ASD and sharing a bedroom...

[Shellywelly1973]

Need a bit of advice, so i hope someone who had dealt with this can help! I have 3 DC, DD10, DS 7 & DS4.

DS 7 has ASD & ADHD. He has had his own room now for a few months as i moved DD10 into another room. Problem is DS4 was supposed to move into DS7 room...

I delayed this as DS7 was going through a really rough time, moving school etc. Now the time has come to move DS4 into the bedroom. DS4 is still in a cot, in our room and he starts reception in September!!!

DS7 understandably, is not happy about this but it needs to be done. DS7 only sleeps in his room, never plays in there. I would have to adjust the bedtime routines but i could do this slowly.

So any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated to reduce the stress this will inevitably cause DS7.

Thanks.

For things like this we make a plan by dividing the whole event into small steps. Then mark the steps down in a way that your DS7 can understand and prepare him for it. For eg you could decide on a day when the move will happen then move the cot into the room in the morning. A Saturday might be a good day to allow DS7 to get used to seeing the cot in his room. Then move on from there.

Hope that helps and it goes better than you expect. A reward at the end can always help too.

The cot wont b going into the room-there are bunks in the room.

Good idea about breaking it down & the reward...hadnt thought of giving him a reward-i should know better!

Thanks

If the cot's not going in then that's one thing he won't have to cope with . If your ds7 is anything like many DCs with AS and ADHD, he'll get over the change. It may take time, but he can get there.

What I find helpful to keep me calm is to listen and acknowledge my DS' feelings. The more my DS knows I understand that he's finding it hard and let him express those feelings safely, the better things are. He generally comes through to acceptance now, given time to work it out.