Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
my eldest daughter (6) is awaiting her diagnosis for autism. We noticed signs of autism when she was around 2/3 and mentioned this to our health visitor and nursery staff , they were very dismissive and put these things down to age and stage. It wasn’t until we moved from that area and got a new health visitor and put our daughter into a new nursery that we started to get taken seriously. The nursery teachers at her new nursery noticed certain behaviours and mannerisms and willingly supported us and spoke with our new health visitor.
my daughter has an issue with certain clothing and gets very distressed when getting dressed. I was wondering if anyone is in a similar situation and what practices you have in place to help with this
To this day I only wear certain types of clothing, predominantly cotton, because I find a lot of different sorts of fabrics to be quite uncomfortable, a lot of different sorts of stitching and seen styles to be uncomfortable. My parents tried almost everything to try and make me wear the clothes they wanted me to wear and it all proved to be pretty futile in the end.
if there is a running battle over clothing it may not be what you want to hear but I suggest capitulation. or at least a policy of appeasement. if you learn what features of clothing your daughter can and cannot easily tolerate you can avoid buying clothing that she won’t wear ahead of time.
Remember the autistic brain functions differently it’s not just that she’s less flexible it’s that her brain is physically processing the sensations of the clothing differently to yours. Although being less flexible is also arguably an autistic trait.
Hello @Scott Tollan
I'm sorry to hear that you initially had a negative experience.
You may find it useful to have a look at our autism page on our website which has a vast amount of information. The page contains information on the basics of what the autism spectrum is, how it's defined in a clinical sense, and the characteristics of autism:
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism
You may also find it useful to have a look at our pages on sensory differences, which may include some information on issues with clothing.
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/sensory-differences/sensory-differences/all-audiences#H2_9
I hope this helps,
ChloeMod