4 Tools for Making it Work for a Sensory ASD Kid in Late Elementary

Thank you to ARK Therapeutic for sponsoring this post so I could share this post about making it work for a sensory ASD kid in late elementary years. All opinions remain 100% my own!

I love my late elementary-aged kiddos! They are so full of opinions, hope and yes…loads of opinions about how Mom should be rocking this whole family gig (because 3rd graders definitely know best how to load that dishwasher! ; ) ). Most of all, I love them because they are so vividly becoming in tune to themselves while still very much enjoying time with me–Mom!

4 Tools for Making it Work for a Sensory ASD Kid in Late Elementary

Have a kiddo on The Spectrum? I get it, mamas–I do, really! This is hard, tricky business. The best we can do is to make the most of what we are given, every single day. That said, what does this actually, spelled out mean? How can you actually help your Sensory ASD kid?

1. Get the school staff on board. I know, this can be so tricky in so many cases, but use your smarts to get the school professionals on team, and you will long reap the benefits of this connection.
2. Don’t fear the IEP; use it! Listen, when I was first handed our IEP, I was floored and devastated. Then I took a minute to check myself and…fell in love with it. Seriously, the IEP is now our best resource.
3. Get actual tools in your cadre: this is where ARK Therapeutic shines! Sensory tools, fidgets, and chewies have been wholly responsible for getting my son through his school years! I am often astounded by the genius of ARK when whereupon realizing we need the exact product they are offering!
4. Accept your child for who and what they are. I know this is easier said than done, BUT…it matters. My son will never lead the soccer team, nor will he head the student council with impeccable organization. He WILL lend loads of innovative ideas to the robotics team and likely be band geek rockstar 😉 This works for us.

All this said, I genuinely, truly, am-in-these-shoes-get-it, mamas. I have a child very much on The Spectrum, and we very much struggle to do our best every day.

Both my on-the-Spectrum son and I work hard to learn and use our tools…and some days we are far more successful than others.

The primary truth of our experience is that it ours and that we will fight endlessly to do our best with it. Often we will fail, but we will always try.

We will try to meet my son where he is at.

We will try to push him on to further heights of normal life experience.

We will work hard to fully celebrate his joys while accepting the failings.

We will fully love and know our children, to the best of our ability, always.

Godspeed, fellow mamas.

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.

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