COVID-19 and Autism: Masks

Guidelines put out by the CDC states that children should wear face coverings to slow the spread of COVID-19 (Article here). These tips and ideas below are for those families that need a little extra help getting their kids to wear protective face coverings...and keep them on. With some behavior analytic strategy and creative thinking, it’s possible! 

Masks aren’t the most comfortable things for many of us, but because we understand how they can protect ourselves and others, it’s worth it. If your child can understand risk or danger, try explaining “why” to them in an age-appropriate manner. Of course, many children are too young or they aren’t able to understand just yet, and that’s okay. Always treat a child like you’d want to be treated, and if someone was making me wear something weird over my face I’d want to know why. Try explaining to them before you put it on. This isn’t necessarily a tip for getting masks to stay on your child, but it’s important to think about how odd it must be for them. There are some great youtube videos and stories that talk about wearing maskings now. I’ll link that here (story) and here (video). 

Now, for the tips. 

Modeling is when the skill is modeled by adults and/or peers in a positive manner to the child. Parents- you are continuously modeling to your children, so make it count! Are you complaining about the mask or grumbling about wearing it in front or your child? Try instead modeling mask-wearing by putting in on without complaints, voicing to your child that you’re happy to have such an easy way to keep yourself safe from germs and that wearing a mask is not scary or a big deal. You can even make it silly by hiding a funny face underneath. 

Reinforcement. There is a reason this is in every single ABA program. It works. Does your child need to wear the mask for a trip to the store but won’t keep it on for 5 seconds? Work up to it. Start small. Start by praising and letting them watch an extra youtube video for just putting it on. Then have them keep it on for one minute before the extra video (or whatever your child thinks is special). This is called shaping. Then you can move onto 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10, 15...and so on. In 15 minutes you can possibly run into the store for those Oreos you ran out of that they’ve been asking for. This actually brings us to the next tip, the Premack principle. First, then. “First you wear your mask while in the bank, then you can have oreos.” Or, “first wear your mask in the doctor’s office, then you can play on the iPad.” This is also reinforcement, just a different way of presenting it. For reinforcement to be effective make sure it is: 

(1) actually increasing the mask-wearing; 

(2) presented before you put the mask on or tell your child to put the mask on;

(3) immediate, give it to them as soon as possible; 

(4) paired with lots of praise, this ensures that the special item will be able to be faded and they won’t rely on it forever. 

Thanks to the internet and some crafty people, there is now a whole market for protective face coverings. Find some that are different sizes, shapes, textures, and materials. It’s possible that your child will be much more open to wearing one and not the other. They could feel uncomfortable on their skin, pull at their ears, sit on their nose uncomfortably. If possible try them all on and observe your child. Is there a mask that they pull at less than the others? Is there one that they’ll leave for a few moments before asking you to take it off? Then work with that one! Your child’s preferences are paramount and should always be taken into consideration. 

There are also some wonderful problem solvers out there who came up with solutions to protective face covering annoyances. There are bucket hats that can be used for children who can’t/won’t wear masks that have a clear plastic layer around the face to eliminate the mask problem altogether. Picture below and link here. 

There are headbands with buttons sewed on that solve the ear tugging problem that some people have. There are also baseball caps with buttons and other similar hats that provide buttons to relieve ears or shields on the visors. Pictures below, links here and here.

These are just a few tips that we hope will work for your family. Let us know if these ideas help your child keep their mask on. Do you have something that’s worked for you that wasn’t mentioned? Send us a message and let us know!