Before this week’s post I have a quick announcement…

Some time ago I wrote a parenting guide for children with ADHD but never did much with it as I’ve been so busy with the Aspergers site.

But over time I’ve had more and more emails about children with ADHD.

So I am just putting the final touches to a new website that will be ready next week; and as ever I will be offering a heavily discounted version of the guide for all my subscribers like you.

So next Monday evening (9th June) around 8pm UK time ( 3pm EST in the USA) look for an email from me (Dave Angel) with the title “Exclusive 72 Hour Subscriber Offer for The Parenting ADHD Guide”…

Anyway now for this week’s blog post which looks at the following question:

We recently painted my Aspie son’s room what we thought was a soothing and calming colour. We picked a field green, with a darker shade of green on one wall. It had the opposite affect on him. Do you have any colour suggestions that are calming? He is 12 years old and wants his room hot pink.

Children with autism sometimes have highly altered sensory sensitivity to the environment. Sounds, smells, touch, colors, or light are experienced much more intensely than other children experience them, even causing physical pain. When there are a lot of different stimuli, this becomes overwhelming, for example when there are many pictures on a wall, and can cause anxiety. This leads to stress, confusion, and anxiety, which may have a negative impact on behavior.

Environmental stimuli, such as paint color and pictures, can stimulate or calm behavior. Usually green is the color of balance and calm. In your son’s case, it obviously isn’t. Calming, muted colors in soft tones, not bright, primary colors, are recommended for people with Aspergers. Neutral beige is also often calming. There is little advice beyond this regarding paint colors for children who have Asperger’s. To some extent, it may be process of trial and error to find a calming color for your son’s room. Also, avoid florescent or bright lights in the room as the buzzing and glare can be very upsetting to children with Asperger’s and may be the problem more than the paint colour.

At 12 years old, your son probably would like some input into the color of his room. There are a couple of ways in which you can test paint colors in your son’s room. Before you try these suggestions, explain to your son what you are going to do and make sure he understands his part in the process. His part will be to stay calm while in the room, and, if he does, it will slowly get pinker.

First of all, paint the room pale beige or soft white. After a week, paint one wall only a very, very, soft pink. Explain to your son that as long as he remains calm while in the room, the paint color on that wall will get a little darker each month. If he does well with the soft pink during the first month, paint the same wall a bit darker pink. If he continues to stay calm the next month, try a bit darker pink color. Keep the color no more than medium pink on that one wall. If he can handle that, you could try a narrow strip of hot pink across that wall. Keep stressing that he must work to stay calm if he wants his room pink. That puts responsibility on him to earn the color he wants.

If he can’t handle even the very, very, soft pink wall, then keep the room beige or white and try hanging pictures or posters (one at a time) in pink colors. Again, as long as he remains calm in the room, the pictures stay. If he loses his calm, the pictures or posters can be removed for a period of time. Again, the responsibility for keeping them depends on his behavior.

Thanks

Dave Angel