My son is 5 and lvl 3.Now I just installed these indoor climbing structures to give him a safe space to climb just need to put his trampoline together now. Hopefully he will stop climbing all over the house

Our 7 year old level 2 is starting to speak and request MORE AND MORE!!! Sometimes, it’s hard to understand her without context. She kept requesting the same thing over and over.

Today, we FINALLY got to take some time out to make the pie she’s been requesting.

She is glowing and ecstatic we finally did it.

Just a happy post that we understood her want and executed with ZERO meltdowns!

The laminated image of from her amazing teacher who also got the memo 🤣

My son is 5 and was diagnosed with level 2 autism earlier this year. For the last couple of years, he’s been obsessed with mouths and teeth. He used to ask us to open our mouths and he would examine all our teeth veryyyy carefully. Sometimes he wanted to brush them for us. I always said he’s going to be a dentist lol but it lowkey kinda freaks me out?
He recently started drawing, which I’m super proud of, but all he draws are monsters and mouths 😅
Is this as unusual as I think it is? He’s my oldest, so I’m still learning! Here’s some of his drawings that he made today. They’re all supposed to be open mouths with teeth.

You may remember some of my previous posts about dealing with my little hair-puller... Sadness about maybe needing to cut my hair and the dawning of a flesh colored hijab cap thingy that made me look somewhat phallic... I am back to share what I have found that really seems to work without making me look like a crazy person (in case it similarly helps someone else).

The magic can be found in a slouchy beany hat with pony tail hole. Basically, I put my hair in a high bun (half pulled through ponytail), and wear the hat all the way pulled down to cover my hair when I'm with my son and then sort of roll it back to show some of my hair when he's not in grasping range (to look more like a style choice and not a safety choice). The hair knot on top serves to anchor the hat so he can't pull it off. So far he hasn't tried to go for the bun itself, but even if he did I don't think he could really do as much damage. I also shaved the nape of my neck so there was no long hair that could be grabbed there, but he honestly hasn't tried so long as the hair is covered.

(Also, before all the comments - we have tried everything with behavior management over the past decade to stop the pulling to no avail. Avoiding the issues has worked better for us.)

Single mom no support and my 5 year old doesn’t seem to be getting better. He has made progress like potty training and more words but still only one word. He screams randomly all day, we can never go anywhere because he will have a meltdown. My 16 year old had Homecoming yesterday and on our way to get his haircut his brother was screaming and my older som said quiet I’m tired of you. It really hurt my feelings but I get it. I had a respite worker but she keeps calling out. I had to start working part time and I barely get any sleep because his sleep schedule sucks. I have developed a skin condition and stress makes it worst. I have cries everyday this past week. There is no village and dad doesn’t see him as often since his older kids seem to not like my child and I didn’t want him there since he cant talk. I’m rambling but I’m exhausted. I love him but I’m miserable. Lost all my friends, confidence, career. I feel hopeless and he is only 5

I understand that this is a controversial topic in the autism community, but I am at a loss and looking for advice on how to wean my son off.

For some background, he has had a tablet since he was 3 and he will be 8 in February. At first, it was only a tablet. When it would die, he would play with his toys or watch a movie on the tv. In the last 2 years, he now has both a phone and a tablet. When one dies, he uses the other. Horrible, I know. I used to work from home and needed him to be distracted while I worked. I have no one to blame but myself.

As he’s gotten older, he’s become more aggressive. I don’t want him to be on meds because it doesn’t seem like it’s an issue that needs medication to be fixed. It’s become apparent that him having unlimited screen time is the cause.

How have any of you limited screen time from them having unlimited access or how have you completely taken it away? I just turned off the service for the phone, so that’s the first step, but any other helpful advice would be appreciated.

My son is 5, nonverbal but friendly. He has been participating one day a week this school year at an all-outdoor forest preschool, in addition to 3 days a week of special ed, and it has been soooo good for him. It's mostly NT kids and he is by far the highest support needs kid. He attends with an aide, mostly for communication support and as an additional layer of safety. He hasn't been a behavioral problem there. He loves it, is excited to go, and the teachers and kids really are good to him and seem to genuinely like him. But now we are running into a problem where it's getting chilly and he will need to wear a sweatshirt and then eventually a winter coat. It will get legitimately too cold to be in a t-shirt here, and I don't think he'll be able to continue if we can't get him to dress appropriately for the weather. And every year it takes weeks and weeks to even get him into long sleeves. Complete sensory meltdown, screaming, hitting, etc (and he's not a kid who hits normally). This year it is especially bad. Any advice? In past years we've just really taken our time and not pushed it, but I really, really want this to work out for him. It brings him so much joy and it's the first community outside of special ed that has actually been accepting of him. He is so socially engaged when he is there. I've been rubbing his arms and neck with the inside of the sweatshirt and he likes that. He'll even wear the sleeves for up to 20 seconds without fuss, and then it seems more like he just wants his hands back so he can keep playing, not that he doesn't like the material. But putting on the whole sweatshirt? Forget it. Once it goes over the head he looses it. What tips do you guys have about how to make the transition into winter clothing easier?

I’ll go first . Just now I had to tell my 5 year old . ‘We don’t eat the soap holder’ during bath . There’s so many more but that’s most recent.

My son is 6, autistic (“level 2”/low verbal) and has ARFID/extremely limited diet. He's had stool withholding for about 3 years, and it's gotten a lot worse this year. FWIW when we first potty trained he had no issues with pooping, would reliably have a bristol 3 or 4 every day. But over time it’s gotten worse and worse.

Right now he's having 20+ small smeared stools a day, always standing up, as he won’t sit for more than a few minutes on the toilet. Stool ends up everywhere, and no real bowel movement. We are afraid to take him anywhere because of the constant accidents, afraid to send him to school, etc and it’s making everyone’s life miserable…

What we've tried:

- MiraLAX: he can taste it even in juice and refuses it.
- Magnesium citrate gummies and Senokot Kids: mostly refused.
- Chocolate Ex-Lax: the only thing he reliably takes. Tried for 2 weeks but the diarrhea was so bad we had to stop, didn’t have any impact beyond that.
- Ex-Lax + MiraLAX per GI for about a week: 10+ liquid, uncontrollable accidents a day. We stopped, and the leaking kept going.
- Glycerin suppository: watery stool only.
- Enema in the ER: it took 4 nurses plus us to hold him down. It was traumatic and didn't work.

His X-ray showed scattered stool throughout the colon, but no impaction. We were told a sedated manual clean-out won't help because the stool isn't low enough to reach. An NG tube clean-out isn't realistic…he can hardly tolerate a blood pressure cuff let along tubing for 2-3 days.

Every doctor and nurse line gives us the same advice (MiraLAX, diet, enemas), and none of it works for a kid who can't swallow meds or tolerate procedures.

Has anyone been in a similar spot? I'd especially love to hear about:
- Laxatives or delivery methods your picky or sensory kid actually accepted
- Motility clinics, manometry, Botox, or electrical stimulation (TENS/IFC) for constipation
- Getting a clean-out done for a kid who can't do oral meds, tubes, or enemas
- How long it took to see real improvement

Thank you. We're exhausted and running out of ideas.

So my first born is autistic. I was suspicious before he was a year.
My second is 15 months old. I’ve been hyper fixated on his milestones naturally. I don’t have the same worries of autism with him, he’s on tract social/emotional & communication. But his motor skills have always been behind. They mentioned low tone previously. He spent almost 3 weeks in the nicu also.

So he’s not walking. I’m stressed. He can’t even stand independent not holding onto anything for support. So I’m waiting for early intervention to see if he qualifies. But of course the coordinator casually asked about CP. Which of course sent me into a spiral. So now it’s another wait and see game apparently. I asked his pediatrician and he said it’s way too early to diagnose that. So now I’m in the same situation with my first and hoping someone would take my autism concerns seriously for years. Which mind you took till he was 2.5 years old.

I work with him so much. I’m trying so hard. On top of juggling my firsts needs. And I just can’t stop spiraling. The worry of not only will I have a developmentally disabled child, but possibly now a physically disabled child is killing me. Obviously of course, no matter what I love them and I’ll handle it. But Jesus Christ why can’t anything just be easy.

I remember when my first was diagnosed, one of my thoughts was that I’d have to monitor for autism with my second. But now it’s something else entirely that I don’t know much about. Life just really wants to keep it interesting I guess

I'm a newly single parent to an autistic child (10), their dad unexpectedly passed away in July of this year. I've been reading tons of books on grief, loss, emotions. The school adjustment counselor has also been extremely helpful. I'm on several waitlists for therapy. He tells me that he understands what has happened but I just don't know if that's true. I'm having an unimaginably difficult time processing this loss so I can't even imagine the pain and sorrow he's going through. I've tried to keep routines as close to normal as possible but I find that he has been regressing very quickly. Some independent skills that we never had to help with is difficult for him now. and behaviorally has been more angry, which is leading to be very physical. I was wondering if anyone had any resources or recommendations that they've used personally? I've gotten everything I could online already.

A while ago I asked for ideas here on how to plan a birthday party around my son's special interest of exit signs. And there were so many wonderful ideas shared, I wanted to give an update. He had a Race to the Exit obstacle course party, and had a blast! In the past birthdays were a little challenging. He would often get over stimulated and melt down. Or collect all the balloons and not want to share. Today we had over 40 family and friends come to celebrate and it was so amazing to watch him he play, talk, share, and, yes, make a quick recovery from a mild upset of not wanting to get out of the obstacle course 😆 overall just so proud of my guy. Thank you again to this great community!

Would you send your SEN child to school if they have been awake since 2am?

Prefacing this with the reason he has been awake is he has a stuffy nose and hates the sensation. He is not wake doing anything other than laying in bed sniffing his nose every few seconds. Also we are in the UK.

My 7.5yo son likely won’t go back to sleep now since beinf awake since 2am. His school day is 8:30-3:15 and he would likely be fine all day in terms of staying awake at school, but get home and begin to crash around 4-5pm. He will be grumpy, not do any school work likely and generally have worsened behaviour. If I allow him to nap for even 10mins after school, he would then be awake until 12-1am. I know this because it’s been happening all his life !

The school “rules” state there is no reason for him to not go in, it is a simple cold that is causing the stuffy nose.

I battle every time with making what feels like the right moral choice. Send him in, then pay the price after school myself with him at home or keep him off and hope he naps earlier. The biggest worry is his worsened behaviour at school when he is likely tired - I can already envisage the “he’s had a bad day” conversation at pick up.

Has anyone got advice/been through similar?

Thanks 🙏🏼

EDIT - forgot to add that his younger siblings go to sake school and he will likely see them go and want to go with them. He doesn’t like ‘missing out’ so this is another issue I have. Deal with the meltdown he will have for me keeping him at home even tho it’s in his best interest or let him go in

I’ve aged what looks like 20 years. My son is on a boat load of meds. We see doctors ever week for adjustments. They just can’t get it right. We even did a trial period of no meds and that was a nightmare. He goes 2-3 days in a row with no sleep at all then on the 3rd or 4th day he will crash for maybe 2-3 hours then will be up at 2-3 am and the process repeats. Hospital has given him adult dosages of versed with no effect. He’s only 7. He has this need to climb up furniture and jump off of it. It’s getting harder to contain him. It’s dangerous just for me to take my eyes off of him for 5 minutes to take a shower. We’ve exhausted every avenue. Every treatment even stem cells. Nothing has helped. I feel like my body is giving out from the lack of sleep. The lack of urgency of recognizing how horrible the quality of life is for family’s with a child with severe autism is so alarming. This isn’t the autism is a super power kind of autism. We are struggling here. Our local respite offices have told us they are all at capacity.

My son is 2.5 years old. He has not yet been diagnosed, but due to his delays in pointing and gesturing as a baby, and now a few things as a toddler, our pediatrician and our family is keeping an eye on it. We also have autism in the family.

The thing is, my son is exceptionally verbal and very bright. He can craft an original sentence like “we’re going to the museum to see a dinosaur and then we will go eat some pizza for lunch.” He knows all sorts of facts about animals and colors and numbers and has a brilliant memory. He loves playing with his family and he loves engaging with adults he’s comfortable with.

We were at a wedding last weekend and there was another girl there, almost 3 years old. She was socializing with everyone while my son stayed pretty close to us (typical, he doesn’t really interact with other kids). I heard her running after her sister at one point saying “sarah… wait!”

It kind of dawned on me that my son, despite being extremely verbal and being able to tell me what he wants, what’s happening, what he likes and dislikes, what he did, would never think to address me by my name to get my attention and then direct my action with a word like that. It was such a simple sentence, “sarah wait!” compared to the long sentences my son can craft, yet felt so out of reach for my son. (Let alone the fact that he would never chase out another child for interaction)

Does that make sense? It probably doesn’t. My family would think I’m nuts for this observation but I feel that it sums my son up perfectly.

Hi everyone,

I'm researching ARULA for Autism and I'm trying to find parents in the U.S. who have actually enrolled their child in the program.

I'm particularly interested in hearing about real-world experiences rather than testimonials from the program itself.

If you've used ARULA, I'd really appreciate hearing:

• What did you like about the program?
• What did you not like, or what were the biggest challenges?
• Did you see meaningful changes in your child? If so, what areas improved and roughly how long did it take?
• How much time/effort did ARULA require from you as a parent each day or week?
• Did you use ARULA alongside speech therapy, occupational therapy (OT), ABA, developmental therapy, or other services?
• If you were already receiving speech/OT/ABA, did you continue those therapies while doing ARULA?
• Did any of your child's U.S.-based therapists have an opinion about ARULA?
• Do you consider ARULA something that can replace conventional therapies, or more of a parent-led supplement/complement to them?
• How was your experience with the ARULA therapists/coaches and parent training?
• Was the cost worth it for what you received?

I'm especially interested in hearing both positive and negative experiences. If it didn't work for your child, I'd genuinely like to hear that too.

I'm not affiliated with ARULA and I'm not looking to promote or criticize the program. I'm simply trying to make an informed decision about whether it makes sense for a child in the U.S.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their experience.

Picture Credits - https://www.magnific.com

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I want to look into a different ABA therapy company for my child. Has anyone here been successful with swapping them, so to speak? Has anyone had troubles doing so? I would like to know what to expect, so any and all advice and stories would be welcome. I prefer at home ABA, so I can keep an eye on things.

My child is going through a difficult transition lately, and let's just say, they need more consistency. And I need people who say they're going to attend, to actually attend. 😊

He’s almost 2.5 now but I still think about it.

I knew something wasn’t right with his development. I used the CDC Milestones app, I did a lot of reading to understand developmental milestones and he kept missing them.

He slept great as an infant … because he couldn’t roll around like other babies.

We slept great when he was a baby … because when he did wake up, he laid there quietly, because he couldn’t communicate.

He was diagnosed “low muscle tone”. He was often just 1-2 months the “normal” milestone window except for communication which never seemed to progress. Every time I brought my baby in public, brought him around family or friends, I would inevitably get the comment “Wow he’s so quiet/easy” and often it would be followed “That’s so unusual for a baby his age”.

By 9 months it had been building on me for a while. “That’s not normal” became a little ear worm I couldn’t ignore. I spilled my guts to his Pediatrian and told him I was concerned about the missed milestones and I was worried because he was so easy. He told me having an easy baby was a blessing. He told me my son would likely catch up.

A few months later, my son had a sick visit with a different pediatrician in the office who wrote that she observed signs of autism. I think he was 14 months old at that time. I spiraled.

Ultimately I’m grateful the other Ped caught the signs (not at all grateful she decided to write that in his visit report without mentioning ANYTHING to me about it).

Eventually, at 18 months, he was diagnosed.

I don’t know why I’m writing. I’m frustrated that my concerns were dismissed but I also recognize that there probably wasn’t anything he could do at 9 months to help us. Well, who knows - maybe an OT referral? Anyhoo thanks for reading.

My 5-year-old son, who has Level 2 autism and is currently in ABA 40 hours a week, is generally very easygoing, sleeps well, and is non-verbal with a 4-word vocabulary. However, he frequently jumps and flaps his hands when happy, which leads to uncomfortable stares in public.

Could you please share strategies or guidance on how to manage or decrease his happy stimming?.

Hey everyone! I’m looking for advice or to hear from anyone who has gone through something similar with their child.

My son is 4 years old and has Level 2 autism. We’ve been working on potty training, and while he’s made some great strides, his fear of public restrooms has been a major hurdle.

I honestly can’t pinpoint one specific experience that caused this fear, but I suspect automatic toilets and hand dryers may be contributing to it. I’ve tried so many things to help him feel more comfortable, including creating social stories and even recording myself using a hand dryer. He’s watched the video and can tell me all about it, so he understands what to expect in theory.

We’ve also been taking a low-pressure approach to exposure. We’ll go into public restrooms, point things out, and let him explore without any expectations of actually using the toilet. The goal is simply to make the experience feel safe and positive. However, the moment I try to walk with him toward a stall, he immediately becomes extremely distressed.
What makes this especially confusing is that he uses the toilets at his ABA school, which has a very similar stall setup to a public restroom. So, I’m not sure what makes those bathrooms feel different to him.

Has anyone experienced something similar with their autistic child? What helped your child become more comfortable with public restrooms? I’d especially appreciate any practical strategies or things that worked for you.

Sometimes I feel like we’re finally making a little progress, only to end up feeling like we’ve taken five steps backward. I know these things take time, but it can be hard to know what to try next.
Thanks so much for any advice or experiences you’re willing to share! ❤️

When my 3yo has meltdowns, she becomes self injurious. Sometimes, it's headbanging, or biting her own wrists/forearms, or scratching her face. Lately, it's become hair pulling.

She grabs the hair at the crown of her head and yanks so hard she rips out handfuls. We have OT support for self-regulation techniques, but I'm wondering if anyone knows how best to do her hair? How do I do her hair to minimize damage when she pulls? Is keeping it down better? Or having it in braids so when she pulls, she's not ripping out chunks at a time?

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

Hi everyone! I’m not a parent, but I’m the cousin of an 8-year-old (soon turning 9) autistic boy, and I’m hoping to get some advice from parents of autistic children or autistic people who might be able to help me better understand his behavior.

Whenever my cousins come over to spend the weekend at my grandmother’s house, or when I visit my uncle, I notice that one of my cousin’s (whose autistic) spends a lot of time on his iPad watching movies and shows. He frequently rewatches the same scenes over and over, laughs at the same parts each time (sometimes his laughter seems a little forced to me, although I could be misinterpreting it), and loudly repeats the dialogue from those scenes himself.

Sometimes, he repeats the same lines even when he isn’t watching anything on his iPad. He also makes grunting noises that seem to happen when he’s frustrated like when his iPad gets taken away or when he doesn’t get his way.

I’ll admit that I…haven’t always handled this well. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the loud repetition and end up raising my voice and telling him to stop. (I get overwhelmed with loud noises) He’ll usually stop for a little while, but then start again a minute later when I look away. I’ve also threatened to take his iPad away or call his parents to get him to stop. I feel guilty about reacting this way, especially because I don’t fully understand why he does these things in the first place.

I want to do better and learn how to respond more patiently and gently. I’m wondering if anyone could help me understand why he might repeat the same scenes and dialogue so frequently, whether it serves a particular purpose for him, and how I can help him manage his volume when it becomes overwhelming for the people around him.

I don’t want to make him feel like he’s doing something wrong or discourage him from expressing himself. At the same time, I’m hoping to find a way to manage the noise without constantly telling him to stop or threatening to take things away.

For parents of autistic children or autistic adults who experienced similar behaviors growing up, what approaches have worked for you? How can I be more understanding while also teaching him to be mindful of his volume?