Group
therapy at THULIR
For
a child to be independent and successful in his/her social environment such as
home, school, peer group, etc, the child must possess social skills like
communicating, sharing, waiting, turn taking, apologizing, requesting,
thanking, competing, being aware of other’s needs and having age appropriate
play skills. In order to develop these skills in children receiving occupational
therapy at our centre, we started conducting group sessions.
Four
children, two boys and girls, aged between 5 and 7 years with similar cognitive
levels were taken for group therapy. All four children (referred to be in group
1) were diagnosed under autism spectrum disorders, and specifically had sensory
processing issues related to bilateral integration and sequencing, and three of
them had tactile defensiveness.
At
the level of initial assessment, children
·
Were able orient to time, place and
person,
·
Were able to follow simple commands
·
Knew basic concepts like colours,
alphabets, numbers, shapes, categories of objects, etc and were going to
mainstream school.
·
Were not having social skills like,
greeting others without prompt, listening to others, etc
·
Had problems in maintaining eye contact
·
Lacked group skills like waiting, taking
turns, or play with peers,
·
Were not able to accept or tolerate other
children’s company.
Hence
group therapy was planned carrying the above mentioned problems as goals which include
one activity from each of the following categories.
1. Children
were asked to greet each others, parents and therapists by names with eye
contact
2. Warm
up activities such as jumping on trampoline, breaking soap bubbles, tapping
balls/balloons ,etc were given were
children were expected to stay within the given boundaries which helps to
develop tolerance to touch, were asked to give chance and wait for others turn
which develops sharing and waiting.
3. Activities
like holding hands and jumping across rope, jumping together within hoola loop,
crossing over obstacles in a line,
walking together inside lycra swing, doing animal walks like crab walk,
bear walk, frog jump, etc, together in a line, were given. This helps to
develop skills such as doing activities together in a group, tolerating other’s
touch, waiting for others to complete their task and join the group, waiting
for commands and control impulsivity..
4. Activities
like singing rhymes, doing action imitations, spelling words, counting numbers,
reciting alphabets, were given were each child was asked to perform these tasks
in turns in front of other kids and
parents. This helps to develop eye contact, reduce social hesitation, and improve
self confidence.
5. Activities
requiring exchange of puzzles or toys among each others were given to provide
opportunities for verbal communication. Concepts such as “give me”, “take it”, “thank
you” and “welcome” were taught.
6. Activities
like target throwing, ball catching, board games with dice, actions on commands
etc were given to develop game concepts in children.
7. To
teach sharing, snack time was present at the end of all sessions were each
child was asked to share a piece of given snack to each other and eat once all
of the get their share.
8. At
last, children were taught to say “bye-bye “to each others, parents and
therapists by their names.
Each
of the group session would last for one hour including 7 to 8 activities from
the above mentioned categories with two minutes breaks between each activity. After
8months of group therapy children are now able to
·
Greet each other without prompt
·
Recognize the absence of other child
·
Enjoy the presence of other kids and
show emotional attachment
·
Show tolerance to touch better than
before
·
Understand turn taking and able to wait
for others turn without prompt
·
Initiate activities like rhymes action
imitation etc
·
Verbally use “give me” , “take it”, “thank
you” and “welcome” appropriately without prompt
·
Point out when others did not wait or
take turn appropriately
·
Share and eat without prompt
·
Listen
and follow instruction and learn simple new games
The
future goals of the group session would be to improve verbal communication, to
introduce concepts of competition, winning and losing, to improve listening
skills and to develop age appropriate play skills.
