What can I do if a child rejects my efforts to interact with him and seems more interested in engaging in self-stimulatory behaviors (e.g., patting self or objects)?
Remember that a child needs to see an activity before he or she will want to participate. Concentrate on providing opportunities for the child to touch your hands and objects without the expectation that he or she participates in a certain way. Spend time just making your hands available to the child and see what he or she does. Have fun making conversations with hands by imitating the child s hand movements in a gentle and playful way. It takes time to establish a relationship and to develop an understanding of the child s experience and perspective. Carefully observe the child s actions and identify when you might join in his actions. For example, if a child persists in patting an object, you could gently place your hand beside his hand and imitate his patting action, thus communicating I see what you are doing, let s pat together (mutual tactile attention). Once the child accepts your imitative tactile interaction, try to introduce other activity involving a different hand movement
