I is for Interaction: Building Skills

Interaction is Important for living species.  We are created with a need to interact for our survival. One person is never truly self sufficient and even if they come close, it is rarely if ever the optimal path. We thrive when we connect with others.  

One of the major impacts of Covid19 is the effect it has on the early learning of babies and small children whose primary way of learning about the world is through their interactions with it which are reduced by the requirements for isolation.

Children interact first and foremost with people from day one and learn. A baby learns how to communicate with cries to express their needs. They learn about human touch.  They then quickly begin to learn by watching others. They learn to eat, to wave, to put things together or take them apart, to make faces and sounds. People sing them songs and read stories and introduce little ones to ideas of what is right and wrong.  

Children secondarily learn from things in their environment as they bang blocks together, shake instruments and throw balls. They learn about sounds, weights, textures, purposes and so forth.  Children with autism tend to be more intrigued by objects than by people which is one of the early signs.  Reversing the order of importance has social skills ramifications that have long term implications that pose challenges for these children.  We need to work to build up their social skills and interest in people to optimize their potential.

However little ones in a pandemic society are limited in the variety of people and places and objects they can be exposed to which limits their learning experiences.  Furthermore, the primary method of adding in knowledge is through technology with screen time being their primary teacher. It is more robotic and less experiential and will have lasting implications on how children learn, some good, some bad.

Nobody knows the full extent of living in a pandemic society and we also have limited understanding of the impact of autistic traits that reduce social interactions for a child with ASD but we all do know that we are meant to interact with people.  As a result I highly recommend that as we move into the new year that we make a distinct plan to reach out to others and increase our human interactions in 2022.  

When it comes to the little ones in your life, make it a goal to expose them to more interactions with people and to provide more interactive experiences with the world around them.  Help maximize their growth and build their skills through a variety of interactions and have fun in the process.

On January 1st I will give a list of 22 (or 20+22) ideas that start with the letter I to inspire you with ways to interact but you can start thinking of your own list now!  Be sure to add the ones I forgot to the list for others to learn from too.