Autism classifies as a developmental disorder whose symptoms include difficulty in social interactions and impaired communication skills marked by delayed speech, inability to follow directions and non-verbal cues. Other symptoms may be physical and include weak muscle tone and hand strength. As a parent, you may feel anxious dealing with an autistic child. However, it is possible to raise the child and see him or her off to a successful adult life.
Raising an autistic child requires a lot of patience. You should also get professional advice to ensure you create the best environment for your child. One way of doing this is by ensuring you build important coping skills that the child can use way into adulthood. It will also make it easier for you, allowing you to concentrate on other things happening in your life, especially if you have other children to raise. You will find various activities that you can start your child on early enough to help develop the necessary coping skills.
Enter fidget toys
One aspect of this condition is that it affects the child’s ability to process sensory information the brain receives. The effect of this is that the child will show over-sensitivity to particular sensory stimuli such as taste, smells, light, touch of certain objects on their skin or noise. They find such stimuli excessive to their senses. Fidget toys provide one of the best ways to deal with this over sensitivity
They do this by helping to regulate the sensory system of the autistic child or adult. In an anxious situation, the autistic child will feel stressed out and this will fill his mind with many thoughts that can be overwhelming. Having a fidget toy in his hand allows him or her to focus on this effect in a calming way. With so many fidget toys with different effects, you may be unsure of the right toy for your child. The toy will help give the over-stimulated mind one sensation to focus on.
Choosing the best suited toy
Getting the right toy for your child makes all the difference in its effectiveness. Different designs help with the different stimuli such as touch, sound and taste. For example, a stress ball will help in calming an over stimulated sense of touch. Other toys include chewing, noise and smell options. Picking the best toy should start by a clinical observation that will show the sensory inclination your child would go for. Following the lead the child presents enhances the effectiveness of the toy.
Some children respond well to music, others crave oral stimuli while others want to have things in their hands Marcus Joseph Debaise. Experts recommend getting different types of fidget toys for your child to use. Some like stress balls are useful not just in alleviating the anxiety but also in boosting the child’s hand strength. In many cases, an autistic child will have weak hand muscles due to under use of hands, especially when such a child has an aversion to touch sensory. A fidget toy that takes care of this would be an added advantage.
