How to deal with ASD as a counselor
Hi everyone!
I am a counselor at several camps and had a kid with ASD come in a few weeks before. She was wonderful, but it was hard to pay attention to a group of 30 kids and make sure she's okay. One time we played an Alice in Wonderland game, where we pretended to be in Wonderland. After the game, the girl had trouble understanding that we weren't actually in Wonderland and we had to talk with her all week long, telling her that the games we played weren't real. That was not so great for the other children because they couldn't play in their fantasy world anymore without the counselors having to say that it was all just a game.
Does anyone know how we could have dealt with this better?
I hope you understand the problem, it's difficult for me to explain 😅
@HotChocolateInTheSummer
Hi!
I think you explained it very well! I saw that you posted in the ASD community so hopefully you'll get much more qualified answers then mine!
My only thoughts were - how much did she know beforehand? If she was struggling with the concept of what was going on or things weren't explained to her very well it makes total sense that she was having difficulty afterwards. 
@romanticthi3f
Hmm let's see, she knew that she was at camp and that we were playing games all day.
I think that was about it. The weird thing about it is that this was the third day. We had played many other games pretending to be somewhere else and someone else and she understood that very well, so I don't understand why she didn't get it with Alice in Wonderland.
I talked to her afterwards and she did tell me that she's a big fan of the movie Alice in Wonderland so maybe that has to do something with it? Maybe she wanted to be in Wonderland and we accidentally triggered that?
@HotChocolateInTheSummer
Hi! It's probably a bit tricky to figure out an answer now - ultimately all you have to go off is that moment. With that said though, were the other games similiar in the way they needed to use the imagination? What might have been different about this one?
I guess what I'm imagining if that if she's a fan of Alice in Wonderland, perhaps it's tricky for her to both see that and experience that role play at the same time. There's a lot going on in the brain to make those connections so maybe that was what was difficult?
If you have other camp counsellors there it might be helpful to chat with them, or even the girls parent?
@romanticthi3f when I think about it, I think the biggest difference from the rest was that there actually was an 'Alice' it was a friend of ours that played the role. We didn't have that in other games, of course we ( counselors ) played roles, but they still knew it was us, while 'Alice' was someone they had never seen before
@HotChocolateInTheSummer
that makes sense! Hopefully this all gives you clarity for next time
@HotChocolateInTheSummer
Ur explanation was good, I understand that the children without autism were unable to play make believe as a result of the little girl with autism not understanding the difference between make believe and when it's over.
It's sad for all of the children, but the little girl just couldn't understand, which isn't abnormal. That many children is already difficult for so few counselors and a child with autism would make it harder.
As far as possible alternatives, maybe talking to her parents to see what she struggles with and what she excels at and enjoys. Assuming it's something that could be supervised along with the others, she may have been content on her own