
children are having a good time,

or when they anticipate having fun,
they will join in much more readily

and you will get engagement
attached to good memories.

But autism does make it more complicated.

How can it be there's a child
that can lie for 20 minutes,

looking at the wheels on a train,
and yet when you want to show them

something, you get only
a fleeting moment?

We tend to resort
to typical styles of intervention.

We give the child information,
and then we ask a question.

The man is riding a bicycle.
What is he doing?

It doesn't work with autism!
They can't see the point,

and you need social skills
in communication in order to comply.

So things get confusing very quickly.
Not just for the child,

but for us as well.
How can we find a way forward?

I think we could think about
the autism learning strengths

instead of the things
that are going wrong.

These children are fantastically visual,
and that gives us a way forward,

and they have amazing memories.
For things they value,

for things they find interesting,
you will get the most passionate

engagement and memories that potentially
are planted for life.

What a wonderful thing to be
so sure that you've given

a child something that memorable.

But we do need to be thinking
about how we are going to create

really good quality engagement.
I'm not talking about the fleeting look

when they ran past it,
or the look that is prompted

by somebody telling you,
"Sitting! Looking!"

Or the engagement
that's is won through reward.

We want spontaneous engagement.
But we should remember,

attention skills develop.
We develop from being highly distractable,

to being able to do two things at once
in a distracting environment.

It happens over time.
But if we combine

this developmental psychology
with good autism strategies,

we can find an intervention
and move forward.

And that's really where
the Attention Autism Program came from.

It is a four stage program
with incremental steps.

First stage, the bucket.
Focus your attention.

I've got something in my bucket,
in my bucket, in my bucket.

I've got something in my bucket,
I wonder what it is.

Oooh! Wow.

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If we can offer a series of quick objects
coming out of a bucket,

we can teach a child how to focus,
and then we can move on

to the attention builder,
a fabulous activity!

Great to watch from start to finish,
that lasts a little bit longer.

And in this way, we can use hundreds
of different activities

to plant these ideas, rehearse them,
and embed them as a skill for the child.

We're looking really to get the child
focused and attentive

for longer periods of time, but with
lots and lots of lateral progression.

Lots of different ways of doing it.
And then we add stage three,

where we teach a child
how to shift their attention.

We use all the language of turn taking,
but it's possible for autistic children

to learn this skill without ever
necessarily understanding

the social side of it.
So the child watches an activity,

takes their turn, shifts their attention
to their own participation,

and then back to the group.
And in stage four, we add

all the previous skills together,
and put in a transition.

A child will watch a demonstration
as one of a group,

collect their kit,
take it to a group table,

where they work with the rest
of the group together,

through to completion of whatever it is,
though it's the process

rather than the end result
with these activities.

And then they rejoin the group
so that we can celebrate what we've done.

Shared good times make fantastic memories,
and this structure can provide

a framework where we can nurture
social skills, communication,

and thinking skills.
We aim for 20 minutes

within six weeks
of the intervention starting.

So where are we going to begin?
Let's start...

Go visual, and let's be memorable.

(laughter)

Thank you very much, indeed.

(applause)