Brushing teeth is an essential part of our daily routine, but it can be a challenging task for autistic children. Today I’m sharing 5 tips for brushing teeth and autism. These tips will hopefully help make brushing teeth a more manageable task for autistic children:
1. Create a Routine
It’s really important to try and establish a daily routine for brushing your teeth. This way your child will know what to expect, when and where. By being consistent, you can help to make this less stressful and daunting for your child.
2. Use a Timer
A lot of our children are visual learners. And a timer can be really helpful for our children to see how long they have left. You can use a visual timer, or even a smartphone app. Set a timer for the duration that you need them to brush their teeth. You can start with smaller amounts of time and build this up too. This step will help your child to see how long they need to brush their teeth for and how much longer until they can stop.
3. Sensory Input
Brushing our teeth actually can impact our senses in a lot of different ways. And this is an important step to take into consideration if your child is struggling with brushing their teeth. Think of things like;
- Is the toothbrush too hard for them to hold? Maybe it is too skinny?
- Are the bristles on the toothbrush too hard? Are they uncomfortable? Maybe they’re cutting your child’s gums.
- Is the toothpaste too minty? Or too sweet?
- Maybe the toothpaste is too cold. Or the water is too cold.
- Is it an electric toothbrush? Does it vibrate too much? Or would they benefit from having an electric one for the vibrations to give extra sensory input.
Sensory is a really hard thing to figure out, especially if your child can’t communicate what is that is causing them distress, pain, discomfort.. But try to monitor your child when they are carrying out this routine and see if you can start to identify what the trigger may be for them.
4. Positive Reinforcement
A very important step. As humans, naturally we enjoy activities more when they give us a sense of achievement and they come with positive reinforcement. Anything with negative reinforcement is going to become a chore that we really don’t want to do.. And we’re going to try and avoid doing it at all costs! Be sure to use lots of positive reinforcement for your child when they are brushing their teeth. It can be verbal.. Stickers.. Maybe even a small treat. And a treat doesn’t always have to cost money. Maybe it’s something like having 5 minutes to draw before bedtime. Or an extra story before bedtime.
5. Make it Fun
Your child is going to be naturally drawn to activities that are fun and that they enjoy. So try to find ways to make brushing their teeth more fun. Is there a Youtube video or song about brushing teeth that they’ll enjoy? Can you dance along to the vibrating toothbrush while your child is brushing their teeth? What about singing a silly song for them while they brush their teeth. You know your child best and what they enjoy. So this can be really helpful for getting your child to enjoy this activity with you.
Helpful Resources
Below are some resources that I have found helpful to encourage my students and children with brushing their teeth.
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