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Sensory-Friendly Home Modifications for Autism and Sensory Processing Disorder

Sensory-Friendly Home Modifications for Autism and Sensory Processing Disorder

When you have a kid or family unit member on the autism spectrum, creating a rubber and functional home environs is an important task. Autism tin can have a huge impact on an individual's development, lifestyle, and social connections. People on the spectrum can be particularly sensitive to lights, sounds, and other stimuli. Many crave gild and routines to make sense of the world. Condom can be a concern for those who wander, are drawn to h2o, or are prone to head banging or self injury.

According to the Autism Society, about 1 percentage of the world'southward population has autism spectrum disorder, and the condition affects near ane in every 59 children born in the United States. This means that in America, 3.5 meg people are on the autism spectrum. This number is growing as diagnostic criteria are condign amend understood.

Children and adults with autism oftentimes struggle with sensory integration, the neurobiological procedure of interpreting and managing the sensory input they receive. Information technology can be difficult for them to make sense of sights, sounds, smells, and other sensory information.At that place are three main sensory systems that may be afflicted when an individual has autism. Understanding these three sensory systems is key to understanding individuals with autism and how they interact with their dwelling environments:

The tactile organization, which is the sense of touch, pain, temperature, and pressure
The vestibular organisation, which involves move, balance, and head position
The proprioceptive arrangement, which involves a person'south awareness of torso position.

For some individuals on the autism spectrum, sensory input is completely overwhelming. They have a very difficult time dealing with noisy or chaotic environments. For others, sensory input is hardly felt, leading them to crave additional input. In the autism community, these two extremes have different names. "Sensory seeking" refers to those people with autism who crave additional sensory input. "Sensory sensitivity" or "sensory avoiding" refers to those people with autism who are prone to sensory overload, which causes confusion, anxiety, and withdrawal.

In either example, for people with autism or sensory processing disorder, living in a globe designed for neurotypical people can be challenging. Thankfully, families who take autistic family unit members can make their homes more accommodating. Home modifications, including simple changes and more circuitous ones, are an excellent way to create a comfortable retreat for people with autism.

Hither is a closer wait at some of the habitation modifications that can assistance someone who is living with autism feel more than comfortable and at peace in the dwelling environment. While many of these are geared toward parents with a kid who has autism, they often apply to adults as well, as the challenges of neurodiversity practise non have age limits.

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Consider Visual Stimuli

When an private with autism has a dysfunctional sensory system, the visual input they receive tin can exist difficult to process. Lighting and colors can easily overwhelm an individual with autism. In your abode, y'all can take measures to reduce visual stimuli in order to lessen this event, helping your loved one feel more than comfortable at home. Here are some tips to assist you do this.

Look at the Lighting

Choose lighting that is as close to natural lite as possible. Lighting comes in dissimilar color temperatures, and highly sensitive individuals may notice bogus colors uncomfortable. This means you want to invest in bulbs with a color rendering index (CRI) as close to 100 as possible.
Avert lights that flicker . Many types of artificial lighting flicker slightly. This may not be noticeable to a neurotypical person, but an autistic person may observe the flickering unbearable. Fluorescent lighting, including CFL lighting, oft has trouble with flickering. LED lighting can remove this problem.
Consider the sound the lighting makes . Lighting can besides make a very low sound, which about people practice non hear. Over again, the buzz of a light can be painful to someone with autism. Once more, fluorescent lighting is a main culprit here.
Install dimmable lights to get in easier to control the level of low-cal in the home . This will give you a measure of control when the level of light is besides intense for your autistic loved i, but will allow y'all to burnish up the infinite on days when low-cal sensitivity does not seem to be too high.
Be aware of the struggle glare can cause . Glare from outdoor sunlight, glare on computer screens, and even glare off of reflective, hard surfaces, like hardwood flooring, tin can likewise exist problematic, so expect for ways to reduce this. Window tinting or anti-glare coatings might help.

Use Calming Colors

Avoid decorating with bright colors. Many individuals with autism see colors with greater intensity than neurotypical people . Too many bright colors can be overstimulating for children and adults with autism. Avoid having walls or big pieces of furniture painted in bright, assuming colors. Red, in particular, is too brilliant and intense for many individuals with autism.
Opt for muted colors, with a neutral color palette. Pale pink seems to exist one of the well-nigh calming colors for people with autism. Cool colors are as well soothing.
Utilise a monochromatic colour scheme. If you put wall hangings on the wall, continue them uncomplicated without bright designs that will intrude on the individual'southward senses.
Reduce reflections off windows . Whether through the installation of blinds that tin block outdoor light or by adding window film to reduce reflections and glare, consider areas in hour abode that could cause distracting and distressing reflections from windows.

Keep the Home Organized

Reduce ataxia in your home. The chaos created past clutter makes it difficult to function with sensory sensitivities. Go through each room of your firm on a regular footing and purge backlog items that are no longer needed. This will not only assistance your loved one with autism, it can relieve stress for other family members also.
Organize your home to make routines easier . Children and adults with autism mostly thrive when they have routines in identify. To make life easier for them, keep your home organized. Constitute singled-out places where objects belong and put them back immediately after use.
Install shelves or congenital-in bookcases to make storage easier . Having a identify for everything is a central to reducing visual stimuli in the course of clutter. Bookcases with organized storage containers are a helpful way to do this. Built-in bookcases can be seamlessly integrated into the home's design, which will ameliorate reduce clutter and meliorate organization.
Use a bin organization to make organization and tidy living automatic . Separate different types of supplies and toys, take photos of them and paste or tape those photos onto a bin, so items are easily stored and tin can be found chop-chop when desired.

Consider Open Concept Home Pattern

Remove barriers that tin can break up the line of sight when possible. Open concept floor plans are easier for people with sensory processing concerns. Removing not-load-bearing walls and opening upward the home's floor plan can help make the home more comfortable. This besides allows the private with autism to preview a space before entering it, which can improve the individual'south comfort in the home.
Avoid cluttering the open design with too much furniture. Again, clutter is distressing to people with autism, and so remove as much as possible when considering the design of your floor plan. Suit furniture and then that your autistic child can easily transition from ane activeness to the next without a visual or physical barrier.
Create an in-home walking loop . Once you have an open pattern, map out a walking loop inside the home that the individual can use for pacing behaviors. Pacing can reduce stress significantly, and an open concept blueprint makes this blazon of behavior possible.

For more than information about visual stimuli in your dwelling house and how information technology affects an autistic loved one, visit:

TheraSpecs: Light Sensitivity in Autism
Higher of Optometrists in Vision Development: Autism and Vision
Living Autism Foundation: How to Create an Autism-Friendly Surroundings
Aspergers 101: Aspergers and Sensitivity to Color – Interior Designer Focuses on Interiors for Those with Autism
Inside the Autism Experience: Autism and Visual Ataxia

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Pay Attention to the Sounds in Your Home

Auditory stimuli can be just every bit distressing as visual stimuli to people with autism. Your dwelling house should exist a tranquil retreat. Oftentimes, children and adults with autism will have heightened senses of hearing, and they may option upwards on sounds that you cannot hear or observe themselves uncomfortable with sounds that seem at a normal level to yous. This can lead to problems, especially if the individual is unable to communicate what they are hearing.

Though devices like racket-canceling headphones can assist, you may wish to take additional measures to ensure your kid is comfortable at habitation. Here are some ways to modify your domicile to reduce unwanted sounds and the stress they can bring.

Address the Floor

Supercede difficult floor with noise-dampening carpet . The sound of footfalls on difficult surfaces tin be quite loud and distressing to an individual with autism. To dampen the dissonance, use rug instead of woods, tile, or laminate flooring.
Invest in a high quality carpet pad . The pad can reduce the noise from the flooring even more than, so do not skimp on this area.
Utilize rugs to dampen sounds on hard flooring . If you need or want hard floor, consider using area rugs to add a dampening effect on the flooring. Soft textures absorb sounds much ameliorate than difficult surfaces.
Evaluate risk factors for falls. Falling at home is a gamble for senior citizens and individuals with special needs who take balance or motor coordination issues. Handrails and no-slip flooring can make a big divergence.

Protect from Outdoor Dissonance Pollution

Protect your kid from sounds from the outdoors that can be stressful or disrupt sleep cycles . Think that yous may not hear all the sounds that your kid can hear. Whether it's ordinary city sounds or construction noise, it can touch your loved i with autism. Insulated windows are good at blocking noise.
Install sound absorbing insulation . Specially designed insulation that dampens and absorbs sounds can keep those outdoor sounds from entering your home.
Consider an extra layer of drywall if insulation is not possible . This volition accept the same effect every bit sound-dampening insulation and may be easier to practice.
Be aware of the problem of echoing in big, open up spaces . Though open spaces tin can exist helpful for individuals with autism, they can create echoes. These sounds are stressful for autistic children, even if they are barely noticeable to you. Y'all tin can protect from this by adding soft textures to the floor and walls to reduce the echo. Strategically placed soft furnishings can too assistance.
Focus on the autistic individual'south bedroom first . If your budget does non permit y'all to exercise all of the rooms in your home, brand sure you insulate your autistic family unit fellow member'due south sleeping accommodation first to reduce or eliminate outside sounds.
Install thicker windows to dampen outdoor noise pollution . Look for windows with thick glass, laminated layers, and infinite between the window panes. Also, secondary glazing and specifically produced dissonance reduction glass are features that can help.

Additional Considerations for Noises at Home

Choose high-quality habitation sound equipment. The subtle differences in audio quality between dissimilar types of audio equipment can be painful for individuals with autism. Invest in higher quality equipment that produces good sound quality.
Understand that some individuals with autism will ignore sounds . This presents challenges of its own, because alarms in the dwelling house, such as smoke detectors or CO alarms, may be ignored. Consider investing in visual alarms if this is the case.

For more than data almost the sense of hearing and individuals with autism, and what you can practise at home, visit:

Autism Speaks: Autism and Auditory Processing Disorder: What's the Connection?
Synapse: When The World Won't Close Upwardly
Friendship Circle: Dissonance Command – 11 Tips for Helping Your Child with Autism Deal with Noise
Northwestern Early Intervention Research Grouping: Sound Sensitivity in Autism
National Autism Association: Autism and Audio Sensitivity – More Just a Mild Issue

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Reduce the Number of Smells in Your Home

Like the sense of touch and the sense of hearing, an autistic individual's sense of smell can be stronger than that of a neurotypical individual. Sometimes, scents and odors can trigger meltdowns or distress, even when they seem mild to other members of the family. There are measures you tin can take to reduce the input from smells in your home, specially when y'all are remodeling to make it more autism-friendly. Here are some considerations to continue in listen.

Choose Low-Odor Finishes and Building Supplies

Understand the office of volatile organic compounds on your home and its occupants . VOCs are gases that solids and liquids emit in your home, and many finishes, including paints and varnishes, comprise VOCs. These are items that individuals with autism tin be highly sensitive to, and the lingering odors are noticed long after neurotypical family members no longer olfactory property them.
Choose low VOC paints and varnishes . These items will have less smell than their traditional counterparts. Using them volition help keep the individual with autism calmer during the dwelling renovations.
Choose depression-odor building materials when performing dwelling modifications . Paints and varnishes are not the only items that can have VOCs or other types of odors. Flooring, boards, drywall, and adhesives all contain odors equally well. When possible, choose depression-odor options. When non possible provide ample time for the infinite to air out with fresh air to remove the odors.
Opt for natural fibers instead of synthetic . Natural materials tend to accept fewer offensive odors than synthetic materials, and then choose them when possible. Even if information technology does take an odor, it will be from non-toxic materials, which volition be easier for the individual with autism to procedure.

Add Proper Ventilation

Invest in proper ventilation for the home . Ventilation volition reduce non only the habitation's odors from the renovation projection only also the general odors in a habitation including cooking smells. Cull ventilation mechanisms that are properly insulated to protect from noise pollution.
Apply HEPA filtration methods . Invest in certified HEPA filters for your dwelling house'due south HVAC arrangement to further remove and neutralize VOCs and other odors.
Avert air fresheners and chemical scents . Air fresheners and candles can add more confusion to your autistic family unit fellow member'due south sensory input, so avoid adding them to the habitation environment while you seek to boxing odors.

For more information most reducing odors in the home and the fashion the sense of olfactory property affects individuals with autism, visit these resources:

Spectrum: Test Detects Unusual Sense of Smell in Children with Autism
Usa National Library of Medicine: Environmental Chemical Exposures and Autism Spectrum Disorders – A Review of the Epidemiological Evidence
Aspergers 101: Sensory Processing Difficulties – Odor with ASD
National Institutes of Health: Volatile Organic Compounds
Automobile Autism Roadmap: Sensory Difference in ASD – Smell

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Brand the Home Tactile-Friendly

The sense of touch is something that affects many people with autism intensely. Some find themselves overly sensitive to textures and things they can feel, while others observe themselves craving tactile input. Some individuals with autism will experience both of these intensities. This is one area where home modifications can brand a big difference. By creating touch-friendly spaces in your home, you tin can make information technology more inviting and calming for an autistic child or adult who lives at that place.

Focus on Textures

Add a variety of textures into the space. This can assist those who are sensory-seeking notice ways to self-calm. Add textures in effects, floor coverings, wall coverings, and accessories added to the home. Be aware that individuals with autism may accept stiff aversions to specific textures, so exist sensitive to your loved one's unique needs.
Remove and replace textures the private finds upsetting . If something is too crude or too smooth, remove information technology from the environs and replace it with something more tolerable.

Make the Home Durable

Understand that children with autism are going to touch on everything . Make sure your dwelling house is friendly to this blazon of beliefs. Remove items that could be broken by a pair of curious hands.
Fix for repetitive behaviors by purchasing durable materials and furnishings . 1 of the mutual traits of autism is repetitive behaviors. Closing the same door over and over, walking the same path repeatedly, or stimming in a sure area of the dwelling are all possibilities. Make sure your domicile can stand to these types of repeated behaviors.

Bring Nature Indoors

Add plants that are safe for the individual to interact with . Houseplants and an indoor garden can soothe individuals with autism and bring part of nature indoors, which is calming. This besides provides something else to touch and feel. Be cautious most plants that are potentially poisonous, because individuals with autism may wish to interact with plants differently than neurotypical people do.
Brand space for a sensory garden outdoors . Bringing nature inside is a good idea, only information technology does have its limits. Institute a sensory garden outdoors that volition stimulate all five senses, and allow the autistic family member to spend fourth dimension in the garden ofttimes.

Assess Tactile Challenges in the Bath

Understand the challenges the traditional bath creates . Common cold toilet seats, harsh cleaning chemicals, slippery floors, and poor ventilation tin can brand bathrooms challenging areas for individuals with autism. Focus on home modifications that reduce these risks. Some are simple, similar calculation a cushioned toilet seat or soft, warm rug, while others may require some bodily habitation modification.
Add non-slip surfaces to the tub and bathroom floors . When individuals with autism struggle with residual and the vestibular arrangement, slippery floors are dangerous. Add non-slip surfaces to slick bathroom and tub floors.
Improve ventilation in the bathroom . Poor ventilation can make bathrooms smelly, which makes them uncomfortable spaces for individuals with autism. Invest in better ventilation. If the bath is on an outside wall, consider adding a window to improve the condolement of the space.
Create a water play area, because individuals with autism are naturally drawn to water . Water plan is some other favorite activeness for many individuals with autism. Make the bathroom a place where h2o play is safe. Consider installing a floor bleed and protecting surfaces in the bathroom in instance the private with autism chooses to play in the faucet or tub.
Add rubber features to the bathroom like catch bars . Once more, when individuals with autism struggle with balance due to vestibular system concerns, having something to grab tin can be helpful.

For more data most tactile changes to make for loved ones with autism or sensory processing problems, visit these resources:

Sensory Processing Disorder: Ecology Modifications to Help Children with sensory Processing/Sensory Integration Disorders
Your Therapy Source: Modifications for Toilet Training
Understood.org: Sensory Processing Issues – Strategies You Tin Effort at Home
UCSF: The Unbearable Sensation of Beingness – Living with Sensory Processing Disorder

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General Considerations for Your Habitation

Children and adults on the autism spectrum, as well as others with sensory processing concerns, need special considerations at dwelling to help them with their sensory processing and overall functioning. Some dwelling house modifications do not fit into categories for specific senses, similar taste or hearing. However, these modifications tin brand a tremendous difference to a child or adult who is battling over-stimulating environments.

Create a Sensory Room

Build a room that has the sensory materials your child needs. These are very helpful for families who have autistic family unit members as they provide a identify to meet sensory needs that are different than the neurotypical population. What your abode'southward sensory room contains will exist unique to the needs of your child or family member.
Add a swing to the room. Swinging is quite calming for individuals with autism and can assistance with self-regulation of senses and emotions. Safely mount a swing in your sensory room by mounting it to a ceiling joist. Make sure the swing is strong plenty to handle unlike weights, and so it can exist used past a immature child also as an developed. A hammock can besides help with this need.
Add play equipment that allows for large motor movement . Rocking, sliding, and jumping are all movements that individuals with autism sometimes crave. Find out what your child or loved ane needs, then add the article of furniture and equipment that will allow them to safely engage in these behaviors. A small indoor trampoline, indoor slide, or rocking furniture can all be helpful additions to a sensory room. If you do not have the infinite for these, consider exercise balls, bouncy seats, and similar small items that permit for proprioceptive input and large motor movement.
Install or buy piece of furniture that allows for deep pressure level . Bean bags and similar article of furniture that a child or autistic adult tin can pile on and around themselves tin help create a calming sensory experience that is helpful for those with autism. Deep pressure is of import for individuals with autism that require sensory input or who have proprioceptive sensory needs.
Add a ball pit . Brawl pits are a helpful sensory experience for those with autism, and they tin can be installed to a sensory room. If the budget is express, you can use an inflatable pool with balls inside for the aforementioned effect.
Add a variety of calm, soothing lighting options . In improver to the regular overhead lighting in the infinite, add mood lighting, twinkling Christmas lights, spotlights, and more to create the correct ambiance. Ensure that the room has the correct electrical breaker service to support these lights.
Install an air conditioner . The addition of actress lights tin make the room hot, and that can be unbearable to an individual with autism. Install a room air conditioner to recoup.
Fill the room with tactile and sensory items, but keep it organized . It is like shooting fish in a barrel for a sensory room to go overstimulating if as well many items are added without proper organization. Use shelving and bins to add tactile and sensory items in an organized, uncluttered way.
Build a climbing wall . A climbing wall is likewise an important tool in a sensory room for individuals with autism who are prone to climbing article of furniture. Build 1 to requite a safe identify for climbing inside your home.
Turn your child'due south sleeping accommodation into the sensory room if another space is not available . Sometimes you lot won't have room in your abode to brand a separate sensory room. If this is the case, build these ideas into your autistic child or loved one'southward chamber.
Create a sensory corner. Some other option if a dedicated room is not available is to create a sensory corner that contains many of the sensory input items. To aid the individual with autism block out the sounds and visual affect of the rest of the dwelling, use noise-canceling headphones and physical barriers to portion off this part of the room.

Build a Cool-Downwards Room

Build a cool-down room if the autistic individual is prone to meltdowns. This provides a prophylactic place to have the meltdown where the child and the home volition not be damaged, fifty-fifty if the behaviors turn vehement. This can be role of the sensory room but oftentimes is ameliorate as a separate space.
Strengthen the windows in the cool down room . This will prevent windows from beingness cleaved in the midst of a meltdown.
Add soft mats to the walls and flooring so the individual with autism can safely crash into them . This tin can have a calming effect in the middle of a meltdown. Sensory crash pads besides help with proprioceptive input, which is necessary for people with autism
Ensure all objects in the room, including furniture, are soft or accept softened edges . If the child is experiencing tearing movements during a meltdown, this will add protection.
Control lighting through a dimmer switch . Lower lighting may be important during a meltdown, just may not be necessary at all times in this room.
Hang drapes, not blinds, and use Velcro instead of curtain rods . This volition prevent harm to the walls if the child pulls on the window coverings.

Invest in a Generator

Purchase and install a generator . Power outages can disrupt the routine of your home and eliminate the electronic devices that can be soothing to your autistic loved ane. Installing a generator ensures that you lot always accept access to these items, even if you lot lose ability.
Use the generator to keep up with routine . Having your routine stay the same, even during an electrical power outage, is disquisitional to helping your autistic loved i stay comfortable at home.

For more than insight into the mode a home for an individual with autism might look different than a neurotypical home, visit these resources:

Autism Speaks: x Ways My Business firm Looks Different Than Yours
My Child Without Limits: Habitation Modifications
Autism Connect: Home Modification for Children with Autism
Growing Minds: Autism Programs – Creating an Optimum Home Environment for Children with Autism

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Consider Important Safety Concerns

Individuals with autism, particularly children, crave boosted protections that may not be a concern for the neurotypical earth. When because home modifications for autistic family members, make sure to consider safety in the midst of the other considerations and changes yous make. From protecting your autistic child from wandering to ensuring the floor is rubber, there are steps you can accept to protect your loved one from some of the challenges that neurodiversity tin can bring.

Concerns About Wandering

Understand that individuals with autism sometimes wander away from dwelling . In one study, near half of parents with autistic children indicated their child had tried to wander abroad from home after the age of iv, and of those, 53 per centum were missing long plenty to make the parents worried. An additional 65 percentage involved close calls with vehicles. Wandering is a serious safety chance for individuals with autism, with children existence at particularly loftier chance.
Install fencing and then children with autism tin can play outdoors safely. Individuals with autism, including children, often enjoy existence outdoors. However, the tendency to wander can make outdoor play dangerous. Protect your kid by installing a debate with a locking gate, and ensuring that the gate's lock is inaccessible to the child.
Choose fencing that adds a visual barrier . Sometimes the distractions of other people'south homes and yards tin can detract from the enjoyment of the outdoors, so choose privacy fencing that adds a visual barrier from these distractions.
Select fencing that cannot be climbed . Children who want to wander may climb chain link and even many types of wood fencing. Choose fencing options that are too slick to climb, and avoid placing outdoor toys close plenty to the fencing to provide a climbing opportunity.
Apply proximity alarms and doorway alarms to alert caretakers when an individual with autism tries to go out the home . Install alarms on all doors that will provide an instant alert if the door is opened without permission, so you can stop your loved one from wandering earlier a serious event occurs.
Install door chimes over all doors if an alarm system is not possible . This is an inexpensive way to requite yourself an alert if your child or autistic loved 1 leaves the home.
Add more locks to the doors . In addition to deadbolts, add central-based locks and insist that doors are locked at all times. Think that people with autism are often skilled at opening locks, and so utilise multiple types. Flip locks are also helpful for reducing the risk of wandering.
Install locks or barriers on windows . Autistic children sometimes climb out of windows, so install tamper-proof locks or other barriers on windows to preclude this adventure.
Install sloped window sills to prevent climbing . This tin deter children from trying to climb up to or out of windows.
Consider creating a self-contained apartment inside your home for a young adult with special needs. Some children with autism are not able to leave home when they reach machismo. However, you might be able to give them some more than independence while keeping them safely under your roof.

Concerns about Burns and Scalding

Reduce the take chances of burns and scalding . individuals with autism with their increased sense of bear on tin can be more than prone to discomfort from hot temperatures.
Lower the water heater temperature . Y'all may need to lower the water heater temperature below recommended levels to forbid discomfort for your autistic loved one. Proceed the h2o temperature at 120 degrees or less to avoid scalding or burns.
Protect the water heater from tampering. Whether you lock the basement or install a barrier effectually the water heater, brand certain the autistic family member cannot change the water heater temperature.
Add locks to stove knobs . Brand sure the individual with autism cannot use the stove knobs unless the individual is high functioning enough to cook safely.
Consider installing an consecration cooktop. Induction cooktops exercise not create a hot surface. This can be the safest cooktop for a home with an individual with autism because information technology is practically incommunicable to burn your hands by touching the cooktop. As well, if the private with autism turns the cooktop on and leaves information technology on, the burn risk is minimal.

Protect Children from Furniture

Tether bookcases and other piece of furniture to the wall to prevent them from tipping . Autistic children may climb furniture that others would leave lone, and if the article of furniture is not anchored properly to the wall, it could tip over and injure or kill the child. Falling furniture is actually a run a risk to all children, but because of the fashion autistic children collaborate with the world around them, it tin be a greater risk to these kids.
Install born shelving when possible . This further reduces the risk of having the furniture tip onto the child.
Mount media equipment to the wall at a high level . A media heart is a tipping risk as large televisions can easily fall off of a shelf or entertainment center. Mount these securely to the wall instead.
Recall to bolt dressers to the wall likewise . Dressers tin easily tip over, peculiarly when all of the drawers are opened. Use wall mounting systems to protect your autistic loved ane.
Employ 2 anchors when anchoring furniture to the wall. If one anchor fails or if it is not stiff enough to keep the article of furniture secure, y'all will have a fill-in piece.
Install anchors into wall studs or solid wood . Anchors can pull out of drywall or particle board furnishings hands, and then make sure they are mounted securely.

Protect Children from Drowning

Understand that many autistic children are fascinated by water . Considering of this, all sources of water need to exist protected from the child. This includes swimming pools as well every bit toilets and bathtubs.
Add a fence around whatsoever outdoor pools, lakes, or bodies of water. Fifty-fifty if the water seems shallow, it must be fenced to properly protect an autistic child. Remember, all it takes is an inch of water for a child to drown, and autistic children are drawn to h2o.
Install a pool alert . A pool alarm will alert you if someone, like your autistic loved one, falls into the pool accidentally. If you lot have a backyard puddle, you must take a pool alarm.

Boosted Safety Considerations

Protect your child from cocky-injury when head banging . Many people with autism will stim, which refers to performing repetitive movements that assistance soothe and calm an private with autism. Some types of stims, like head banging, have the potential to create injuries. Provide a space place in the home where these stims can take identify. If yous detect that your autistic child or loved i has a favorite identify to stim, make that identify condom by adding cushions and padding.
Consider whatsoever other self-injuring behaviors . Each individual with autism is unique, and the potentially cocky-injuring behaviors that i individual experiences will be different for another individual. If you notice self-injuring behaviors that the domicile environment could assist avoid, make the necessary changes.
Install locks on all dangerous storage areas. Medicines, household cleaners, sharp items, electronics that could be dangerous, and other family members' personal spaces should all exist locked and inaccessible to provide an added layer of protection. Keep in mind that simple childproof locks may not be sufficient to help protect autistic children from these risks.
Add plexiglass over TVs and picture frames . Shattered glass is a serious safety hazard, and so protect your property and your autistic loved one from this run a risk.
Consider installing security cameras . If self-injury or wandering are serious concerns, security cameras tin can give caretakers peace of heed as they consider the best interests of their autistic loved ones. This volition give you a tool to use to provide your autistic loved one with some independence inside the home, without sacrificing safety. You tin can ever check in on what they are doing, fifty-fifty while allowing them a measure of independence.
Accept extra measures during renovation or structure, when normal safeguards might not exist in place. Home renovations can disrupt your normal routines and introduce new risks to your loved one with autism. Exist particularly cautious during these times and assess any dangers.

For more considerations nearly prophylactic at dwelling house as it relates to autism, visit:

Autism Society: Safety in the Home
Autism Speaks: Safety in the Home
Occupational Therapy: Autism & Safety – Keeping Individuals with Autism Safe in Their Homes and Communities
Psychology Today: How Can We Aid Keep Children, Teens, and Adults With Autism Safe

Determination

Millions of people in America are living with an autism diagnosis. Chances are you know someone in your life who is learning to navigate life with this neurological condition. If that person lives in your dwelling or if you are responsible for them, then it is up to y'all to ensure your domicile environment is a prophylactic 1. These tips, tricks, and resources can help you lot create a safe haven where your loved one with autism or other sensory concerns can thrive.

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