This morning’s sensory support is creating another visual aide recipe card for my son. This time it’s his favourite, marmite toast for breakfast. This will be the 4th recipe card I’ve made for him. We are finding them so helpful, I can point to where I am at in the process and tell him what I’m doing and he accepts and understands that I’m making food for him.
I can’t even stress enough how important visual aides are for your autistic child/ren. But even more so, for any child that isn’t NT and does have a harder time understanding or processing spoken language. These are key in reducing frustration for your child and as a knock on effect, for yourself too. Using visual aides gives you more interaction with your child, especially if they are non speaking or use limited mouth words and are often no eye contact. Using these have absolutely increased the amount of fun moments we have together.
I will post the finished visual later on when I have the time. So if you’d like to make one for your child you will have an example to follow. I’ve found some on Pinterest but of course you need to adjust to suit your child’s needs. This formula works for my son because it is broken down step by step, it meets his level of understanding. Your child may need fewer or more steps.
Image description: a grey plate sits on a grey speckled bench top. On the plate is a jar of marmite, a knife and two pieces of toast spread with marmite. Marmite is a traditional New Zealand breakfast toast spread that most kids grow up eating. Made from the left over yeast products of beer brewing, Marmite is quite a salty and savoury spread, but us Kiwi’s love it.