Responsibility

We have taken on 2 guinea pigs to help with our children to learn responsibility. I make it my son's duty to water them. I make him check the water level every day and when it's close to empty, I make him fill it.  Soon, he will do it himself when he sets his routine.

When the bedding and food need to be filled and changed I have him hold the garbage bag when I empty. This makes him feel like he is needed and helping out.

It took him until past the age of 5 to finally dress himself. He will ask all the time if his shirt, pants, shoes and underwear are backwards. When I tell him "no" he tries to put on his clothes. He still needs help from time to time. Part of his autism always wants to know if he is doing things right.

Learning to take on responsibility for ones self is an important part of life. Occupational Therapy seems to be helping with that aspect of learning. Having a son on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) I feel like I need to take on more chores to have him watch and learn from me.

When I put dishes away, I try to encourage him to help out. He usually wants to take out all the saucer lids and spin them or spin the sprayer inside the dishwasher. I want to break him of those autistic routines. It's okay to let him do it for a little bit but then it's time to stop. To let him do things like that and get away with it, that's all he would want to do.

Laundry time I let him put in the dirty clothes in the washer. Letting him take out the dry clothes also teaches him responsibility.  He still throws a tantrum if he doesn't start the dryer.  To avoid a meltdown and get away from the drama I let him start it.  He needs autism services to help brake these routines.

Picking up his toys also. We needed to use a picture schedule with this showing him what he needed to do. A picture schedule was needed for him to dress himself, bath time and bed time. He needed to see how these routines were needed to take on responsibility for himself.

We finally have been able to get Dane to sleep all night in his own bed.  For some reason he has to have the guinea pigs next to his bed.  He also needs a fuzzy warm blanket to swaddle himself in.  I think the blanket reminds him of Grandpa's house because they have the same blanket.

Children are fast learners. When you have a child with special needs it takes more time to teach them what they need to know. Eventually, they will have to do things for themselves. That's just how it is and that's the way it's going to be. I can't be around to wait on my son hand and foot every day because he has autism. He needs to learn to do things for himself.

Paying Attention in Class

My son used to always have a matchbox car with him when he went to school. It helped him focus and pay attention during class. While the teacher was doing her scheduled class, Dane would take out his matchbox car and spin the wheels.

We had a discussion about this at Danes Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting . His teacher said that having the little car was no trouble in class as long as he is paying attention and not playing with it.

To make sure he was paying attention and not spacing off was she would kneel down after she had her classroom talk and ask him what she was talking about. At this age he's learning mostly colors, numbers and letters in early education. He would tell her the letter she was talking about. Even though he wasn't watching her, he was listening intently. Spinning the wheels is his way of focusing on her words.

During nap-time, Dane would lay down and take out his car and spin the wheels while the other children napped. His mind is so over active that it is hard for him to relax and close his eyes.

From matchbox cars to pennies.  Dane needs exactly 3 pennies in his pocket before he goes to school. He doesn't take them out of his pocket like the matchbox car. Every so often he takes his hand and pats his pocket to hear them clink against each other. He still doesn't make much eye contact with his teacher but he is still focusing by patting his pocket. In time I am guessing he will get sick of the pennies and advert to something else.

An autistic child receives information differently then the normal mind. By looking like their not paying attention and listening to you, they are, in a different way. My son doesn't always understand what were saying to him. Showing him pictures and speaking slow has helped him understand better. As his brain grows I think he will be able to process information faster and not always need several explanations to explain something.

"PICTURE SCHEDULE"

For the most part, it has been difficult getting my son to do things independently.  From the moment he got out of bed. Doing tasks throughout the day.  And at last, putting him down for the night.  Something has got to change, he's 5 years old! We possibly can not be doing everything for him for ever.

I know that he knows how to do things like getting dressed, but he doesn't.  Everything we had done with him we have been doing since he was a baby.  I guess I'm saying that we got so used to doing it for him.  I remember earlier that we tried, but, he just didn't.  Did he not want to because he knew we would take over and do it for him? Or does he not understand? This was very frustrating.  How can we make him to get himself dressed, pick up his toys, brush his teeth, etc...

Some of Danes Pictures Schedules

We were referred to a picture schedule from the school.  This is where we put a line of simple pictures down in a row and when he does it, take it off.  I am still amazed how quickly things started to change with him.

This is where visual thinking comes into play.  Even though I would hold up his coat right in front of him, he didn't understand what I wanted him to do.  Something as simple as a picture schedule gave him a visual of a coat.  When he sees that picture, the image is stored in his mind and things start to click.

I don't know where we would be if we didn't start this picture scheduling.  The autistic mind holds on to routines and with picture schedules, it helps them show what is to come next.