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Travel and Road Safety Tips

Travelling in the car

  • Provide your child with a weighted lap pad, hand fidgets, drink with a straw (sucking through a thin straw provides calming input), and crunchy, healthy snacks that don't stick to teeth, such as carrot or celery sticks.
  • If your child seems bothered by the seat belt or safety belt on a car seat, use a 'seat belt buddy' made of shearling or other soft material you can wrap and secure around the strap to keep it from digging in.
  • At the same time, consider adjusting what your child wears underneath the seat belt. Too many layers, such as a jacket and shirt, may feel confining or provide too much confusing sensory input.
  • Try and eliminate certain sensory stimulation- e.g. trying to eliminate bright lights using black out screens in the rear of the car; wearing sunglasses if the child will tolerate wearing these; using Theraputty while travelling; the child may find the movement of the car a discomfort so trying heavy muscle activities prior to travelling, e.g. push ups against a wall, animals walks etc. and using a weighted lap pad.

Road safety

  • If running away is problematic whilst walking along the road, try and provide distractions to keep their mind off running away. This can be done either by pointing out things in the environment, singing their favourite song or have them bring something along to distract them. This way the person will also get positive attention when they are not running out on to the road as well as being distracted.
  • Say 'No Running' and reinforce this with a no running symbol.
  • Use a social story to explain the potential dangers on why we cannot run out on the road. Social stories provide visual information as well as spoken and can be referred to before an event. For example, before you go out for a walk you could read out the story on why it is we do not run out into the road.
  • Use toys or interactive games to teach road safety. You could also road play crossing the road safely. Many toy shops sell safety signs, car mats and toy cars and you may find it useful to play out different scenarios to show why it is dangerous to run out into the road. There are also a number of interactive games on the internet that can also teach about safety and crossing the road safely:
  • o The Children's Traffic Club
  • o Safe on the Street
  • o Tales of the Road
  • o The Safe Cross Code Game

Useful resources
The National Autistic Society: http://www.autism.org.uk/about/family-life/everyday-life/road-safety.aspx
Raising a Sensory Smart Child by Lindsey Biel and Nancy Peske.A Practical Approach at Home for Parents and Carers: Autism Spectrum Disorders Children with Disabilities Team Occupational Therapy Falkirk Council www.falkirk.gov.uk/cwd

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