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We've met many children with autism who love to talk! Often children will have a few favorite topics that they'll happily talk about children will have a few favorite topics that they'll happily talk about all day long. This can be a wonderful doorway into connecting with you child. Finding a way to be genuinely interested in what s/he is talking about will help bring you closer together.

Many children on the spectrum however find it challenging to talk about their own experiences (vs facts and information) and to understand the experiences of others. This is often an area of focus in the Growth through Play System for kids who already have a lot of language.

Why is this important?
Drawing someone’s attention to an object or event currently present is the first step in experience sharing. The next is telling someone about something that happened when they weren’t present. This is crucial for creating social bonds. This skill allows us to be able to maintain close relationships with others without having to be continuously physically present with them.

Think about what you do when you meet up with a friend you haven’t seen for a couple of weeks. You fill them in on your life since you last spoke, share with them experiences you had without them. This helps your friend feel connected to you and a part of your life without having to be with you every day.

As you share your experience with your friend you will select experiences that are relevant to that particular person or those that you would like their perspective on. Sharing experiences with our social group doesn’t just allow us to stay connected but it helps us to manage and process experiences that may be challenging for us. This type of social support is essential for our well-being.

Having a friend to share your thoughts with, bounce ideas off and connect with emotionally has been shown over and over by research to promote mental, emotional and physical health.

Through putting our own experiences into words we help to organize the experience for ourselves. It is often in the retelling that the story begins to make sense to us. We create a personal narrative, the story of who we are. This is an important part of developing a clear sense of self. Sharing autobiographical information is often very challenging for people with autism.

How do we reach this goal?
read more at www.relatetoautism.com