July 6, 2016

Autism and Visits to the Hospital

Image result for hospital visitThis is an excellent resource for parents and family of children with autism focusing on issues related to visiting the hospital.  Interestingly, children on the spectrum are over 20% more likely to go to the hospital for mental health related issues.  They are also at higher risk for trips to the hospital as a result of numerous aspects of autism one might not necessarily think of as being a risk.  for instance, numerous children with autism struggle with being able to identify emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations accurately and being able to respond appropriately; I worked with a child who had very great difficulty in this area and would often report being "severely injured" when tripping or having a stomach ache.  needless to say, the child's difficulties being able to discriminate between different levels of pain and not being able to report them appropriately, led to many trips to the emergency room with his terrified parents.

Children with autism often struggle when going to the hospital, which is understandable when you consider that the hospital contains every form of trigger and stressor possible from having personal space "invaded" by strangers examining the child to unpleasant sounds, sights, smells, and even the introduction of more physical pain while being examined.  A trip to the hospital can be very difficult, however, with resources such as this one offered by Pathfinders for Autism, parents can learn some special skills and coping techniques to make the trip more manageable.  You can find out more and also find links to other helpful hospital related resources by clicking the link: Going to the Hospital

As always, thank you for reading.  I hope you have a lovely summer and look forward to hearing from you with any other suggestions for resources or wisdom to be shared with the community of children and families with autism!

1 comment:

  1. The color of scrubs is vibrant and pretty and the top actually has a nice shape to it without being too binding or restrictive. The pockets of comfort scrubs are really nice too.

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