Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone,
I would like yo ask some tips and advises on how you could teach your autistic child to hold your hand when crossing the road? Do not run across and wait? My little one stops for a second, but she just does not understand the risk of road crossing and she does not want to hold our hands. Also, she just runs across without hesitation. There was a time when we carried her across and she went back, because she wanted to cross the road on her condition.
Could you please share some good practices?
Ooo this is a hard one ! My little one is 4 and doing the following helped loads. But obviously he's 4 I'd never let him approach a busy road alone. I'd say with time and perseverance it's worked to like 90%. If he's over excited he still does leg it but it has improved so much.
I'd take him out to different streets in our area which have very little cars during the day and cross the road over and over. I made the conscious effort to physically stop even if the road is clear, so he knows that is needed. ( he doesn't understand looking left and right for traffic. )
If he did happen to run out I make him go back to the path and do it again properly. Explaining difference between road and path and kerb at eye level.
The word stop became meaningless and I now use the word wait with a hand sign too.
Hand holding took a while too. I started with having to physically stop him with a bear hug type move, then moved that to a shoulder touch, to a he could hold my coat or shirt then to hand holding. The coat or clothing hold is a good one if you have full hands in general.