Improving the Attention Span of Children with Autism Using Origami

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2008 in the subject Pedagogy - Orthopaedagogy and Special Education, grade: Early Childhood Education Level, course: Master of Arts, Major in Special Education, language: English, abstract: If you have a child with autism or are working with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), this book may be for you. When I was teaching children with autism, I was trying to find a way to get them to focus their attention to the task at hand. I realized that children with ASD prefer to deal with things and can be very creative in their own way. I figured out that maybe they can learn to fold and write, which are important tasks reinforced through occupational therapy. It was during my thesis writing when I came up with the idea of trying out origami or paper-folding as a form of intervention. My goal was to see if origami could significantly improve the attending skills and impulse-control behaviors of children with ASD at the preschool where I worked. To make the terminology shorter, the improvement of attending skills also means the reduction of inattention and the lengthening of attention span. The improvement of impulse control also meant the reduction of impulsivity. I developed an origami instructional manual to make sure that the intervention given to each child is consistent. The manual involves very simple origami instructions and involves some drawing and uses paper in varying sizes, colors and textures to keep the child interested. The results showed that the use of origami as an intervention significantly improved the attending skills of the participating children with ASD. As for the improvement of impulse control, impulsivity is affected by many variables and the results showed no significant change. Although my participants showed some improvement, it was not significant enough. I hope you can try to replicate this instructional manual to your child or students and see if this can help you. I made it my goal to have this r

Luke Santamaria is a university lecturer in Kyoto City, Japan. He holds a Master of Arts degree, Major in Special Education from the University of the Philippines and a Master's Degree in Educational Studies from Kyoto University. Luke received his Bachelor's Degree, Major in Secondary Education and Bachelor of Arts Degree, Major in Psychology from De La Salle University, Philippines. Luke has been working as an educator since 2004 and has taught students from the preschool level up to the university level. As a special education teacher, Luke specializes in teaching children with Autism and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).