We are trying a new strategy to lower my son's anxiety when he has to wait in public settings. Just like most interventions and strategies, I am thinking, "Why didn't I think of this sooner?" Let me share the problem and then the intervention.
My son is 21 and was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome when he was 8. It is unbelievable how much he has overcome but he definitely is still in the spectrum. He struggles when he must wait when he is out in public. Waiting causes his anxiety to rise, When his anxiety rises, so do his repetitive behaviors, especially pacing. When I try to talk to him about controlling his pacing, he tells me that there is nothing wrong with it. Here is how the rest of the conversation goes. "You are drawing attention to yourself. Most people don't pace like that." It's my way of telling him that he is making an impression on others. The social skills curriculums by Michelle Garcia Winner, share that people can have "weird thoughts" about people who do things that are different than the expected behavior for an activity like waiting. He answer, "I don't care what other people think." Under my breath, I am thinking, "but I do."
As we talked about his birthday, he loves science fiction and one of his favorite is Dr. Who. He wanted to try some of the audio downloads that are available but the next question was about what device should they be on. As I researched I found that many people but them on an iPod as audio books. They use the iPod exclusively for the audio series and can organize them because it's just used for the storage of the audio stories. He can store about 100 downloaded stories on a IPod Nano. The nano is so small that he can fit it and some earbuds in his pocket when he is going somewhere that may cause anxiety. This gives him something to do to lower his anxiety and keep him busy without repetitive behaviors.
I'm excited at the possibility of my of repetitive behaviors in public while providing an easy and enjoyable replacement. I'll let you know how it turns out!
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