Making a Safe Home for Your Child with Autism
Published Apr 30, 2014
A home that many families find relaxing and enjoyable may not be the same for a family with a child on the autism spectrum. Not only is it critical to create a safe and stress-free home to improve the quality of family life, it also works to lessen the child’s challenging behaviors and offer them a learning-rich environment.
Follow these tips to rearrange your home environment and make it more comfortable for the entire family:
Declutter and Organize
A cluttered home adds stress to the family, and some children with autism can easily get overwhelmed by a crowded and disorganized space.
Start with the room your child spends the most time in, and work on decluttering one room at a time so that you do not overwhelm yourself during this process.
- Get rid of anything the family has not used in quite some time.
- Put away and store décor items you do not need or are worried your child will break.
- Donate toys that your child has outgrown and throw away broken toys.
- Store toys that your child still plays with in see-through plastic bins and label the items for easy access (for non-readers, label using symbols or pictures).
- Rotate your child’s toys. Put away toys that your child has not played with recently. Store the toys in a large bin and put away in a safe and out of reach space. Rotate the toys every 2 to 4 weeks.
- Create a defined space for daily activities. For example, have a designated eating area instead of allowing your child to eat anywhere he wants.
- Position furniture to create a more spacious area for your child to navigate.
- Keep sharp and breakable objects such as knives, dinnerware, vases in a locked cabinet or drawer.
- Do the same with hazardous items such as cleaning solutions, chemicals, medications.
- Secure cabinets and drawers with child-safety latches.
- Use a gate to block an area you do not want your child to have access to and to prevent accidents.
- Unplug unused appliances – like the toaster, coffeemaker, hairdryer, and radio.
- Use alarms or locks to prevent your child from running away when unsupervised.
- Consider placing locks high up so the child cannot reach easily them.
- Use child-safety locks on windows to keep your child from running away. If the child has a history of breaking windows, consider adding wooden boards over the windows or replacing glass panes with Plexiglas.
Beware of Sensory Overstimulation
Some children with autism display over-sensitivity to certain stimuli in the environment. Minimizing stimulation can prevent some challenging behaviors associated with an overstimulated environment.
- Eliminate posters, paintings, and mirrors from the wall.
- Avoid using fluorescent lighting.
- Block out bright lights using light bulb filters or blackout curtains.
- Pay attention to noises that may not usually bother you but may trouble a child with autism, for example, traffic noise, phone ringing, doorbell. If possible, block out these noises (one way is to install double-paned windows) or minimize the volume.
- Avoid multiple sources of sounds at the same time: Don’t have the TV on at the same time you’re playing music or video games and people are chatting.
- Avoid using household products with strong odors or scents such as perfume, candles, or air fresheners.
Create Learning Opportunities
- Place food items out of reach of your child but where he can see them. This will keep the child from having unlimited access to the food but also create an opportunity for him to make appropriate requests, such as pointing and asking for food.
- Keep the child’s preferred items out of reach or provide only some of the items. For example, allow free access to paper, but keep the crayons or markers in a cabinet. Again, this will create a learning opportunity for your child to ask for the items, and increase communicative behavior, which is often a core deficit in children with autism.
Create a Positive Learning Environment
- Develop a structured routine at home. Create a visual schedule using symbols, pictures, or words to make the day more predictable for your child and reduce anxiety associated with routine changes.
- Add visual cues in the home to increase your child’s understanding of the environment. For example, post a big red stop sign on a door for a room you do not want your child to go into. Make a picture of footprints to indicate to your child where he should put his shoes when he comes home from school.
- Create a quiet and calm area your child can visit at any time. Fill this space with a bean bag chair, cushions, blankets, and sensory toys like a squish ball, a swing, and chewy tubes.
- Designate a defined learning area with child-size furniture and make sure to minimize distractions and sensory stimulation in this area.
Ivy Chung is a board certified behavior analyst who specializes in parent coaching and applied behavior analysis (ABA) intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. She has worked extensively as a behavioral consultant in home and school settings to provide direct services for children with autism, and and support families and school teachers. She has presented at conferences and conducted workshops in the United States, Canada, and her home country Hong Kong. Chung is completing her doctoral degree in special education at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she also earned her master’s degree in applied behavior analysis and a bachelor’s degree in psychology.