Crossing roads

[frogslegs]

Our asperger son is nearly 11 so year 6 now. Next year he may have to walk a fair way to get to school but I can't get him to cross the road safely. He always looks the wrong way, i.e. he looks on his left and then says I can go now! Everytime I need to grap his sleeve to stop him. We are always walking to town so I get him to tell me when we can cross but time and time again he gets it wrong. We tried to get him to learn it as a sequence RLR (right left right) but I don't think that's gone in either.

Any tricks, tips that you could recommend?

[thomastank]

 

 

could you try using toy cars/people or something visual that you can do at home and then go and practice it?

[frogslegs]

I think he needs something really practical to do when he is faced with the situation. Some little sentence, or something. I have discussed this with other parents of aspies and they all seem to have similar problems. Noone came up with a good plan.

[smiley1590]

i have AS/dyspraxia and struggle exactly how your son experiencing crossing roads can be confusing at best times for us of knowing how and when is best to cross i fail to look and just run across the road when unsure which is scary thought my mum has nightmares sometimes over what i do she tells me when and where to cross when with her as she knows find difficult to understand road safety and we don't see NO danger due to ASD until too late already done it n happened my mum gives me instructions like look certain way which you say you do to your son and still get so mixed up anxious i just want to do it get to other side such a hard task to achieve when you have ASD though you'd be amazed!!! my mum has grabbed me on sleve to hand before now stop me getting run over sometimes when bad driver fails to indicate this makes them mad and angry me more anxious.nervous and confused about what to do next just step out nearly been run over on lots of occasion isn't easy so damn hard to figure it out right and be safe so even though i have NO real advice i can sympathise and empathise with your son totally there!! he NOT alone defo NOT that's for sure!!!

[chris54]

Our asperger son is nearly 11 so year 6 now. Next year he may have to walk a fair way to get to school but I can't get him to cross the road safely. He always looks the wrong way, i.e. he looks on his left and then says I can go now! Everytime I need to grap his sleeve to stop him. We are always walking to town so I get him to tell me when we can cross but time and time again he gets it wrong. We tried to get him to learn it as a sequence RLR (right left right) but I don't think that's gone in either.

Any tricks, tips that you could recommend?

 

My son is just the same, he is in year 5 now. At least I can look forward to a shorter walk when he goes up to secondary school. It is only half a mile away, At the moment Its a mile or so to his primary school, But the walk there and back twice a day keeps me fit.

[oxgirl]

My lad is nearly 16 and still has problems with roads. I have to say, he is better when he's on his own. He hasn't much independence, but he can walk to the local shop on his own, which involves crossing one road. Also, when we're in town, we leave him to walk to the library on his own and we've stood and watched him cross the road when he can't see us to see what he does. When he's with us, he does tend to rely on us to do his looking for him. He doesn't look up, tends to look at his feet when he's walking and he follows us by watching where our feet go. If our feet stop, he stops, if we go to take a step, so does he. It means that if we're standing waiting to cross a road and we put out our foot to cross, he'll automatically start to cross whether the road is clear or not because he's not paying attention to the road, and if we suddenly see a car and step back, he can be too slow and will still be in the road and we'll have to pull him back. Obviously, when he's on his own, he can't watch us so he has to rely on himself and does look around much better so he's probably actually safer when he's on his own to some extent!

 

~ Mel ~

[lsw146]

I can really sypmathise our DD was terrible at roads and still can walk out without noticing the danger but eventually she went the other way and would stand for ages before stepping out. My coaching and danger warnings provoked a short obsession with being run over. Now she's in year 11 and has succussfully been walking with a friend for a couple of years, she is very good and mimicking so I jut tried to set a really good examle of where and how to cross the road and now I don't walk with her my heart isn't in my mouth watching her. Good luck.

Jo