Face to Face

I'm just passing on a quick idea this week which I don't know whether it may be useful to you but it certainly works here. My son has recently been texting photos of his face to me which is very lovely as I could look at his face all day but he likes to send different facial expressions. 

This is brilliant as my son doesn't express his feelings in a big way and a lot of the time I don't know exactly how he feels. So he will text me a photo of him frowning and I'll just text back to ask him why he is frowning. He will reply with a reason or he maybe just confirming that that is a frowning face and there is nothing wrong. He also likes to send a photo of say......Thomas the Tank Engine with a funny face and then copy it and send me his version. I love this as he gets some of them spot on and they make me laugh.

So maybe this can be used as a useful tool. If your child or someone you know struggles with expressing their feelings then get them to send a photo of a face, emoji's are great for this and I get to see the human version of a lot of emoji's too, they are very amusing. Using visual aids has been a constant resource for my son since his diagnosis from using pictures for speech therapy and then within a visual timetable at school. There are so many ways to use pictures and like my son he specifically likes the use of photos and faces he knows, including his own.

Like I say, this is just something we have been doing for a while now and it does work to express certain feelings. He will never say that he's annoyed about something but he will send a photo of him looking annoyed so then started a conversation about why.

I hope this helps and if you use any similar resources then let me know. What works for you to express feelings and concerns when someone with Autism finds it hard?

Thank you for reading today, please pop back again tomorrow for Pass the Remote Sunday but for now take care.