Breaking the 'Rut'
This week I worked more with older, school-aged children. There was one adorable boy who wanted to teach me and kept insisting that I do all of the tasks first. He was an enthusiastic and positive teacher and therefore I was happy to be his student. Of course, he also delighted in my ‘mistakes’ and took apparent pleasure in putting me right. The question that comes up most frequently about the school-aged child is what to do with some of those ‘ruts’ that they can get stuck into. The 'ruts' I hear about most often are watching the same movie, closing doors and wanting ketchup with everything. In the next breath, parents often ask if their child may be autistic. Both children with Down syndrome and children with autism will often exhibit these non-flexible behaviors so the presence of 'ruts' by itself is not cause for concern about a dual diagnosis. Take the example of the child above. He engaged in a social interaction with me (which he initiated) and he appeared to enjoy the exchange. This would be an indicator to me that he is NOT autistic, yet his father reported a few 'rut' behaviors (closing doors and wanting to watch the same 2 videos all the time). Engaging in the same behaviour over and over again, serves a few purposes. It makes life predictable and therefore safe. If I know every line in a film to the extent that I say the line before it happens, I feel gratified when my prediction comes true. It makes me feel in control because there are no changes. It makes a child feel safe in the same way that we feel safe when we drive through our hometown and see the landmarks where we expect to see them. I remember driving through Kansas City a week after returning to the U.S. earlier this year and feeling a bit unsettled by all the change that had transpired in my 20 year absence (even though I expected the change.) There is comfort in the familiar. One has to be careful with ‘ruts’ not to reinforce them. Scolding a child for flapping simply draws attention to it and does not address the real problem. I also advise parents to not let ‘ruts’ become too deep. Closing doors is not a real problem, but if your child can not settle with an open door then it is likely to interfere with life at times. Try to nip things in the bud where you can by challenging your child a little. For the closing doors scenario, firstly examine your own behavior. Do you always close doors? If so, your child may simply be mimicking extremely. Come into a room where your child is and make a point of leaving the door nearly closed and say “Oh, I like that” or something similar. If your child closes the door, reopen it to nearly closed and say something like “let’s leave it like this today, OK?” OR, I have also had success with putting colorful streamers on the outside of the door so that when the door was closed the streamers could not be seen. That way there was a reward of seeing the pretty streamers when the door was open. Kids also often like going in and out of the door through the streamers but they can only do that if the door is open. It’s amazing what shiny paper can do! I have simplified my discussion of ‘ruts’ because it is not my purpose to lecture here. I simply wanted to share this concern because it comes up quite a bit. If you believe that your child has a ‘rut’ that is interfering with his development or family life, talk to a professional caring for your child. If you like, you can drop me a line.
I’m off now to make my post-dinner cup of tea. Is that a 'rut'?
Ann Haig Wheeler, DSC 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this work can be reproduced in any form, or by any means without the express permission of the author or by Down Syndrome Centre info@downsyndromecentre.ie
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