You can make them if you want Clover. It's all about how deep pressure provides calm. Or you can google them. There's one place in Australia that does it online from what I remember.

Anyway... I don't know why this is the first time I've posted in this thread. I think I've deliberately stayed away - I know it's meant to be all supportive and stuff but I find it a bit depressing sometimes, or perhaps it makes it more real *sigh*. I've really come to understand how much other people don't understand ASD kids, particular professionals who I would think should spend more time thinking about it as it can determine their effectiveness.

I had a meeting yesterday with DD's school about her behavioural ticks that have started to show up. I get the "but she's not like that here" implied aka "it's not us, it must be something going on at home", despite these things only happening on school days, not weekends. I tried to explain how she's "on" at school, and uses up all her tank of self-control and keeping it together, so that by the time she gets home the tank is empty and she's in her "safe" place and then just lets go. They, of course, just didn't get it. They also pointed out how calmly she was playing with the blocks while we were talking. She was stacking them of course, which I pointed out, and they're like... "so... and your point is?" Gah! All they could see was that she was calm therefore was able to sit there stacking, not that she was calm because she was stacking. I then have to point out that that means we should be asking why does she feel the need to stack, an activity that is recognised as a tool ASD kids use to calm themselves? It's because she is anxious, otherwise I know she would play with them differently. I don't know what is worse sometimes, the meltdown where everyone can see they're not coping, or the huge increase in calm repetitiveness that indicates an underlying turmoil? One of course is more "socially acceptable" because it doesn't effect anyone else but the kid that is autistic (and their family), which is quite ironic, seeing egocentric theory of mind is meant to be a characteristic of autism itself and it's what everyone else is pushing iykwim.