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Experts estimate that the average American will pick up and move at least 11.7 times during their lifetime. While moving might not present a serious problem for some children, children with autism could find relocating to a new home especially challenging.

Here are three things you can do in the future to help ease the stress of a move on your autistic child.

1. Take baby steps when introducing your autistic child to his or her new home. 

Preventing a meltdown requires you to keep your autistic child on a consistent schedule. Children with autism crave consistency, so major changes (like a new house) can be very upsetting. To help ease the transition to a new home, it's important that you take baby steps when introducing an autistic child to his or her new surroundings.

Whenever possible, try to gain access to the new house before you move out of the old one. Drive past the new house with your child, and allow them to enter when they are ready. Placing a reward, like a coloring book or toy, behind the door of the new house can help an autistic child associate the home with positive outcomes. By taking these baby steps before a move, you will help your autistic child maintain as much consistency as possible.

2. Keep your child's room the same.

In order to make the new home seem more familiar, it can be helpful to set up your autistic child's room in exactly the same way it was set up at your old house. Having a bed, dresser, or toy chest in a familiar location can help ease your child's anxiety when it comes to adjusting to a new house.

If you plan to hire professional movers like Bekins Van Lines Inc, be sure that you instruct them to unpack your child's belongings at your new home first so that you can get his or her room set up as quickly as possible. Having a familiar space to escape to will help your child adjust to a new location.

3. Plan your move for a day when your child is away from home.

Watching beloved toys being packed away can be traumatic for any child, but autistic children often don't recognize that these changes are temporary. If you want to reduce the amount of stress a move will place on your child, plan the move for a day when your child is away from home.

Hire or recruit enough help to get everything packed and moved to your new home while your child is in school or with a trusted friend. Eliminating your child from the actual moving process will shield him or her from some of the anxiety associated with moving.

Moving with an autistic child can be a challenge. Taking the time to introduce the new home slowly, setting up your child's room exactly the same to maintain consistency, and moving while your child is away will make the moving process easier in the future.