One of life’s great joys is watching a child enjoy the world. For a child with autism, however, that enjoyment doesn’t always come naturally. Children with autism struggle with changes in routine and environment. They can become anxious when exposed to unfamiliar people. They may not want to try new foods. They may react to a new place with a meltdown or a temper tantrum.
Learning how to help a child with autism feel comfortable begins with understanding his or her unique sensory issues. Caravel’s Dr. Eric Lund specializes in treating children with autism spectrum disability (ASD) and is a parent of a child with autism. According to Dr. Lund, parents need to learn to recognize the sensory experiences that can cause anxiety for their child. From there, parents can begin to help their child learn to enjoy the world.
Dr. Lund offers four key learnings from his own experiences working with children with autism:
- Recognize the specific elements that may cause anxiety for your child. Children with auditory issues, for example, may be sensitive to normal everyday sounds. The sound of the vacuum cleaner or even a flushing toilet may cause them to cover their ears, scream or run out of the room. Fluorescent light may be upsetting to a child with visual sensitivities. Tactile sensitivities may prompt a child to strip out of clothing in public places if the fabric doesn’t feel right. Children with ASD can be preoccupied with smells or tastes. By understanding your child’s specific stressors, a parent can anticipate anxiety and be ready to provide comfort to decrease anxiety.
- Work with your child’s team of autism health specialists to carefully document negative reactions to specific stimuli. At the same time, work together to understand what comforts can be provided to decrease the child’s anxiety. This may be physical comfort from a parent, a favorite blanket or food, or whatever soothes the child.
- Gradually expose your child to new people, places, objects and stimuli. In doing so, make sure that whatever comforts the child is present at all times. Be careful not to reward fearful behavior. Rather, make sure that the child recognizes that the comfort he or she may require is available.
- Understand the power of exposing a child with autism to new situations. By gradually exposing your child to new people, places, objects and stimuli, you are helping your child learn to expand his or her horizons. You are helping your child gradually learn how to experience and enjoy the world.
Introduce Change and Build Confidence in Small Steps
Helping a child control how he or she experiences the environment increases the child’s ability to cope. However, it is important not to overwhelm with too much change at any one time. Change is accomplished in very small steps.
The goal is to help the child feel comfortable and secure 90 to 95% of the time. What does this look like during therapy? Dr. Lund explains how Caravel’s autism health specialists work to gradually introduce new stimuli and build trust: “Interaction with unfamiliar people can be a major obstacle for children with autism, especially at young ages,” explains Dr. Lund: “During one initial appointment with a three-year-old boy, I observed that he was extremely shy. When I tried to interact with him, he crawled behind a couch. We know from our clinical training that one way to initiate interaction is to startle slightly, then act almost timid if the child looks at you. Most children find this funny. So as the boy began to look at me, I would look away quickly, as if I didn’t want a confrontation. This strengthened his confidence, and he was increasingly willing to interact with me.”
Caravel’s specialists are careful not to overwhelm a child during therapy. As Dr. Lund recalls about working with the timid toddler, “Once that initial trust was established, we added programs slowly, exposing him to new stimuli and teaching him how to increase his comfort level. In doing so, we taught him how to cope with the unfamiliar and learn how to control how he was experiencing his environment. This sense of control opens the door to enjoying the world in a new, more complete way.”
