My son and Bed time issues

General
1

Hi I have a 7 yr son with Autism. ‘High functioning’ in a behaviour and social communication unit in mainstream school. His dad works long shifts and doesn’t see him every day, every other day. My son has this thing about staying up to see him (which is understandable).

Multiple times a week he will get himself in a really bad state about it for hours. Relentlessly talking about it, crying. Maybe a bit of 10 mins intermittent break and then back to it again. I’ve given in many times but only because he’s nearly finished for summer. I have a chart that shows which days ‘daddy off’, ‘daddy at work’. Is this autism or normal behaviour?

2

We had a similar challenge and changing the layout of the room helped more than I expected. I moved the kids bunk bed away from the window and added blackout curtains.

That small shift gave him a bit more control over his space and made it “feel” safer, which oddly seemed to calm the bedtime chaos a bit. Sounds strange, but even where the bed sits can make a difference.