A Box to Protect the TV Set

I wanted to share this, with parents who have autistic children, that tend to be destructive with electronics. I remember a few years ago having a conversation with a mom from Sacramento, who's son had severe autism and had already broken dozens of VCRs. Little did I know that I would be facing the same dilemma a few years later.

Mickie has always like watching TV and right around the time of his diagnosis liked it more then his own family-which wasn't a good thing. If someone stood in front of his view, he would just look around them as if people were mere objects.

Over the course of the last three years, he has gone from watching some TV to nothing at all. First he wanted the same DVD to play day and night then one day he just unplugged the DVD Player and the TV set.

Before he just gave up on TV, he broke quite a few DVD players and had many meltdowns because he would turn the channel and get a fuzzy screen, then wanted it changed back to the right channel, but didn't know how. One night after midnight he came to my door and took me by the hand so I could change the channel for him. He did this thirty times. I guess this is what psychology calls Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but in Mickie it's multiplied times 10.

So for the last few months he hasn't watched anything and it bothers me, because he can always learn something even from a TV show, and he is so sensitive to people voices that it's impossible to get him to pay attention.

Recently while talking with my mom about this, she came up with the idea of building a Wood box in the closed and placing a TV inside, then covering the front with Plexiglas. Mom is always fool of ideas and she always comes to the rescue when I am at a loss for ideas.

This week I was lucky enough to find a good Samaritan who was nice enough to build the box we needed. From the room next to his, I control the digital box and the Television. He can't turn it on nor off. Last night I got everything to work and Mickie couldn't have been more thrilled.

When he got home from school today and walked in his room, and noticed the cartoons were playing on his TV, he smiled and that was all I needed to make my day.