Taking Care of Myself

Parents are often baffled about how to teach their youngsters (on and off the spectrum!) about health, hygiene, modesty, and the ever changing rules that go with growth and development (bathing with your sibling when you are 2 is cool; bathing with your sibling at 12…not so cool).

A parent recently brought in a copy of Taking Care of Myself: A Healthy Hygiene, Puberty and Personal Curriculum for Young People with Autism by Mary Wrobel.  This informative book has a very straight forward approach to education, including bulleted lesson plans, approachable language, and repetition.  There is quite a bit of normalizing and fact based education. Much of the curriculum appears to sync up with the PECS approach to language/picture based communication. While this book appears to be aimed at children who struggle with change and require a great deal of structured communication, I think most parents would be relieved to read the book either for instructional purposes, or to sigh in relief as they realize they have already put some of these pieces in place.

If you find other resources for healthy development, particularly surrounding sexuality, please let me know!