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Brushing Teeth And Autistic Children... I know a lot of parents out there still have a problem with brushing the teeth of their autistic child. I think I just happened to stumble upon what worked with Zachary...and, again, I can see why "what I do" works based on Zachary's need for order and his inability to cope with partiality. If you think about it, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a sink, a tap, water, teeth and an open mouth... all are necessary parts to a process... brushing teeth. All these "things" need to somehow "fit together" for the child to understand the concept of "brushing teeth". Furthermore, the child needs to understand "dirty teeth" verses "clean teeth". Thus, there are many "parts" that must be made to "fit together" for this process to make sense to the autistic child. The fact that this is also "a process" poses specific issues also for the autistic child as the "sequence of each task/activity within the process" must also "fit together properly" to arrive at the desired outcome. Process issues and issues with sequencing are difficult concepts for the autistic child in that, by definition, a process involves many steps, many activities, many "things" within each activity that must somehow "properly fit together". For more on this, see my section on: Teaching A Process To The Autistic Child. For the autistic child, each "thing" is an individual "part" and he must first understand each "part" in order for the "whole" to make sense. In addition, issues with touch also come into play. The toothbrush is not "part" of the "whole"... the teeth or the mouth - and as such, it creates a stressful situation when the toothbrush is placed near or in the child's mouth. As such, the toothbrush needs to be labeled as a toothbrush and it function identified as being "for brushing teeth" or for "cleaning teeth". That label will greatly help the autistic child, in my opinion, understand that "a toothbrush" and "teeth" actually do "go together" in this process. The simplest thing is not to require the child to brush his teeth by himself at first... but to do the brushing for him. As the child learns to cope with the overall activity, he will more easily be able to do the "process" on his own based simply on the first part to the process, a "verbal prompt" to "go brush your teeth". The key to brushing teeth, in my opinion, lies in bringing order and a coping mechanism to this process. So, how do you bring order to a process such as brushing teeth? I found with Zachary, what worked was simply making sure I used the toothbrush he liked (just letting him pick one out of the group available to him, providing variation in color for his choice) and then, taking that toothbrush and SLOWLY COUNTING HIS TEETH AS I BRUSHED THEM... working my way in a very orderly manner from one end of the mouth to the other, first doing the bottom, then the top teeth... and always doing it this way. As I worked from one end to the other, I slowly counted the teeth as I brushed them. That worked like a charm. Zachary could anticipate how long the process took...since he came to know he had 10 teeth on the bottom, and 10 on top... so, when I did the bottom 10 and got to 9, I'd let him call out the final number and say "10"... and then we'd do the top teeth. Counting brought order to a process and so, for him, it made the whole task of brushing his teeth, ok. For those interested, Kirkman Labs offers a casein free and gluten free toothpaste!
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