three fingers. Apparently, there
are three of these hotels in the
city. He needs more information. I don’t have it. He points
this way, that. I stare at my
feet. Eventually, we both shrug,
I hop into the taxi, and he just
drives around to each of the
same-name hotels until we find
the right one. I’m relieved.
I go to my room, crash out. I
breathe heavy, sleep and sleep,
let the discomfort of struggling
with direction fade away.
Children with poor spatial awareness tend to have
visual perceptual difficulties as well. They may appear
clumsy and may bump into things frequently. They often stand too close or too far away from the people or
objects with which they are interacting. They may find
it hard to tell their left from right, and they can confuse
positional language, i.e., over, under, in or out, left or
right. Occupational therapists point out that while this
may always be a challenging area, parents can help
their children develop better directional senses by just
“playing” with their kids. Below are some fun ideas.
Play Simon Says but throw in directional
terms such as “Simon says turn to your
right” or “Simon says tap the person to
your left on the shoulder.”
Play Hot or Cold, where the parent hides an object and
the child has to follow verbal instructions to find it. If
the child makes a mistake and turns the wrong way,
the parent can simply say, “Oh no, you are getting cold.
Turn right, and you will be getting warmer.”
Play Follow the Leader, but the Leader
has to state which direction he is going.
Work on judging distance by
throwing beanbags into a bucket.
Shoot marbles to help the child to develop a judgement of space.
M. Kelter is a regular
contributor for ZOOM
Autism and writes about
life on the autism spectrum at his blog, Invisible Strings. You
can visit his Twitter and Facebook page,
where positive discussions with an active
parent community are ongoing. He has
been a guest contributor for Kate Winslet’s Golden Hat Foundation blog and
The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism.
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ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses
Do jigsaw puzzles together and arrange
2D and 3D shapes.
Build models together or construct Lego
creations usin