Children with autism have a disorder that makes them see, understand and interact with objects in a very peculiar and personal way. This determines very differentiated play and autonomy skills that make learning, communication and socialization difficult.

The hyperattention that autism enjoys is a tool that must be taken into account when establishing intervention objectives and when proposing all activities to work with each particular child. If we follow the child's preferences , motivation will accompany us throughout the process and will mean success in their development, being meaningful for them and maintaining those learnings in the long term. But this seemingly simple aspect is in line with other transversal aspects such as time and rigidity as well as difficulties in social interaction. Children on the spectrum have a restriction in interests that makes the transfer to different skills or activities complex and very delicate. On the other hand, everything that has to do with one-on-one interventions is within the social framework and, therefore, in general, it is a less than ideal framework for children with autism, so we must find ways to approach them in a respectful and empathetic, measuring her times a lot and giving her spaces for action and non-action, balancing social and individual spaces.

Play in autism tends to have characteristics of order, alignment, categorization, letters, numbers, geometric shapes... even drawing and the way I draw maintains an almost established and immovable order that makes the therapist and the intervention have to be very measured and with great reading and observation skills. You have to carefully consider how to break the rituals, how to enter their game in a cordial way to be able to continue it and not break the interaction.

The tool of play is essential for all the skills that come into play in learning, communication and socialization. Aspects such as the turn, the simple fact of accepting that there is another person sharing my space and that they interact or participate punctually, that on a train line (these children are more into trains than cars) there is a car and accepting it can be an objective. achieved in one session.

The work of structuring and de-structuring their patterns as well as training in social skills is the basis for their future as autonomous learning, whether at home with their siblings, at school with their peers or in the park with other children, so we must put our focus and also intervene in different environments so that it generalizes to other people, that is the great success of any intervention.

Cristina Oroz Bajo co-founder of the VICON Method