Does your ASD child... | Autism PDD

Does your ASD child like flushing the toilet and staring at the water whirling? What do you do to stop him of doing so?

Daddy

Give LOTS and LOTS of other things to spin.... spinning tops are great, I get light up ones at the dollar store. Use a sit and spin, or the merry go round or spinning type toys at the playground. Also anything that is long and soft (like a stretchy worm) can create a nice spinning effect.

In other words- sensory diet with lots of spinning vestibular input.

Do you mean he repeatedly flushes the toilet just to see the water whirl? If so, you may want to invest in a toilet lid lock so that he couldn't see the water whirl and only open the toilet for if he wants to go potty and then he could flush ONE time (with you supervising). Or put a lock on the outside of the bathroom door (one of those hook and eye types) so that he can't get in?

Just some random thoughts...

Rubyruby, your post brings back memories...

When the boys were 3ish (the hell year), we had a problem with the toilet off of my office. The bowl would fill to the brim, almost to the point of spilling over, and then slowly recede to normal levels. We called a plumber, who wound up having to take the entire toilet off. The boys stood there and watched in wonder, and I of course stood there to watch them. When the plumber reached up inside the toilet from the bottom and pulled out a spongebob sponge, my son R said "uh, oh" and just looked at me. My son C, who was just starting to speak, just held out his hands and said "mine." The whole operation cost 0!

The water tornado - OMG!

Both my kids (one NT and one on the spectrum) do NOT like the sound of flushing toilets. But, like kristys - my ds does like watching the water drain out. But doesn't insist on doing it. Ds does love water - but the noise of the toilet - forget it! He has gotten better over the years, but public restrooms are still hard for him. He has learned to just flush, run and cover his ears at the same time! I just have to work on that with dd now!

My son loves water. He has no issues with watching the toilet, unless of course we're in a public restroom with a "magic eye." In that case he'll wave his hand in front of it multiple times so we can have "no hands magic flush" (his words). However, he insists on staying in the tub until the last drop of water is gone so he can watch "the water tornado" of the water going down the drain. My daughter hates the flushing sound but loves playing in pool/bath water.
amberwaves39304.3108333333make him pay the water bill, heh.

Hi!

My ASD son has always loved water and I have had some trouble potty training (he just turned five). No worries on continuously flushing but I encourage any interaction with the potty that he will entertain. I agree with some of the other post that other "spinning" toys and water games would serve to fill the fasination.

By the way, my 3 year old "normal" child loves the magic eye in the public restrooms, he would stay there all day and watch the paper towells come out. Some of this is just normal child behavior. Boys will be boys!

Best regards,

Mark

Oh the terrible toilet flushing episodes. First it was that we had to watch his every move because he would flush everything down the toilet. Keys (many times) money, toy cars and trains and blocks. Boy did we have plumbing issues. Then every time we went anywhere, and he still does this to an extent he has to go check out the bathrooms and every stall in the bathroom and flush the toilets. Except for the automatic toilets he is terrified of them. And now this is the newest toilet obsession. "Is this an automatic toilet." He is so afraid of automatic toilets and hypersensitive to the sound that the last time I took him to a public restroom he had both of his hands over his ears and was terrified to remove them. He even asked me "Mommy would you pull my pants down and hold my privates" Because he did not want to take his hands off his ears. He is also terrified of the hand dryers.

My son loves to watch the toilet. Carter will wait until a family memeber is done using the toilet to flush it. I started to tell him that unitl he goies pee pee in it he could not flush it. (I do not think he fully understands me on this one..however since he has a serious issue with doors on the 1st floor being open that helps becuase the bathroom door is shut unless someone is in there!

http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses/available/etd-10212006-124110/ unrestricted/Brown_Donna_Diss.pdf

Good luck with everything.

My ds loves flushing and watching as well

A 9/93 NT

B 9/00 NT

C 7/02 ASD

Mommy