Are you under stimulating your child?

From Kate Wilde:Are you under stimulating your child? Ooh what a fun questions to ask yourself, especially if you often ask yourself, "Will my child be able to do this?" or make the statement - "My child will never do that."

Here at the Autism Treatment Center of America we see that children on the Autism spectrum challenge is not the level of their intelligence, nor their ability to understand what is spoken to them, but the ability to respond to what is being asked of them. Given that, if you have a nine year old, are you still asking them the same questions you did when they were five. If you have 12 year old are you still singing nursery rhymes to them. Are you reading the same book to your 15 year old?

Your 9 year old is still a nine year old, they have had nine years of experience, inside, maybe their tastes and mental development has grown as much as their physical appearance. If this is the case then we want to introduce to our children activities and ideas that are closer to their age group and stimulating to their minds.

How about taking in the newspaper and reading them a current article. Drop the nursery rhymes and sing some old rock songs, or a funk tunes, whatever music you like. Find an rare and tropical animal to teach them about, bring in photos and music of a different time or culture to discuss. When thinking about what you could offer to your child, think about something that you enjoy but have never thought to share with them.

Much love to you all
Kate