Chew toys for autistic child

[sunnyfields25]

Hi

A quick question I'm hoping someone can help me with... For those of you with autistic children who need to chew, what age did you start using a chew toy round the neck?

At the moment we clip DS's chew toy onto his trousers for school, but it's not a great solution as he often leaves it dangling down instead of in his pocket, which becomes a trip hazard. It would be so much handier for him to have one round his neck, using one of the breakaway cords, but I'm unsure if it would be safe. He's almost 6 but very accident prone as he also has dyspraxia.

Thanks in advance for any advice 🙂

I'm kind of in a similar situation. I hate the idea of the one round the neck it gives me anxiety but my boys friend has one and now he's always asking. His younger brother has a lunchbag with a strap and when eldest tries it on he puts it round his neck nearly strangling himself. Doesn't really have good awareness of his body. I think I'd suggest trying it in the house and with supervision in school just to see what happens. I'm thinking of having separate ones for when can be supervised and when not. E.g playtimes just have one he can hold. I know they're really helpful. It's better than chewing the remote, or anything else thats in their hand 😂.

Yes that's a good idea about doing a trial run when supervised. We didn't used to need to use the chew toys at all but the chewing has got so bad lately that if he doesn't have a toy handy, he will chew anything else in the vicinity, mainly clothes and hands 😬

We started with the round the neck ones in Reception. Unfortunately DS preferred to chew the safety breakaway on the cord (which stops it from working) rather than the chewellery itself, so we had to stop using them.