A Bean Bag Chair
is a useful tool to help regulate an autistic child's mood and behavior. There are a number of styles of bean bag chairs, some which provide deep pressure to the nervous system equally and others that provide pressure in specific areas.
The general idea here is that the unique physical stimulation and pressure bean bag chairs provide can help autistic children calm down during a tantrum and ideally play a role in helping them learn to self regulate future stress and return to focus.
Bean bag or other similar soft chairs are used by special education facilities as a standard tool to help kids calm down, and regain control. Imagine the difference in how you would feel if you were required to site in a hard wooden or firm chair when upset versus sitting in a nice soft, warm immersing bean bag chair.
A useful exercise is to teach your child to sit or lay in the chair and wrap the sides of the chair around their sides, sort of like a cocoon. Doing this when the child is calm and later reminding them when they are upset that they can go in to the cocoon can help greatly.
Bean bag chairs can also be used to stimulate deep pressure by having the child carry the chair around as this is most likely an appropriate weight/size for this purpose. There are many other possibilities. You may also consider using two bean bags - one that the child will sit in, the other that is placed on their lap or similar.
Many special-ed settings have multiple bean bag style chairs, one per room, or multiple in some rooms so they are able to allow several children the opportunity to calm or re-assure themselves. You should consider purchasing multiple chairs for your home. A chair for the bedroom and one for the living room for example.
There are various sizes, shapes, colors and styles of bean bag chairs available. There are chairs for young children, adult sized, over-sized and multiple person chairs available. Be sure to consider what the child prefers for color, design or patterns. This is so much more important than the decor of the room. You want your child to use it, so make sure they are happy with the way it looks.
These are examples of the classic bean bag chairs - good starter chairs - the most common:
Some additional styles, depending on what you need:
You should also consider this book to have a multi-pronged approach to working with your childs behaviors.:
