Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there,
Any advise would be great. My nearly 13 year old daughter was diagnosed with ASD back in October last year. We find that we are always having to have the same conversations over and over. For example she likes to have the volume up so loud when watching her iPad or listening to her music with her headphones on. We tell her daily to turn it down but she doesn’t ever seem to listen. We’ve explained its to protect her hearing. It’s so frustrating for us. Does anyone else go through the same thing with their children. Any suggestions on ways to get her to listen and take on board what we’ve told her? Or explanation as to why she doesn’t listen? Sorry if this sounds like a really silly question.
thank you in advance for your advise.
:-)
It can feel like they are being stupid or deliberately disobedient to annoy you. It's neither. It's just the way that your young person processes means that some things don't sink in the same way as they do with neuro typicals.
My suggestion is to remain calm, give one step at a time instructions, not giving explanations at the time of the incident. When you explain why not to do something you're potentially providing lots of complex information, possibly overloading her. Maybe try social stories or similar, at a calm time, to get across the why.
I'd love to tell you that I've found a perfect solution and we now don't have the repetitive conversations but they still happen and I still have those thoughts about it being to annoy. The above may, or may not, help you and your daughter reduce these incidents.