Using special interests for engagement in children

Published: 26 Mar 2021 Tagged: ASDAsperger’s SyndromeAutismCommunicationEducationSIAspecial interestSpecial Interest Areaspectrumspeech therapystudytherapy

The autistic spectrum is a very dynamic condition which affects people in unique ways and in a wide range of impact over their lives. For most people within the Autism spectrum, special interest areas (SIAs) can be a dominant part of their days, sometimes acting as social barriers when they try to interact to other people. However, SIAs can be used as a very interesting way to encourage children to develop their skills and remain engaged to activities. Special interests can be literally anything, such as:

• Concrete things: trains, lifts, trucks, dinosaurs, insects, furniture, cars, coins, plants etc.
• Abstract things: movies, religion, global warmth, Algebra, accents
• Actions: cleaning, dancing, practising martial arts, debating

For a long time, SIAs have been used as rewards to be given to individuals only when they complete their tasks, which is seen as unproductive by some researchers. According to them, the effect of alienating people with autism from their special interests to reward them only after tasks has the same effect as making a person blind and only allowing the person to see if the task is completed.

Therefore, SIAs must be incorporated to education and therapy activities not as rewards, but as an extra layer of context to engage them. If the child’s special interest if plants, for example, mathematic activities could be contextualised on counting seeds or fruit. Another example is by encouraging a child whose special interest is motorcycles to explain the parts of a motorcycle in a manual for Grammar classes. Among the many ways we can use SIAs to boost a child with autism into performing tasks better, we can mention:

• Identify the child’s Special Interest Area, by talking to parents, teachers, therapists and other allied health professionals
• Encourage conversations about the special interest instead of demonstrating boredom
• Pay attention to non-verbal cues to better identify behaviours and feelings
• Contextualising specific tasks to be more suited to the child’s SIA
• Monitor the evolution of special interests across the time – a child can become more interested in History and museums when reaching adolescence, or start interested in understanding clocks to show that the real interest is the concept of fixing mechanical equipment

When exploring the positive side of special interests in children with autism, it is scientifically proved that they perform a lot better in any task, demonstrating the use of a more complex vocabulary, higher social engagement, good focus on the task, and many other advantages.