Five of our bloggers reviewed two different social-skills DVDs aimed at children on the autistic spectrum. Skill Building Buddies: Handling Transitions and Change focuses on coping with routine changes and other unexpected disappointments. Kibbles Rockin’ Clubhouse, Volume One: Expressing Yourself teaches greetings, “using your words,” identifying emotions, and saying goodbye. Both DVDs emphasized the need to stay calm. This is reassuring to our reviewers, as one of the challenges for parents of children on the spectrum is finding ways to cope with tantrums, funny noises, and other outlets of frustration that are considered inappropriate in standard social circles.

One blogger notes of her daughter, “She loses her cool most, most often.” Another blogger outlined how her son was asked to leave a preschool and was later expelled from Kindergarten. Preventing these tantrums - especially preventing them from becoming large problems - by training the children in coping with potentially nerve-wracking situations is vital.

Skill-Building Buddies: Handling Transitions and Change from Mazzarella Media focuses on unexpected schedule changes, handling disappointment, and the introduction of an unfamiliar activity. Project consultants for this DVD include psychologists, educational professionals, and speech & language pathologists.

Skill Building Buddies has several live-action scenarios that cartoon hosts then explain. Viewers are taught to “Look” “Listen” and “Stay Calm.” These segments are then broken up by an upbeat song about changes. One blogger noted the irony; “After two live-action segments, there’s a song break. This pattern can be comforting to children, especially when they are children who prefer patterns and dislike change!” And so, a DVD about learning to cope with change in routine has its own predictable pattern. But this will improve the ability for the viewers to feel comfortable with the material.

The live-action segments caused a bit of skepticism. One blogger focused on the adults: The adult actors model the “proper” way to address change to the child. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that “real world” activities will involve a soft-spoken adult who carefully explains why the change needs to occur. And another mentioned the calm cooperation of the kids: “I really didn’t find this to be realistic - a child not on the Spectrum wouldn’t handle this type of disappointment nearly as well as the kids on the show did. I did like how the concept of “Look at the person, Stay calm, and try to work it out” was repeated over and over.”

One blogger notes “Each live-action character’s change is a day-to-day issue, something that isn’t life-shattering, but children can relate to as a source of frustration/anger/sadness.” Another comments that perhaps more major changes should be addressed: “…there are medium-lasting but not permanent changes that can happen…Aunt Bonnie is still the same person she was before she bleached her hair blonde and Cousin Matt isn’t going to have braces forever. But for a kid on the spectrum, these changes in appearance can be traumatic.”

Similarly, one blogger’s daughters didn’t relate to the DVD as much because the majority of scenes took place in a traditional school, whereas her daughters are homeschooled. Her eldest daughter also noted “that the DVD didn’t pay attention to the different ways children responded to the change - some just accepted it, some asked questions… I think she wanted reassurance that it was OK not to like the change, but you needed to cope with it anyhow.”

Our bloggers felt that their kids enjoyed Skill Building Buddies. Although one mother wasn’t sure if her daughter paid attention to the DVD, ““ …then I saw her playing with her little sister one day, and I overheard her saying, ‘…use your ears to listen, and stay calm,’ while she modeled the hand motions. Apparently she understood more than I thought she did.” Each little bit helps: Watching the DVD multiple times will help reinforce a positive coping strategy for dealing with change.

Kibbles Rockin’ Clubhouse from NoteAbilities is a series developed by parents and experts in speech and music therapy. Our Bloggers reviewed Volume One: Expressing Yourself. This DVD covers common greetings, eye-contact, identifying emotions, and appropriate physical contact.

The first section of the DVD involves common greetings. “A scene involving different ways to say “hello!” - it felt juvenile and contrived, and yet, she loved it.” says one mother.

Several bloggers liked the use of a posted schedule to help identify what comes next. This technique was used in both DVDs. “I liked the fact that they use an activity schedule - a kind of chart on the wall. My daughter loves to know what’s going on and thrives on a schedule, and it was gratifying to see that others find that important.”

A mother of a three year old explains, “It’s hard for many autistic kids to “read” emotions on the faces of others, just like it’s hard for them to express their own feelings. [My daughter] loved watching them practice each emotion, laughing at the silly faces, and trying to pick out the right emotion each time. (For the record, she still can’t recognize angry, frustrated or sad faces.)” Another mom also noted that her daughter didn’t quite understand the emotions section yet: “The section on reading body cues and faces was a bit over her head. She really didn’t understand what an angry face was - although she could correctly show me one, she had difficulty picking one out. She’s four, so this might be a section more suited to an older child.” A reviewer with a seven-year old son remarked that the emotions section was easy for him; “He easily got the “quiz” portion correct… he can understand different emotions when quizzed about them (spontaneous real-world application may not be as easy, although he’s gotten better,) but this DVD was still a good reminder of “using your words” and how to deal with anger, frustration, and disappointment.”

It can be difficult to try to explain to a child on the spectrum something that seems so “obvious” to other children or to us. Yet the way the DVD is created and the information provided in an interview with a speech pathologist reassures parents that their child is not alone and that the DVD has taken these quirks into consideration. One blogger notes, “…while some of it seems SO SIMPLISTIC, you have to remind yourself that what comes so easily to you is an enigma to these children. Another concurs, “I really liked the reassurances that a typical ASD kid can’t always reason and sometimes can have an adverse reaction; for example, fit throwing. I know those things in my head, but in my heart, sometimes it’s difficult to remember.” The DVD acknowledges these difficulties, and seeks to help overcome them.

One of our parents explained, “the extras on this DVD are just as valuable as the actual program. The speech therapist and the two music therapists who helped design Kibbles Rockin’ Clubhouse talk about the theory behind the therapy and give parent strategies for incorporating music and speech therapies all day long.” This support for parents is valuable.

Our bloggers felt this DVD was realistic, too. One parent noted, “There were examples of “good” and “bad” ways of dealing with anger, meeting people, and coping with strong emotions. Some DVDs only show the “good” way of dealing with a situation, which doesn’t feel realistic to me or my kids.” She also noted that “[the techniques] helped recently when my oldest daughter got frustrated at the beach. We were able to work through her anger, and get to the root of the trouble rather than just patching up the surface issue.”

This DVD is not just enjoyable for kids on the spectrum. Siblings enjoyed the video too. One blogger explained, “Sometimes I forget that having a sibling on the spectrum deprives them of regular interaction, that their relationship is based on a different sort of understanding and that it occasionally can cause confusion when dealing with other neurotypical kids.” Another noted, ““[My neurotypical 3.5 year old] was interested, too, although after the first several rounds decided that he wasn’t as excited as [my pdd-nos seven year old.]“ But, she acknowledges, “I hope [My neurotypical 3.5 year old] picks up on the bits about anger. Many little kids need to learn about appropriate responses to disappointment, not just those on the spectrum.”

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Congratulations to Jen G, winner of these two DVDs!