re: getting ready for school & bed, bathing, teeth, etc.

[Guest guest]

My son is an 11 year old Aspie. When my son refused to take baths when he was younger, we asked an autism coordinator in our school district for assistance. She came over & suggested colored bath crayons to see if that would interest him. It worked! Eversince then, he has enjoyed his baths. He can now run the water himself, put the bubbles in himself, and sponge himself very well. We just recently taught him how to gather all the stuff he needs for his bath this past month & our next step is to teach him how to wash his hair. I took a piece of paper and wrote a step by step "manual" and that is what he follows, to a tee. Once he's got it memorized, he can pretty much do it on his own.

He was also sneaking toys to school recently & we grounded him from his television for 2 weeks. THAT was a pain! But, that also worked. He realized he needed to stop doing it and now, he respects his TV time even more. While the TV was gone, we played more board games, read more books, colored and painted, and had a lot of fun. We leave the Playstation out in an open area, because if it was in his room all the time, he would definitely be trying to play it all night long. His bedtime is 8:30pm & it just recently got promoted to 9pm, because he is maturing & showing that he can do a lot more than he realizes.

We are still working on brushing teeth. Right now, that's the biggest issue we have. He gets dressed just fine, he puts on his deodorant, he combs his hair & he's a great kid. He's very polite & sweet to everyone, he helps feed the animals, he cleans his room & he does so many things. Food choices are hard too because he is so picky due to textures and tastes. If all he eats are corny dogs all day long, that makes him happy! But, we're working on different aspects.

Everyone is different & even our kids vary in their own way! In all honesty, I wouldn't trade mine for the world because it wouldn't be any other way!

good luck with all that stuff!

Meshel Swanson, mom of an 11 year old Aspie, who is awesome!!