Occupational Therapy can assist in the development of ongoing life skills like self-care, adulting and motor skills.
Self-care involves many of the everyday tasks we perform to keep ourselves healthy, hygienic and safe. Examples of self-care include brushing our hair, teeth, washing, brushing hair, shaving and many more. Self-care can be challenging for autistic individuals especially for those who may struggle with sensory difficulties. Some examples of sensory difficulties that an individual may encounter in relation to self-care include difficulties with the feeling of a toothbrush or the taste of toothpaste or struggles in relation to getting your hair touched, making hair washing and cutting difficult. Difficulties with textures of fabrics are also very common for example, seams, tags or harder materials like jeans etc., which could potentially pose problems with school uniforms or other dress codes. The goal of an occupational therapist is to assist the client to be as independent as possible in every day activities. Sometimes this may involve modifying the environment, the activities or learning a variety of sensory strategies. As discussed before, the variety within the autism spectrum means that some autistic people may require greater support in certain learning life skills than others
Discussions of autism are often dominated concern with childhood and education, but we must remember autistic children grow up to be autistic adults, who will require certain life skills. The best way to ease your child into the transition into adulthood is by taking it slowly, step by step. Treat the transition into adulthood like learning any new skill. Break the “skill” or transition down into components and learn each component step by step. For example, learning new skills such as cooking, cleaning, personal hygiene or even managing your own finances can each be broken down into basic step by step instructions to follow. Some of these things can be introduced at a younger age such as helping prepare the dinner at an age appropriate level, introducing pocket money to begin understanding how to manage finances and helping with chores around the house. You may have pre-existing systems that work for you and your child such as using phone reminders or colour coded systems to help with organisation. Use what you have learnt works best for your child and apply these to new tasks that they are learning. Remember, you know your child better than anyone else, you know what works for them and where they need support. The more gradually you can prepare for the transition into adulthood, the easier this will be for your child.
- Backwards chaining is a useful technique to learn any skills. Often learning the steps to learn a skill backwards can be a useful way to learn a skill. For example, pulling the last knot when tying laces. This helps the child feel the success of completing the task while reducing the stress involved with learning the task.
- Visually representing a task is a useful way to help autistic individuals learn. For example demonstrating the steps a task involves yourself or using pictures of each step as part of a social story which your child watches before getting them to try it themselves.
- It is important to start the task in the simplest possible form and work your way up in terms of increasing the difficulty involved with the task. For example, when learning how to catch, start with a balloon rather than a ball as it is lighter and moves more slowly than a wall would. This will allow us to learn and improve hand-eye coordination and build these skills gradually.
What challenges might an autistic person face with self-care? Self-care involves many of the everyday tasks we perform to keep ourselves healthy, hygienic and safe. Examples of self-care include brushing our hair, teeth, washing, brushing hair, shaving and many more. Self-care can be challenging for autistic individuals especially for those who may struggle with sensory difficulties. Some examples of sensory difficulties that an individual may encounter in relation to self-care include difficulties with the feeling of a toothbrush or the taste of toothpaste or struggles in relation to getting your hair touched, making hair washing and cutting difficult. Difficulties with textures of fabrics are also very common for example, seams, tags or harder materials like jeans etc., which could potentially pose problems with school uniforms or other dress codes. The goal of an occupational therapist is to assist the client to be as independent as possible in every day activities. Sometimes this may involve modifying the environment, the activities or learning a variety of sensory strategies. As discussed before, the variety within the autism spectrum means that some autistic people may require greater support in certain learning life skills than others.
How can you support your child through the transition from childhood to adulthood? Discussions of autism are often dominated concern with childhood and education, but we must remember autistic children grow up to be autistic adults, who will require certain life skills. The best way to ease your child into the transition into adulthood is by taking it slowly, step by step. Treat the transition into adulthood like learning any new skill. Break the “skill” or transition down into components and learn each component step by step. For example, learning new skills such as cooking, cleaning, personal hygiene or even managing your own finances can each be broken down into basic step by step instructions to follow. Some of these things can be introduced at a younger age such as helping prepare the dinner at an age appropriate level, introducing pocket money to begin understanding how to manage finances and helping with chores around the house. You may have pre-existing systems that work for you and your child such as using phone reminders or colour coded systems to help with organisation. Use what you have learnt works best for your child and apply these to new tasks that they are learning. Remember, you know your child better than anyone else, you know what works for them and where they need support. The more gradually you can prepare for the transition into adulthood, the easier this will be for your child.
What strategies can I use to develop motor skills and coordination at home?
- Backwards chaining is a useful technique to learn any skills. Often learning the steps to learn a skill backwards can be a useful way to learn a skill. For example, pulling the last knot when tying laces. This helps the child feel the success of completing the task while reducing the stress involved with learning the task.
- Visually representing a task is a useful way to help autistic individuals learn. For example demonstrating the steps a task involves yourself or using pictures of each step as part of a social story which your child watches before getting them to try it themselves.
- It is important to start the task in the simplest possible form and work your way up in terms of increasing the difficulty involved with the task. For example, when learning how to catch, start with a balloon rather than a ball as it is lighter and moves more slowly than a wall would. This will allow us to learn and improve hand-eye coordination and build these skills gradually.
