Welcome to our series, "Playful Possibilities: Everyday Items, Endless Fun," where we explore creative ways to use everyday household items to foster learning and interaction for young autistic children. In this article, we'll focus on laundry baskets and how they can be used to create fun, interactive play experiences. By incorporating Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) strategies, we'll show you how to enhance attention, boost motivation, and support social engagement using this simple household item.
Creative Play with Common Items
Laundry baskets are versatile and can be used in numerous ways to create engaging play experiences that stimulate a child's imagination and developmental skills. They provide a canvas for creativity, transforming into boats, cars, or cozy nooks that invite exploration and discovery. Here are a few ideas:
1. Laundry Basket Boat
Description: Turn the laundry basket into a boat by placing it on a blue blanket to represent water. Provide the child with paddles (such as wooden spoons or sticks) to row their boat. Encourage them to imagine they are sailing to different destinations like a pirate island, a tropical beach, or a fishing adventure.
Learning Opportunities: use the boat for promoting a shared focus of attention by pointing out interesting sights in the ‘water’ as you push the boat around the room (joint attention), encouraging the child to direct which way to steer the boat (vocalize or point to different locations), or share glances while avoiding various objects that are in the water (shared look). For example, you could place sharks, fish, monsters, etc., on the floor and share the excitement with the child as the boat gets closer to them.
NDBI Strategies: Offer the child choices. You can ask them if they want the boat to go slow or fast, you can ask them which object in the ‘water’ they would like the boat to move closer to, or you can ask them if they want the ride to be smooth or bumpy (gently shake the laundry basket boat as you push them through the waves). Adjust your animation. As you are pushing the boat around the room, you can make excited sounds, scared gasps, or make boat motor sounds. Pay attention to what the child likes, as evident by their smiles, laughter, and shared exchanges with you.
2. Laundry Basket Car
Description: Transform the basket into a car by attaching paper plates as steering wheels and setting up a driving course with pillows and obstacles. Children can take turns driving and navigating their car through the course (as you push them around).
Learning Opportunities: Use the car as a vehicle for communication, as the child directs you where to push them, how fast to push them, when to crash, etc (requesting). Pretend that the car’s engine has stopped (make silly engine sputtering sounds) which will provide an opportunity for the child to request help to fix it. Model different gestures for the child while driving the car (e.g., honk the horn, turn the steering wheel, signal to turn, go, or stop, etc.) to promote shared attention (imitation). If they have preferred objects or toys, add those into the routine. Drive the car around the house to collect these items and talk about them as you put them inside the car. If you have toy food, you can drive the car to the ‘grocery store’ and add the food items into the car, naming them as you pick them up (labeling).
NDBI Strategies: Add objects to the car and take turns with the child pushing them around the room (turn taking). You can copy the child’s driving, and then take a turn modeling a different way to drive the car, which will provide the child with an opportunity to copy your actions. Add different items into the car (positive addition) that you can collect while driving around (e.g., pretend food, toys, animals, clothes, etc). As you push the basket around, pretend that you have run out of gas or the engine stopped (interrupting routines), which will provide the child with an opportunity to request help or to share a look with you to signal for you to keep moving.
3. Laundry Basket Peek-a-boo
Description: The child can hide under the laundry basket for a fun and engaging game of peek-a-boo, then the caregiver can take a turn!
Learning Opportunities: this routine is great for sharing, taking turns, and watching each others’ faces as you find the other person. You can hold the basket up high so that the child has an opportunity to reach for it (or point), so that you can lower it back down over them to hide them. You can place the basket on top of your head and hold it there so that the child has an opportunity to request (help, move, go) for you to release it so they can find you. Or each time that the laundry basket is lifted up, you can make silly facial expressions back and forth with the child. See if they copy you, and copy their facial movements for added entertainment (imitate facial expressions).
NDBI Strategy: Instead of covering your head with the basket, keep the laundry basket upright so that it sits on top of your head (silly situation), which will provide an opportunity for shared looks or smiles with the child. As you lift and lower the laundry basket, during your turn pretend that it’s stuck on your head and that you can’t lift it up without the child’s help (playful interruption). This will provide the child with an opportunity to approach you, offer assistance or communicate with you to lift the basket back up again so that the game can continue.
Enhancing Attention - adding some ‘waves’ to the boat ride will surely get the child’s attention. As you are pushing them around, you can start to rock the basket back and forth while saying, “Oh, no! Big waves!” Some children find it hilarious to fall out of the boat. You can tilt the laundry basket to one side so that the child gently falls out onto the carpet into the ‘water’. If the child enjoys watching things go up and over their head, you can lift the laundry basket up high during the peek-a-boo game. You can then slowly bring it down to hide them again. You can also add silly sounds (positive addition) as you lift the basket up from your head or lower it back down to help maintain the child’s attention.
Boosting Motivation - you can push the boat into a wall or couch so that you are ‘stuck’ (playful obstruction). This provides an opportunity for the child to communicate with you to ‘go’ ‘move’ ‘turn’ or gesture to go another direction to continue the boat ride. During the laundry basket car routine, you can push the child around in an unpredictable way while making silly sounds as you gently crash into items (silly situations). Add silly or shocked facial expressions, use exclamatory sounds (uh oh, oh), phrases (Crash! Oops! Not again!), or gestures (put your hands to your head in disbelief, shake your head oh no). During the peek-a-boo routine, increase motivation by incorporating fun surprises and letting the child control parts of the game, such as making noises or choosing when to “peek” out.
Supporting Social Engagement - place various objects or toys in the water that you can rescue (positive addition). The child can use their hands or a net to scoop them out of the water and put them inside the basket. You can position some objects or toys where the child can’t reach them (in sight but out of reach), which will provide the child with an opportunity to point to them, for you to grab them to hand to the child, to continue the rescue mission. You can sing the Row Your Boat song to help keep the child’s attention and motivation on you, while also supporting social engagement. Add different new (novel) verses to the song to keep it interesting (e.g., 1. row your boat gently to the shore, if you see a lion, don’t forget to roar; 2. Row your boat gently down the river, if you see a polar bear, don’t forget to shiver; 3. Row your boat gently down the stream, if you see a crocodile, don’t forget to scream).
Conclusion
These creative play ideas not only enhance imaginative play but also provide valuable opportunities for developing social skills, communication, and problem-solving abilities. The adaptability of laundry baskets makes them an excellent resource for creating dynamic and interactive environments that captivate a child's interest and support their developmental milestones. Through inventive use and shared play, laundry baskets become more than just household items—they become a gateway to learning and fun, enriching a child's playtime and developmental journey. Stay tuned for more ideas on how to use everyday items to foster learning and interaction in our "Playful Possibilities" series.
Check out this handout for more Playful Possibilities!
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