A mother with her two children teaching them from different books.

How Do I Motivate My Child With Autism to Learn?

Learning how to motivate children with autism can be difficult for parents. They might be wondering how they can help their children learn basic social skills or more advanced topics in school. We provide autism home support services via the videos available from Blue Parachute. Each of our videos was created by our team of Licensed and Certified Behavior Therapists. Knowing this, you can feel confident that the advice provided with our video library has been adequately researched and created by professionals who care about those on the spectrum.

If you are looking for some assistance and tips on motivating kids to learn, continue reading below for more. 

Motivating Students With Autism 

When motivating students on the autism spectrum, you will need to keep some things in mind. For one, all children respond well to positive reinforcement. Be sure to praise a child every time he or she completes a task or gives the right answer. Positive reinforcement can also come in the form of giving them another try and not being too hard on them if they do or say something wrong. This helps them not to be discouraged out of fear of making a mistake or disappointing others.

Positive reinforcement is an integral part of creating a reward system for autism that allows children to associate positive feelings with learning instead of dreading it due to constant rejection and negative reinforcement.   

Finding Intrinsic Motivation for Children With Autism 

While external motivation, like positive reinforcement, is certainly something that should be used when motivating children, it should only serve as a short-term solution. Though there are many different types of learning skills, the most effective way to motivate children with autism is to inspire an intrinsic motivation – one that comes from their deep-seated desire to learn and improve rather than to please someone else.

Some good ways to inspire this is by encouraging them to choose their own activity every once in a while so that they feel motivated to continue learning and crafting that skill. Another way you can inspire intrinsic motivation for a child on the spectrum is to discover what motivates them and later use that throughout their lessons.   

How Do I Know What Motivates My Child? 

Every child is different. Effectively learning how to motivate children with autism would be impossible without discovering what specifically motivates them. Learning what motivates your child can be difficult. However, one of the most effective ways to discover this is by encouraging communication with your child. This will allow you to practice active listening and ask probing questions so that you can further discover what motivates your child. Ways to encourage communication include leaving space for your child to talk. This means that when they feel stuck or have problems finishing their sentences, you should not presume what they want to say. Instead, let them finish and study their body language attentively.  

More About Blue Parachute 

We are focused on providing parents, teachers, or anyone who wants to help the autism community with resources for teaching children on the spectrum. That is why the videos available from Blue Parachute act as a form of autism home support services. This is because they are based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy and they have all been created by our Licensed and Certified Behavior Therapists. Additionally, we offer our videos at subscription pricing to ensure that they are affordable to anyone who would benefit from them.

Click here and sign up now to take full advantage of our library of high-quality, evidence-based resources to help individuals with ASD be set up for success and reach their full potential. Blue Parachute. Easy. Affordable. Life-Changing.

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