Jan 11 2009
Personal Space
Some individuals with autism have an aversion to being touched. Others, like B, crave touch. They seek it out at every possible moment, and try to occupy the same physical space as another person.
B doesn’t care if he knows someone or not. He will attempt to talk to anyone who strikes his fancy. The problem comes because he insists on being about 3 inches from your face when he talks to you, and will frequently attempt to touch your face at the same time. I am constantly reminding him to quit touching people, but it seems to have no impact.
Today we were at church, and he ran up to a gentleman I know very casually, and he does not know at all. He grabbed this man’s arm and began insisting he repeat the characters in Willie Wonka back to him. Fortunately, this gentleman is friendly and kind and very willingly played along.
After church we went to the grocery store. B ran up to a woman and grabbed her elbows and said something to her. I was following quickly to remind him not to touch people, and did not hear what he said, but the woman screamed. She was clearly quite taken aback by his behavior, and I grabbed him away quickly, apologized, and reminded him again about personal space.
I am at a loss as to how to teach B to respect personal space and quit touching strangers. Nothing I try gets through. I am forever thankful to the lovely employee at Whole Foods who reinforced my message a few months ago by telling him that no, he could not hug her, but thanks for asking. She was the fifth employee he asked for a hug, and the first one who understood what I was trying to do by making him back away and ask.
Any suggestions?
And as an update–he stayed in his bed for most of last night, but not all night. He has started tonight in his bed, though, so at least that’s something!
