Group Activities for Kids with Autism

Generally, we include fun activities in children’s daily routine for their physical and mental development. Group activity is one among them which specifically addresses social skills.

Prerequisites:

Before we form a group there are certain points to be considered for the child to participate actively throughout the group session.

• Let the child know in advance that he/she will be involved in a group activity.
• Make the group small, so that the child can better tolerate.
• The members of the group must be familiar to the child.
• The environment must also be familiar with the children group.
• The selection of activities must be quite simple and easy to perform.

Activities:

Let’s see a few activities (but not limited) that can be implemented in a group:

1. Create a scenery

• Form a group which has four children.
• Let’s take four different color papers like blue, green, brown, yellow.
• Ask each child to tear papers into small pieces.
• In a chart draw a simple and clear picture, for example, trees, clouds and sun.
• Now ask the children to stick the torn colored papers over the respective parts of the image.
• For example, blue paper pieces to resemble the sky, green for the tree bushes, brown for tree bark and yellow for the sun.

2. Passing basketball

• Let the children form a circle.
• Make the child pass on the basketball to the other kid nearby.
• Blow a whistle amid passing.
• The child now has to stop the passing activity. 
• Now watch which child is holding the ball and ask that kid to aim and throw the ball into the basket hanged at an appropriate height.

3. Play-doh activity 

• Child 1, picks up a play-doh of his/her own choice and roll it into a medium-sized ball. This ball is then flattened using a rolling pin and passed to child 3.
• Child 2, performs the same task as child 1 and the end product is handed over to child 4.
• Child 3, receives the flatten doh from child 1 and using child-safe knife cuts the doh in the form of strips.
• Child 4, receives the flatten doh from child 2 and using play-doh moulds make shapes (like a circle, triangle and heart).
• Child 5, collects the end products from child 3 and 4 and places over the respective shapes outlined on the chart paper and the strips are placed on the outer line of the chart paper to resemble a border.

4. Bin of grains

• A large bin, where 4-5 children can use at the same time, is filled with different textured grains like rice, wheat, oats, barley, corn, etc. along with small-sized colored balls.
• Now each child is asked to pick a particular color ball from the bin, for example, child 1 – red, child 2 – yellow, child 3 – green, child 4 – blue, child 5 – pink, and collects them in a basket provided to each kid.

5. Obstacle course relay

• Form a lengthy obstacle course using a tunnel, bolster, balance board, balance beam, etc.
• Make each child stand at different levels of the obstacle course.
• Now child 1 picks a ring and moves through a few parts of the obstacle course and passes the ring to child 2 who goes through the other parts of the obstacle course and the same is continued till the end of the obstacle course and the ring is stacked over the ring stand.
• For the next turn, change the position of each kid and the second ring is picked and moved across the obstacle course to stack the ring.
• Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the rings.

These are some of the group activities for kids. Do you perform any other activities with your child? Can you think of any more such activities? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!