Things To Consider When Moving Into a New Home With Your Autism Family

Moving is a stressful and challenging time that brings along change. There’s one thing that all parents of a child on the Autism Spectrum know is that change, whether good or bad, always causes problems for your child. However, moving gives you the unique opportunity to pick the best place for your child to live.

So what should you consider before moving into a new home with your family? Things we thought were important and determined our choice of where to live were – the school system, the environment, the size of the town and the accessibility to what our family needed (services, medical facilities, food, entertainment, etc.).

The Environment

With these things in mind we did some basic research to find an area that met our needs. In our case, this was Northeast Tennessee. With this decision in place we looked to make sure there were homes we could afford in these areas and ruled out ones that were too expensive or didn’t meet our needs. Then we had our family watch the children for a few days so we could go visit the area. We looked at a few houses in several different areas to get a feel for the environment. We were looking for a smaller city with a slower pace of life, less traffic, with a low crime rate/drug problem and friendly people. These things would help reduce the stress level for our children. We narrowed our area down to three cities – Johnson City, Greeneville and Jonesborough.

Schools

Schools are critical for children on the Autism Spectrum. They can make or break your child’s chances for success. I recommend that parents visit in person the schools that their children would be zoned for before purchasing a house. Read online about the schools, including their administration prior to your visit. Have specific questions about what your child needs – specific services, behavior plans, personalities, communication, etc. Visit the classrooms, observe the teachers that would interact with your child, get a general feel for the school and ask your questions. When moving, you are given the a unique opportunity to select the school that best fits your child.

No school is the perfect fit for every child. What works great for one child doesn’t always work best for another. Asking for others’ opinions and reading reviews about a school doesn’t always give you an accurate picture. Take for instance, our situation. After our school visits we narrowed our list down to Greeneville City Schools and Johnson City. Each were great in their own ways, with both scoring high in reviews and high in state rankings of the top schools. However, each school system had their own administration styles which affected how the schools instructed their students which were radically different – one was high pressure/high performance and the other was nurturing/guiding/assisting. We could see this when we toured the schools. Our children shut down or act out during high pressure/stressful situations, so our choice was easy.

You are always going to hear good or bad about every school. Ask for specifics to see if those experiences would be ones that would affect your child. Every child, teacher, family, classmates and administration is all different. These things all make up a child’s experience. Every school has its own strengths and weaknesses. The key is finding the one that suits your child the best.

Accessibile To What You Need

Before looking at houses my husband and I each made a list of what was important to us. Then we compared the lists. Many were the same, which is good since it meant that both of us would be happy with our new home. Things high on our lists included good community, good schools for the kids, good hospital, affordable gas, close to retail stores, close to restaurants, and close to places to work. We wanted a 4 bedroom house with at least an acre of land and at least 2 bathrooms. This way each kid had their own room and they also had plenty of room to run around outside.

We wanted the kids to be able to still do the same types of things they did before we moved. Moving out of state to a new house away from family was a big enough change, so anything we could do to make things similar to what we did before would help them adjust better to our new home.

Get Input From Everyone

When we decided to move my husband and I choose the area where we would move to. We visited the area and started to narrow down our selection to a few houses. A short while later we brought the kids back with us to see what they thought of the houses we were looking at. This way they could feel like they were a part of the choice and it would hopefully show us any pitfalls with a house.

One house, for instance, had one of the bedrooms on a separate floor. The only way this house would work is if our oldest son had that room. He said he didn’t want to be on a different floor. This was a reasonable complaint, so we ruled that house out. Sometimes the complaints were superficial and would be easy to fix. We asked the kids for their opinions and told them we would consider them, but the final decision would be ours. In the end we chose a house that everyone ended up happy with and it was a good fit for our family.

Moving is tough on a family, but especially challenging for a family with a disability. The key is to talk about it an advance so they know the change is coming and to make them feel like they are a part of the decision. It isn’t always easy, but hopefully with these tips you’ll find a new home perfect for your family.