Ok, dd has now found the light switch, how do i stop her switching them on and off?

[Marne]

I am sat here as the lights strobe, dd is switching them on and off and thinks its great, i know this is common with ASD but how do i stop her? Shall i take the light bulbs out for a bit so its no fun for her?

is it a table lamp we no longer have them as not only did is go on and off it spun. we have one upstairs which i unplug and put on of those socket covers in as he can put plugs in. he also had a habit of dropping things in lampshades and a stray baby wipe nearly caused a fire

Fledglings have covers for the switch (but they didn't fit ours, of course!).

It the living room light, she climbs onto the arm chair and switches it on and off for 20 minutes at a time . I think she would work the light switch covers out as she seems to be able to get into anything. I think my only option is to move the chair or the lightbulds but either would cause a meltdown .

A few weeks ago she put her plastic playfood on the night storage heater and almost burnt the house down , i was picking off melted plastic for days , the heaters are now switched off.

does she understand broken- if so could you turn the lights off at the fuses and tell her they were broken hopefully that stage will pass. ds still does our bedroom light but only a couple of times now he used to be sending out morse code for ages

She doesn't understand 'broken', she understands 'no' and 'finished' but she just laughs at me when i say them .

She's being a cheeky monkey .

tell her no and when she does it again take the bulbs out and cover your ears ds does that with no throwing he will keep throwing until i take evrything out of his hand he picks up. then he goes and pushes everything off the table with a big grin. he knows he is being naughty but has to do it especially to get the last 'word' in.

We had same problem and stuck DS in bath every time he returned. never sure if it was just obsessional light switching or figuring out how it worked. Water is his calm down sensation it took 1 week and a lot of water and now only occassionally returns to switching switches repeatidly. If sensory stimulated and calmed this might work.

Some houses have two different circuits for ceiling lights and plugs at the wall. If possible, take out the fuse for the ceiling lights and just use light from lamps she can't turn on and off e.g. plugs behind heavy furniture etc?

Won't stop the next test-driving of equipment but it might stop the worst of this (she says, as someone who's had her house lights tested to destruction )

DS2 does this, mostly in his room, so no disco in the living room
We used "broken" and then "No light on" to stop him turning it on an off when he got up at stupid o clock. We are getting there, slowly but surely.

We took the bulb out of his room, and I held my hand over the other switches and sat out the screaming.

give all the light switches they want. go out and buy a light switch (minus electrics of course) and give the ok to play with 'speical' light switch.

part of the fun and allure may be that you are negatively reinforcing by saying no, or by turning it on or off after they have turned it on or off??

we did this with my boy, he soon tired of light switches (went on to picking carpet instead!!!)

We took his lightbulb out and it was terrible. I wouldn't reccomend it.

I like the not wired switch suggestion - might see if it finishes off sorting my boy out with his obsession lapses.

behaviours like this are usually started by initial 'fun' or curiosity - then they become a control mechanism, at least thats the way it was with my boy - he couldnt understand a lot of things including his own environment, our language, etc, but he COULD control the light switch - he knew that when it went up, the light went on, and when it went down, light went off.

same for lining up - he had complete control and could do what he liked with his cups, or whatever that he was lining up.

turns out years later he was making castles with his cups (he told me recently) So instead of seeing the light switch as a 'bad' thing, celebrate it - the child could well be learning something from it - your attitude is everything -

It's true that our repetitive behaviours are often us testing something - either testing it to destruction to see what it takes to achieve that, or to find out what happens to it in different conditions.

With lights, we're testing three things - a) how long until the light switch doesn't do that any more? b) What lighting patterns does the light cause in the room in different lighting conditions - night, day etc c) what does the parent do when we're doing it? It that a testable system? Is it the same every time too?

I wonder...you can buy those do-it-yourself young scientist kits with safe LED bulbs connected to a light switch. Now that's something they could control quite happily and safely, I'd think? Better still, something that both lights up and spins when you flick a switch. If the manufacturers could do that, they'd have a fascinated child for years, I'd bet

Move the furniture so she can't reach?

It can just be compulsive though. In Ds1's case he is not keen on his compulsive behaviours as they prevent him doing anything else, and as he's got older and more able to control them that has become quite clear. It was Donna Williams who told me to block them (and get angry with naughty lightswitches controlling ds1). He won't let us put a lightbulb back in his room now, and my theory is because he wants to sleep not obsessively turn them on and off.

He also wouldn't let us turn lights on for a long time. When the other children started tripping over each other in the dark i decided that behaviour had to go.

Oooh, mrsT how did you stop him not letting you turn lights on? DD is OK with them being on but SHE has to switch them on. I am so sick of going to the loo and hearing "NOT mummy do it!!" and having a little person run in to turn the light off and on again

held my hand over the switch. When he's screaming I tell him 'one last time' ( as it is compulsive). Then hand goes back over the switch. Or the donna Williams method of directing anger at the light switch for controlling ds1. Which to my surprise worked as well.