10 Fun Adventure Outdoor Activities For Kids With Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder or simply Autism is one such neurodevelopmental disorder that affects at least 1 out of 150 children in Australia.

Reportedly, boys, compared to girls, are more likely (about four times) to be affected by this condition. As a parent or caregiver to an autistic child, it is important that you subject them to activities that stimulate their cognitive self as well as help them get better with their motor skills and socio-developmental outlook.

While majority of children affected by autism tend to put up resistance to changing environments, outdoor activities from time to time can help them open up by working as a therapy.

In this post, we take a look at 10 such fun filled autism adventures suitable for kids in Australia.

Read on!

Cookie Cutter Bird Feeders

An excellent outdoor activity for children struggling with autism, cookie cutter bird feeders can be fun to create, and once done, the kids will have a great time watching birds flock in to grab the snacks.

Catching Bubbles

This particular activity facilitated by a NDIS support worker is focussed on offering sensory recreation for autistic children as well as address their difficulties in keeping up attention. To boost and stimulate their sensory being, one can use scented bubbles and get creative with different colours and sizes.

Painting Outdoors

Art, no matter what, has worked wonders as a recreational therapy for many. For autistic children, it offers a great window to unleash their biggest fears, paint away their dreams, thoughts, aspirations, and for that matter just about anything.

Give them a blank canvas and show them how they can look at different things in nature and paint. This will be a great stimulus to help shape up their creative spirit and calm their troubled senses.

Hopscotch

Draw a hopscotch board using chalk and let children mark their spaces using any object they like from the surroundings. Hopscotch is a wonderful game to stimulate one’s motor as well as social skills as it is usually played in small groups and requires interaction between the players.

Nature Walk

No matter how simple it sounds, nature walk is an excellent group activity for the autistic kind. It will not only help the children engage their senses but also get their body moving. A study conducted to prove the effectiveness of nature walk depicted how spending just five minutes outside can significantly boost one’s mood and do away with depression and feelings of low self esteem.

Hide and Seek

Usually an indoor game, hide and seek can also be played outdoors, and it's probably double the fun that way. Hide and seek can help train an autistic child to follow rules, learn to have patience, and develop seek and reach out skills.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Not the usual one that you play by drawing boxes on paper. This time, you use chalks to draw boxes on the grass and use rather big Xs and Os. Outdoor Tic-Tac-Toe is increasingly being used by speech therapists to help autistic children engage in a mindful activity without trying too hard.

Dodging The Obstacles

This particular activity is geared towards offering autistic children to get busy, fall, jump, get up and everything else in between. From using stairs, slides, and pool noodles, engage the children to dribble balls, crawl over and reach a pre-fixed destination.That way they will stay active all the time, learn to interact better and focus on a single goal successfully.

Watching The Clouds

Often recommended by speech-language pathologists, cloud watching can be an excellent outdoor activity for autistic children. As the children take their turn to view clouds, they are being asked to describe their feelings, which in turn, offers a window to their mind and helps analyse how it processes things.

Following The leader

Lastly, a game that contributes in developing both social and motor skills of an autistic child by asking one to be the leader and perform actions that others will follow. That way every child gets to be the next leader when one fails to follow the rules and has to sit out.

Wrap up

There you go with a handful of outdoor adventure activities geared towards autism respite

to help children hone their cognitive and motor skills, and have fun along the way!

To know more, contact NDIS support services today!