ASD twins and walking struggles!
Walking is never something I thought would be a struggle when I had children, but now I have three year old ASD twins, I have realised that walking can actually be quite problematic!
Both twins are prone to having sensory related meltdowns, which can often lead to them simply flopping down on the ground and becoming dead weight, or flailing wildly. While this is very manageable at home where we have various strategies we can use to calm the twins down, if it happens when we are out and about, it can be very difficult to deal with. Often either my husband or I are out alone with the twins, and trying to deal with these situations alone in public can be dangerous for everyone involved if it happens anywhere near a road, so for this reason, we rarely leave the house without the twin buggy.
While using the twin buggy to get around usually stops sensory meltdowns, it also means that the twins don’t get nearly as much time walking around in public as other children their age do. This means they simply aren’t always used to walking on pavements and paths holding hands with an adult!
As the twins are getting older, my husband and I are acutely aware of how important it is for the twins to practise walking with an adult. Whenever we can, we go out together (which is harder than it sounds due to my work schedule), where we can then take a twin each, and walk around while holding hands. This probably sounds a bit absurd to most parents of toddlers and children, but we have to make sure we have little hand-holding walk arounds as much as we possibly can to gradually help the twins get used to the process, and help them to be able to walk around without flopping down on the pavement!
We have got to the point where if we need to stop at the shop for a pint of milk after going somewhere in the car, we will all go into the shop. It takes a million times longer than it would for me to just run in and grab the milk by myself, but it’s doing wonders for the twins’ confidence where walking and hand holding is concerned!