Children who suffer from emotional problems, such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) suffer many detrimental effects to their wellbeing, but one less commonly known one is the effects that the disorder can have on their personal hygiene.
All children are born helpless, and it is down to their parents to care for them and look after their wellness and hygiene during their early years. Gradually, however, they learn the all-important skills of washing themselves, brushing their teeth, dressing themselves and so on. Children are often very independent, and love the feeling of being in control of these actions, taking great pride in being able to do them for themselves.
Some children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder have more trouble with this area. Some of them can’t do it, as they lack the necessary motor skills or understanding, and some of them (seemingly) ‘won’t’ do it, as they have problems, perhaps, with sensory issues, or they are unable to grasp the social importance of why these sorts of daily chores are necessary.
In particular, children with ASD will not often simply pick up these sorts of skills through observation and mimicry, they have to be specifically taught how to manage their self-care through teaching, prompting and modeling.
This process should be started early; even though it may be far more tempting to simply do things for your child rather than take the extra time to get them to do it themselves. Fostering these sorts of habits from an early age will help them to become routine.
Identify your child’s physical or sensory needs and find a way to work around these – for example, if the texture of soap causes sensory problems for your child, consider alternatives you can try, such as only using warm water or a liquid soap. Occupational Therapy can also greatly help with these sorts of issues.
Breaking each task into manageable steps and setting up a sequence of instructions can also be helpful as this allows children to become comfortable and safe within a familiar set of steps, and breaking tasks down like this also stops them seeming so overwhelming.
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