Although it often seems like unneccessary extra work (an sometimes it is), preparation can be an absolute life saver for a parent of a child on the spectrum. Recently I used the a preparation cartoon to help a young client, Stan,  plan a trip to Kohl’s.  In this scenario, Stan entered the office with great excitement. He stated, “I found my wallet with $10 in it…Now I can buy the Imaginext Pirate Lego Set (I’ve been wanting for months) at Kohls”. Before meeting with Stan, his mother pulled me aside to let me know that the anticipation (getting the lego set) had been building up over several days and that she was now concerned with the what ifs – What if it costs more than $10? What if it’s no longer being sold in the store?.

We both decided that preparing Stan for these potential outcomes would be best practice. I began by getting a clear idea from Stan of his expectations (walk into the store, get the toy, pay the cashier $10, walk out a happy guy). Then I created three possible outcomes: Walk in and it’s priced higher than $10(you can’t afford it), Walk in an it’s no longer there (big dissapointment), Walk in and its sitting there waiting with a $10 price tag on it (Horray!).

Cartoon time: After identifying the three possible outcomes, Stan and I drew the following simple preparation cartoon to illustrate the scenario (visually representing what the experience might look like and how he might respond), adding thought bubbles to represent feelings and possible reactions. This is what we came up with:

At the end of the session, Stan and his mother reviewed the cartoon together and took a picture for reference later on (to look at when preping before entering the store). She will get back to me on the results.