The concept of waiting is often extremely difficult for some children with autism. Often we try using timers and schedules or even counting to 10 yet it doesn’t appear that the student is quite grasping the concept of waiting. I don’t want you to stop using your timers or schedules but lets add in an incentive for waiting. Here following is a fun game you can play to practice waiting. Notice I said practice. You are probably going to have to do this many times before your child gets it and then you are going to have to generalize it to other situations. Here goes:
Materials:
1. timer either the one that beeps or the visual one
2. treats like popcorn or m&m’s
3. container for treats you can use a see through plastic bag if you want
Procedure:
Get two cups or plastic bags. In the first cup put one piece of popcorn and in the second cup put 10 pieces of popcorn. You can use the candy or the plastic bag for this, the set up is the same one piece in the first bag and 10 pieces in the next bag. Decide if you are going to use a timer or if you are going to count to a specific number. Either way is fine and will depend on your child or if you have a timer. Have your child in a distraction free environment and tell your child he needs to wait a minute, or 10 seconds before he can eat the popcorn. Give your child the cup that has 1 piece in it and set the timer or start counting to 10. If your child eats the popcorn the game is over, no big deal, no tantrum.
If your child is able to wait and not eat the popcorn have them give you the cup and then you give them the other cup that has more popcorn in it and tell them they can eat it. If your child is successful you can start to change the variable such as having them wait longer, changing the environment, making the item they have in front of them more tempting, sometimes giving them more sometimes not giving them more even if they did wait. You can then add in a schedule in which some of the activities might be 10 minutes or 40 minutes long and they have to wait until those activities are done before they get what ever it is that they are waiting for. Now is also a good time to add in first then statements.
If your child was not able to wait or didn’t quite understand what was going on this is ok. You are also going to change the variables so that is becomes easier to wait. One of the things you might try is reducing the wait time. You might also hold the cup with the piece of popcorn in it with them so they can’t eat it. When the timer goes off help them using hand over hand to give you the cup and then you give them the other cup you have prepared.
Another variation which might be easier to teach is to place the piece of candy on the child’s desk. You then sit down with the child and help them sit with their hands in their lap. When the timer goes off you pour the other pieces of candy onto their plate. You practice this 2x and then on the third trial you do not hold the child’s hands. They will have an opportunity to either wait for more candy or eat the one pice you gave them.
If your child is still not understanding you could start with something they do not like. Place the string bean on a paper plate in front of them, when the timer goes off they hand you the plate or string bean and you hand them the treat. Once they master this over several sessions put an item on the plate that is moderately preferred but not something they love. Give the instructions to wait and when the time is up have them exchange the item for something they like.
The key here is if your child can wait you want to expand on this and generalize it. If however they are having trouble with waiting you want to keep making it easier until they are successful. Once the child is successful then you have something to work with and you can expand on this.