Next Stop, MELTDOWN!

Dane cupping his ears

Parenting a child on the autism spectrum you have to spot the signs and know your child.  My son at an early age would scream every time the toilet flushed.  He would also cup his palms over his ears when certain noises hit him.  To me these noises are not loud, but to him it hurts.  Still to this day he is paranoid to flush and prepares to plug his ears.  After the flush in a public bathroom, he gets terrified or he will say, "Not too bad." if the flush is like a normal household toilet.

When we go to Wal-Mart, the florescent lights bother his vision.  We haven't done this yet but I guess wearing lightly tinted sun glasses would help him focus better.  It has to be hard for the little guy with all the loud noise from people shopping, the smell, the lights for sure and to get what we need and get out.  To a point things will seem okay, but after a while he gets these little tremors.  He will also bang his head on me meaning he is going into over-load.

To be prepared and prevent meltdown it has helped with us to give him deep pressure massages.  Also, give him a firm hug to send signals to his brain to settle his senses.  When I am at home watching TV or reading a book, he comes to me and bangs his head on me as mentioned before.  This is usually when I put him on my lap and push down on his joints to settle him down.  I gently squeeze his ankles, bend his legs and push in on his knees.  I will also put pressure on his shoulders by pushing down and then squeeze.  Not a tight squeeze, just a tight hug and that usually helps.

These are just a couple techniques that have help with us.  No parent wants a full blown meltdown, especially in public.