To tie DT1’s ankles together and stash him in a cupboard?

[SinkGirl]

I am of course joking. But he’s seriously going to break his neck or legs if I don’t do something.

He’s always had very good gross motor skills - he’s delayed in everything else (he’s autistic and has no real sense of danger, doesn’t feel pain very much and doesn’t understand any words).

He’s always been a climber but recently he’s been experimenting with traversing the lounge eg jumping from the sofa to the coffee table, then falling backwards off the coffee table on to the sofa, then adding in a spin...

So we moved the coffee table, and now his new game is standing on the coffee table and jumping off on to the floor (to be fair he always sticks the landing with both feet, very good dismount - I would be impressed if I wasn’t terrified...).

What can I do? Tried toddler gymnastics, he can’t take instruction as he doesn’t understand and it just makes him worse. You can’t tire him out, he doesn’t tire! I got a gym ball and he likes bouncing on that with me holding him but then he’s straight back to jumping off furniture and traversing the window sills.

I tell him no, I take him down. He does it again, x100. If he does fall and bang his head he gets straight back up and does it again.

Our downstairs is one room with the kitchen off it (there’s a stair gate, he can obviously climb over it but rarely tries). Short of gutting my house and turning it into a soft play, what can I do?!

Somehow we’ve only had one trip to A&E after he had a bog standard trip and went eyebrow first into the wooden base of the sofa. We can’t keep up this luck forever!

They’re 3.5 by the way.

Any brilliant ideas? Our house is very small so limited space. Our garden has multiple levels and therefore a hazard to them (especially DT2 who’s autistic and is vision impaired too). We’ve had a bit of remedial work done but levelling it would be a massive job.

Soon he will progress to 'leap from coffee table to sofa' and 'jump on sofa and do a headstand' or 'attemp cartwheel'

DS is almost 4 and those are his favourite activities, sorry!

You can buy gym type foldable mats in the childrens bit of ikea to make a soft landing area?

Foam corners for anything sharp.

If you can, get them gross motor toys they can use relatively safely eg space hoppers, indoor ride on toys, rebounder, wobble board, sit & spin - will give the sensory input and motor movement without the furniture element. There’s something called Gorilla Gym which is like a swing/trapeze for indoor doorways, I’m eyeing one up but not tried it yet.

Keep watch when they are tired as IME that’s when the coordination fails - amazingly few accidents when not tired.

Try not to care about the paintwork...

Sorry no magic solutions . DC2 is similar and broke her arm last year - I’m slightly hoping that might give her a long overdue sense of fear. She’s had far more accidents than DC1 who has terrible coordination but isn’t a climber.

PS for the garden, is there any way you could rig up some sort of slide to help them get down the levels?

The levels aren’t really big enough for a slide - more like a dangerous falling hazard. There’s raised decking and a slightly lower raised lawn. We had some work done to remove the raised pond in the middle of the decking and put picket fencing around the lawn so they can’t fall off but there’s still some issues we are trying to sort.

He just has no fear at all. We are lucky that he has such good control of his body or we’d be in bigger trouble. It wouldn’t be so bad if he actually cared enough to stop when he hurts himself - that’s quite a good limiter for most kids. Not mine though!

Thanks will look at what else we could try indoors. We have a seesaw they like for a bit but then get bored - not as exciting as falling backwards off a table I guess 😂

I hear you. DS (3.5) is the same. He spends any time at home jumping from coffee table to sofa straight into headstand. He only watches TV upside down... One of his favourite tricks is to jump off the arm of the sofa onto the floor and into a forward roll.
He is child #3 though so I'm a bit more lax. Also I've given up fucking telling him because short of gaffa taping him to a chair he is a perpetual motion machine.
At 18 months he was climbing the Billy Bookcases as if it was a climbing frame. We ended up boxing up the books and removing the lower shelves - but as you say you can't have a totally soft padded lounge.
We bought one of those IKEA padded mats but he just kicks it out of the way or uses it to do even more extreme stuff!
I can't even stick him in the garden as he just climbs the tree which is even more dangerous! Ignoring the trampoline, slide, sandpit, toys etc. Nope, tree with thin bendy branches is much better....

My son's are also autistic and have both gone through similar habits at roughly the same age.

Honestly, the only thing you can do is to make the space as safe as possible to minimise the risk of injury because they're going to do it regardless and redirection doesn't always work when children like ours are obsessed with a specific set of actions.

Move the coffee table elsewhere along with anything breakable, pad the corners on anything sharp (a pool noodle half sliced vertically makes a great bumper for edges), and make sure any heavy items of furniture are bolted to the wall so they can't tip if climbed.

Redirect where possible if he'll allow it. You can get things like wobble boards, indoor mini trampolines with a bar to hold onto while you jump, spinning tops that you sit in, foam blocks, etc.

www.cheapdisabilityaids.co.uk/fine-and-gross-motor-skills-80-c.asp

One thing my younger DS loves and which satisfies that urge for vestibular input is the egg chair from IKEA. They're £55 new but they often crop up on selling sites for around £10-£20. He sits and spins it round and round and round. Other times he tucks his legs inside, pulls the shutter down, and asks me to spin him. Other times he just hides in silence with the shutter down and has himself some quiet time, its been well worth the money.

www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/ikea-ps-loemsk-swivel-armchair-white-red-10407136/

The indoor trampolines with handles? Foam on all the sharp corners?
Do you have an OT involved? It sounds like sensory seeking.

Rocking chair?

My ds7 was like this as a toddler........ he now climbs up door frames and jumps from furniture to furniture shouting parkour, but we had mini trampoline & a ball pit thing in the house

Have you a local parkour club. A lot do classes from 3 and it's different from gymnastics.

Redirect where possible if he'll allow it. You can get things like wobble boards, indoor mini trampolines with a bar to hold onto while you jump, spinning tops that you sit in, foam blocks, etc.

www.cheapdisabilityaids.co .uk

Agree with the sentiment but please do not use this company. They have a horrendous reputation for customer service, for not delivering, for taking months and threats to refund money. Please google for yourselves (they are known as Cheap Disability Aids and also Sensory Education) to see the bad reviews.

Trampoline?

@Eggysmom really? I'm shocked, they were recommended by DS occupational therapist and I've ordered from them a few times with no issues. I've just have a quick google and I'll certainly think twice from now on though, I'll also pass this on to our OT so they're aware.

Any indoor climbing centres near you?
Even a commercial one like a Rock-Up is excellent.

Kids Parkour.
Try Gymnastics again or trampolining.

It all sounds very sensory seeking...have you tried weighted blankets for calming or even the weighted backpack for added work load.

Both my ASD kids were very similar, both are now excelling in their chosen sports and the danger awareness has kicked in, finally!

Look at Well Child garden makeovers to help make your garden safer.

We have a bellicon indoor trampoline for physio, brilliant quality.

Pikler triangle? At least they're designed to take the weight.

Mine leapt from the top of the sofa onto the floor.Telling off doesn’t work 🙄

I have twins with autism, adhd and sensory processing where they are both massive seekers so I get you! mine climb the door frames, hold on to the top of the door and jump! things that have helped us are the egg chair from ikea, a hanging bar and hanging them regularly, a peanut ball. have heard fab things about the gorilla gym but our doors aren't strong enough. we also brought a climbing frame with all sorts of attachments that fixes to the wall outside but you can attach them to the wall inside. ours has a ladder, hanging bar, rope, rings etc. they adore it - friends are terrified! I get you though, we have people who wont go to the park with us anymore. have you tried taking them trampolining or to somewhere like clip n climb? they are both successes with ours

Scooter board? They lie on it on their tummy and scoot themselves around with their hands. Only works if you have hard floors

Probably not hugely helpful but at that age we had to have a LOT of sensory activities.

Rolling seemed to give lots of vestibular input without wrecking the house.

Is there anywhere you could jam a ballpool?

Either swimming or swings were pretty much essential daily activities.

Commando crawling games took the edge off as well.

In fairness we weren’t in the same league so I don’t know if any of that is helpful. Lots of sympathy.

Have you a local parkour club. A lot do classes from 3 and it's different from gymnastics.

Took him to a local one. He had the BEST EVER TIME... and that’s when the furniture scaling started in earnest. I think it gave him ideas 😂

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I will check them all out. It’s a shame we are so limited on space. We have been discussing getting the loft converted so we can move them into our room and turn their small room into a padded climbing zone! Won’t help in the short term though.

Just asked again for him to be referred to OT - DT2 was only recently referred and his sensory seeking is much worse (mainly mouthing but also spinning and moving constantly but he’s less of a climber). Will see what they say. The OTs here are inundated and they say there’s not much they can do when their understanding is so limited.

We are waiting for the social care OT to come out and advise us on their bedroom (they are currently still in cots, DT1’s has a mosquito net that zips over it otherwise he vaults out but it’s not safe for them to be out of bed). Will ask them for any tips to make the downstairs / garden safer.

Will get an Ikea egg chair for sure.

I can't seem to post a link I'm afraid but if you Google 'climbing walls in house' there are lots of ideas online. Of course I have no idea how practical or affordable it would be but it might be enough to focus his attention on safe, risk controlled climbing rather than seeing every surface, piece of furniture and doorframe as a challenge? Oh good luck, it sounds terrifying for you!

My apologies, I see you've already looked into the indoor climbing walls.