8 Year Old with High Functioning Autism Afraid of Flies

I don't really have any words of advice. I also have a daughter with high-functioning autism/Asperger's. She's 6! She loves reading about bugs too, but heaven forbid if we have one in the house! LOL! She doesn't freak out about it though. She just wants it taken care of.

Maybe you can give her a spray bottle of water that she can spray at anything that crosses her path. She's smart enough to know that this won't hurt the flies, but it might give her a sense of control by "shooing" them away in a fun, harmless way.

Just an idea!

C.
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I wanted to recommend EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). It is a tapping technique that taps on acupressure points.

There is a free manual at www.emofree.com and you can get a free cheatsheet at www.tapping.com . This website also has a free manual - http://www.schoolmademucheasier.com/ . Here are some more basic instructions - http://www.thrivingnow.com/for/Health/basic-eft/ and a diagram - http://www.thrivingnow.com/for/Health/eft-tapping-points/ . It is very easy to learn and use on your children.

Here is a link with search results for articles on using EFT for fear of bugs:

http://www.emofree.com/searchresult.htm?cx=01842162025742...

Here are some articles on using it with children:

http://www.emofree.com/articles.aspx?id=9

Here is a good nighttime routine to use with children:

http://www.emofree.com/tutorial/tutorofifteen.htm

Good luck.

I'm afraid I don't know anything about autism, but I do know about phobias, as they tend to run in my family. There are therapies the really help with phobias, so you might find a therapist that specializes in autism (or in anxiety) to help you with this. Good luck.

You MIGHT try a bee keeper's outfit.

(( I just LOVE Aspie kids :) :) :) They're so much fun. My adhd kiddo's (ds7) best friend is an 11 year old aspie kid... and his mum and I spend a lot of time laughing about the bizarre "solutions" that work for our kids. I don't know if the bee keepers outfit would work... but it popped into my head as something that might.))

You could find a play therapist who works with ridgidity in autistic kids. If you do not see a psychiatrist, it is also worth looking into. Some anxieties can be treated quite well with medication. Our oldest autistic child is 18 now, and responded quite well to medical treatment of her individual symptoms, particualrly when they interfered with her life, like not being able to go outside. Psychiatry is but one part of treatment for ASD, and is a very helpful and effective tool in her treatment that will enhance all other therapies so that she gets all she can out of them.

M.

I'm sorry, I don't have any solutions for you, but I did want to let you know you're not alone. One of my nieces, who is not autistic, has an irrational fear of fish. Her fear is so great that she won't go to her sister's house because her sister has a fish tank--and her sister refuses to cover the tank because she thinks the fear is silly. I don't know how it started, but she's 24 so it's not likely to go away.

I like how empowered your daughter by giving her a fly swatter.

My kiddo on the AS does this too :) He also obsesses about snakes (*sigh*). For the bugs, we bought him one of those critter keepers and a net. Although he doesn't really catch many, the bugs "run away" as soon as he comes after them with that net. So, it works good when we are outside. However, if one is in the car when we are driving, it is a whole different story - he would actually attempt to jump out of a moving vehicle to get away from a bug! We have him sit in the middle now and always have the child locks engaged when driving.

Another thing that sort of helps is putting "special lotion" on him to keep the bugs away (the special lotion is whatever I can find that day - sometimes even a bottle of spray water). Depending on his mood, he accepts that if he has the lotion on the bugs will not bother him.

I know it doesn't help much, but I always rationalize it with "it could be WAY worse." I have a friend whose son on the AS thinks that the sun's ray will burn his skin off and will not go outside at all.

Also, if she is not currently receiving any therapy, you could check into Occupational Therapy and Play Therapy, as well as certain types of medications. My kiddo on the AS is very anxious about many things and the meds help with that. While I don't know that the therapies "help," they certainly aren't hurting anything :)

Good luck!