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The Pensieve
The pensieve was introduced as a fictional device used by the great
wizard, Professor Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series of tales (Rowling,
2000). Basically the pensieve was a large object that Dumbledore poured
his thoughts into when he had too much on his mind. The idea here is
to use a concept from a very popular story to introduce the practice
of taking thoughts, fears or memories and writing them down and putting
them in a container (called a pensieve). This can easily be used at
home, school or in the community. When the person with ASD is having
a difficult time letting go of an obsessive thought or feeling, have
them write it down (or you write it down for them) and put it into the
pensieve. The thoughts and feelings can stay in the pensieve for a while
to give the person with ASD time to relax their mind. It may be that
the thoughts do not need to be addressed later, this would depend on
the situation and the obsessive thought.
An example of how this worked well was the case of Cassie,
a 14-year-old girl with ASD. Cassie often finds herself stuck on ‘what
if’ questions. When she is stuck she can ask 20 –30 ‘what
if’ questions within 30 minutes.
Some examples of Cassie’s ‘what if ‘questions
included:
- What if someone breathes on my food?
- What if there is a hair in my burger but I don’t
know it?
- What if the cook has a cold and sneezed on my food?
- What if student A hits student B, does that mean he
will hit me?
- What if Sam swears at the teacher?
- What if we have a fire drill?
Cassie’s teacher set up a pensieve (a cardboard
box with assorted Harry Potter pictures on it) on her desk and whenever
Cassie began asking the ‘what if’ questions, the teacher
helped her write the questions down on the paper. Sometimes the paper
would include 25 thoughts (or worries). This strategy worked to calm
Cassie where previously she would become increasingly anxious as she
asked each question.
The pensieve can be used to ease perseverations, calm
someone who needs to get a thought out, help alleviate stress for someone
who can not get rid of an angry feeling, and can substitute for aggressive
actions when someone if very angry with another student.
Mood Induction
Mood Induction is one of the easiest yet incredibly powerful
ways to help a person with ASD who is prone to anxiety. The idea is
to have predictable and consistent relaxing activities on a person’s
daily schedule that can help to induce a good mood. The activity is
usually scheduled for the arrival at school, first thing after recess
or when a student gets home from school. Examples might be playing a
game of chess, working on a jigsaw puzzle or drawing. The concept comes
from the idea that routine can serve to relax a person through its predictable
and calming nature. For example, most of us enjoy some sort of routine
when we arrive at work, like having a cup of coffee or checking our
e-mail. If our morning is unusually rushed, and we do not get to engage
in our routine, the day can feel more stressful.
Individuals with ASD often have difficulty with transitions,
particularly major transitions like the bus ride to school and home
or coming in from recess. The stress from the transition can put the
person in a bad mood and people in a bad mood are less tolerant of the
day-to-day pressures. Through Mood Induction, a teacher or a parent
can help reverse the stressful effects of the transition. Consider the
following example.
Mr. Lovett has a morning classroom of adolescent students
with ASD. Each student comes in with all of the stress of getting up
early, riding the bus and enduring the hallway chaos. Prior to using
Mood Induction, Mr. Lovett found that his students were highly emotional
and argumentative during his morning social skills group. The student’s
moods tended to escalate negatively if gone unchecked. The Mood Induction
routine Mr. Lovett chose was simply turning on the TV for 15 minutes
of a morning news show. Each student who came in was able to either
watch the show or work at their desk until all students were there.
The predictability of the morning routine helped to sooth anxious feelings
and put the students in a better mood to begin school. Mr. Lovett would
then spend the first 5 minutes of group talking about the news items
covered on the news show.
Some other mood inducing activities that have worked
include playing solitaire, jumping on a bouncer, doing a daily word
search, and working on the computer. It is important that the predictable
activities remain predictable and not be given or taken away in response
to behavior. For example, if a student has a difficult bus ride, school
programs often write up behavior reports and sometimes students loose
privileges when they arrive at school. This can cause even more stress
and is likely to increase the chances of the student having an overall
bad day. With Mood Induction, the pleasurable routine still happens,
even after the bad bus ride, with the hope that it will calm the frustrated
student and make it easier for him to “turn his day around”.
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