Hello,
I am a therapist, and I work with children with Autism
and Sensory Intergrative Dysfunction ages 3-7. I am starting a clothing
line for children who have extreme sensitivity to clothing textures and
cuts, and for parents who want to stop fighting with their kids about
clothes, and who want to find clothes appropriate for varied occasions,
that their children will actually want to put on (and keep on!). I have
worked with numerous children who demonstrate challenging behavior as a
result of being highly reactive to the touch and feel of their
clothing. I have been working with parents, children, designers, and
cotton experts/manufacturers to try and design clothing that will
"work" for all children.
What I would like to hear from you in the Autism community, are your personal stories with clothing.
What are your needs?
How is it challenging?
What do you wish you could find but cant?
What do you wish you could find easier?
What
kinds of clothing do you wish you could find (occasion wear, school
clothes, night clothes, undergarments, adult clothing)?
What are the most important elements you look for?(flat seaming/seamless? no tags? soft cotton?)
and more?
I want to base my product on what parents/children/people really want and need!
Please check out my website, www.softclothing.net , and/or email Jessica at softclothing@gmail.com with ANY thing you would like to share about this issue!
And thank you!
Jessica
Soft (clothing for all children)
Seamless, soft, no button dressy type clothes would be a godsend during holiday times. People always wonder why we don't dress the boys up in cute christmas outfits. The closest we have come is a long sleeve tee with a vest and jeans. Nothing really says christmas like a cute little suit but those fabrics feel so nasty to my kiddos. Same for halloween. Simple no mask outfits that are deisgned in a way that they will actually enjoy wearing them almost pajama ish would be a great thing for our kids. Everything out there for the most part has itchy unkind fabric and cuts.
We tend to stick with cotton pull on shorts and shirts with only deisgns in the print of the fabric due to the decals bothering the boys most of the time if they happen to touch them. I would also suggest a sizing in such a way that the clothing can be either tight and true to size or fit in the say the waist and be loose or oversized. For ones like Gabe with coordination issues we buy his shirts two sizes bigger so that he can put them on and off himself.
Winter presents challenges all around because all the warm clothes are very confining. Fleece is great (for jogging suits) but the sizes tend to run small so we end up buying pieces that are way to big to allow for looseness and movement. Jackets are rougher because the good really warm ones are so thick the boys cant handle the bulk. And for the most part we end up using really warm blankets and wrap them up. A warm coat that doesn't have weight and bulk to it so that it poofs out etc and allows for movement would be an amazing item to come up with if its possible.
Adjustable waist...no beltloops (school dress code issues - we cut them off), soft or denim, but needs to "hold up" to a good washing due to spilling stuff on himself constantly. No buttons - pull on would be nice for his size.Tagless, of course.
And...larger head holes in shirts. Not uncommon for many of our children to have larger noggins. Even though a shirt may fit, sometimes it is holy heck getting it over his head.
Larger headholes-yes? My ds sometimes can't fit through the headholeWe would love to see snap jeans/pants go up in bigger sizes than size 8. My ds currently wears size 6 - moving rather quickly to size 7 and I know it gets harder to find snap jeans in bigger sizes. Oh, did I mention affordable? Because I know ithere are jeans/pants in bigger sizes - but they cost or more!
Ds is thin, so the elastic waist jeans that they sell for huskier kids don't work.
Wow, what a great idea! We would love to see cotton everything with some added Lycra for stretch and comfort. Those are my DS favorite clothes and what he lives in.