Even though Bryce has autism, we don’t allow it to be an excuse for Bryce not taking on some childhood chores.

In life, everything is a learning opportunity. Bryce’s chores are:

1.) Help with the dishes.

Learning opportunities:

• Verbal & non-verbal instructional and performance & labeling objects (“Put away the forks please”)
  
• Learning the ‘W’ words (“Which one is the fork?”, “Where do the forks go?”)
  
• Matching & sorting (In Bryce’s words, “not same”, “not same, not same”, “same”)
  
• Adjective & adverb & numeric (“Get more dirty dishes from the table”, “3 more then all finished”)
  
• Completion & transition (“All done, now play Nintendo”, “All finished, now tickles”)
  
• Praise (See our 98 Ways to Say "Very Good" blog)

Now that the dishes are put away and loaded, it’s time to:

2.) Take out the trash!

Learning opportunities:

• Action words & noun (“Throw in there”, “Open the door”, “Watch for cars”, “Look both ways”)
  
• Functional abilities, as our hope Bryce will be self sufficient someday these are activities he must master
  
• Recycling, learning the difference between ‘garbage’ and ‘recyclables’, more sorting
  
• Politeness & manners (“Thank you for holding the door”, “That was very nice helping Bryce”)
  
• Colors & object types (“Plastic goes in black”, “Cardboard/Paper goes in yellow”, “Newspaper goes in blue”)

3) Making his bed & cleaning up his room

Learning opportunities:

• Opportunity to ask for help (When he can’t get it just right or tuck it in, “Help please”)
  
• Communicating & Organization (“Where’s this go?”, “Put this in the closet”)

We don’t allow Bryce to handle the dirty cat liter box for health concerns, but he helps with pouring the new sand, and feeding his cat.

4) Animal Care.

Learning opportunities:

• Animal empathy and care
  
• Learning necessity for food and water (The same sensations he experiences, creates more awareness)
  
• Cleaning up after oneself (“Oh no spill, have to cleanup”)
  
• Fine motor & gross motor (Pouring", stopping at the right time, checking water temperature)
  
• Teamwork (“Bryce hold the dustpan, Daddy will sweep there, then garbage”)

Some other activities that can be helped out with around the house:

• Carrying groceries (Usually bread, deserts, or toilet paper)
• Putting away groceries (Distributing toilet paper rolls to washrooms, putting food in the fridge)
• Putting away his toys
• Collecting the mail
• Scraping the BBQ grill (just kidding)

And others…

We know first hand that every child is unique and faces their own challenges. As we work with Bryce and he grows everyday, we continue to have hope, and continue to challenge him a little more every day!

Daniel