8 Great Parenting Tips for Parents of Kids with Autism

Parents spend endless hours thinking about and planning for their children’s futures. Before the baby comes, they spend months preparing the nursery, buying clothes, and baby-proofing the house.1 When the baby arrives, there are endless hours of lost sleep and worries about how the baby will grow and if it will thrive.

Now if you have kids who experience autism then this article is best suited for you. Here we will be discussing 8 parenting tips for parents of kids with autism.

How to Raise Your Kids with Autism?

From start to finish, raising a child can be a daunting and challenging experience, but it’s one that parents wouldn’t give up for the world. The challenges of parenting a child can be increased when that child has special needs, like considerations for their specific kind of autism.2

There’s a lot that you need to know as the proud parent of a child on the autism spectrum. You’ll need to learn about crisis prevention intervention, how to manage a bad day, how to interact with your child productively, and how to be patient when it feels like all your best efforts are failing.

We have a checklist of eight parenting tips that will help support both parents and their autistic children to make the most of their time together.

8 Parenting Tips for Parents of Kids with Autism

1. Positivity

If you don’t know this from experience already, you will soon; focussing on the positive side is the only way forward. Stressful moments can often lead to a negative response or reaction, but positive responses and reinforcement are the only way to interact with an autistic child. Instead of chastising the child when they aren’t doing too well, focus on reinforcing their positive behaviours3 with praise.

Be as specific as you can with your positive reinforcement so that the child knows which of their behaviours they should focus on. If things go really well, try rewarding them with a prize like a sticker or more playtime. Love your child for who they are, not who you wish they were.

2. Consistency

People on the autism spectrum4, particularly children, favour routine. It provides a framework that makes them feel safe and allows them to understand how much time they have available for however many activities they need to do.

Routine is particularly helpful when trying to include new activities into your schedule. New things can be a little bit frightening when you are a creature of habit; sticking to a routine helps autistic children apply the knowledge they already have to new and possibly stressful situations.

3. Play

Make time for play every day. Not only does playtime help your child relax, but it also helps them to let off steam that might have been building up for a while. Playtime is also an educational experience that can help with learning new behaviours 5and make them seem a little bit less scary.

4. Go Slow

Introducing any new idea could potentially be overwhelming for your autistic child and also for you if you don’t remember to take it slowly. We know parents are probably eager to get the introduction of anything new over and done with, but autistic children need more time than others to accept and understand anything new.

5. Include Your Child

If your child is going through a particularly difficult time or their behaviour is typically somewhat unpredictable, you may be inclined to leave them at home when you return books at the library or get some groceries from the store.

While it might make boring, everyday activities a little simpler not to have them along, we encourage you to include your child in everyday things. It might help even out a bad patch of behaviour to see that unscheduled activities can feel ok and it’s more time spent with the one you love.

6. Explore Respite Care

In caring for your autistic child, you also need to care for yourself. Finding out a little bit about respite care (childcare for when you can’t make a scheduling conflict work or for when you really need a break to take a moment for yourself) can make you feel like you have an option if you need it. It can take enormous amounts of pressure off your shoulders just knowing that help is there if you need it.

7. Have a Support System

It would be an excellent idea to find a support group for parents of autistic children. Being able to vent and talk to people who understand your challenges from personal experience can be very helpful in managing your stress. Support goes beyond just a support group; your friends and family should understand and accept the challenges you may face and be willing to work around them.

8. Take it Easy

Go easy on yourself! You’re doing the best that you can every day, and your child loves you for it.

Key Takeaways

You’ll face challenges, and you’ll overcome them, one by one and day by day, if you keep these tips in mind.

Hope you have gained enough information on how you can raise your kids who have autism. The goal is – ‘To Take it Easy’ and let your child be comfortable.6

FAQs

1. How can I be a good parent to my autistic child?

Ans. By doing the following you can be a good parent to your autistic child:

  • Look at what interests your child.
  • Let them follow a schedule which is easy and predictable.
  • Teach tasks with smaller steps.
  • Involve yourself in your child’s routine.

2. What not to do with a child who is having autism?

Ans. Following are the things which you must avoid with a child who is having autism:

  • Making them feel bad about their autism.
  • Trying to ‘cure’ their autism problem.
  • Blame everything on their autism problem.
  • Pretending that your child cannot hear you while you talk about them.

3. What foods should I not give my autistic child?

Ans. Gluten, Dairy, Corn, Soy, and other allergic suspected food must not be given to autistic children.

  1. Gilbert, Matthew A. “Safety net: wonder years baby proofing helps give parents peace of mind by customizing houses to keep hazards for children at a minimum.” San Fernando Valley Business Journal 9.18 (2004): 30-31. ↩︎
  2. Verhoeff, Berend. “What is this thing called autism? A critical analysis of the tenacious search for autism’s essence.” BioSocieties 7 (2012): 410-432. ↩︎
  3. Rafi, Aisha, Ambreen Ansar, and Muneeza Amir Sami. “The implication of positive reinforcement strategy in dealing with disruptive behaviour in the classroom: A scoping review.” Journal of Rawalpindi Medical College 24.2 (2020). ↩︎
  4. Johnson, Chris Plauché, and Scott M. Myers. “Identification and evaluation of children with autism spectrum disorders.” Pediatrics 120.5 (2007): 1183-1215. ↩︎
  5. Taris, Toon W., et al. “Learning new behaviour patterns: A longitudinal test of Karasek’s active learning hypothesis among Dutch teachers.” Work & Stress 17.1 (2003): 1-20. ↩︎
  6. Coakley, Rachael. When your child hurts: effective strategies to increase comfort, reduce stress, and break the cycle of chronic pain. Yale University Press, 2016. ↩︎

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Icy Health Editorial Team

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