Supporting Autistic People During The Coronavirus Pandemic

It’s a stressful time at the moment for families, not least the parents of children with autism and other special needs.

Daily routines are a huge part of an individual struggling with Autism’s life and changes to these can be critical, causing both stress and anxiety.

There are ways which support can be provided to anybody who suffers with Autism during these ambiguous times.

The Government have provided some guidance which will aid the communication, routine changes and also identifying whether your child is symptomatic and struggle to manage the physical experience of Coronavirus.

Supporting Autistic People During Lockdown:

Although routines and previous schedules can no loner operate, finding a new normal is essential and its best that the new routine contains some of the old routine:

For example:

• Sleep – when to go to bed and when to rise and shine
• Clothes worn – even if someone isn’t going to school/college/nursery, they could still wear their uniform to study/play at home
• Diet – the only time it IS okay to stockpile one specific food item
• Shows watched – recording favourite shoes is always a great idea, especially when “breaking news” might interrupt daily viewing.

Exercise is very important during this time for both physical and mental wellbeing (and that goes for everybody). Maybe introduce a fitness video from an online source like Instagram or YouTube. Everybody can be involved in this and it can become a family activity and part of the routine.