Positive autisism stims?

B/F's son is a 5 y/o autistic boy. He is almost obcessed with doors.
B/F told me that doc said to try to replace the doors with something else. Does anyone have any suggestions? I was reading some stuff online and found clicking a pen. I thought that might give him the same satisfaction of open/closing something.
Any ideas?

Re: Positive autisism stims?

Can you give him a toy that has a door on it like a dollhouse or something? That might lead to more appropriate play.

Re: Positive autisism stims?

There is no replacement really for opening and closing doors - it is more important to find out when he is opening and closing doors - when he is bored? During downtime? Then he needs to be taught some other activities to be redirected to and then be reinforced for those activities... Nothing will replace doors per se, but he needs to be taught other things to do instead of opening and closing doors. I have a child who does this and we worked on teaching other downtime activities that the parents direct him to and it has decreased his opening and closing behavior significantly....

If he is doing it for attention, then he needs to be taught other attention seeking behaviors, or be given attention for other things

for escape, then appropriate ways to request escape...