This is not necessarily true for many children with autism. According to the BBB Autism website, the three general kinds of sensory processing disorders are:

Tactile—based on a person’s sense of touch

Proprioceptive—based on where a person’s body is within a particular space

Vestibular—based on a person’s inner ear, and how it governs a person’s ability to interact with gravity and keep balance

For an autistic child with hyperactive sensory processing, this can lead to inappropriate social behaviors that can be very embarrassing for the parent. Additionally, this can drastically affect a child’s sleep pattern.

Most research indicates that a significant majority of children with autism have some type of sleep disorder. This can show itself in a variety of ways, such as having problems going to sleep, having problems staying asleep, or just waking up very early. For autistic children who have a hyperactive proprioceptive sensory disorder, there are a few tricks that can help the child go to sleep easier at night; one that parents are moving toward more often are weighted blankets.

The principle behind weighted blankets is to help the child with autism feel that he or she is enclosed and safe. An autistic child with a hyperactive proprioceptive sensory disorder often needs to feel cocooned in order to go to sleep because they don’t have an appropriate sense of space in relation to their body. As a result, weighted blankets, generally filled with sand or beans as opposed to traditional goose down, help alleviate the feeling of being in extraordinary space.

Without weighted blankets, many parents of autistic children must share the same bed to help compensate for their child’s anxiety over being in space. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of this practice can be the loss of sleep for the parents who often wake the next morning sleep-deprived, which can lead to a parent’s irritability. Using a weighted blanket can encourage a child to sleep in his or her own bed allowing for a better night’s sleep for the parents as well as a better relationship with their child.

Still, a weighted blanket is not necessarily a panacea for the child who wakes up in the middle of the night or who wakes up extremely early. For an autistic child who has a persistent sleep disorder, parents might want to look into additional alternatives to use in combination with a weighted blanket. There are a number of beds on the market designed specifically for autistic children. One in particular can aid the effectiveness of a weighted blanket: Noah’s Bed.

The unique, patented design of Noah’s Bed allows for a feeling of safety for the hyperactive proprioceptive sensory child by creating a cocoon-like atmosphere while still allowing the child to see out through the mesh netting. At the same time, parents will have a sense of security knowing that their child will be safe regardless what time he or she wakes up.

For more information on weighted blankets, go to www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/weighted-blankets.html.

For more information on Noah’s Bed, go to www.noahsworldllc.com.

Sadly, these stereotypes often hamper the treatment and care that children with autism receive in the community. Therefore, it is important that the general public be educated about autism or else negative connotations and Hollywood-constructed archetypes will continue to be the norm, not the exception.

As such, tired and exhausted though you may be from the day-to-day grind of raising your autistic child, it is still important that we all act to make sure that people understand our children in order for them to have better lives.

Most people are not ready to run a year-round, sophisticated, public relations campaign in order to make our town and city peers aware of what we face every day. However, Congress set aside April as Autism Awareness Month. Therefore, as you seek to increase the quality of life for you and your child, there are some specific steps that you can take to help raise awareness one month per year.

• Write letters to the editor: Most cities and towns have local or alternative newspapers and are receptive to having their local constituents write letters about topics of their own choosing. During April, or any time throughout the year, get as many of your friends and family to write in giving basic facts about autism. At least one of them could get printed.

• Seek City/Town Council recognition: This actually takes a little bit of planning, but is still pretty easy to do. Call the city clerk’s office in March and tell them that National Autism Awareness Month is coming up in April and that you and a few other parents in the community would like the city (or town) council to draw up a proclamation detailing a few facts (which you are happy to provide) about autism.

• Have a booth at a local event: Most localities have some sort of farmer’s market or fair these days. Ask the general manager of the market about having a booth for a couple of Saturdays so that you can provide information to the general public about autism. Bring a table, a chair, and some literature to pass out to the people going by. This is also a nice way to meet others in your community who may be affected by autism in some way.

These are the most basic principles to public awareness and advocacy. It is important that the general public understand what autism is and how it relates to our children in particular. Don’t expect that stereotypes and opinions will change overnight; we know that’s not how it works, but that’s not a reason to minimize the potential your own personal public awareness campaign might have. All you have to do is touch one person, change one person’s view of autism to have made a positive impact with your awareness campaign. After all, you never know who that one person might be.

What researchers know is that it can seriously hamper your child’s health…as well as your own. On average, a 3- to 6-year-old child needs approximately 10 to 12 hours of sleep per night. Many children with autism do not get the requisite hours of sleep, whether it’s due to an inability to read social cues (such as their siblings getting ready for bed); or may it’s because children with autism have a different internal clock.

Perhaps it has to do with a deficiency in melatonin production within the body due to low serotonin levels—there are currently a number of studies researching how melatonin affects the sleep patterns of children with autism. To date, the studies are encouraging but hardly all encompassing. Other reasons for an inability to fall asleep (or stay asleep) may relate to an autistic child’s sensitivity to outside stimuli or even a child’s reaction to that stimuli resulting in anxiety.

How, then, can you combat these forces which at times seem overwhelming? As any parent with an autistic child well knows, there are no easy answers. While autistic children might have similar characteristics and behaviors, and respond similarly in like situations, there is no one cure-all. However, there are quite a few techniques that might be able to help.

• Some children crave the touch of a human being. It might be worth your while to take the time to give your child a massage, beginning with the legs and arms and moving on from there.

• As mentioned before, some children with autism go to sleep more easily if they take melatonin shortly before bedtime. Consider starting off with 1 mg and working your way up. Of course, consult with your child’s doctor before giving your child any new over-the-counter medications.

• Many children with autism need some sort of stimulation to help them negate unwanted outside stimuli. To this end, you might try getting a therapy ball and bouncing him or her, or try gently rocking back and forth.

• Playing soothing music (perhaps Mozart or classical guitar) softly in the background might also help your child to go to sleep and stay asleep.

As you know, there is almost never just one panacea. More than likely you will have to do two or more of these and other little tricks to get your child to sleep well and stay asleep. Also, it is very likely that none of these tips will work immediately. You might find that you need to do each, some or all of the tips given to you over the course of 10 to 14 days to start to see the effect. Make sure that you give these tips the appropriate time needed to work for you and your autistic child.

Autistic Children and Sleep

Research indicates that autistic children have trouble sleeping. According to the Autism Society of American, “Most parents have had some experience with an autistic child who has difficulty falling asleep, wakes up frequently during the night, or only sleeps a few hours each night.”

As parents of autistic children know, troublesome sleeping patterns can affect a child’s ability to learn, communicate, and control emotions. Therefore, it’s important to work on establishing some bedtime habits to quiet and calm a child and prepare him or her for a good night’s sleep. After telling a child “It’s time to go to bed,” try to establish a bedtime ritual that your child relates to for preparing to sleep. For example, bath time or story time can be good and effective ways to help calm a child. In many cases, autistic children like and even thrive on the rituals and patterns in their lives, therefore, creating “events” that a child associates with bedtime might help him or her become accustomed to a series of events that lead to bedtime each night. Any bedtime rituals for an autistic child should be calming in nature. Avoid playtime, games, computers, and television while preparing your child for sleep.

Unfortunately, bedtime rituals don’t work for every autistic child. However, a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine determined that “over-the-counter melatonin medication can shorten the length of time it takes for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) or both to fall asleep at the beginning of the night.” (2009). Children taking melatonin treatments showed improvement in “total night sleep durations, sleep latency times, and sleep-onset times” more than children taking a placebo did. Of course, parents and caregivers of autistic children should talk to their child’s doctor before beginning any new over-the-counter or prescription medications. It’s also important for parents of autistic children to discuss their child’s sleep patterns with his or her doctor to rule out other medical conditions such as allergies or sleep apnea that could contribute to sleep disorders.

Another potential solution that will keep a child from wandering out of bed and throughout the house at night which in turn might help your child sleep more through the night is Noah’s Bed, which offers a unique, child-friendly design. Noah’s Bed was designed and created by parents of an active autistic child and has been in use for several years. If you are worried about your child getting out of bed each night or if your child’s sleeping patterns are affecting your sleep, Noah’s Bed could be the solution you are looking for to ensure you and your autistic child get a good night’s sleep.