Question about napping a 2yo autistic boy

[Kimskiddos]

I have a just turned 2yo boy who is in the process of being diagnosed. He has all the classic signs.

He is a very sweet easy going kid but he is huge! He is currently napping in the infant room in a pack n play but he has started climbing out! Plus I would really like to put my infant in that nap room.

My question is it possible to transition him to sleeping with the older kids on a nap mat? I have a new 2yo starting on Monday and will have to be in there with the him until he gets into our routine and was thinking now would be a good time to move the climber boy as I will have to be in there anyway.

Thoughts, suggestions?

[KSDC]

It might help if you give a few more details about how he behaves. From what I little I know of autism, it has a spectrum. Where your little guy falls on that spectrum, might make a difference on any advice we can give you. KWIM?

[Kimskiddos]

Sorry for lack of info. This is new to me.

He is 2yo and non verbal, doesn't really play with the other children, will very occasionally try and mimic their play once the others have moved on. He really only does/plays a few things here and he does them over and over. Inside he likes to look out the window, watches himself in the mirror, climbs on the climber (and falls off at least once a week), puts play plates & dishes on the table - he likes to kind of drop them and watch/listen to the noise they make and plays with a couple of battery operated toys. These "games" are repetitive. Outside he only climbs on the picnic table and sits on a certain tricycle (he likes to play with the tassels on the handlebars).

He has sensory issues. Doesn't like to be restrained in any way. ie trying to hold his hand to make handprints. Dirty diaper changes are a screaming squirm fest. Won't touch playdoh or fingerpaints (but likes to color, briefly). He eats very few things. His parents still puree and spoon feed. I can basically get him to eat toasted bread products (w/cheese or jam or peanut butter) as long as it is cut up into small pieces. He tend to stuff food in his mouth. He is a big drooler too. Seems to keep his mouth open a lot.

He is a sweet and mostly happy boy, a gentle giant and will listen to me when I ask him to stop a behavior. I ask in as few words as possible. He has learned our basic playroom rules - it just took him a little longer and needs to be reminded more often. He gets and seems to like routine.

There is very little eye contact from him and he does some arm flapping. Just a sense that he is not all there with us (in his own little world).

Hopefully this is more helpful?

[itlw8]

why shouldn't he do the same things as other children his age. He is trying to tell you that with his climbing out. He is 2 and needs to be treated like a 2 yr old. He may be non verbal but the words are inside trying to get out.

Even now while he is being evaluated and awaiting services you can do a few things. If you are not using sign with all your kids it works wonders. I would find out what is used in your local programs. ASL or SEE not sure how baby sign compares. there is not a lot of difference between the two but a few signs are different.

I know that was not about sleep but yes switch to a mat an put him with children his age.

[Kimskiddos]

Thanks, yes I do use signs with him and he responds to some. Yes, I was thinking it's time to make the transition, just was feeling unsure. Especially since I am starting a new kiddo too.

But he transitioned to my place fairly easily and it didn't even phase him when I started a new infant. So we are going to give it a try.

He is a neat little boy and I just want to do what I can for him. Can't wait until he if finished with evaluations and into therapy and I have more strategies to help him. Trying to find things on the internet is so overwhelming because of the huge range of behaviors. Happily his parents are completely on board and are willing to find him the help he needs.

[Sunchimes]

I have a child very much like this. He is 2 3/4 and has been with me since he was 6 weeks old. Non-verbal, sensory disorder, probably ASD, although he won't be diagnosed until he goes to PPCD, very low receptive language (when you talk to him, he generally doesn't understand that the sounds you make mean anything-he hears sounds like the adults on a Charlie Brown cartoon). He also shoves food in his mouth, and after months and months of hand-over-hand with a spoon, he has only recently started voluntarily moving the spoon toward his mouth. He won't hold the spoon or scoop up food on his own, but if your hand is over his, you can feel the movement as he moves the spoon to eat. He has just this summer started responding to no, and stop, and get down, and "use your chewy". This after I have repeated them literally thousands of times. Everything goes in his mouth. Everything. The therapists and I work closely on all of this, I'm not just guessing here.

He is still in a pnp although he is too large for it and can climb out. He has low muscle tone, so he isn't generally interested in exerting the effort to climb out. We tried putting him on a mat several times, but he doesn't have the receptive language to understand "lay down", "be quiet", "stay on the mat", etc. After a great deal of effort, we put him back in the pnp. I sit just outside the door and watch him until he falls asleep. Once he falls asleep, he doesn't wake up until I get him up. I do have a monitor and make frequent checks on him. I have put stacks of books under the pnp to support his weight so that he doesn't fall through the bottom. At naptime, he sits on his knees and makes his sounds, now and then, he will stand up and walk around the edge (which I put a quick stop to), he lays down and chatters and "sings" and plays with his blankie. We are all in agreement to leave things as they are for now. He will be leaving me in a few weeks to go off to PPCD when he turns 3. We all agreed that at this point, trying to change things which would just have to change again wouldn't be in his best interest.

[Shell]

I have a child very much like this. He is 2 3/4 and has been with me since he was 6 weeks old. Non-verbal, sensory disorder, probably ASD, although he won't be diagnosed until he goes to PPCD, very low receptive language (when you talk to him, he generally doesn't understand that the sounds you make mean anything-he hears sounds like the adults on a Charlie Brown cartoon). He also shoves food in his mouth, and after months and months of hand-over-hand with a spoon, he has only recently started voluntarily moving the spoon toward his mouth. He won't hold the spoon or scoop up food on his own, but if your hand is over his, you can feel the movement as he moves the spoon to eat. He has just this summer started responding to no, and stop, and get down, and "use your chewy". This after I have repeated them literally thousands of times. Everything goes in his mouth. Everything. The therapists and I work closely on all of this, I'm not just guessing here.

He is still in a pnp although he is too large for it and can climb out. He has low muscle tone, so he isn't generally interested in exerting the effort to climb out. We tried putting him on a mat several times, but he doesn't have the receptive language to understand "lay down", "be quiet", "stay on the mat", etc. After a great deal of effort, we put him back in the pnp. I sit just outside the door and watch him until he falls asleep. Once he falls asleep, he doesn't wake up until I get him up. I do have a monitor and make frequent checks on him. I have put stacks of books under the pnp to support his weight so that he doesn't fall through the bottom. At naptime, he sits on his knees and makes his sounds, now and then, he will stand up and walk around the edge (which I put a quick stop to), he lays down and chatters and "sings" and plays with his blankie. We are all in agreement to leave things as they are for now. He will be leaving me in a few weeks to go off to PPCK when he turns 3. We all agreed that at this point, trying to change things which would just have to change again wouldn't be in his best interest.

[Sunchimes]

Just one more thing

I wanted to mention the sign language that pp suggested. It may work for your child, but it didn't work for mine. We do baby signs here starting earlier than you could expect them to understand. I started doing it because it was fun and we enjoyed it, and it was useful with my little ones. However, this child hasn't caught on to them, with the exception of milk a few times. As with everything else, we can't count on something being "learned" because he is apt to lose it just as suddenly. Without receptive language-the ability to understand that words have meanings-signs have no meaning either. For most of my kids though, sign language has been amazing. I have another 2 year old that was non-verbal, and he used several signs. He has started saying a few words now in conjunction with the signs, so for him, it was very helpful.