How to reduce screen time when the child has very limited interests?

[coffeeNpie]

DS is going to be 6 in Feb next year. He is autistic, non verbal and has learning difficulties. He has been spending too much time watching YouTube Kids on his tablet recently. He has very limited interests - likes to paint, water play or being on the swing. We take him to parks, play areas and swimming. He has a good selection of toys at home to play with. But he shows no interest in doing anything other than watching shows on his tablet. He sits to paint for a couple of minutes and then gets bored too quickly and just wants his tablet.

All this has made his echolalia worse. The school also brought this up in the parent meeting saying that his constant vocalizations are bothering the children in his class. He keeps repeating the phrases and gets very noisy when he is bored. I just don't understand how to get him engaged in an activity. He shows no interest.

Can anyone please help?

What about an indoor swing, mini trampoline or other sensory toys?

Thanks for the ideas.

I am looking into getting the swing and other sensory toys.

Can you please recommend an online store, other than Amazon?

For the swing look at Southpaw or Gorilla Gym. Southpaw also do other sensory items but I think they might be on the more expensive side compared to other places, I don’t know I haven’t looked at their other items.

If you do look at an indoor trampoline Bellicon are brilliant.

Thank you so much!

I try and extend screen interests into play to coax my DS away from the screen.

So if your DS watches a video of kids skating down ramps on repeat. Make some little ramps and get toys to 'skate' down them etc. If he watches videos of water slides, turn a marble run into a water slide etc.

Basically, lean into the special interests...

My 10 year has similar issue, he is just too much into TV but we have managed to set some time limits now. One thing works with him is "out of sight, out of mind". Take him out to park/beach/playgrounds/restaurants without carrying a screen with you (leave your phone also at home if possible). Instead of investing in trampoline or indoor equipments, I suggest you explore subscription to playzones e.g. my son's favourite "Partyman world of play" (£10 per month for unlimited visits was not a bad investment) or "Slime Planet" was a hit given his interest in slime/sensory stuff. That way you will have more opportunity to find out what works for him

Thank you every one for the ideas and tips.

@SpecialMumm We do take DS out to the parks, restaurants and shopping, mostly on the weekends. It gets tough on a weekday as he has long journey back from school and too tired to do any physical activities. My DH and I work full time and we have a 12 yo boy as well.

When we take DS to a restaurant, he would sit still for a bit. But then gets easily bored, starts reaching out to other tables, stand on his chair and doesn't eat properly. If we ask DS to sit and eat, he wants his tablet or a phone.

Playzone subscriptions is good idea. Need to see which ones are closer to us.

I think you need to consider this a long term project. At 5/6 years old and ND, if he engages with an activity for 5 minutes then that’s a good result and something to build on over time with regular and consistent encouragement.

I would offer a range or regular activities that are not too onerous to set up (ie you’re not spending 30 minutes setting up something that he does for 5 minutes) and loop through them. Maybe update the list of activities each month. Include lots of sensory rich activities like sand, rice and playdough and the other stuff he likes. Websites like The Imagination Tree are great for ideas, also Five Minute Mum, that sort of thing. A tuff tray is a good thing to have.

Do the activity with him to help encourage him through it but try not to dictate what he does. Gently try and increase the time a minute once he’s consistently hitting, say 5 mins.

Does he like listening to music, stories, audio books?