Top 10 Ways to Improve Life With Autism

Since it’s clear no God of  Small Things is going to come riding in a white horse, here’s our Top 10 things you can do to make your life with autism easier. (Five today; five tomorrow — and more to come…)

Clear out the toys. I’ve always had that pioneer yearning: true happiness lies in each kid owning just one book and one toy. Unfortunately we’re terrible role models. And I always think that each toy that enters the house is going to function as a kind of key that unlocks Alex. What will he enjoy? What will engage him, slow him down to enjoy something for longer than a few minutes? These days, the welter of mismatched pieces and tons of plastic animals distracts him, making him think he has to have out each and every thing at once. Since we don’t seem able to persuade him to follow the take-one-out, put-one-away rule, I’d say about 80% has to go.

Photo courtesy of PlayfulLibrarian (flickr.com)

Find a way to contain stimming. I’d try to walk a line between strict avoidance and punishment, and channeling or redirecting. Alex loves to take a bath every night. There’s rocking, splashing (sometimes extreme), chattering. We’ll be limiting these to about 20 minutes instead of the hour-long fun fest.

Sparse language. Never give up trying to model good language for your child. Alex does use sentences. We are now trying to get him to say “please” instead of just barking out one word for the thing he wants.

Make your house autism-friendly. See above (getting rid of toys). We have tons of books; the newspaper piles up rather frequently; we’re not the best at keeping surfaces clear. But clean surfaces make life much easier when there’s nothing to knock over.

Too many books, says Ned. We do have a lot of books. Alex loves books, so that’s good — but the boys have an overwhelming number. How do I know? By the number that wind up on the floor and tie my stomach in knots when I see them strewn everywhere, especially after tidying shelves and putting books back.

Tomorrow: clothes, plans, food and more!