Care and support

Motivation

Children with autistic spectrum disorders have impaired social understanding, communication and imagination. This can result in a lack of motivation to perform tasks other than those closely associated with a narrow repertoire of severely restricted interests. For these children, tasks should be meaningful and incorporate personal interests as far as possible.

For some children novel tasks may need to be presented with extra enthusiasm:

• to increase levels of enthusiasm
• to promote participation and motivation.

Any positive effort towards completing the task is rewarded with
praise:

• to underline what the child has achieved
• to make the learning situation a positive experience that the child will want to repeat.

Tangible rewards, such as stickers, are used for those children who are motivated by them. The aim is that eventually the child will choose to perform the task independently.