Autistic kids and glasses

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In the latest installment in my wonderful daughter's sensory issue saga, we have...glasses.

I'm hoping someone may have some experience/advice.

She's 10 by the way, and she's just broken her latest pair.

Much like her shoes, she feels like her glasses are going to fall off (they aren't, she can shake her head around and they don't move, it's a sensory feedback thing).

So she constantly bends them to try and get some feeling of security and one of two things happens:

1. She has them clamped on so hard she has serious marks on her nose and around her ears.

2. The arms break.

With shoes we've been able to find ones she can't do up too much but glasses - there just aren't that many options.

She gets annoyed with us telling her not to bend them and that they're pressing into her nose too much and she sometimes just refuses to wear them. But then she's wandering around a world she can't see.

Any suggestions?

No I can only think of silly suggestions like putting like a headband on them

I was actually gonna do a similar thing with mine so they don't fall off when I'm doing stuff

There used to be an elastic strap one could attach to the ends of glasses that ran over the back of the head. I don't know if it is still available, but it night give more of a feeling of security.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the thoughts.

I wondered if there might be an elasticated strap or something. Thing is she's super self-conscious about her appearance, she hates being 'noticed' (I wrote before about not wanting to wear coloured clothes or any design that anyone might comment on). I don't want to do anything that's going to make her stand out from her peers but we need to get her wearing her glasses.

It's a puzzle.

Yeah I remember her being really self conscious and to be fair there's no way you would have got me to tie a pair of specs round my head at that age.....I'd be reluctant to now

I dunno maybe she might just feel more secure in them the more she gets used to them

Probably, it's just how many pairs she breaks before we get there. I'm not made of money.

I know

They cost a small fortune

TR 90 frames are your friend. They're virtually impossible to destroy shy of burning them or purposefully cutting them with a scissors. You can sit on them, you can bend them a lot farther than you'd expect and really, they tend to be pretty light as well.

Depending upon where you get them, the frames themselves only cost $5-10 to manufacture, so one of the smaller non-luxottica sites should be able to sell them for practically nothing with the actual lenses being the most expensive part of the whole thing.

I've personally got a few hundred sunglasses that use the material just for the tip of the arms, and they're quite comfortable. I don't have any that would take a prescription lens, but they'll fit securely without digging into the head. And, if need be, you can always attach a retaining strap if that's not enough.

EDIT: If you google tr90 prescription glasses, I see a fair number of shops with a pair for well under $100, with at least one being closer to $50.

^Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into their availability in the UK.

Yeah that's a good idea

I was thinking of something like seeing if there are YouTube videos on helping kids get used to wearing glasses but you've probably already tried that

Thing is she is usually ok with them at the start, fine for a couple of weeks. Then the trouble starts.

She was alright with her glasses until she learned they could be adjusted by the optician. They heat up the plastic arms and bend them.

So then she just started to bend them herself, over and over again until they snap.

It's dead hard being a parent innit

Sort of a solution to this, in case anyone with the same problem finds this thread by searching...

I found these things, they are like silicon hooks that slide on the arms and curl around the back of the ears. They're to stop people's glasses falling forward when they look down. Anyway, they're also good for improving the feel of glasses in autistic kids. My autistic kid, at least.

I'm so glad you found something that helps.