Teaching person-to-person (i.e., not through a computer or books) is entirely dependent on a mutually respectful and motivating relationship. A successful teacher-student relationship is based in love, trust, and cooperation.

 

In autism therapy, this is referred to as the Therapeutic Alliance.

 

As I quoted in my book, Challenging the Myths of Autism, Howard Buten wrote about the Therapeutic Alliance in his book, Through the Glass Wall:

 

“Though I would never go as far as to say that once these relationships are established anything is possible, I say that without them very little will be.”    

 

A loving, respectful, empathic, and playful parent can motivate a child and build more of their receptivity – basically, social attention and willingness to cooperate and to learn. In my online ThriveGuide platform for parents, we teach a range of strategies that parents can do in the home to increase the social-attention (joint attention, social observation, imitation, sharing, and more) of your child during your interactions. This is an essential feature of learning!

 

Don’t wait for receptivity to happen by itself. Instead, you can actively promote your child’s receptivity by increasing positive praise, increasing your playfulness, giving your child more control with choices, and by being what we call user-friendly.

 

This week, invest time to build a strong Therapeutic Alliance with your child before you attempt to teach them. Pay close attention to how attentive and responsive your child is during your interactions, and what things you do that tend to increase their receptivity, and what things you do that decrease their receptivity to you. 

 

Become a Receptivity Jedi Master! Study their physical and social cues. Become deeply aligned and in-tune with their receptivity. We call this “being present”.

  

Have a wonderful week!