Toys that incorporate a lot of tactile feedback and provide a focus for autistic kids’ fidgeting can be a good option when tactile sensitivity is at play.

Tangle Creations makes a variety of sensory fidget toys for special needs children. The ones I’ll be looking at here are those in the Tangle Therapy line. These toys fit in your hand, and you move them around almost like prayer beads.

They’re very cheap at less than $10 a pop, but how do they stack up and what do parents think of them?

Tangle Therapy Sensory Fidget Toys In Action

Tangle Therapy lines are geared towards anybody who might need sensory hand therapy—people trying to quit smoking and need something to fidget on, people who need to work their hand muscles, etc. But it’s become quite a popular toy for special needs children.

Probably the best way to show how they are is to link you to a youtube video.

You get the idea.

Some examples of toys in the Tangle Therapy line include:

Tangle Creations Jr. (available from Amazon)

The original Tangle Therapy (available from Amazon)

Tangle Relax Therapy (available from Amazon)

Different Tangle Therapy toys have different textures so you might want to try a few to figure out the best texture for your autistic child.

Who is Tangle Therapy Sensory Fidget Toys Best For?

Tangle Therapy isn’t targeted specifically towards special needs children. This means that it isn’t good for all types of autistic children.

Parents and autistic adults who bought the toy say it’s good for the following people:

• People with Asperger’s who are old enough not to choke on small parts (including adults!)
• Autistic boys and especially Autistic girls, since Tangles look like bracelets!
• Older autistic kids who don’t handle their toys too roughly
• People who don’t mind a toy that doesn’t last a very long time, such as more than a few years
• Adult autistics

What’s Good About Tangle Therapy Tactile Sensory Toys?

Here are some of the good things parents and autistic customers say about Tangle Therapy:

• Cheap toy!
• Since they look like bracelets, they don’t make an autistic child stand out in public
• Provide good tactile sensory stimulation
• Help develop fine motor skills
• Can be used to teach colors to kids

What’s Not So Great About Tangle Therapy Toys?

Because of how cheap they are and because they were originally geared towards adults you should beware of several things before deciding to buy them for an autistic child:

• Not very durable and falls apart after not a lot of use. Some reviewers have said it broke within the first few minutes of rough play
• Small parts present a choking hazard

Related Articles

Share Your Experiences!

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One popular music making toy is Neurosmith’s Music Blocks. This innovative toy lets kids to create music by moving a bunch of blocks around. Each side of a block is associated with different musical sounds and by combining different sounds in different timings your child can create cool tunes!

Music Blocks: Available from many sellers including Amazon

Another great thing about this toy is that these days you get it for half this price of when the toy first came out!

Who is Music Blocks Best For?

Let’s cut straight to the chase–what ages/developmental stage autistic children are Music Blocks best for?

Autism mother and author Susan Senator says Music Blocks is a great toy for any age autistic child. It uses music sequences and this appeals greatly to autistic kids because of they love patterns.

What’s Good About Music Blocks?

Here are some of the good things parents say about Music Blocks:

• Holds the interest of autistic children
• Is a toy that children often come back to repeatedly
• Music quality is excellent
• Encourages exploration and learning
• A great toy for parents to play with kids
• Intuitive to play with
• Music is relaxing

What’s Not So Great About Music Blocks?

Despite the great reviews there are some things to note about Music Blocks before you buy it!

• Not the most durable toy, since throwing the blocks can break the music cartridges inside them
• Several parents note that the current version of the toy (which is much cheaper than the original version which came out several years back) seems to have slightly lower quality music than the original
• Current version of the toy doesn’t support cartridges beyond those included with the toy, which means you can’t add on other music types

Share Your Experiences!

What have your experiences been if you’ve bought Neurosmith’s Music Blocks for you autistic child? Or have you heard of other friends who had good or bad experiences with Music Blocks? We’d love to hear your stories in the comments section.

Buy it Online!

You can buy Music Blocks online through a variety of online vendors including:

• Amazon.com

Related Articles

• Benefits of Music For Children With Autism

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It’s simple, yet so important to remember so I thought I would reproduce it here.

1. I am first and foremost a child. I have autism. I am not primarily “autistic.”
2. My sensory perceptions are disordered
3. Remember to distinguish between won’t (I choose not to) and can’t (I’m not able to)
4. I am a concrete thinker, which means that I interpret language very literally
5. Be patient with my limited vocabulary
6. I’m very visually oriented because language is very difficult for me
7. Focus and build on what I can do rather than what I can’t do
8. Help me with social interactions
9. Try to identify what triggers my meltdowns
10. Love me unconditionally
11. Patience, Patience, Patience (ok, there are 11 things, not ten!)

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Luckily, autistic girls and their parents don’t have to feel like they’re facing these challenges alone. Two books  written by female autism experts and parents help shed light on how they overcame challenges during critical childhood years.

1.Parenting Girls on the Autism Spectrum

Author Cred

Eileen Riley-Hall is one inspiring mother! She has two teenage girls–one with Asperger’s and the other with Autism. Eileen teaches at an inclusive public school in New York State and has worked with special needs students from preschool through to high school for over 25 years.

Accolades

While the book doesn’t have any book awards, it has endorsements from a few autism medical professionals.

Content

The book starts from a personal perspective, introducing Eileen’s daughters Lizzie and Caroline, and broadens to give general advice for parents of autistic girls on various life topics including

• Friendships
• Relationships
• Growth milestones
• Challenges that you will probably face (“dark moments”)
• Vaccinations and treatments

What Readers Say

Readers who liked the book say such things as:

• A must read for special educators
• Inspiring for parents
• Personal stories linked to specific advice is refreshing
• Good even for parents of autistic boys

There weren’t any negative reviews for the book on Amazon!

Best for…

Parents and relatives of autistic girls.

2. Girls Growing Up on the Autism Spectrum

Author Cred

The book’s authors are all from the clinical side of things.

Shana Nichols is Clinical Director of the Fay J. Lindner Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders in Long Island, New York. Shana is a licensed clinical psychologist.

Gina Marie Moravcik is a speech and language pathologist specializing in social communication and autism spectrum disorders who works as Coordinator of Education and Speech Language Services at the Fay J. Lindner Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Samara Pulver Tetenbaum is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook who has worked in the autism field for five years.

Accolades

None at the moment.

Content

In line with the authors’ day jobs, the book takes a more clinical bent on raising autistic girls mixed with reporting on personal experiences.

It covers such topics as:

• Adolescence
• Sexuality and puberty
• Hormones and emotions
• Periods, pads, and pelvic exams
• Self confidence
• First bras
• Staying safe

Each chapter intersperses the scientific/psychology explanations with personal anecdotes from autistic families.

What Readers Say

On the positive side:

• Great for parents
• Detailed sections on topics not often covered in other books, such as sexuality and fashion
• Well researched yet readable with information presented in “bite sized” pieces

Best for…

Parents and autism professionals

Other Articles That Might Interest You

• Good Toys for Autistic Girls
• How Autistic Girls Differ From Autistic Boys
• Good Books for Girls with Asperger’s and Their Parents

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Luckily Aspie girls and their parents don’t have to feel like they’re facing these challenges alone. There are two award-winning books  written by Asperger’s experts and Aspies that shed light on how they faced challenges and in many cases overcame them to become professionally and personally satisfied.

1. Asperger’s and Girls

Accolades

Asperger’s and Girls is written by a who’s who of asperger experts and celebrities, including Temple Grandin. It comes with great accolades, including the Gold Award in the 2006 ForeWord Book of the Year competition.

Content

It covers topics important to girls with Asperger’s, including

• How to educate female students with Asperger’s
• Frienship, bullying, and fitting in at school
• Puberty
• Moving from high school towards college and professional life
• Do’s and Don’ts in relationships and marriage
• Maternal instincts

What Readers Say

Unfortunately despite the book’s awards and stellar cast of authors, reader reviews of the book are mixed.

Readers who liked the book say it’s

• Packed with very good information with first-hand accounts and recommendations
• For parents and relatives, the book gives insight into how girls with Asperger’s think
• Readers particularly praise the Dating Do’s and Don’ts chapter

Readers who don’t like the book say it’s

• Verbose
• Aspie readers seem to think the information is condescending and doesn’t give them actionable items
• Material is of uneven quality–some is great, some is not so great

2. Aspergirls: Empowering Females with Asperger Syndrome

Aspergirls is written by Aspie Rudy Simone, writer and Asperger’s consultant from San Francisco.

It won the Independent Publishers gold Medal and was a ForeWord “Book of the Year” nominee. Rudy Simone’s books have been endorsed by autism celebrities including Temple Grandin, Tony Attwood, and Liane Holiday Willey.

Content

Topics covered in the book include:

• Aspie girls and school
• Sensory overload
• Gender roles and identity
• Puberty
• Dating, sex, and relationships
• Friendships
• College
• Career
• Marriage and children

What Readers Say

The books seems very well reviewed by readers. Positives about the book include:

• Author is approachable and never condescending with Aspie girls–great for Aspies!
• Powerful personal stories
• Empowering
• Good for families, educators, and doctors who work with Aspies

Other Articles That Might be of Interest

• Good Toys for Autistic Girls
• How Autistic Girls Differ From Autistic Boys
• Good Books for Autistic Girls and Their Parents

The post Good Books for Girls with Asperger’s and Their Parents appeared first on Games and Toys For Autistic Children.

This post summarizes the types of toys you should look for when shopping for the autistic girl in your life. To learn more about the special needs and talents of autistic girls please read our post on Great Books for Parents of Autistic Girls.

Types of Toys Appropriate For Autistic Girls

Although many toys appropriate for autistic boys would work for girls as well, autism experts suggest that the following types of toys and entertainment are good choices for girls:

• Toys that promote imaginative pretend-play activities, especially if such activities can be played with others
• Toys that incorporate music and dancing
• Books!–fantasy books, books aimed at young girls such as the Babysitters series, etc.
• Art toys, such as
• Music composition toys, such as

The following sections give specific examples of toys that fit each of these categories.
Pretend-Play Toys

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Benefits

Playing board games can provide many benefits including:

• Board games that focus on symbols rather than words can be effective for improving communication skills
• Board games can teach children how to take turns
• Provide a structured format for socializing
• Provide a safe way to learn how to handle frustration and emotions
• Teach math skills
• Teach planning and problem solving
• Improve memorization
• Improve hand-eye coordination
• Teach them how to follow directions (and related to this, teach parents how to give instructions)

Improve Communication Skills

Because autistic children tend to think visually rather than in words, board games that use symbols and colors can provide a good way for them to express themselves and communicate.

See related article: How Autistic Children Think Differently

Teach Children How to Take Turns

Turn taking is a social cue, and as with many other social cues, autistic children generally find these hard to understand. Autism expert Temple Grandin says board games can provide a safe and fun environment for autistic kids to learn about turn taking.

Provide a Structured Format for Socializing

Autistic children like structure and repetition. One mother says that her high-functioning autistic son loves board game nights because they provide him a structured format for socializing both with family, friends, and strangers (via game conventions!).

Handle Frustration and Emotions

Games teach children how to win and lose gracefully, and this is no different for autistic children. Additionally autistic children often have more problems controlling emotional outbursts than non-autistic children making incorporating games into their activities even more important.

See related post: Autistic Behaviors to Keep in Mind When Deciding What Toy to Buy

Improve Cognition

Games are great “brain food” because they test memory, planning, and problem solving skills

Improve Motor Skills

Some games, such as the Rubiks Cube, can improve motor skills and eye hand coordination.

Teach how to follow directions

Autism interventionist Steffany Garcia says that board games “reinforce the need to follow directions” and are a good way to teach autistic youngsters when it’s ok to create their own game rules and when they should follow the official game rules.

Difficulties

However, playing games with autistic children brings some challenges as well, include:

• Explaining rules can be difficult.
• You may have to modify the game rules to fit your child’s inclinations/abilities
• Small parts can be a choking hazard, especially for low-functioning autistics

Explaining Rules

One mother says that she found it challenging at first to teach her autistic child the rules for a game. She says that “ you cannot use a literal term, such as “roll the dice”, as they will literally roll it along the floor rather than throw it, as they take every phrase at face value. I have to really think about what I am saying when giving instructions.”

You May Have to Modify Game Rules

Each autistic child is different. As a result, some games just may not suit them well. You can sometimes get around this by modifying how the game is played to suit their strengths and also to tailor them for the skills you want to teach your child.

Beware Small Parts

Low-functioning autistics are especially prone to put things in their mouth past the age when non-autistics would not. In some cases you will need to make sure that the age recommendations on the game box apply to your child.

Games

Here’s a list of some games that might work well for your child. Click the links to read more about each game where I’ve had a chance to take a closer look at the game:

• Rory’s Magic Cubes
• Candy Land
• Ticket to Ride
• Monopoly
• Connect Four

What other insights do you have to share regarding using board games with your child? Please comment!

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I summarize some of the good and bad features of Candy Land below as they relate to autistic kids. You can then more details about the experiences of autism experts and parents with Candy Land in the next sections.

Summary

Characteristics that Make it Good for Autistic Children:

• Teaches turn-taking
• Relies on visual recognition
• Doesn’t rely on verbal communication
• You can easily adjust the rules to fit your autistic child’s strengths

Avoid Candy Land for:

• Kids with attention difficulties
• Children who get frustrated easily, since it depends on luck rather than logic
• Low functioning autistics and others who might choke on game pieces

Best for…

• Most autistic children, except maybe low-functioning autistics

You can buy Candy Land from Amazon.

Gameplay

Before we talk more about whether Candy Land is suitable for autistic children, a short refresher course on how the game works is in order since you probably last played it when you were five.

Candy Land is a racing board game where players race around a winding track to find the lost king of Candy Land, relying on random chance to determine the winner. A deck of cards is also used, where each card represents one of several colors. The track is made up of various colored tiles, and players take turns grabbing the top card from the deck and moving their marker to the next space containing the chosen card’s color. The first person who lands or passes the final tile is declared the winner.

Playing the game requires no reading skills, very little counting skills, and a good amount of color recognition skills. This makes it a good game for young children.

Things that Make Candy Land a Good Game for Autistic Kids

Autism expert Temple Grandin says that Candy Land is a good game for autistics because it teaches turn taking.

Candy Land is also a good game because it doesn’t rely on verbal communication–a common difficulty for autistic children–and instead plays to their strengths in visual recognition.

Autism Author and mother Susan Senator also writes that she had great experiences playing Candy Land with her autistic son. She began by helping him during his turn, using hand-over-hand to move his piece around the board. Candy Land helped Susan teach her son how to repeat out loud colors, which in turn kept him focused on the game.

Things to Beware Of

One thing to beware of if you decide to play Candy Land with your autistic child is that the marker pieces can be quite small and provide a choking hazard. This makes it not a great choice for low functioning autistic children who like putting things in their mouths.

Second, because many autistic children are attracted to logic, a game like Candy Land that relies purely on luck may leave them frustrated with their inability to control the outcome. You probably won’t be able to know this unless you actually try playing the game, but knowing how well your autistic child controls his negative emotions can give a clue to how he would react to playing Candy Land.

Third, Susan Senator notes that Candy Land often forces the player to return to start. This can be problematic for kids with attention difficulties. She suggests changing the rules to suit your child if this is the case.

Conclusion

Candy Land seems like a great game to at least try with your autistic child, and if nothing else you can easily customize the rules of the game to fit your child’s situation. Parents–what have been your experiences with Candy Land? Please comment!

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• 1 in 88 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder, compared to the previous value of 1 in 110
• Autism is five times more common in boys than in girls, with 1 in 54 boys having autism
• from the 14 communities where data was collected, CDC found a wide range in children in autism between places from 1 in 210 children in Alabama to 1 in 47 children in Utah

Does This Mean Autism Is More Common In Children Today?

Many experts–and the CDC included–emphasize that rising autism rates in children doesn’t mean that there are more autistic children today than ever before. For example, autism expert Catherine Lord at the N.Y. Presbyterian Hospital says that the higher numbers may be because of better autism detection rather than a real increase in autistic children. She asks whether the 14 sites being studied may have been included in the CDC’s study because of their commitment to autism services, which in turn drew families touched by autism to move nearby.

However, at the same time Lord also says that because most of the children had autistic diagnoses from community physicians rather than CDC researchers, there might be actually a higher rate of autism.

Impacts of Higher Rates of Autism on Society

The CDC will be performing further studies to try to verify their numbers, but if the autism rate truly is increasing, what does this mean for society?

First, it means we need to figure out what the causes of autism are.

Secondly, it means we have to find a way to pay for better autism interventions so autistic children can grow up and live health adult lives. It also means we have to determine what are good autism treatments, as studies on the effectiveness of various interventions are still quite rare.

Autism Therapies Vary in Effectiveness But Show Promise

Related to my last point is other news recently released about a study that shows autism therapy can bring significant gains but also vary widely in effectiveness. The study tracked 7,000 children undergoing autism therapy and found there was a small group of “bloomers” who began with many communication and social problems but made rapid gains in therapy during their elementary school years. The researchers also found that most kids improved over time in social and communication scores but that some kids improved much faster than others. For example, kids with other intellectual disabilities besides autism didn’t have large improvements.

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Research studies find that between 30 to 100% of autistic children have some type of sensory issue and that sensory issues seem more common during childhood than in adulthood.

In this post I’ll talk about some common sensory issues experienced by autistic children from the scientific literature as well as anecdotal evidence from parents and caretakers of children with autism. I also talk about symptoms associated with each issue.

1. Visual Sensory Issues

Researchers have found that rods and cones in the eyes of autistic children are different from non-autistics in part due to chemical imbalances or neural deficiencies. Of the autistic children tested by some studies, 85% saw colors with greater intensity than neuro-typical children. To these autistic children, red appears nearly fluorescent and vibrates intensely. A small proportion (10%) saw color as non-autistic children do, and 5% saw muted colors. Studies also find that visual spatial skills are generally very advanced in autistic children. Researchers also find that autistic children often experience “Gestalt perception,” or an inability to filter foreground and background information. This causes everything they see to be viewed in its entirety instead of as a combination of different things. It makes it hard for them to recognize things if one minor detail is changed. Visual sensory issues can also cause autistic children to have difficulty following environmental cues. many can’t distinguish normal visual cues such as exit or restroom signage.

Key Things To Keep In Mind For Hyposensitive Children (not enough visual stimulation):

• Children who are hypo-sensitive to color tend to see color in muted tones. They will seek out primary and other vibrant colors because they perceive things as grey.

• They may withdraw from areas or things with vivid colors and visual patterns
• Primary colors can be distracting, so you might want to remove bright toys from learning areas
• Some children may become obsessed with complex environments, such as memorizing all the shapes and lines in an environment. This means that shutters and drapery can be over-stimulating. Painting window frames with a muted color that is the same as the shade can help prevent overstimulation.

2. Auditory Issues

Auditory sensitivity issues are very common in autistic children. Famed autistic Temple Grandin talks a lot about this issue in her childhood, and one study even found that 100% of the autistic subjects showed auditory difficulties. Autistics might experience auditory issues in terms of intensity or sensory overload. In terms of intensity, some noises may be too intense for autistic children while in other cases the sounds aren’t stimulating enough. In terms of sensory overload there may be too much noise coming in a shopping mall or a restaurant for the child to be able to filter out the most important sounds.

Key Things To Keep In Mind For Hyposensitive Children:

3. Movement (Proprioception) Issues

Clumsiness and gross motor impairment are common features of Aspergers and high-functioning autism. Issues may occur include lacking fine and gross motor skills, lacking eye-hand coordination, difficulty imitating gestures, poor posture, and poor balance. One study thinks that some of these issues may be tied to sensitivity issues in other senses like vision or sounds that cause distractions, or that they may be tied to integrating multiple senses, such as eye-hand or balance-touch.

4. Tactile Issues

Autistic children can also show issues related to touch. This can lead to several symptoms:

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