I’d like to start a thread in honor of Autism Awareness Month. Lets share our stories, good and bad, about living with Autism.
My eldest (age 9 now) is the one who is still diagnosticaaly “on the autism spectrum”. He had this thing about socks. Had to have them on his feet … in the sandbox, at nighttime, always have to have sox on feets.
Youngest son…poor little dookie, isnt as big or as strong as his older 2 brothers but he’s a smart little thang. When big brother pissed him off, he’d just yank off his socks and hide them lol!!!
They do say there's a little bit of autism in us all. My eldest went through this phase of taking everything inlcuding saucepans and and other various household items and putting them under his bed and he would hvae a super tantrum if i wanted them back...in the end i just let him. Eventually he grew out of it...thank Allah!!!
However, i do think there's huge misconceptions of autism in the asian community, mainly because people just don't understand it. WE have a child in our class and his mum thinks he will 'grow out of it'.....
Its not something you grow out of but for sure its something you can grow IN TO. Look at Temple G. who is a doctorate and professor. If Einstein were born these days, they say he'd be diagnosed autistic. They're different, thats all.
A recent study conducted in UK concluded that the biggest risk factor for autism is the number of engineer-types in the family!! I am comp sci major, my dad was electrical engineer from a long line of engineer-types. Hubbys an comp-sci guy with many engineers too,
He...was the subject of a good portion of our visit to our new ped neurologist. She thinks hubby is likely on the spectrum lol...he is famous for his odd ways. I worked with him for years and got to know them well. He would burst out with these absolutely brilliant ideas in the middle of a meeting. Mind you, these had absolutely nothing to do with the discussion that was taking place at the time. After marriage and kids,,,he really is the best dad. But,,,there was a time or 5 when I'd go out food shopping and come home to absolute disaster. Older 2 papered the entire den with diaper wipes. Youngest sitting on the floor in the mud room with doggie food bins open and spilled all over, cheeks brimming like a chipmunk with dog food. Where was DAD???? He was zoned out with his network diagrams and coming up with more brilliant ideas.
^ are you saying your hubby is autistic too?? I know a few families who are dealing with this and its the toughest job ever for the parents, a salute to all these brave families
I dont think she means her husband is 'autistic' there is no such thing, its a spectrum. I think Mama means that her husband has autistic tendencies. To be honest, I would believe that of chachu Verizon. He is awfully quiet these days...still banned?
I sometimes feel I have autistic tendencies regarding colours mixing together, it freaks me out. I sometimes think it may just be slight OCD, but I don't think its actually too healthy to give everything a 'label' I work with children and cannot stand when adults make claims regarding behaviour. Everybody wants a label. I'm not a parent though so I wouldn't know how that feels. But I sometimes just want to scream at the parents of the children I teach and say 'Youre child is unique, and an individual as are you!'
Please note, I am not saying that there is no such thing as children with special educational needs, I teach a fair few. I am talking about those parents that nit pick on every single aspect of their childs learning, growth and development.
Yes thats just it Milly. Verzie seems to have autistic tendencies, most severely apparent in his earliest years and less apparent as he got older. As far as labels, it really doesnt make much difference as to diagnosis in the early years - be it autism, sensory processing disorder, traumatic brain injury, etc etc...the therapies are pretty much the same. But the schools require a diagnosis and sometimes the amount of therapies you get can be dependent upon diagnosis. In the end, the actual diagnosis can be debatable but its required and its actually helpful to the parents to know what the actual problem is.
I know Mama, I have to write a fair few letters to GPs for referrals and its most definately all about the wording. If I don't word my letters correctly we may not get a referral, no referral = no funding.
Like I said, my rant was more for the parents whom nit pick and want a label for their childrens (sometimes unique) habits.
One recent example; I teach 5 year olds, and one of my girl's has only just begun writing, much of her sentence stucture is how she speaks, as in she writes like she talks. Which is perfectly normal for an emergent writer (her child is at the latter end of emergent writing). Her mother however is convinced she needs speech and language therapy. Which is clearly not the case. Mother googled and spoke to another mother in the playground and now thinks her child is dyslexic.
MO3, can you explain to some of us who have no idea what autism is? I mean we come across kids in our school who were either labelled weird or eccentric....how do you differentiate your kid from being eccentric/weird or autistic... ..
Sorry for sounding ignorant but pls help us learn as well... thanks
Automme, heres a link that covers Autism and its signs and symptoms. Since there is no definitive test like a blood test that provides a definite diagnosis, it can be difficult to diagnose. Especially since there is such a huge range of disability - from severe to “high functioning”. Thats why its called a spectrum disorder, Primarily, its a lack of interpersonal skills, communication skills and inability to attend. This link goes more into details…
My daughter had a thing for snow. Would not step in it or on it - would not touch it. That's kinda hard when you live in the northeast. AH - she got over that but I still remember when she would just stop and refuse to move forward if snow was in her way.
good stuff - she has a knack for puzzles. She doesn't need the picture but will assemble any jigsaw puzzle you put in front of her. Her grandpa was trying to figure one out and she made the whole thing for him. :)
lol njgal! Thats really cute about the snow! Glad she got over it, esp with this horrible winter we just had! My son is pretty much over his sock thing too, he will go barefoot from time to time. I think the little guy cured him of it lol!!
My son has a thing for alphabets.. OMG he loves everything that has anything to do with alphabets…he loves to sing the whole song and now he is working hard to learn the signs for each alphabet on his own. He practices and practices and it is so cute to see those little fingers turning and twirling.
It is a great way to grab his attention as well which I use sometime
Jiya, thats really cool! Did you know that you can buy macaroni alphabet letters? Boil them up and add some salt and butter or a little cheese sauce and I bet your little one will eat like a champ!!
sand...omg, my eldest had the same thing!! I got this cute little sandbox when he was like 18 months old, I plopped him in there (barefoot) and HOLEY MOLEY you;d think an ax murderer got hands on him. SHEESH. Took me a while but I finally figured out if I left his sox on his feets he was ok in there!!
Another thing is ripping paper. Interesting thing, I watched the movie Talking back to autism - an HBO special this month - and one of the leaders in education of autistic children uses a technique that really gets the kids attention. She rips paper constantly during teaching sessions. She'll rip two pieces of paper from a sheet and write a word on each sheet and ask the child a question and the child picks the correct answer. Theres something about the sound of ripping paper that grabs them.
My son has been ripping paper since he was an about 18 months old. We're always finding little paper balls all over the house lol. We have to be really careful not to leave important papers around. Or Money!!! Last summer, he tore up a 10 dollar bill!! I put the shreds in a baggie and took him to the bank. He had to tell the teller what he did and ask if he could have a new one if he promised not to tear it up. He was actually very sorry, it was cute.
Well summer is finally around the corner so maybe this year our children will react better to the sand.
But he LOVES the water, I mean it is so bad that we only go to malls which doesn't have any fountains, God forbid if the architect decided to plop a beautiful fountain in the middle of the mall my family can spend the entire afternoon trying to keep my son away from it.
I can't wait for mine to speak sentences ... any would do. Right now he even struggles with one word demands.
Many children "on the spectrum" have gastro-intestinal issues and pain, also have feeding and eating issues (like my son!). We did consider a medical form of marijuana (called Marinol) to increase his appetite but because of his level of social awareness he wasnt a good candidate for it. I do know another mom though, who has a pretty severely autistic son who refuses physical contact, has occasional "rages" and doesnt like to eat (when you're talking about a kid on the spectrum, this usually means that they'd really rather starve to death and they literally would)...and medicinal marijuana works like a charm for him.
For my son, a good part of the answer was a different medication called Periactin. Its an antihistamine that works much the same way as MJ but without the euphoric effects. I'd give it just before dinner, his appetite would kick in and he'd eat very well (for him!) and then he would just about fall asleep in his dinner plate lol! He was on this for about 2 years and finally got the idea that eating is GOOD, eating is necessary and wont (usually) cause extra pain. These days, he doesnt needmeds to eat enough. It will never bring him happiness, it will never be something he enjoys which is kinda sad.,,but at least he is at the point now where he wouldnt starve his little self to death.
