Activities for Children with Autism

Oliver Larholt shares his favourite activities for parents and neurodiverse children.

Oliver Larholt explores the ways parents and children can enjoy quality time through play and learning.

As parents, it’s our responsibility to help our children find positive and empowering ways to play. It can be hard to know how to play with your neurodiverse child.

This can be because they engage in repetitive behaviours or resist disruption. Or maybe they struggle to focus or effectively communicate.

However, play is a crucial part of all childhoods, and even more essential for autistic children who may struggle with developmental barriers. Play helps children develop new patterns, build attention and practice communication skills.

Inclusive Teach have a wonderfully comprehensive guide to the benefits of play here.

Oliver Larholt’s Guide to Choosing the Right Activities for Your Child

Every child learns in different ways, and autistic kids are no different. Choose play activities based on your child’s needs and preferences.

Make sure to:

Follow their interests
Do they love dinosaurs? Muppets? Music?
Engage what they already love to boost motivation and enjoyment.
Use visual supports
Visual aids make instructions clearer and tasks easier to follow.
Build on their strengths
Grow their confidence by recognising where they thrive and encouraging them to keep practicing and learning.
Keep instructions clear and concise
Keep steps small to prevent overwhelm and foster independence.

Things to consider when picking activities for your autistic child

Make sure to choose your activities, including the materials, timescales, and rules, based on your child’s specific needs.

Children with autism may have any combination of the following traits:

Heightened sensory sensitivity
Difficulty
Maintaining focus
Repetitive behaviours
Dislike of interruptions or change to routine
Strong interest in a limited range of topics
Difficulty sharing or taking turns
Struggles to verbally communicate
Difficulty with social cues
Trouble remembering names or sustaining conversations

You may find your child prefers playing with siblings. Read more about supporting the siblings of children with ASD here.

Oliver Larholt’s favourite activities

Here are my top activities for kids with ASD, collected over fifteen years of playing with my son.

Tactile fun

Sorting Activities
Sorting teaches kids observational, categorizing and organizational skills. It can also double as a craft project by making and sticking on labels.
Give younger children toys and blocks to sort by colour. Older kids can sort items by name or category.
Texture Play and sensory bins
Textures are great for both soothing and teaching.
You could try:
- Shaving cream and water beads
- Flour and oats
- Wet and dry sand
- Fabrics or sponges

You can either lay these textures out on a flat surface- flour and foam are both great for mark making! Or you can fill any plastic bin, tub or bowl with different textures, objects and shapes to make an exploratory sensory bin.

Get active or go outside

Set up a balancing Beam
You can make a balancing beam using planks of wood outside, or put a few lines of tape on the floor if you’re inside.
Helping your child to stay on the line/beam is a fun way to develop balance and coordination.
Garden Together
Spending time outside in the garden combines fresh air, tactile play, and the sense of achievement that comes with watching something grow.
You can plant seeds together, pull weeds, or care for existing plants for a relaxing activity that also teach about seasons, cycles, and responsibility.
Sensory Walks
Go for a walk in the garden, park, or even through your house, paying attention to the various textures, colours, and smells around you.
You can add in stories or sounds to build postive associations with locations, objects, or landmarks- making excercise also a game.
Yoga and dance
Yoga and dancing are great ways to encourage self- expression, boost mood, and build coordination skills.
Put on different types of music and ask you child how the rhythm make them want to move, or what images the sounds make them think of.

Arts and crafts

Shadow Puppet Theatre
You can make your own shadow puppets out of card or thick paper. You can take time to decorate them together too, even though they’re “shadow” puppets.
Ask you child to retell a favourite story, memory, or activity with their puppet. A wonderful activity for wrapping up the day or rainy afternoons.
Shredded Paper Crafts
Tearing paper into different shapes can be a stimulating and satisfying sensory experience for kids with ASD.
Make sure there’s a variety of colours, patterns and textures.
Then help them glue the shreds they’ve made onto card to create unique gifts and artworks.
Give your child a variety of paper products like:
- Tissue paper
- Magazine or newspapers
- Drawing paper

Creature comforts

Set up a reading nook
Create a comfort corner for you child by designating a special corner with picture books and objects that soothe and inspire.
Add toys that match the stories in the nook to make book reading a sensory experience too.
Cooking together
Help your child develop important life skills by making simple meals and treats together.
Mixing ingredients is a wonderful tactile experience, they feel a sense of pride and confidence when they successfully follow instructions to make something delicious. Sharing what you’ve made with others is also an opportunity to practice social skills.
Calm Down Bottles
You can me a calm down bottle by taking any plastic beverage container and filling it with glitter, glue and warm water.
When you shake the bottle, the glitter swirls and settles in mesmerising patterns. You can add slightly larger items like confetti or foil stars too.

The Classics

Building blocks
Playing with Legos and other building blocks has been shown to help autistic children improve communication and social skills.
Building blocks are a tactile activity that also builds confidence and problem solving skills.
Hide and Seek
Hide and seek supports gross motor skills with minimal social interaction.
Make sure you:
- Play in a safe indoor area
- Clearly explain the rules (preferably with visual aids)
- Give your child a book or toy to play with while they hid

More resources on play with neurodiverse children can be found here:

The Importance of Play for Autistic Children – Autism Awareness

5 Structured Play Ideas That Build Skills for Kids with Autism – Transformative Autism Care for Children

Autism and Play: Encouraging Interaction and Learning – Hope Center for Autism

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Activities for Children with Autism

Oliver Larholt shares his favourite activities for parents and neurodiverse children.

Applied Behavioural Analysis

Oliver Larholt discusses ABA, a therapy based on the science of learning and behaviour.

Oliver Larholt shares grants for children with ASD

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Oliver Larholt shares additional support grant options for neurodiverse children.

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Applied Behavioural Analysis

Oliver Larholt discusses ABA, a therapy based on the science of learning and behaviour.

Oliver Larholt first became aware of Applied Behavioural Analysis after his son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

After our son’s autism spectrum diagnosis, we worried he would never be able to live a life of dignity. But discovering Applied Behaviour Analysis was a sea change in our lives.

Konnie was ready to start primary school within two years of intensive, personalised therapy; something we’d never though possible.

By the age of 5, he was only a year behind his peers developmentally.

Now a young man, he is preparing to live an independent life.

We have been so moved by the transformational quality of applied behavioural therapy that Konnie’s mother even started a charity- The Giving Tree Foundation- to help other families access this lifechanging support.

What is Applied Behaviour Analysis?

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a therapy based on the science of learning and behaviour. It is sometimes referred to as Applied Behavioural Therapy. It has been used to help children with autism spectrum disorder since the 1960s.

ABA practitioners gather behavioural data to understand:

How behaviour works
How environment affects behaviour
How learning happens

They then use that understanding to help build an individualised program to help children:

Increase language, communication and social skills
Improve attention, focus and memory
Decrease problematic behaviours

How can Applied Behaviour Analysis help my child?

Behaviour analysis supports autistic children by:

Offering intensive, personalised 1:1 teaching
Working with mainstream schools and workplaces to develop group strategies
Supporting teachers to develop specific skills
Training staff in care settings to identify and minimise triggers

Every child responds differently to different stimuli. That means no two therapy programs will be the same.

However, in general practitioners will try to help children through a variety of:

Communication strategies
Visual support strategies
Verbal behaviour approaches

What are the key strategies of Applied Behavioural Analysis?

Behaviour analysis can be adapted for each individual child, incorporating new techniques based on how they meet specific needs and objectives.

The most common strategies of ABA are:

Discrete trial training
Naturalistic teaching approaches
Pivotal response treatment

Discrete Trial Training

Discrete trial training (DTT) helps break a skill down and learn it step-by-step. Children receive positive reinforcement when they achieve the desired outcome, but are not rewarded when they do not.

The three steps of this process are:

The antecedent This is the trigger for a behaviour. It can be:
- A verbal command or request
- A physical object or desire
- An environmental stimulant like light, sound or other sensations
- A thought or feeling

The behaviour This is how the person responds to the antecedent trigger. It may be:
- An action
- A verbal response
- A lack of response

The conclusion This is what comes after the behaviour. It could be:
- Positive reinforcement of the desired behaviour
- No reaction for incorrect/inappropriate behaviours

Naturalistic teaching approaches

Naturalistic teaching weaves learning opportunities into everyday life. It usually takes place in the child’s natural environment, like their home, classroom, or local playground.

Naturalistic teaching is based on four core principles:

Child-Led Learning
Child-led learning is when the therapist lets the child’s interests and motivations guide the process.
Focussing on what naturally motivates the child helps therapists introduce new concepts and skills in a non-threatening way.
It also gives children more ways to engage with things they enjoy- building a long-term, positive association with learning.

Reinforcement Reinforcement is a cornerstone of ABA. In naturalistic teaching, positive reinforcement is tied directly to an activity.
The benefits of this approach include:
- Making the reinforcement feel natural
- Encouring positives behaviours
- Helping connect action to outcomes
- Strengthening the learning process

Generalization
Generalisation encourages children to apply the skills they learn across settings and situations in their daily life.
This is crucial for the long-term success of the therapy as children are more likely to apply what they learn in real-world situations.

Embedded Learning Opportunities
Learning becomes part of everyday routines and activities, helping children to regularly practice new skills until they become second nature.
This helps to:
- Normalise learning
- Make activities and behaviours a normal part of the day
- Increase confidence and retention

Pivotal response treatment

Pivotal Response Training seeks to target key areas that significantly impact developmental processes.

The key skills are:

Motivation: Using the child’s interests to increase their desire to learn and perform social skills.
Initiation: Encouraging the child to initiate social interactions by asking questions or getting someone else’s attention.
Multiple cues: Training a child to respond to multiple cues rather than specific details.
Self-management: Teaching the child to evaluate their feelings and behaviours themselves.

Drawbacks of ABA Therapy

Although my family has had great success with ABA, there are reservations about the treatment in the wider community.

Is ABA too hard on kids?

Some people believe ABA therapy is tough on the children, needlessly repetetive, and not necessarily resulting in transferable skills.

But these days, the DTT format, where the child sits at a table, is less common. Play-based naturalistic teaching is now the norm.

Does ABA push a neurotypical norm?

Another worry is that ABA prioritises the ease and comfort of neurotypical lives and attempts to erase the diverse needs, experiences and perspectives of autistic people.

However advocates reject the idea that they aim to “remove” childrens’ autism. Rather, we are trying to help children develop the skills they need to live independent lives.

Does ABA focus more on negative behaviours than positive skills?

Some critics worry that ABA discourages behaviours without acknowledging their emotional root, teaching children to feel ashamed of themselves and ignore or deny their feelings.

The concern is that focussing on behaviour stops children from learning language and communication skills to better help them express themselves.

In my experience, ABA has allowed my son to have a fuller life- not a lesser one. He can now communicate those diverse needs and experiences in a way he couldn’t possibly before. I have witnessed first hand how behavioural therapy increased his confidence and is opening up a future of dignity and independence for him.

Our family couldn’t be more grateful.

For help accessing ABA, you can reach out to some of the organisations here:

Grants to support children with ASD – Oliver Larholt

UK charities for Autism Spectrum Disorder – Oliver Larholt

Learn more with these resources:

https://uk-sba.org/this-is-aba/
https://www.appliedbehavioranalysisprograms.com/faq/what-is-naturalistic-teaching/
https://linksaba.com/discrete-trial-training-dtt-step-by-step-examples/