Many people who are just learning the Turn Autism Approach often are confused by table time, and assume natural environment teaching is better. When table time is successful, teaching can be paired with a natural environment but the table is a critical way to get your child to focus on specific skills, words, and activities. You can do more repetition and therefore have faster learning on critical skills.
Table time removes the distraction and competition of their natural environment to a safe, dedicated space for learning filled with the child’s favorite things. The most important piece of table time is positivity. There is no forcing, crying, or restraining involved in table time using my approach. Table time is slowly paired using high reinforcement, in a sanitized environment meaning that there is not a lot of toys scattered around the room away from the table. Aside from the great progress in skills that can be made at table time, most families report an immense positive change in the relationship and connection with their child.
Ideally, table time should be done at a safe, child size table and chair where the child can sit safely and comfortably on the floor. Depending on the age or ability of the child, this may not be possible. If the child is very young and not walking or sitting in a chair yet, or there are other physical disabilities preventing safe, comfortable sitting in a regular chair, then a highchair or adapted chair is fine.
However, as soon as a child learns to sit in a chair and can go so safely, they should be moved to the traditional table immediately. Using a highchair to strap down or restrain a child from running should absolutely not be done. Table time should start as a focus time for just learning to sit at the table if the child is unable to sit because of escaping. Kelsey shares some great tips for how she used reinforcement to train her son Brentley to sit at the table with very, very short table times and slowly building up.
In the episode, Kelsey and I provide great ideas for getting a child to learn to sit. The key is to not be hard on yourself, not expect to have long 20 minute, engaged and activity filled table times from the start. Table time might be only 1 or 2 minutes when you’re first getting started. It should be a lot of fun with very little to no demands.
Additionally, I recommend using at least 5 good reinforcements that the child is interested in. If they leave, look at where they go and what they get. You can bring whatever they want away from the table, to the table! Once practiced and adapted, a child will love and look forward to sitting at the table.
There can be a few reasons and a few responses to this. First of all, do you have the right reinforcements? Not everyone likes to use edibles as reinforcement but I think small food and sips of drinks are great reinforcements because they are consumable. Toys at some point have to be given back to start the next task, while a small pretzel can be eaten and more work needs to be done to get more.
Bubbles and toys with parts(like a coin pig) are other good items that don’t need to be given back. Are you giving the reinforcement fast enough? It’s not likely you’re going to finish a whole puzzle or get through 20 shoebox cards before a reinforcement is needed, give the reinforcements in smaller more obtainable chunks. As far as responding, make sure you’re staying in control of the reinforcers and not allowing the child easy access or free access to them. And if they get up from the table, watch them, see where they go and use that information to inform and plan your next table time.
There are so many skills that are being worked on just in the functionality of table time, sitting, matching, joint attention, imitation, etc. Listen for the pop out words in their day to day and bring them into the activities, bring in songs they already like. It’s all about making connections, “if I say this, I get this…maybe I could say __”. I discuss a couple instances in podcast episodes with typically developing children, including my son Spencer, in which echoics were fairly “delayed”. The appropriate age for echoic control has a very wide range of normal and even if your child isn’t using echoics yet, keep working with them.
In this episode we cover tons of advice for those who are struggling with table time and if you haven’t yet, join our course and community, read my book, and check out my book resources. These really are the tools to get the results you’re looking for in the quickest, most efficient way, all while receiving the support of a community who is on the same path.
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