Autistic Girl Refuses to Swim: Advice?

Post Reply New Topic

This question is for all of you who either have classic autism, have worked with people with classic autism, or are very good at understanding people with autism.

I help out at a swimming session for people on the spectrum. There is this one girl there who is learning how to swim, and her mother brings her there only for swimming, so she is not allowed to play with any toys. She swims with a floating suit. In the beginning, she was swimming quite well. She then suddenly stopped at the deep end of the pool and became fixated on a single black tile at the bottom of the pool (all of the other tiles there are either white or blue). She wanted to go down and touch the tile. We took the suit off and let her go down, but she can't push off with her arms well enough yet to go deep underwater. I really wanted to pull her down and let her touch that tile. However, first of all, she would be too heavy and I wouldn't be able to get her to touch it. Second of all, two supervisors were also there and they were very hard to communicate with. Therefore, her getting access to that tile was impossible.

How would you get this girl to stop fixating on the tile and to continue swimming?

I've actually tried explaining to her, logically, that in order to get to the bottom she would have to get rid of the floating belt first, but in order to get rid of the belt she has to improve her swimming skills, and in order to improve her swimming skills she would have to learn how to swim better through practice.
She didn't respond in any way, and kept repeating that she "wants to go down".

Well, in that case, I'm out of ideas. One of my friends has been a counselor at a camp for autistic children and loved it, but she's not online right now so I can't ask. Sorry I wasn't more help!

You'll need some way to color that tile. Otherwise forget it.

If she's obsessed with the black tile, and you can't convince her to continue swimming, you've got two options. You can either hope she grows out of it, or find a local tile store. If you don't mind tracking down a single black tile like is in the pool, that might be a good way to push her past the fixation.

lots of redirection, repititon and reinforcement. i fixate on a lot of random stuff and wont do my task in hand, like for instance tonight i had to volunteer help out i have to be constantly directed or ill sit there pushin that same button over and over and over, so they grab my hadns put something new in it, and direct me where to go over and over and over. My suggestion is see if u can put soemthing in her hands or try to distract her with soemthing and make her keep swimming i know make sounds bad, but apart of that fixations can lead to problems in life, see if u can stay away from the deep end? see if u can keep her occupied visually? ever explore options with her with visual input before? she sounds like she is visually seeking stuff. with me my two big things are street sweepers, and royal blue cars, ahaha weird i knwo but i get a great feeling when i look at them. Ever try getting a glass frame with the color black, and shining a flash light through it, see if she becomes interested in that, swim with it,s ee if it changes her mind. Antyhing visiaul u can redirect her with is the best bet! i hope i helped ya some, ill try to think of more ideas when it comes to my mind.

_________________
Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

Age1600 is right. Cover or disguise the tile and get a similar piece to see if that will satisfy her fixation. You can also make it her goal to touch the tile at the bottom of the pool. I tend to fixate on certain objects and study them intensely.

Thanks a lot for your input. You all gave me some very good ideas.

I can cover the tile with a flat rubber toy that sinks to the bottom. It's very colorful though, so I don't know how well it will work. I will try nevertheless if she has the same problem next time.

Age1600, you are very right about visual stimulation. She evidently was craving it, looking at the colorful toys, and just the way she stayed there and looked at everything and everyone in front of her. When she was swimming, she held a colored plastic ring in her hand and stared at it. I don't know how much visual stimulation I can give her with all the strict rules imposed on the supervisors there by her mother, but I'll see what I can do.