World Autism Awareness Day - 2nd April 2015

Teaching Brushing to Children with Autism

2^nd April is marked as World Autism Awareness Day. Various awareness programs to spread the message, and reach out to the masses are at its peak.

Very often we see parents struggling with dental hygiene of the child with Autism. Many children with autism are hypersensitive to touch, texture, taste and smell. Considering this brushing can be quite a night mare for them and hence tantrums follow the minute they realize that they will be required to brush their teeth. 

Many of the parents whom I have worked with have reported similar difficulties with their child on the spectrum.

Some of the recommendations that have been handy to them and have high success rate are - 

1)                          Start the teaching process initially by using visual aids like a picture of a child brushing his/her teeth or a video demonstrating “how to brush his/her teeth”.

2)                          Stick up a routine on the basin wall
For e.g. – Go to bathroom – Wash hands – Wash Brush – Put Paste – Brush Teeth – Rinse – Wash brush – Finish

3)                          After this, let the child practice how to apply paste on the brush for couple of days. If the child is sensitive to smell, then take the paste which has least amount of odor. If the child is sensitive to bristles, then you can try sponge brush. You can also try a vibrating tooth-brush if that suits the child better.

4)                          You can make them count the number of strokes they need to do in order to complete brushing. This prepares them and thus drops anxiety.

5)                          Once the child is comfortable with the picture and seems to be relaxed looking at it without throwing any tantrum, then the next step is to allow the child to practice the process on a dummy denture initially hands on hands, and later independently.
For e.g. see fig.1

6)                          Once the child is at ease and anxiety has dropped, you can slowly start the next step i.e. brushing his/her teeth.
But remember to not force the child. Let him/her get comfortable with the process at his/her pace.

7)                          Reinforce the child’s attempts to brush his/her teeth. You can also read out a social story to the child about brushing.

Children with autism often struggle with daily routines like brushing, bathing, toilet training, getting dressed etc. As professionals and caregivers, we need to accept and respect their difficulties which can often be very overwhelming for them. Fostering a conducive, accepting and positive environment consistently, not only eases the process but increases chances of success and thereby skill attainment.

            With the growing awareness about autism, it lights up a ray of hope to have better treatment and thereby better prognosis for children with autism.

Aditi Chaudhary