Colours

[Bagpuss]

Our youngest dd has had some difficulty at school today. Her teacher has written in her home/school diary that 3 or 4 of the girls (my dd included) have become alittle obsessed with having everything in yellow. Yellow cups, yellow plates etc. This has escalated, and is causing problems in the playground, as they all want the yellow hoops. According to her teacher, she gave the whole class a talk regarding playing with and using things of all different colours, and everyone agreed to "try harder". Everyone it seems apart from my dd. She has written that she was the only child who then went out into the playground and had a "tantrum" about having to have a yellow hoop, and her teacher has said that if it happens again tomorrow, our dd will have to be brought inside. I've tried having a chat with our dd about it, but she's not making much sense. All she has said is that the yellow hoops are broken and she has to stay in tomorrow. Last week she was badly scratched by another child on her face because she had attempted to take a green hoop from him, and since then has been alittle scared of playing with the green hoops....think in her mind she associates playing with green hoops with being scratched.

 

I know having to have same colours can be common amongst children with ASD, and TBH, we have had difficulty in the past at home with this.

 

Unsure what to suggest to the school though. Anyone have any ideas?

Edited November 28, 2006 by Bagpuss

[stressedmumto2]

I think you could be right with the idea of not wanting the green hoop because she associates it with getting hurt.

 

Perhaps you or school could do a social story about first using hoops which are different colours/sizes etc. Every time she complies, but she will need reminding/prompting to use a different colour she should be awarded straight away with smiley face etc which she can then do when she comes in from break at the end of the week she eaans a reward if she has complied 3 times out of 5 without making a fuss, but the teacher/ta needs to be very willing to read the story when she is calm just before a break would be great and then to gently prompt her before she goes out to play.

 

This method can also be used in the home to helpwith the other things such as cups, plates etc

 

Have a chat with the school and see if they welcome your thoughts, suggestions on it, best of luck <'>

[Brook]

My son has difficulty with 'flexible thinking', he always wants the blue cup, plate, etc.. etc..,

his school have worked very hard with him on this, they have a big picture of a tree on

the wall, it's called 'the kindness tree', if the kids do something kind or nice they get their

name on the tree and an extra smilie on their reward charts, all the kids love going on this

tree. My son and another little ASD boy both wanted the 'blue' cup and were both starting

to get stressed and screamy, in the end my son let the other boy have the cup and his

teacher gave him lots of praise and told him he was very kind and his name was going

on the tree, he was absolutely thrilled to bits, since this he does try very hard to be more

flexible, but it obviously depends a great deal on the day, ie.. what particular stress factors

are about.

 

I really think it's not on not to let your daughter go outside, they should really be trying

to find strategies to encourage her 'flexible thinking' and giving her lots of praise instead

of negatives.

 

 

Brook

Edited November 28, 2006 by Brook

[butterfingersbimbo]

yeah i think that if they focus on rewarding her more than punishing her then they are going to have more chance of success.......i would point this out to them tbh if they cant work it out for themselves!!!

[Bagpuss]

Thanks for your replies I was abit stumped TBH, unsure what to suggest, although DH has said that this morning dd was saying she's going to play with a red hoop instead. I'm going to suggest to her teacher that she is rewarded for playing with different coloured hoops etc . I'm waiting for her return to read her diary and see what's happened today.................maybe the yellow obsession has moved on........and is now a red obsession

 

Thanks again <'>

[Stephanie]

Yeah we had this one, with the colour blue (there are other threads regarding this topic).

 

He has more of a problem at school than home now. Sometimes its not so much that he wants the blue thing, its more that he doesn't want the other children to have it.

 

The way we have resolved it is to make him choose 3 favourite colours, he has chosen black and green as number 2 and 3 .. this makes him more flexible. My son also used to hate his brother going near or wearing anything orange - but he has grown out of that now.

 

Some children will only eat foods of a certain colour like white or brown, some will only wear one colour and some will only eat off certain colour crockery etc. Also colours can trigger emotions - like if a child hated brown and they saw a brown car on the way to school, it could have an impact on their whole day.

 

He is currently annoyed that the colour pink is in fashion for boys, he finds it most upsetting.

[Bagpuss]

Thanks for your reply Stephanie. Unfortunately the home/school diary was missing from her bookbag this evening, so no idea how today went. I've asked her how she got on, and she said she picked up leaves.

 

Hopefully tomorrow will be able to find out what actually happened when the diary is back