Unbreakable spectacles?

Hello

My 13 year old son has autism. He keeps breaking his glasses when angry or frustrated. He can tell us that it's not because he doesn't like the glasses (he likes them and knows he gets headaches without them) but because it's so satisfying to break them when he is angry. 7 pairs since Christmas - roughly one a month, and given that there is a gap inbetween as we make appointments, wait for the frames to be made etc, they can't be lasting longer than two weeks. He absolutely hates going to Specsavers because of the bright lights, noise, physical proximity of people etc. (We have learnt the quieter times to go)

Can anyone recommend a good brand of unbreakable glasses? The last ones to break were 'ultraflex'

Thank you so much. 

Vicky

Parents
  • Can you get him to break something else? Does he have a stress ball or something that he can just hit?

    Perhaps he has to learn that not having specs is more trouble than the satisfaction that he gets from breaking them. Perhaps you need to be slower to replace them?

  • Hello recombinantsocks - thank you for taking the trouble to reply. We have tried stress ball, fidget spinner and one of those dice things. The sense he seems to crave is a 'snap'. The best we have done is to give him uncooked pasta to break. He finds that very satisfying. The trouble is that when he's angry, we don't get the glasses off quickly enough.  He just loses all control so unpredictably and seems completely overwhelmed by anger. I expect their are other threads here about anger management. Ultimately, your last suggestion might be most helpful - let him learn that breaking spex is too much trouble!

  • Hi Vicky,

    I'm afraid I can't offer any advice about brands of glasses. However, the following link provides some information on behaviour and strategies which you may find useful: http://www.autism.org.uk/living-with-autism/understanding-behaviour.aspx .

    Best wishes,

    Nellie-Mod

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