Parenting Our Kids
Giving Time - Teaching Skills for Life

Timeout and other coping strategies.

by Justin
(on the edge..)

aaarrrrgggghhhh!!!

Like yourselves I have an autistic daughter about the same age as yours .... my wife and I, indeed all of the family, are struggling to cope with her when she 'loses it'. I was wondering if you could help us by suggesting any timeout techniques we could use - we really are struggling here and when we say stop what you are doing to our daughter she just gets angrier and says no!
Please, please is there any ideas you have that may help us.
She is such a lovely girl when she is happy and can be a lot of fun, but what with all the stresses she seems to have she and we are under an awful lot of stress. Few of our family and friends are able to understand what we are going through.....oddly enough I think they have problems with their own kids and could learn a lot from us, even if their situations are not as extreme as ours.

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Timeout
by: Eva

Hi .
I have a 7 year od son.
We have a tent set up in our dining room. You know the pop up kind.
In it are some easy books and cushions. When jake is getting stressed he goes in it to calm down.
Sometimes we encourage him to do this.

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Timeout and other coping strategies.
by: parenting-our-kids

Hi Justin,
Sorry to hear you are having a difficult time.
Here are some strategies we have tried.

A visual chart with the routine for the day in pictures (even a child who can read may need to use pictures when overwhelmed).

We also used a clock with pictures of activities stuck around the outside at the right times (you will need to make sure the activity can happen at the allocated times).

Use visual charts which you can easily make in Word then print off and laminate.
We are using one at the moment. It has "I am being good", "I am being naughty" and "I have been naughty" down the left side. Then the A4 sheet is divided into 5 by 3 squares to line up with the statements on left side.
We have added pictures of pocket money, a bed, sweets, kids club and eastenders which she loves.
Start these pictures in the i am being good column.
We then choose one to bring down when our daughter is naughty. It goes into the I am being naughty section. At this point it can be got back by good behaviour. If a picture goes into I have been naughty section then that thing is lost for the day.

Another strategy that is working at the moment is 15 minutes sat cooling down on the sofa. Not doing anything seems to help and calm our daughter down.

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