autism

When choosing the doctors that treat your child’s symptoms don’t feel pressured to use any one. You are the management team for your child’s care and it is up to you to hire the right person for the job. Just because your friend tells you that one doctor is the best, does not mean that he is the best for your child. You must feel comfortable to communicate with them and you must observe how they relate to your child. Not all doctors will have the same bed side manner. You are not necessarily looking for a friend but you don’t want someone who you are not comfortable with either. Many of the more “well known” doctors have unbelievable case loads because many parents feels that they are missing out on something if they don’t use them. However, when a practice gets to big you might find that they can’t provide the attention that you want or feel that you need.

Everyone will make at least one mistake in their life time. Nobody is perfect, not our precious little children nor ourselves, contrary to what one may believe. The problem with so many of our children is they are tougher on themselves then most. I think that a lot of it has to do with them not getting those gray areas. It is important for us to guide our children through their despair of having made a mistake and to help them to learn from it while helping them to get over it. Tney must be aware of the consequences of their actions as to help guide them towards future decisions. Social Stories,( stories that provide different examples of the situation you are addressing) can be a tool used for this situation.

This dilemma tends to be more of a problem for boys than girls. There are a lot of girls pants made with elastic waists, even for the older girls. If anyone who sews is reading this, start a business making older boys elastic waist pants that are cool looking. They can have a fake fly or whatever else they do for the younger boys. After the toddler category all the jeans for boys, for some reason, go right to buttons or hard snaps. Some of our kids are delayed in these fine motor skills are not present till they become a little older. One idea for dress pants that worked for us was; I took the pants to a tailor and had them remove the button and replace it with velcro.

For those children who get stuck on a topic it is their care givers job to redirect. While you can take the opportunity to engage in conversation, when it gets to the point where you have beat the subject to death but your kid still wants to talk about their chosen topic for the next three hours it is time to “change the subject”. As with any child, a warning that you will be stopping their preferred activity can be useful to help them transition to a new topic. “In five minutes we will change the subject to…” Most of our kids are very visual so you can use a clock. Timers with alarms do not work well for kids who are sound sensitive, but those sand timers can be useful.

Some of our kids can be harmful to themselves during a tantrum. Especially in the early years of therapy. A tantrum does not necessarily need to be stopped if the child is not injuring themselves or others. I have watched many typical children throw themselves to the floor and kick and scream. If the tantrum is leading towards self injurious behaviors or the possible injury of others you must restrain your child. The basket hold is good, you secure one arm around their knees and arms and the other is used to keep the head still. Is this a pretty sight, no… But as a parent this can be just one of those things that comes along with the territory.

Finding activities that you can enjoy with your child can be quiet challenging to some. When autistic kids are younger and just starting their therapies it can be some what frustrating and upsetting to just sit by and watch them do what they do. Especially because some of the activities that our young ones do can be really out there. Trying to engage them in conversation or activities that you see other kids their age doing can be futile at this point. It usually does get easier with therapy and time. One activity that a lot of kids do enjoy is simple play with shaving cream. You can get white or different colors. It is a good sensory activity and you can join in to the play time. Use a table top or vinyl table cloth and just squirt. Depending where your child is with play skills you might have to show them how to smush it around, make lines, squigglies, hide little toys or what ever floats their boat(actually a little plastic boat would be good). Don’t over due any new activity because they could get bored with it or “addicted”. You can just add it to your choices when picking out something to do.