Dr. Lonnie Zwaigenbaum:
Great question, hope these thoughts are helpful!
Thanks for your question. My name is Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, I’m a developmental pediatrician at the University of Alberta. So that’s a challenging situation. The pandemic has been difficult for everyone especially for children with autism who’ve lost the structure and supports of their usual programs and really do benefit from outdoor time to get some fresh air and burn off some energy.
It’s a great thought to reach out to your neighbour to talk about your son and what it’s like to live with autism, and hopefully that would help him or her better understand. Depending on your current relationship with the neighbour, you might consider a brief phone call or front door chat to explain your son’s outdoor play as you see it. For example, does autism affect your son’s ability to monitor his noise level or maybe he’s just a little less aware of how others might react to his behaviour.
Depending on your preference, you might check if your neighbour is concerned about the noise level at a particular time of the day, and if it seems appropriate to you to adjust your son’s schedule. We’re all in this together, and building those lines of communication could help establish some goodwill and interest in learning more about autism. But the bottom line is that your son needs his outdoor time and deserves to be treated respectfully.
So thanks again for writing and best wishes to you and your family for a fun and healthy summer.
