Adapt house to make Autism friendly

[Embrace]

How have you adapted your house to make it safe, easier, accessible, durable, etc
And if money were no object what would you do to your house?

Baby gates to make it safer. I'm sure this won't work for too long but ds1 has a general motor delay and is only 51/2 so can't climb over them yet.

If money was no object I would extend to add a therapy/sensory room so those things were separate to his bedroom.

We changed the door handles on our lounge to round turn ones so DS couldn't wander upstairs. We locked all the windows as he soon learn to get on the sills and we took our blinds down for safety reasons. We have a stair gate that he can't easily get over. We took the handles off most of our accessible cupboards as he would repeatedly open them and remove the contents.

If we could afford it, I would agree with hug and a therapy room where he could go in melt down mode and calm himself down without causing injury to himself or the room.

We took the plugs off the chains and hid them.

We chose a carpet for his bedroom that is full of colourful stripes to disguise spills, continence accidents etc

We have all drawers fitted with safety catches to prevent him emptying them.

Also removed the window wind-down-handle-things in the back of the car.

The reason I'd have a room if I could is ds1 is becoming increasingly violent towards ds2 and it could be a space for him alone to get away from ds2 when he's getting angry.

we are in a council property and I badly need to adapt things for DC but the council. who are supposed to help meet disabled needs are doing F.A, about it, even though ive been on at them yet if DC damages a door or something I have to pay for the repairs!!!!

and with noisy neighbours OT or no one helps with soundproofing!

OP if you are in a council house hopefully your council will better thsan mine!

I do have old matresses and things stuck on some walls and child locks on drawers and things.

We have locks on cupboards and drawers. Our 15 year old daughter has an internal bolt on her bedroom so can escape. We cleared the communal downstairs area of any clutter that may be breakable or used to break things, also thinks like knife block is high up out the way or in cupboards. The ties from the blinds have been secured with cable ties up high out of the way. We have just removed stair gates as they were more of an hindrance as son would climb and jump them. We would love to convert our loft so we could have a decent size bedroom for son (he currently has a tiny box room) and then a sensory room with padding etc. As we are not in the position to be able to afford that at the moment we have invested in our garden area and constructed a cabin which part is shed and the other two thirds is a chill out room/ sensory room. We have made our own sensory boards and purchased numerous sensory items and a range of dramatic lighting to give our son an area where he can chill, he also has regular physio which we are hoping to be able to do out there too. Alternatively if my daughter wants to get away from the madness of our home she can also escape there as many of the larger items can be moved so she uses the area to either socialise with friends or to practice her dancing.

We only just took our baby gates down, last summer, when DS2 learnt to climb over them at the ripe old age of 7. We now have a 4' tall dog gate to keep him out of the kitchen and bathroom, unsupervised. Soon after learning to climb, he mastered undoing things, so the handle of the dog gate is now secured with a removable cable tie, much to DS1's disgust.

DS1's prescription medication for his ADHD is kept in a cash box with a combination lock. He's 10 and we don't want him to decide to be grown up and take it upon himself to take his own medicine.

Things that need to be kept safe are either in the kitchen or locked in our bedroom, which also has a keypad lock. This means that we can also keep the key in the window lock in there, so we have a sort of fire escape, without worrying about one of the boys opening it, during the day.

The child lock is enabled on the washer, as DS2 went through a phase of tampering with it when he was in the kitchen.

We have an induction hob - they don't stay hot for very long, when you've finished with them.

The TV cabinet is lockable, as are any cupboards where we keep toys with small bits and the boys' wardrobe. The cupboard under the stairs has also been kept locked since DS2 started going in there and dismantling the vacuum cleaner.

We did consider replacing the old carpet with hard flooring, for easy cleaning, but the carpet is acoustically a lot more gentle, so we've stuck with it and invested in a good carpet washer.

We also don't have any sort of slatted blinds in living areas (I don't find them that cosy, anyhow.) I have voiles on pressure rods, so if they get messed about with, they come down. We do have venetian blinds in the kitchen, as the sun shines in directly, as they're the best at reducing glare without plunging the room into total darkness. They're safely behind a deep worktop, anyhow - I have to climb on the worktop to clean them. (They don't get cleaned unless DH does it!)

Our past two cars have had electric windows where the rear windows can be disabled by the driver. DS2 has a car seat with a 5 point harness and chest clip, as it's the only type he can't escape from.