By: beagoodmom

beagoodmom — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:39:03 +0000

Pookie sometimes tries to run away when we are out and about; its a new thing. He knows its wrong and will look back at us as he does it, holding his arm out for us to “catch” him. When we approach him, he slows down and gets ready to yell the split second we touch his arm.
To address this problem, we made a picture chart which breaks it down with clip art…staying close is good, running away is naughty. Good means you get to play with toys. Running away means you sit on the naughty chair. He studies his chart before we go out and it seems to have helped a little, we have only used it for a week or so.
He clearly wanted us to physically restrain him, thats why he puts his arm out for us to catch him. So, naturally, we did not want to do that; it would reinforce the behavior. The picture chart is simple and concrete. It puts him in charge of the situation. If he runs; no toys. Its as simple as that. He gets that. We remove ourselves from the equation.

By: beagoodmom

beagoodmom — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:33:21 +0000

Somehow, we have also avoided alot of the common problems that plague any outing with a child. Our kids rarely whine or ask us to buy them things. Pookie will sometimes tell us that he wants to “go pay.” This means he is done and wants us to pay and leave the store. He likes to look at toys at each store we go to. We have found that with both Pookie and Geetle, we can get them out of the toy section easily by keeping them moving. I excitedly say “lets go see what’s around the corner!” and we move from aisle to aisle. Before you know it, we are out of toy aisles; we have wandered into the hardware aisle and the kids are both ready to go. Neat trick. Somehow, they never think to ask if they can go back to the toy section.
This works as well on Geetle as it does Pookie.

Comments on: Autism Series – Activities Away From Home

By: beagoodmom

By: beagoodmom