Living With Autism Resources Children & Adults

The Autism Exchange (AEX) provides resources to help children, teens, and adults who are living with autism.  The Daily Living category encompasses a variety of topics focused on helping you and your child navigate areas of concern such as safety, stressors, school planning, or financial considerations and more.

Daily living is a constantly expanding section of The AEX.  Our goal is to include all necessary and helpful information for parents to care for their child, from young children to young adults to adulthood.  Our focus in this section of the site is to provide helpful information to aid parents in the day to day aspects of autism care.  Our resources provide excellent tools to help in each phase of life with autism.  As your child grows into an adult, there will be new areas to consider such as jobs and housing.  If you have information you would like to share regarding autism living, please use our Exchange Box tool.  It is simple to use and a quick way to give back to other parents.  Also, if you have an idea for a new category, please let us know by using our Contact Us link.

Important Daily Living Resources (more on the AEX)

• Stressors  Just living in today's world is stressful for everyone, let alone a child struggling with autism living.  What is important for an ASD child is to reduce the stressors in his or her environment so that the child is not reactive to the world they live in.  This may mean less noise, improved lighting, better air quality, etc.  Children with autism are extremely sensitive to their environment and may have a variety of physical, emotional, psychological, and behavioral reactions to any of the above stressors.
• Safety is an ongoing concern for children and adults living with autism.  Most people with autism have a difficult time communicating, understanding and identifying dangerous situations.  Common behaviors like wandering from his or her home or other settings also increases their risk of encountering dangerous situations.  Safety also includes situations where a child explores dangerous places at home like gas stove knobs, unbuckling seat belts, or encountering a neighbor's swimming pool.
• Legal Concerns   Once your child turns 18, they are considered by law to be an adult with full legal rights under your state law.  Parents frequently do not understand that this means they now can enter into contracts, move away from home, get married, make healthcare decisions for themselves, and vote.  In reality, parents are no longer the natural legal guardian.  This is a concern when your child is living with autism and may not have the intellectual capacity to make financial or medical decisions on their own, so understanding these legal aspects is critical for autism caregivers.
• Transitioning to Adulthood  Every parent of a child living with autism is going to face the day when the school bus stops coming.  With lots of preparation, organization, and a strong support system, transitioning into adulthood might not be as daunting as it seems.  Preparation for transition begins as early as age 14 in the school district with the transitional IEP.  The IEP will include Community Base Instruction (CBI), which means going out into the community on a regular basis, and life skills training with measurable outcome strategies, which help prepare the student to be able to function as independently as possible.  The long term goal is to be able to eventually live and work in the community in some capacity.

The Autism Exchange (AEX) Provides Comprehensive Daily Living Info

We hope that you find our AEX resources to be helpful.  We believe in sharing knowledge that can help guide parents to better care for their loved ones.  If you are interested in receiving the full benefits of The Autism Exchange, including discounts on supplements, products, and practitioner consults, please check out our Discount Club.