Creating LARP Program for Autism Spectrum Toddlers

by Hawke Robinson — published Jun 20, 2015 05:05 PM, last modified Feb 07, 2023 08:46 AM

Due to excessively strict NDA of the organization, I am very limited in what I can post, but letting those following the RPG Research, beginning working with autism-spectrum toddlers today from a recreation therapy approach, and developing an activity program that is LARP (Live-Action Role-Playing) quest-style for this population group, that we will actually implement in the next few weeks.

Creating LARP Program for Autism Spectrum Toddlers

Creating a TON of documentation for this process. Hopefully I can get permission down the road to discuss in much more detail.

After it is over, hopefully I can release a "sanitized" version of the LARP portion of the detailed documentation of the program to the public (not the organization's program, but the program that I, and 2 others collaborated to create as part of our class project in Recreation Therapy Program Planning).

I am really excited to finally be testing application of some of the hypotheses I've been talking about for years to a real-life group. :-)

Filed under: Population: Autism, Population: Toddlers, Diagnosis: Autism Spectrum ( ASD / PDD ), RPG Research Project Updates, RPG Research Module

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Hawke Robinson says:

Aug 12, 2015 07:51 PM

Hawke Robinson says:
Mar 19, 2014 10:48 AM
Successful adaptive LARP (Live-action Role-playing) cooperative quests for Autism spectrum toddlers from a recreation therapy program plan perspective. Due to overly restrictive NDA, I can't provide much detail, but just wanted to share that the implementation went very well. Hopefully over time, while protecting the privacy of the participants, I can provide more details. The first step of many in goals for developing specific therapeutic interventions using role-playing gaming in various forms (live-action, tabletop, and computer-based) for different population needs.

Hawke Robinson says:

Aug 12, 2015 07:51 PM

Hawke Robinson says:
Mar 19, 2014 10:50 AM
To specify, this was only one session that actually used the cooperative quest we developed, but it was very useful to see what worked and what needs modification.

Hawke Robinson says:

Aug 12, 2015 07:51 PM

Hawke Robinson says:
Jun 15, 2015 12:21 PM
Since the NDA is so strict, it is very difficult to provide specifics, so this unfortunately has to be from a very high-level overview of observed results from a single trial session (monitored by program members, volunteers, and Professor/Director of Therapeutic Recreation Department for Eastern Washington University): Immediately noticed significant reduction of "stereotypical" behaviours (hand-flapping, fixation, distraction, lack of response/interaction to/with others, etc.) during the activities using RPG-based activities compared to those activities without, better positive experiences with cooperative engagement using RPG-based activities than those without, better success rates at completing all tasks cooperatively with RPG approach compared to non-RPG activities (all but one participant completed all tasks successfully, and all maintained attention and focus for full duration of session (15+ minutes rotation) compared to average of only 5 minutes for all the other groups running non-RPG-related activities. Improved efforts at interaction and communication with other participants when using the RPG-related adapted activities than those without.

Victoria Jesswein says:

Nov 17, 2020 12:49 PM

Moved from www2 to w3 by Victoria J. on 20201117