Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Most of us take painting a room in our home as a simple weekend project. But for caretakers of autistic persons, painting a room can present a world of challenges. Please take a look at the color suggestions below to get advice and inspiration for your next painting project.
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Considering Safety And Comfort with Color
The prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. The CDC’s most recent statistics reported that 1 in 59 children will be diagnosed with ASD. Of those, boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed than girls.
Children with ASD can suffer from developmental regression including loss of language skills and social interests. Nearly half will wander or bolt from safety and 28 percent of eight year-olds with ASD have self-injurious behaviors.
When designing spaces for these children, it is very important to consider not only safety and comfort, but color.
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Neutral Paint Colors Help Reduce Visual Stimulation For Persons With Autism
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Reducing Stimulation Through Paint Color Choices
Research has found that several components of the eye are changed in Autistic children due to neural deficiencies and/or chemical imbalances. Some research has shown that almost 85% of children with ASD see colors with greater intensity than non-autistic children. Therefore is important to choose not only the right color but to limit the intensity of the shade.
Neutrals reduce visual stimulation, stay away from bright whites and any colors that might remind your child of a visit to the hospital or other facilities that your child might correlate with an unpleasant medical experience.
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Reduce Stimulation With Softer Paint Colors
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Creating Calm Through Color
Children’s medical offices can often have an overload of primary colors including red, blue and yellow in their fullest intensity. Full intensity colors should be avoided.
Red should never be used in the home as children with ASD perceive the color as florescent.
Yellows likewise are very stimulating and are best to avoid.
Greens, blues, pinks, soft oranges and neutrals can be very comforting. Keeping the colors muted, these tones can quiet the mind and create calm. PPG has a special collection of Harmony colors that work wonderfully for this purpose. Here are some good choices broken down into paint color families.
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Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Neutralizing Colors For The Autistic Spectrum
Neutrals: Wheat Sheaf (PPG 14-21); Fishermen’s Net, (PPG 14-25) Armadillo (PPG 14-17) and Summer Wheat (PPG 14-10) are all excellent choices for a Neutral Color palette.
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
The Restorative Powers Of Green
Greens: This is a winning color family. The eye does not distort green and it is very soothing. In the Dale, (PPG 11-10), True to You, (PPG 1118-3) Great Joy (PPG 1120-3) More Melon, (PPG 1116-2) and Lettuce Alone (PPG 1222-4) are nice, calm greens that represent a beautiful array of restorative colors that can also be fun and create a feeling of joy in children.
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Blues Leaning Towards Teal
Blues: Blues should lean more towards the green and teal family. Although blue can be calming, too much or too dark can feel depressing. Colors like Simply Elegant (PPG1155-3) Crystal Lake (PPG 1151-4), Magical (PPG 1160-2), and Misty Aqua, (PPG 1147-3) may be more endearing to your child.
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Violets Evoke Safety & Love
Pinks and Violets: These colors are very calming for children and evoke feelings of safety and love. On the violet side, shades like Misty Violet, (PPG 1247-3) and Frosted Lilac (PPG 1173-3) create a sweet and calming aura while soft pinks like Rose Blush (PPG 18-18) and Just Blush (PPG 18-17) are lovely, cleaner pinks. Rose Cloud (PPG1048-3) and Nostalgia (PPG1049-3) bring more mauve to the space.
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Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Warm & Welcoming Oranges
Soft Orange and corals: It may seem counterintuitive to call Orange a calming color, but in the right tones, the color family can be very welcoming, warm and comforting. One bonus: using a soft orange or coral in the kitchen may help stimulate appetites and keep mealtime more manageable with picky eaters. Look to shades like Peach Beauty (PPG 18-27) and Beige Llama (PPG 18-13) to lean to the pastel- coral side of things while Peach Darling (PPG 1201-3) and Caramel Ice (PPG 1202-4) will put a nice warm glow in the room.
Avoid High Contrast With Color Choices
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Minimize Contrast For Comfort
Minimizing the contrast is a key in placing color in these spaces. Paint the ceiling in the rooms a lighter version of that color to reduce the level of contrast between the ceilings and walls. Also, avoid using bright white trim around windows, baseboards and doors. The high contrast can create visual lines on the walls. It is perfectly acceptable to use the same shade of paint color in a different sheen. For example, eggshell on the wall and satin on the trim. You could also go up or down one shade on the color stripe for the trim color. This will create subtle shading and look beautiful.
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Choose Simple Accessories Without A Lot Of Patterns
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
Avoid The Extremes
It is also best to avoid patterns and high contrast between window treatments and walls. Stripes, prints and other patterns can become busy and distracting, especially in bedrooms. When using fabric blinds, try to make the blind blend with the wall color. Linen, taupe and soft gray are better choices. Keep bedding colors and patterns simple as well.
Color can be your best friend when designing spaces. It is one of the easiest fixes you can make for the smallest amount of investment.
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Comforting Colors Can Leading To Relaxed Moods
Room Paint Color Choices For Autistic Persons
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PPG makes it easy to see what your paint color will look like. You can order large 8 by 8 swatches online for free. These swatches allow you to see a larger representation of the paint color in your home before you buy.
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