My son is autistic and he breaks everything, help....?

Question

My son is 8 years old. He has autism. His mental capacity is that of a very young 2 year old. He breaks everything, and I mean everything that he can. Mind you its not a mean or even a bad thing on his part. He does not know any better. Can anyone give me any tips for teaching an autistic child not to break thing, other than spankings. Keep in mind that he is young minded but he can physically do whatever an average 8 year old can do. Please help me if you can.

Answer 1

Spankings are a bad idea for autistic children so i am glad you realize that already.  With autistic children it is about keeping things breakable out of reach and constantly supervising them and repeating rules that most of the time goes in one ear and out the other.  If you aren't already going to a support group i would recommend finding a group in your are with parents of autistic children so you can get some tips from them on how they are handling things.

Answer 2

dont spank an autistic child they dont learn anything from that. go to a specialist all autistic children have certain needs. try to keep him distracted with a soft toy or something. other than that get rid of everything you dont want broken, hide it, put it up somewhere unreachable. im not saying that as a joke im serious until you figure out how to stop him just do that.

Answer 3

I don't think there is anything that can be done,other than make sure valuables are put out of harms way.

Answer 4

A+ on not spanking an autistic.

My only recommendations are of that already stated which is to keep breakables out of reach, maybe try rewarding things that are INCREDIBLY hard to break. like stuffed animals without buttons and such, or toys that just don't break.

Good luck. =]

Answer 5

I work with autistic students. I would reccommend getting a chart and start out with say, 4 out of 5 stars on the chart, and when he does something good, give him the 5th star and reward him (starting out with an almost full chart will make it quicker and easier for him to see that the 5th star is a reward)! Then start the chart out at 0 stars and when he does something good, add a star. When he breaks something, take a star away. This SHOULD work with him being at a 2 year old level, but if you try it and it's not working, you could improvise it and find something similar that will work in your situation. Good luck!

EDIT:

I tried to email you back, but I got a failure notice.

Is there any way that you could explain to your mother that the things you do with him now will have a great impact on the type of life he will have as he gets older? I am so sorry that you are going through this, you deserve alot of credit. Is your son in school at all?