As a Pediatric Speech Therapist, I know how it feels when working with kids with Autism, Down's syndrome and with Speech and Language delays. They can be so cute in appearance most of the time, but when you start the session, they might be stubborn ,restless or impulsive.
Here are few important facts, you should consider when working with your little angels:
1) Always plan your session but do not stick to it so strictly
We all have moody days as well as happy days. For the kids, it's the same. If the child is not responding to the activities as you target, please be kind to step it down. We can step down an activity in different ways. One way is to give more prompts/ supports. It usually increases child's interaction and gradually he would start to give better responses than they do in the beginning. I will talk about the ways that we can use to step down activities in another post. Among all the methods, prompting is my favorite. On the other way, you have to step up the activities if the child is responding well in your activities.
-Modifying the plan in these ways makes a sense that target is achievable and makes them less nervous.
2) Offer your assistance if they need it
I always ask my kids whether they need a help. I always see when a new task is introduced they struggle a lot to complete it. They would never ask for your help instead they try to avoid the activity or would start to behave badly. I usually tell my kids 'please ask me me if you want a help" / " This can be difficult. but it's ok. I will help you to do this" in advance and I can assure you this works best. For non verbal kids, better you can teach them to use "HELP" PECS card in advance.
3) Always makes learning an interesting experience.
It doesn't want to be exciting toys, high tech gadgets. I had worked in some places where I couldn't find any interesting toy and also It could be same set of toys, you have to use for long period of time. I used different strategies to prevent my kids being bored. One is doing activities on the table and then on the floor alternatively. I usually do 3 activities in a session. So I follow 'Table to floor and back to table" routine.Especially this works better for the kids with Speech and Language delays.
4) Generalization
Both structured activities and unstructured activities should be done during Therapy. I usually do 3/4 sessions with more structured activities and then 4th or 5th session as an unstructured/ natural activity with more fun. I would do water play, sand play, playing with the ball kind of activities and generalize those targets achieved in structured activities.