Autism Teaching Activities

Autism is the most common type of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). According to a study cited by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, autism affects an estimated 1 in 100 children and impairs their development in communication and social communication skills. Generally, a child will show the symptoms before reaching the age of 3. Special training methods have been developed over the years to help the autistic child improve specific disabilities, thus improving the overall quality of life.

Indoor Activities

• The majority of autistic children suffer from a lack of muscular strength and cognitive delays that result in physical coordination impairment. Target practice activities that involve throwing or rolling a ball aimed at a target help to improve hand, wrist and arm strength as well as hand-eye coordination.

  Manipulation of play dough, clay and other similar materials improves hand strength. Asking the child to copy a pre-made object such as a snake also helps in concentration and environmental interaction. Painting and drawing activities can help the child in developing object interaction. Connect-the-dots drawing exercises can also be useful. Try using spray paints of different colors instead of markers. Other activities that can help improve children's hand muscular strength and physical coordination include ripping up old newspapers to make a collage and using building blocks to construct something.

Outdoor Activities

• Bring the child to a beach where he can draw in the sand to improve his finger strength and coordination. Use toy shovels and various molding tools like differently sized pails and various shaped containers to build sand structures to improve hand muscular strength and object or environmental interaction. Water squirt guns can improve finger strength, social interaction and hand-eye coordination.

  A simple game of tag is good for developing overall body strength, especially the lower body and movement coordination. Playing catch-the-ball with water balloons can be a sensory stimulator as well.

Behavior Therapy

• Children with autism may appear non-responsive to their environment, including people. Different kinds of activities can help them to interact better socially. Role-playing games based on fantastic settings are good for social interaction training. These can slowly progress up to a more realistic setting that simulates possible interaction in later life. It is also a form of speech and communication training.

  Music is a form of exercise you can craft into a social experience and sensory stimulator--for example, imitating a tune or note by humming. Such activities normally follow a more basic form where the child is encouraged to mimic simple animal sounds, which can be incorporated with animal pictures to enhance object-recognition development.

  A useful form of social and interpersonal activity is interaction with other autistic children. Bring your child to an environment where other similar children are playing or visiting. Encourage your child to interact and play.