As an adult with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) you may be living at home with your parents, in shared accommodation with others, in university housing or in a relationship with or without children. Therefore, home leisure activities will be different for all of you. The main thing is not to forget the daily routines that need to be done. The activities that you have put off until the weekend, will need to be managed so that you have order in your life and you can think about other possibilities to include.
You may already have the organisation of your day under control but the complexities of managing your leisure time and others’ around this routine may require review of your plans. Given the amount of unstructured time that occurs during weekends and holiday periods it may be best to consider restructuring your free time and managing it differently.
Some things you may need to consider while organising your leisure time are:
- Social commitments – Do you have a social commitment, is there a family celebration that requires you to attend?
- Recreation – Do you play in a sporting competition; do you coach your child’s sporting team?
- Personal – Do you have to go to the laundromat, do you need a haircut?
- Household – Is it your responsibility to pay the bills, do the shopping, vacuum the house, mow the lawn?
- Education – Do you need to do research for or write an essay?
Think about the leisure activities that you currently enjoy and maybe there are some others you have thought about. For some of us daily activities such as cooking can also be a leisure activity, for others it may be playing computer games. The following are some activities you might not have thought about:
- Gardening Maintain your garden, planting flower beds or a vegetable and herb garden to use in your cooking
- Music Listening to the radio, playing recorded music
- Reading A book, newspaper, a magazine
- Textiles Weaving, needlework
Once you have thought about all of these possibilities you need to organise your days and weeks to manage your leisure time and other responsibilities. Use the strategies that you have developed and refined over the years to help you with this. Enjoy!
