Chores

Does your teen do chores or help out around the house? Do you think it works different if your child or teen has autism? There are probably varying opinions on this topic whether your child has autism or not because each person is just different and so is each home.

For our family, we have tried many things in the past to get buy-in from our children in order to help out around the house but also to teach them about some of life’s lessons.

Let me tell you that for us tying chores to allowance did NOT work. We tried with both of our children but I think with both of them being on the autism spectrum, money held little meaning or value for them.

When our daughter was much younger (before she was diagnosed with autism) we used a chart where she would get a check mark for each chore she completed and then once she had so many check marks (I think it was 10) but I can’t remember she would be able to buy a stuffed animal (meaning we would buy it for her.) That worked for a little while until she got bored with that.

As our teens have grown, we again have done different things to try to get them to participate in helping out around the house. Now, we don’t call them chores, we just call it helping out which seems to work a little better but it’s always hit or miss depending on the “child” and how busy they are at any particular time.

For our son, it seems to give him confidence to help out and be in control of a particular task and although I would like him to do more, I am very happy with the progress he is making in this area. He has done things like laundry, sweeping, doing dishes, emptying the dishwasher, to name a few. His growth in this area has just happened over the last couple of years.

For our daughter, I must admit that it is very difficult to get her to help out with anything, including keeping her own space neat, tidy and garbage and dishes free! But, I am not giving up just yet. She has made a little progress in occasionally helping out with the laundry and with making herself or retrieving food from the kitchen when she is hungry so I will say this makes me very happy!

This is still a work in progress for our entire family, but we will continue to work on this and hopefully come up with some more creative ideas that will carry our children to create a life of independence for themselves.

I would love to hear your ideas of what has worked for your children!