autistic daughter and fiddling with herself.

[wonderif]

my daughter will be 6 at xmas, she has autism and i am looking for some perspectives on a concern i have.

my daughter constantly fiddles with her private parts and it is very embarrasing not onlu that but from my point of view if she is in a public place i have concerns incase people look at her in the wrong way she is a big girl for her age.

last term the teacher wrote in her book that she plays with herself (which i think was very incorrectly put) this limits me to always putting trousers on her.

she doesnt even look like she knows how much she is doing it.

she would be moderate autistic,so not severe and has a lot of understanding of right and wrong.

i am not embarrased that she is doing it, but i feel she could end up vulnerable doing it and its awful that i have to think about abuse issues too.

anyone have any advice?

is she likely to grow out of it.

No experience or advice other than yes I have found problems are grown out of - then others replace them

My daughter (nt) is 6 and she likes to fiddle about as well. She can be inappropriate at times also. I'm not sure what the answer is other than we are reinforcing that she can't do it in public and reminding her but, as you say, dd isn't always aware of what she's doing. I am hoping that she grows out of it but it is a real habit.

I have the book Girls Growing up on the Autism Spectrum and have just had a look to see what they recommend. But do buy this book it's great. It's for pre teens ie 8 up but reading it is great for all kinds of information and preperation for the future. In the book they say you should tell her that it's for private time and even direct her to her bedroom. I do know other AS girls and NT girls who do this but they have all grown out of it roughly by the age of 8.

thank you very much for all your advice what

i will have a look for the book thanks for that

i am glad that there is a good chance she will grow out of it .

many thanks

How about a social story about it? You could maybe use it to reinforce that it isn't polite to do it in public? It's a tough one, but social stories worked to help my dd to stop picking her nose so much in public.

Dd1 has AS (5.4) and likes to fiddle, i do try and stop her and she tends not to do it when she has trousers on (so i rarely put her in a dress or skirt).