This article was published after revision and review by BCBA, Ph.D. in Special Education, University of Washington, and Zeng Songtian, Director of Health Education in Migu.

During the holiday, at 8: 30 in the morning, autistic children Bao Xiao, Yang Yang and Edward opened their eyes.

Under the command of Lao Zhan, they brushed their teeth, washed their faces and did their homework ... and started their day in an orderly way.

You! Don't! Look! No!

Old Zhan, with gray hair, really has autism with three or three children.

This is inevitably surprising: who is Lao Zhan? I can handle three autistic children at the same time!

Lao Zhan graduated from Tsinghua University and is the father of three autistic children:

After the second child was diagnosed with autism, Lao Zhan began to intervene for five years. Now, Bao Xiao and Yang Yang have gone to school normally, and they are doing well in school. There are no obstacles to bilingual communication between Chinese and English.

Lao Zhan is now engaged in autism public welfare activities. In addition to taking care of his second son and younger son, he will also help train other autistic children for free. Edward is one of them.

Rice and Xiaomi have shared two articles about him. You can click to view:

Tsinghua's father designed 20 family games for three autistic children and collected them decisively!

Tsinghua's father shared the top ten intervention cheats of three autistic sons!

Lao Zhan raised autistic children for several years and summed up some experiences. He believes that the most important core symptom of autism is social disorder, and obeying instructions is an important basis for social interaction.

Eight principles of listening to instructions

Parents can start from the following aspects if they want their children to follow instructions:

0 1

Add instructions to the game

Listening to instruction training may sound a little stiff, but it actually exists in all aspects of life.

These daily exchanges are instructions and responses that come and go.

Training is embodied in the process, not forced or scolded. Training children to listen to instructions can start with games. The game contains interactive processes such as language, body and emotion.

For example, parents put several circles on the ground or assemble mats and mark them with serial numbers. Then give instructions to let the child jump into the circle or mat with the corresponding serial number.

Parents play with their children with a certain purpose, which can play a role in training.

02

The instructions must be simple and clear.

When giving instructions to children, many parents like to repeat themselves, thinking that they can understand only by explaining more.

Like eating. Some parents will say: it's almost time to eat, if you don't eat it, it will get cold, so you won't eat it ... Parents used a long list of words to explain it, but the children looked puzzled.

This can be explained by my friend's case.

A friend's house went to Thailand to play. The next day at the hotel, they found that the faucet was blocked, so they called the front desk. She thought her English was ok, but after explaining it for a long time, the young lady at the front desk still didn't understand.

At this moment, her husband, who was always laughed at by her, grabbed the phone and said, "Water, yesterday, crashed!" Today, tick ~ "

Miss Jie instantly understood and immediately called the maintenance master.

Therefore, in instruction training, we must make instructions clear, simple and clear. For children who have difficulty in language understanding, they can assist body language or demonstration movements for guidance.

03

Training should start with the simplest instructions.

Don't rush for success.

Children's teaching and training must start with the simplest and easiest teaching, step by step.

Many times, our actions in one go are actually composed of many steps, and parents need to split them according to their children's abilities, so as to issue corresponding instructions.

For example, throw pieces of paper into the trash can. This process actually includes: picking up the paper, finding the trash can and throwing the paper in.

If the child can't do it in one go, parents should not be impatient. Give the child the instruction of "picking up paper" first, and then gradually increase the difficulty.

04

Don't give invalid instructions.

Instructions issued must be completed.

The so-called invalid instruction refers to the instruction that children can't execute or can't execute. Try not to give such instructions in training.

However, if such instructions are issued frequently during training, children will feel that it is not important whether TA responds or not. After a long time, they will think your instructions are dispensable.

For example:

Parents gave instructions to "pack up toys", and the children were indifferent. At this time, some parents will think that I will do it faster by myself.

No! If parents take the place of children too many times, your words will be less and less listened to.

The purpose of letting children collect toys is to train TA to act according to instructions, so what we need to do is to find ways to make TA complete it, not to operate it for TA. For example, you can pick up toys with your children or hold TA's hand.

In short, children must participate and complete.

05

After the child completes the instruction,

Rewards should be given as soon as possible.

Children must be rewarded immediately after completing the instructions, which can be language encouragement, food or toys. The more timely the reward is given, the better the training effect will be.

However, before the child completes this instruction, please try not to promise first. For example, if you complete this instruction, you can get candy.

Because this way is a bribe, it is not conducive to the development of children's habits. There are many similar situations, and children may be asked to talk to their parents or trainers before each guidance.

06

Manual training should have enough frequency.

Regardless of the size of the instruction, we must ensure that there is enough instruction training every day. Lao Zhan believes that at least 50 times.

The purpose of instruction training is to make children form the habit of obeying instructions. Only when the frequency is strong enough can children form conditioned reflex and training is meaningful.

07

Training should be persistent.

To see the effect, it takes some time to accumulate. It is impossible to train for only one or two days, just as we have to keep learning a new skill to master it.

Lao Zhan believes that the training of obeying instructions should last at least one year, during which it must be adhered to every day. Only in this way can children form habits.

08

Parents should always reflect during the training process.

During the training process, parents should carefully observe whether TA has any preferences when interacting with children, such as the types and methods of activities.

In this way, when children have conflicts or resistance in training, parents can better cope.

At the same time, in the training, parents need to use their brains more to do the project well and make their children happy.

Expert review

Wen | Dr. Zeng Songtian

Doctor of Special Education, University of Washington, USA

BCBA, an internationally registered behavioral analyst

Migu Health Education Officer

Elaine Schwartz, my mentor at BCBA, said that all activities and situational interventions actually need to be purposeful and planned.

The father has created a lot of opportunities for intervention in family life, and helped to enhance children's good behaviors and habits with appropriate guidance (such as the appropriate instructions mentioned in the article).

We are never short of hard-working parents, and we are short of parents who think hard and summarize the resumption in time.

It may only take five minutes to finish reading this article, but what points have you learned from it that apply to your children? Are there any pits you have been to?

If so, please leave a message below, which is the best thinking.

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