Listed are the 3 strategies to compensate for the challenges listed in the last posting.

1) Adam and writing.
* I will use priming with Adam prior to entrance into the room to prepare
for the activity.
* I will try to use some of Adam’s occupations more thoughtfully. I could
incorporate his love for sports as a calming mechanism in order to gain his attention and be able to calm prior to the writing activity. This way he will be able to “hear me” when I explain the change in the situation.
* I could use a picture system in which he is involved in removing cards so he
feels more in control (Miller-Kuhanceck).

2) Camden and mini-interviews.
* I could ask Camden to bring a peer so peer-mediated intervention
could be used to facilitate better generalization.
* I could have him generate the questions that he was interested in learning
about others instead of me generating the questions to be asked. This should
tap into intrinsic motivation.
* Teach social thinking skills in order to explain other’s intentions. This also
teaches the why in social thinking. It is involves more than memorization of
social skills, but incorporates reasoning behind thinking. Teaching social
thinking to children with HFA has been found effective for increased positive
social behaviors (Crooke, Hendrix, Rachman, 2008).

3) Dan agitated in the waiting room.
* Next time I will try a therapy ball in the waiting room to help him become
modulated prior to entrance to the clinic. Then I will work toward increased
focus in order to prevent a meltdown (Miller-Kuhaneck).
* Dan is functioning at a lower level and cannot understand concepts of how
others feel so modulation needs to be addressed initially to prevent an emotional meltdown. He reacts upon an emotion and escalates with environmental complexity issues.
* Once Dan is modulated, priming can be used in order to establish a general
sequence of events for therapy session. He will be able to understand to the
best of his ability that I am not angry. Eye contact can be incorporated to
increase his interaction with facial emotions.
* Encourage Dan to push a weighted shopping cart back to the sensory
room, providing proprioceptive input and more appropriate outlet of his
energy. Eventually, Dan can work toward identifying emotions on picture
cards as skills develop.