A bit about myself, my family and an outside activity.

I felt it time to introduce myself and my family. My name is Kele and I am a full-time mom as well as a grad school student working for a MA in Family and Disability Studies. My husband and I have two sons, one that is on the autism spectrum, P- age 5 and one that is not, Z-age 3. Our home is run in a controlled chaos sort of way. We adapt to meet our sons where they are either developmentally or emotionally. I am always in search of projects/activities that I can do with both children and find that many things can be tweaked to suit a child's needs. 

I myself have been focused on getting back outside and trying to create fun directed activities to keep my kiddos somewhat out of the muck along the sidewalks. (I can only handle so much dirty) I typically start an idea plan by looking at what my goal is, I think of what my children are currently interested in (right now exploring and being superheroes)  and what skill we may need to work on or develop (listening and patience)…so things begin to take shape from here. 

Goal: Kids outside engaged in activity that keeps us clean.

Activity: A “Search for Spring” walk that will include a sound hunt as well as a visual collection of spring signs.

Sound hunting is something that I am a bit focused on right now. Often P has a hard time separating sounds out of the din. His hearing is superb and often is the cause for over stimulation or a fear trigger. So I will give him things to listen for and then let me know when he hears it. For the walk I plan on drawing out pictures of the sounds for him to check off as he hears them. My theory is that the activity will allow him to create a filter to listen through, and the physical act of marking off what he hears will be a great motivator to him…he loves a list. For his younger brother I will be doing a similar hunt but for visual signs of spring and then he can use his camera to take a picture of what he finds. Z loves snapping pictures so a directed list of things he should take pictures will suit him perfectly.

I remember a time when we could not take P out for walks without fear of him bolting or melting down due to the sensory overload. We have built up slowly to being able to get outside and have P stay present and aware with us. This is the reason I designed our search for spring walk, as yet another way to get outside in a controlled manner.

Thanks!