Explaining sexuality to an autistic child comes with many challenges. But with the right strategies, these challenges can be made easy, says clinical psychologist Samrudhi Patkar.
Sexual abuse on children took headlines very frequently in the last few years, which brings in a concerning point about these specially-abled children. Making these children understand about abuse, safe and unsafe touch is as important as explaining the same to a Neuro-typical child.
Psychologist Samrudhi Patkar explains ETV Sukhibhava about the following strategies to implement while teaching about sexuality to Neuro-diverse children.
Explaining with visuals
Learning is always made easy with the right visuals. Plus, children with autism are ‘visual learners’. This is why explaining these kids about our private parts and sexuality is better explained and made understood when teaching is made through visual examples. “There are many online platforms and apps which help children understand about sexuality”, says Samrudhi.
Role Play
Roleplay is another form of visual explanation. Here, both the partners (parents) can take roles and explain about safe and unsafe touch using a role play. This makes the child understand about the safe and unsafe touch better because he can visually see and understand about the touch.
Marking and Labelling
Children can understand and recall items or any instructions when they are marked and labeled. Labeling the items or bathroom doors or sanitary pads helps these children to understand about a particular subject in a better way. When they read the labels, they can connect with the knowledge/activity related to that, and that’s how they memorize. Children can be taken to markets and stores and parents can allow them to choose products like sanitary pads. This will allow the child to understand more about that particular subject well”, says Samrudhi Patkar.
Videos
There are many videos on YouTube and apps that explain how sexuality can be explained to these children. Parents can use such videos to explain sexuality better. Learning happens effectively with visuals in any child and has already mentioned, these children are visual learners.
Social Story
Parents need to explain about the social situation (Reality, where the child can be abused or harmed) through stories. Parents must let these children know about the circumstances where they might be harmed/attacked and prepare these children to safeguard themselves. Telling them directly about the harm they might encounter will help the child to be alert.
Using medical terms
Parents must use medical terms to explain a body part than naming them with hints or code language. This allows the children to explain about any abuse or concern using those medical terms rather than struggling with how to convey the abuse.
From a broader perspective, it’s very important that parents and any other person, who is living with an autistic child first become comfortable with themselves. They need to be away from any social stigma while explaining about sexuality or calling a body part with a medical term. “It all starts with parents being comfortable while teaching about sexuality to these children”, concludes Samrudhi Patkar.
