Managing free time in autism for people with complex needs

Online learning module managing free time in autism for people with complex needs

This module is part of a series of learning modules about managing free time in autism.

Time is a challenging thing for autistic children, youngsters and adults: estimating how long something takes, not knowing when and how to start or end an activity (making an end to gaming can be pretty tough) , coping with vague and confusing time indications (“please wait a second” always takes longer than 1 second), surviving ‘empty’ moments, these are just some of the many difficulties we see in autism.

Especially free time can be a challenge, because it involves two abstract concepts: ‘free’ and ‘time’. 

Using day planners is only one of the many solutions. Day planners only give an answer to the question: “what will happen today?”. Many other questions (such as: do I have to do this or is it an option? how long will this take?) are left unanswered. There are other issues as well, like difficulties ending a preferred (stereotyped) activity or interest, being bored, not being able to choose a free time activity, or always choosing the same activity.

In this module you'll learn how to organize free time for people with an autism diagnosis and high support needs (incl. people with an intellectual disability) and how to develop free time activities for this group.  

The online training module includes:

• a 20 minutes online video where I present strategies to organize free time in autism. You can watch this video when you want and how often you want during one month.
  
  
• a 30 minutes online video where I present strategies to develop and organize free time activities for people with high support needs. You will also see examples of autism friendly free time activities. You can watch this video when you want and how often you want during one month.
  
  Content of this video:
  • Organised and non-organised free time for people with high needs (free time is more than free play)
  • When beginning and/or ending a free time activity is difficult: free time schedules on object level
  • Open ended and close ended free time activities: developing one box tasks and activities
  • Snoezelen: sensory activities
  • Homework: develop some closed one-box activities
    
    
• the handouts of the presentation, describing the strategies
  
  
• a checklist that helps you to create an individualized plan to organize free time of one or more autistic people with complex needs
  

After payment was succesfull, you will receive a confirmation mail with the handouts of the online videos and the checklist.

Shortly after this, you will receive a personal link to the videos.

There is the option to ask for a live feedback session where you present your plan and get individual feedback from me. You can also ask additional questions about managing free time for people with autism and complex needs that reflect your unique context, e.g. how to organize free time in a group home for adults or a school for children with complex SEN. The cost for this personal consult session is 95€ excl. VAT.