What do you do with your ASD child in the holidays?

[openupmyeagereyes]

DS is 4 and about to break up for the summer. As he’s starting school in September, and starting later than the main school year, we have 7.5 weeks of summer holiday to fill!

Could I ask what activities and games you do with your similar aged child both at home and out. Picnics are out because he doesn’t really eat out and wouldn’t stay sitting in the same place long enough - though I may try some in the garden with his school packed lunch box once I’ve got it.

He is verbal but very much still driven by his own agenda. Little danger awareness so needs constant watching! Oh, and he’s an only child so no other dc at home.

TIA.

...and I’m a SAHM so I have every day to fill. We do have a weeks holiday planned and a list of local events over the summer but looking for more ideas.

Mine are much older now but when ds was four it felt like all we did was survive tbh. He had his old baby bath on the garden and various bottles/cups etc and spent a lot of time systematically emptying it over the garden and then I'd fill it up for him to do again. We live by a park and every evening when everyone had gone home he'd go and run circuits of the football pitch. We went on walks and drives to spot new lamp post and favourite TV aeriels. He watched lots of Blues Clues and Rugrats and when I felt brave enough I'd take him out somewhere and he'd invariably scream until we left. But he's 23 now and that is a long time ago and he is so much easier these days.

Thanks flesh DS has had obsessions with telegraph poles and pylons at different times. What is it about these sorts of things and ASD?

Do you know they numbered all the lamp posts around here? My son was in seventh heaven because he loved numbers as well. It was a long six weeks when we walked one lamp post to the next so he could recite the numbers on them. He had a fantastic memory (still does tbh) and memorised the five digit numbers to dozens of his favourite lamp posts. I bet you if I asked him now the number on his best ever lamp post he'd still know it some twenty years later.

Hi open!.my son is 7 and has obsessions with lamposts and bathroom wall lights..he had an obsession with wall clocks for 4years . At one point i had over 100 in my 2bed flat ..my plans are go ape actitivy..pony riding.fruit picking..trampoline park..light shop .quiet country park to scoot..funfair and probably a daily trip to McDonald's..hes lived on fries and strawberries for 2years ..dreading the hols.but plan to just take it day by day.might do a 3day caravan hol close to london so if it all goes horribly wrong i can get back

I did not know that the lampposts are numbered but I will be checking now! They are more interesting than I thought

Milk the noise from that many clocks would drive me bonkers at night, how ever did you cope?

I hope you can get a few days away at some point.

Yes yes yes.!! Its like clockwork orange in his bedroom ..and dont get me started on the cost of batteries..he notices aswell if i remove even one battery..theres 38 clocks in there at present.the rest are in boxes on the balcony..untill he notices that is.he went to bed with ipad tonight watching electricans on you tube giving tutorials on changing bathroom lights..

Well, that will be very useful in the future at least. Things seem positively dull around here in comparison.

Milk we had an antique chiming clock at one time and there was a short period in our lives where we all used to have to gather round the clock to observe the hourly chimes. We were summoned by ds with a blood curdling scream when he heard movement prepare to chime. I was bloody glad when that spell ended I can tell you.

Summer holidays are really hard. If you go onto your local authority website, they should have some links for summer activities for children with SN. In our area, they used to do things like a morning of activities with sensory toys/ lights/ sounds, messy play and train sets. Some were free and you could book a couple of hours where you could leave your child with trained staff. If you google your local Parent Partnership website, they usually post any activities for children with SN in your area.

I have 3 DC with ASD and unfortunately they do not share any interests, so it was difficult to keep them all amused. The only thing I did that pleased all of them was to take them on outings to different parks/playgrounds with a packed lunch. If it involved a train or bus journey, so much the better! Playgrounds with sandpits were always good.

flesh I hope that phase did not last long for you!

Thanks zen I will take a look. We’re already hoping to do a ‘ready, steady school’ course run by one of the childrens centres.

At this age with DS I used montessori activities a lot. I'd set up little exercises on trays like wrapping presents, folding t shirts, spooning couscous, using tongs to move bits of pasta from one pot to another, sorting and matching coins. He didn't really play with many things as such, whereas he quite liked having these "tasks". I'm sure it was a total bastardisation of actual montessori methods, but it gave him free access to stuff to do that wasn't just the same pegboard over and over. We also did a lot of pretend cooking. I'd give him lots of little pots of different ingredients and he'd mix them, add water etc. Messy, but fine on the patio in summer.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

There are two autism support groups near me that each run a week long summer camp. One is a lego camp and the other is mixed activities. Its good because its somewhere to go for that week and there is no pressure on you or your child as everyone there is in a similar boat. Maybe some groups in your area run camps? The groups near me also run classes during the year like karate and kayaking and a weekly lego club.

I’m going to take my son one day to a horseriding place that has a good name for working with children with autism. My son might be afraid to get up on the pony - although they are a very small breed so he might give it a go. He would like a chance to deal with the pony up close as he loves animals.

We go to a lot of outdoors places as DS seems to be calmer amd happier at places like the beach or the woods or climbing (small) mountains.

PureColdWind where did you hear about the camps? Do you stay with him or leave him there?

I just googled about autism support groups in our area and they have facebook pages where they advertise their activities.