‘Social skills’, turn-taking, and board games

Reframing Autism’s Melanie Heyworth discusses how cooperative board games can be a useful resource in encouraging the skills of ‘turn-taking’ and teamwork, and the benefits such games have afforded her family.

What is play?

Play is synonymous with enjoyment: it implies engagement, fun, immersion. The definition does not — and I say again, emphatically NOT — prescribe what play is. It describes the feeling that we experience when we play (enjoyment); it does not prescribe what activities constitute ‘play’.

Minecraft matters

A few months ago, one my youngest son’s therapists and I were discussing the pre-planning I had done for his NDIS funding. As some of you will know, the NDIS requires you to recount, in detail, the rhythm and flow of your child’s daily life and activities. My little guy is happiest just being in the safe, predictable environment of home, where I home-school him and his two older autistic brothers, and he prefers playing with children much older than his age-peers. Our family narrative reflects this reality.