Parents find it a challenge to motivate their autistic child, mainly because of their lack of imagination and communication skills.

Consider, that a person’s motivation is shaped by their their desires and imagination and  past experiences, learning, and history.

Thus motivation and interest arise from past experiences and the desire to learn and face new situations. Challenges which evoke memories of past anxieties or failures will inevitably result in  avoidance reactions and self-preservation responses from an autistic child.

In order to motivate an autistic child you must make a sincere effort to understand the child’s interests or preoccupations/ fascinations, no matter how strange you may find them. You can then use these interests as base material for expanding the child’s sometimes limited area of interest.

You must remember that tasks that trigger anxiety in the autistic child, will only lead to avoidance.
Constantly reassure the child and and do not make the mistake of starting with huge tasks or expectations. Give regular re-enforcements and reward small achievements. Gradually, you can increase the milestone to be attained before positive reinforcement is given.

Faithfully record all anxiety triggers and how they were dealt with. Keep track of the positive reinforcement  that was used each time.

Ensure that everybody included in the child’s care is following the same strategy for the sake of uniformity.
Make up or obtain social skills stories to help explain to the autistic child what they are doing. The stories may be about a school trip or play, Christmas, making cards. To keep the child hooked,the social story must be pictorially rich, most autistic children learn more from visual-aids.

Autism social stories can considerably help an autistic child to make sense of the world around them. It provides them distinct social cues concerning  how to act, helps them realize what one expects from them and enables them to easily grasp why we do certain things.