Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi
This is my first post regarding my 8yr old non verbal autistic daughter. The last few months she refused coats , bottoms , cardigans and only wanted to wear tops and shorts. The school said this is part of her sensory issues ( she has been under OT since she was 4yrs old)
But now she is completely refusing to wear ANY clothes , she is naked. Every time we try to dress her , she screams , she is literally scared of clothes, her anxiety goes through the roof
doesn’t want them anywhere near her ,
Because of this she has not been in school for the past 2 weeks , waiting for a CAMHS assessment
anyone help with suggestions ?
Turn the heating down at home? It's cold, it's winter. But if her home is toasty she has no use for clothing. If it starts to get cold I think she'll quickly find one or two items she can tolerate. She'll probably wear these one or two items a lot so your next job is to figure out why and get tons of near identical items as you slowly turn the thermostat up. Oh and some autistic people are less sensitive to cold so be aware things might have to get quite uncomfortable for you before it effects her.
I think it's possible you see that part of what's setting her off is the anxiety of having other people dress her as much as the clothing itself. So don't dress her. provide her with a range of options and let her dress herself. If she won't then you need to find ways to induce her that don't involve dressing her yourself.
sounds like a guy thing. but i like it. especially if she won't get sick.