Managing Autism - A Personal View

Late yesterday afternoon we decided that it was time for a family activity - the kids were quite wound up and needed some focus.

Steve and I looked at the board games and card games, trying to decide what would be best to keep both kids focused and on task when I remembered the bubble mixture that I had bought a number of weeks ago, and had put away in the cupboard.

It is common for people with autism spectrum disorders to have sensory processing difficulties (relating to such things as touch, sight, smell, hearing etc.) as is the case for Jack.  He has a number of difficulties relating to the tactile senses - for example, he has issues with wearing socks and shoes and clothing, and doesn’t like gentle touch (preferring pressure).

With Jack preferring ‘pressured’ touch, the concept of ‘gentle’ has always been difficult to explain to him.  But recently we have used bubble blowing to help us teach the kids (especially Jack) the concept of ‘gentle’ (having to blow gently to make the bubbles, and how the bubbles move gently, and how they touch things gently).

Bubbles have always drawn our kids in - they love the look and the feel of them, how they move and ‘pop’, and how they seem to magically appear and disappear.

So with some sensory play in mind, bubble blowing it would be - I got the mixture out whilst Steve rounded up the kids and herded them outside.

The bubble blowing was a real hit, as it always is, and even though we lost more than half the mixture from being knocked over on the ground (this is pretty normal) the kids had a wonderful time.

At one point in time we had to stop the activity when Jack, curious about the taste and texture on his mouth, tried to eat the bubbles.  He has never done this before, so it came as a bit of a suprise to us, but after we talked about why it’s better not to eat the bubbles, he went back to just catching them again.  (I’ve made a note to try and find a mixture or a recipe for bubbles that is safe if swallowed!)

Activities like this are always good fun - and after yesterday, we reminded ourselves that we should do them more often!

Elissa

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 1:31 am and is filed under Sensory Issues, Personal Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.