Educating About Autism

Tomorrow I will be meeting with a lady from KXGN news about Autism.
She is looking at doing a story on the services and treatments available in Eastern Montana.

I am more than happy to do the interviews. The more people can learn about Autism, the better off we are.

People need to know that it is not going away and that the far reaching effects of this disorder are going to get phenomenally huge as the Autistic person ages.

Kathleen's Speech

Kathleen is 5 yrs old and she is more than moderately Autistic. She also has mutism.

Lately though we have noticed that she is trying to formulate words and if you listen closely, you will find that she almost has a language of her own.

She can say yeah on a regular basis and she uses nah for no also regularly.

She says mama, or mummy, depending on her stress level.

Occasionally she says juice but that is not really frequent enough to count.

She has what I call a patter.

It is her very own language that she uses on a regular basis and it doesn't seem to mean anything. It has no discernable words.

She has a kind of sing song melody along with her patter. We do a lot of music therapy with her at home and she will often wander around the house singing songs with different tunes that she makes up accompanied by her own words. It seems to please her and she appears happy at these times.

We have tried her with multiple musical instruments but her attention so far has not been great. She prefers to be held and have you dance and sing and will often initiate these contacts.

If the CD player gets turned on, she will make a beeline for the counter and sit and wait for you to be ready to pick her up no matter where in the house she is or what she is doing. And when she has had her fill, she will move away.

I am more likely to get tired than she is.

She actually has a very tuneful voice. She sings beautifully.

She also attends speech 2x a week during school sessions.

If we could get more speech from her, I think that a lot of her Autistic behaviours would reduce as most of them appear to be borne from an inability to communicate and the frustration that develops as a result of this.

An Ability To Show Concern Even When Autistic

Nathan is moderately Autistic. He also has mutism in addition.

He is currently 8 yrs old and will turn 9 in August.

Nathan is undergoing NAET treatments under the care of a chinese herbalist in Glendive. He has treatments approx once a week.

Since he started his treatments, he is more inclined to talk on a regular basis. He will answer questions, when he wants. He will also add his two cents to a conversation.

He is more inclined to stay out of his Autistic world and willingly participate in family games and general tomfoolery, at which time, he stays completely with us and doesn't retreat back to his world.

He is also noticing more what his brothers and sisters are doing at these times and attempting to emulate it. He is aware that they throw comments out at different intervals depending on what is going on and I have noticed that he is forcing himself to do the same.

For example, with the karate or wrestling games when someone makes contact, inevitably an oomph or an arrgh will be heard. Nathan is now doing the same.

Yesterday I had the mother of all toothaches. I was reduced to tears on multiple occasions, the pain was worse than labour. I would have liked to rip my jaw off as the pain was that severe.

Finally I ended up going to the ER in Glendive and they gave me pain relief and antibiotics.
It finally kicked in at 310 this morning and I can honestly say, since then, I have had no pain and all I am taking now are the antibiotics.

Nathan spent the evening visiting me at intervals after I returned from the hospital. Looking in my eyes and smiling at me and stroking my arm and hair.

He saw my coffee cup in front of the microwave that I had put coffee granules in while waiting for the water to boil and while I was elsewhere, he poured my water from the jug, added milk, and brought the coffee to me in the bedroom where I was supervising the girl's baths.

He had never done that before.

When I was laying on the floor getting jumped on by the girls and Eric, Nathan came and stood beside me and when it looked like someone was getting too rambunctious, he put his hand on their arm and held them, as if to tell them, to take it easy.

When I lay down on the bed to tell the girls a story at night, Nathan lay down beside me until I had finished and got up then he left too.

He stayed up until 4am. At which time we were both able to get some rest.

Nathan has always been close to me. My ex-husband used to joke, if there was a fire, you lead and Nathan will follow you, the other kids will just follow Nathan.

Even though Nathan doesn't speak much. It is almost like we have a special way of communicating. He will look in my eyes and it is like he is telepathically trying to communicate with me.

I believe it is entirely possible that my son, despite having Autism, sensed my level of distress and responded with empathy to help alleviate it as much as he could.

He is such a sweetheart. A teddy bear with a good heart. That's my boy.

What a Brilliant Day We Had Today

First off, per report for Nathan's summer school, his para had written the days of the week on the board from Monday to Friday, and was going to get Nathan to read them.
Nathan proceeded to yell and took the whiteboard pen off her and wrote Sunday before Monday and then Saturday after Friday.
Then he proceeded to write the numbers from one to ten in letters on the board.

Last Thursday for Nathan's NAET treatment, we removed an allergen for Pertussis.

I have maintained that Nathan's Autistic symptoms appeared just after he'd had his routine vaccinations.

This week I am hoping that we will do the MMR or the DPT.

I have noticed that since last Friday, his spontaneous speech has increased and he appears to be making almost a forced effort to say words when playing with his siblings or doing things on his own.

Once again, I feel that his speech is gaining in clarity also.

On Saturday, I pulled the garbage bag out of the receptacle and had just tied it up to take out and Nathan came running up to me, took it out of my hand and headed up the backyard with it to throw it over the fence into the trash container.
Once I had picked my jaw up off the floor, I thanked him profusely, he had never done that before, nor shown any inclination to learn that skill.

We do a lot of musical therapy at home. I like to sing. It is a good stress release for me and what I lack in talent, I make up for in volume.
The children all take turns dancing with me and with each other.
We also improvise with instruments and I am currently teaching the girls to play the spoons.

I sing phrases and sometimes they repeat them.

Nathan has always been tolerant of our music sessions and sometimes he will willingly come in to the kitchen and he and I waltz with him standing on my feet but he has never hummed or attempted to sing.

This afternoon when I got home from Rachel's dentist appointment, he asked me for juice.
Kathleen was having a conniption and was yelling as she wanted a toy that John had so I sang a one liner that I often repeat.
It goes, I'm in the mood, for dancing, romancing and love...

Well, I got the romancing part done and then Nathan who was standing beside me, sang the last two words.
It was so heartwarming. He is watching, he is learning, and now that he is able, it is all coming out.

I couldn't be happier. He has never ever sung before. Not only did he have the two words in the right spot, he sung them!

Looks like we are having a party at my house tonight.

First Eric didn't want to go to sleep until midnight, then shortly after, Kathleen got up and shows no sign of going back to bed.

There is a gentleman who teaches weekend seminars on NAET in Montana.

I would really like to go and learn it so I could do it at home and get John and Kathleen started on them.
With the progress that I have seen with Nathan, I am confident that it would help them too.

ADHD and NAET Progress.

Let's start with John and his herbal treatments for the ADHD.

He started summer school after being off for 3 weeks last Monday.

The aide that brought him home said she was shocked. She had mentally prepped herself for what she believed was going to be a trying day with John.
Until John started taking these herbs, transitioning was a very difficult thing for him. I was very interested to find that he did well at school and completed his assigned work without problems.

She not only sounded surprised but kind of relieved and I don't blame her. It is nice not having to put up with the tantrums anymore.

We have finally started to clear the immunizations with Nathan's NAET treatments and I have been waiting for this for a while as I wondered how much of a difference it would make.

Well, it has made a bit of a difference.

On Thursday we cleared Pertussis and on Friday he was wandering around the lounge room talking to himself. He was naming things and repeating words and phrases that he must have heard in the past and later in the evening while playing with his siblings, he was throwing out words to them at intervals, almost like he wanted to join them verbally as well as in play.

And today, I took the garbage bag out of the container and tied it up and this young man came jogging over and took it off me and headed up the back yard with it.

Nathan took the trash out for me. I didn't even ask him to!

Could have knocked me over with a feather.

I am so impressed with the changes in both of these boys over the past year. They are just not the same kids. They have come so far and God willing will go further.

Kathleen is Evolving Again

My 5yr old nonverbal Autistic daughter Kathleen continues to be an enigma.

She is on the AIM program and apart from loving her and spending one on one time with her, she is currently not recieving any other treatments.

Kathleen goes through periods where she improves significantly for a week to 2 weeks then plateaus and seems to regroup.

Currently her focus seems to be asserting herself and she went at that with gusto.

Ordinarily Kathleen would take a back seat and go and amuse herself if the other kids didn't want her to play but now, she looks for opportunities to join in. And will.

I had a talk to Rachel and Sarah about Kathleen. I explained as best I could about the Autism and how Kathleen really wanted to play with them but sometimes didn't know how.

This is where I can honestly say that my 6yr old daughter Rachel is a one of a kind.
She asked me questions and volunteered to help teach Kathleen the right way to ask people to play which she is endeavouring to do.

Kathleen responds very well to Rachel and I have often seen her trying to mimic things that Rachel has done. Not always at the same time but later when she is by herself.

She is also babbling in a sing song kind of way and some of it sounds like words.

We do a lot of music therapy in my house. I love to sing and it acts as a great stress release for me. I encourage the children to sing and dance as much as possible and even Nathan will come out and dance with his mum.

I am hoping that with all the extra hugs and time that Kathleen is getting this week will see her improve more in social skills.

I know that if we could get more speech out of her, we would improve her behaviours as she gets frustrated that we don't seem to understand what she is trying to tell us and I know that must be difficult for her.

John's ADHD

Time continues to go by and John's ADHD continues to improve with the herbal treatment on almost a daily basis.
Tantrums are a thing of the past for which I am exceedingly grateful.
Always a reader, he is able to sit and concentrate on a book without flapping.
It must be a heck of a relief to him!
And, I am proud to say. He continues to gain weight.

John's ADHD Herbal Treatment

There are so many objective things that have demonstrated that this herbal treatment for John's ADHD is working.

In the last week alone he has started to gain weight and he is not constantly eating.

Anyone with children who have ADHD will tell you that their hyperactivity burns an awful lot of calories. It is difficult to get the child to maintain a decent weight without using supplements.

John has not only gained weight, he has also cut his intake.

Having Autism and ADHD is quite a combination. I have a son who flaps vigorously. Or should I say, I HAD a son that flapped vigorously.

His flapping has reduced significantly. It is now possible for him to watch his favourite movie without the hand movements and the jumping up and down. It certainly makes watching television more pleasant for everyone else.

Transitioning has always been a problem for John. If he was concentrating on something and you asked him to do something else, you would get him screaming, slapping the back of his head and a nasty meltdown.

Since he started week 6 on Friday. I can honestly say that I have not seen a major meltdown from John. Occasionally like when the power went out tonight while he was watching a DVD, he objected verbally but when I explained about the lightning storm and asked him just to turn it back on, he did. There was no screaming, nothing.

I asked him to help me take out the trash on Monday night. He asked if he could play on the swing on the way out and I asked him to wait until we had done the trash.
He did!

Not only that but when I asked him to come inside 10 minutes later, he hopped off the swing and followed me in without a murmur.

Subjectively, and this is probably the odd one and I will try and download the photos from my camera in the next two days and post one here, his smile changed.

Ordinarily when I have taken a photo of John, I have got the mouth full of teeth "Cheese" smile.

I took a photo of him on Saturday and it was a regular smile. It makes his whole face look different.

Even his respite worker thinks that he is improving so it is not just my view point.

As time goes by apparently with this herbal treatment, his behaviour will continue to improve and it also works on the symptoms for Autism, so the flapping will improve as will the social skills and the eye contact etc.

It all looks great so far and there have been no side effects.
Later.

Treatments For John's ADHD

Well, we are currently just passed week 5 of John's herbal treatment for ADHD and I have to say without a doubt that it is working.

We had a swingset put in at the end of the week and unfortunately due to the rain, the kids have not been able to play on it.

I explained to John on Friday that it had been set in concrete and we had to wait for it to dry.

He asked me what concrete was and accepted my explanation and went off to find something else to do.

In the past this would have led to me getting screamed at and slapped and him smacking the back of his head and pulling on my clothes. It would also have meant that there would have been multiple assaults on the windows leading to the backyard and him trying to pick the keys out of my pocket for the rest of the evening.

His flapping has seriously decreased to the point where he watches his favourite program and is just sitting there with no movement.

He came and asked me today if I would help him bake a cake which we did together but the best part was when I pulled it out of the oven and asked him to wait until it cooled so we could ice it.

HE DID!!!!!

Woohoo.

A few minutes ago he asked his sister Rachel if she would play garbage trucks with him.

It is a role play game that he made up from watching a Backyardigans movie. He Made It Up.

Unheard of for an Autistic kid with the degree of Autism that he has.

He is doing absolutely bloody marvelous.!

He looked outside and saw it was raining this morning and said "Guess that means we can't play on the swing set today, oh well".

How sweet is that!

At last, a little light at the end of the tunnels.

It is not only dealing with his ADHD but also with the Autism symptoms.
Yahoo.

Good Days and Bad Days

Kathleen was fairly convivial this morning but she threw the most major tantrum at lunchtime.

She was at the table with her sisters eating then decided that she didn't like me to sit at the side of the table where I was feeding Eric, she wanted me to sit at the top.

So she pushed and climbed up on the chair behind me and shoved me with her feet and screamed some.

When I finished feeding Eric, I moved to the seat that she wanted me to sit in.

All was well for a few minutes then she noticed that there was a dining room chair in front of the computer so she got up to bring it to the table.

She couldn't get the chairs to go into the table together and started to get very frustrated and started screaming. Our attempts to help her to get the chairs to fit failed and she just went bright red and then she started biting her arm.

She did this a couple of times before finally giving up and running off.

It was one of the saddest moments of my life. Never had I felt such despair and I began to wonder if this was it.

If this was the best that we were ever going to have.

Even now as I type this I am crying again.

I just want so desperately to help her and she was doing so well and has come so far with her Autism over the past year and now to start biting herself. Where does it end?

I am more than a little despondent at this time.

No doubt tomorrow I will pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again. But for today, I think I will allow the tears.
Later.

Still Working With John and His ADHD

It is now 4 weeks since John started on the herbs for his ADHD.
It apparently, because it is an herb, does not kick in until week 5.

Already I have noticed that on some occasions when he would flap in the past, he has not been.
I am getting more gibberish but then also, when I sit him down to do his homework, he is appearing to be more focussed which is nice.

Next week we will see whether it is really making a difference.

I bought a two month supply so I should be able to know by then whether it is worthwhile continuing on the herbs for the ADHD or if I will have to look elsewhere.

Looking for a Natural Cure for the Symptoms of ADHD

In addition to his Autism, John has ADHD.

What a combination!

A hyperactive child who doesn't pay attention to what is going on in the real world around him.

I have tried meds for the ADHD without any success.

I tried coffee for the ADHD without any success.

That is not to say that either of these treatments won't work for ADHD. I have friends whose children's symptoms are controlled quite nicely using these modalities.

I think that each of these children respond to different treatments.

Currently I am using an herbal remedy that is meant to lessen the Autism symptoms and another to help with the ADHD.

Being herbal, it will take several weeks to kick in. We are currently on week three and he is having good days and bad days. I think that his flapping has decreased somewhat and he is doing some nice school work but it is still too early to tell if it is going to be effective or not.

This morning he decided that he was not getting in the car to go to school. We attempted to jolly him along knowing that if he was allowed to go back inside, the tantrums would increase in magnitude the next time he decided that he didn't want to go.

I can hardly wait to read today's report from his teacher.

I am thinking that I may drop in to the school this morning and see how he is doing.

They are using a lot of heavy sensory input at the school also.
Later.

Children with Autism Don't React Well to Change

Naturally enough that comment depends on the level of Autism that the child has.

Kathleen does not respond well to change.

The three nights that I spent in Bismarck were hard on her.

She went from a little girl who would jump in the bath tub and spend ages in there playing to a screaming mess each night when I would either start the water running or she saw the signs that I was getting ready to bathe them.

There is nothing that may set them off. It is simply the change in routine but if anyone has read the prior post on Kathleen and bathing, they will know that it took me probably close to 8 months of intensive, concentrated work to get her to the point where she would enjoy her bath and tolerate having her hair washed.

The night after I got back I realized that I would have to practically do it all over again.

It was a little sad to have my little girl back to screaming and wailing when the bath was turned on.

Fortunately she would agree to get in but was wailing the whole time and she would hang her head over the side of the tub.

It has taken her this long to figure out that I didn't want anything from her but to have her sit in the bath and wash herself or agree to let me do it for her.

Last night she jumped in the bath wailing but was prepared for flight at any time.

I leaned on the counter and asked Rachel to hand her the face cloth and indicated to Katy that I just wanted her to wash her face which she did.

All of a sudden she stopped the wailing. She would occasionally lean over the tub to reach for the towel to wipe the tears from her eyes but the incessant noise had stopped.

She looked over at me and gave me a quick smile and sat in the tub.

She had Rachel and Sarah in there with her and I instructed them to stop being mermaids for a wee bit which they agreed to do.

Kathleen just sat there for about 10 minutes. Occasionally she glanced my way and gave me more smiles and I got one giggle from her.

When she was ready she hopped out and we played the cuddle game which she loves.

Hopefully tonight she will be better again. It just takes a lot of time and patience and of course with children with the degree of Autism that Kathleen has it may take a little while so you just have to persevere.

I would rather have the children want to do a task than force them and have them hate every second of it. It can be done.

Later.

Summer is Coming

Less than 3 weeks till summer vacation.
I have to come up with some neat stuff to keep the inmates from getting bored.

It is hard to organize play dates for children with Autism. Not a lot of other parents think of inviting your children to their houses to play with their kids.
It is kind of a shame really as John would like to play with other children but being Autistic, he doesn't have the skills to initiate a freindship.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough of the other parents around here to develop a relationship with them that would foster reciprocal visits.

Yes it is true that my children being Autistic have a few idiosyncrasies but they are not leppers and they are not dangerous, they just sometimes do somethings differently.

They love to kick around a ball, they love to ride bikes and they love to play tag.
Just like any other kid.

They may not talk as well as some of the children around here, but they are not mean spirited and they will not say hurtful things. They are just children plain and simple who by an unlucky draw of nature have Autism.

I hope to get a swingset set up in the backyard before summer comes and I will call as many parents as I can think of to see if any of them want to send their children over here to play and hopefully that will break up the monotony of the long summer.

Sometimes it is hard to get things done around the house as I am only one woman and unfortunately I don't have any menfriends who can do things like fix bikes and the such. But I try to do what I can.

Hopefully my friend's husband will bring a mate to help set up the swing set or it is going to be a very interesting day I am sure.

And of course, there is always the play pools.
Later

Living with Autism can be Funny

So much has happened this week that I almost don't know where to start.

John started on an alternative medicine for his ADHD. We have been having some good days and some not so good days. As it is herbal, they said not to expect it to kick in for approx 5 weeks so I am just waiting and hoping.

Nathan went to his NAET treatment and we had to retreat the same allergen as we did the week before. He was very calm and quiet during this treatment. A different child from the one that had attended with me the week before.

Kathleen currently has a thing for eggs. She will crack some into the frypan and lay the spatula on the counter next to the stove and then go and get me. I worked out in one day, I was cooking close to a dozen eggs and was a bit concerned about her eating so many but then I noticed one of our dogs sat continuously outside the kitchen window. Just sat there, didn't move and I thought that was a bit odd.

Well, I did until I noticed that Kathleen was taking her egg over to the window, eating a little of it and then the dog puts her paws up on the side of the house and she is so big that her head is at least up to the window and she takes the egg gently off Kathleen.

Katy is best friends with the dogs, she loves them and they tend to follow her around the yard. She feeds them on a regular basis. She attempts to ride the big one and she is so used to the kids that she lets her get on and then she sits down. At times Katy gets so frustrated with her but then they make up pretty quickly.

Nathan has a very infectious laugh, when he chuckles it just makes you want to laugh. Today while I was changing Eric in the dining room, I could hear Nathan in the kitchen and he was just chuckling up a storm. That usually means that he is up to something so I sent Rachel to see what he was laughing at. She came back and reported that he was laughing at the juice bottle.

Couldn't see much to laugh of about that but as I rounded the corner I realized, he had taken the opportunity while I was busy and not there to watch him, to drink out of the bottle and he was taking a drink and then just chuckling up a storm. I guess he figured he was putting one over me.

Kathleen took a nap this avo. She is amusing herself in the loungeroom. I put Blue's Clues slippers on her after her bath and she thinks they are the most wonderful things. She lay on her back on the floor, put her feet in the air and waggled the ears of those slippers for the longest time.

Sarah being a very independent young lady decides on what she is going to wear and won't let anyone tell her different. She comes up with some very unusual creations. She reminds us a bit of Molly Ringwold.

Our cat was outside surveying his kingdom this evening when he met a little dog that turned his evening stroll into a race up the nearest tree. A young boy collected the little dog but I couldn't entice the cat down. Nathan was very concerned and wanted to go get him.

He undid the window on the inside in the dining room but I put that back together. Then he undid the window winder from the kitchen and put it on the dining room window, I guess he intended to climb out it again to go get the cat.

Finally the cat did come down by itself and so I took it in to Nathan who was laying on the couch.

When he noticed the cat in my arms, he had a smile from ear to ear.

I think that Kathleen's comprehension must be pretty close to 100% now. We were all playing cats and dogs this afternoon and then John stopped and got himself some juice. He spilt some on the floor and I asked him to get a towel to cleanit up but before he had a chance to go, Kathleen was placing one on the floor and then patting it with her foot.

One of my friends gave us a spinning toy that has been so wonderful for all the kids. On Friday night, I took off the middle piece so Nathan could sit on it more comfortably and asked him to cross his legs which he did. Then I spun him and boy does that thing go fast. He would go round a few times and then fall off and lay on the ground giggling up a storm. It was a hoot. Everyone except me got a turn. Eric loves it too.

Eric got hold of the phone today and carried it around murmuring to the back end of it. He knows how to turn it on and gets upset when I push the off button. We took him to Glendive shopping on Friday and he went to the door and said "bye". It was terribly cute.

We did more grass seeding in the backyard today. Man that is a job and a half. I am having to chop up half the backyard with a shovel as the dogs and the kids have dug holes and some of the ground is so hard and grassless. It is my intention to get it as level as possible and grassed. I am not going to bring in more dirt so I am digging the holes bigger and leveling the area around them. So far it has worked pretty well. Nathan was really getting into it and I had him and Sarah helping me today. My back is killing me but, it will be worth it and I am glad that the kids are joining in. Tomorrow if I can walk we will do some more. I covered part of what we had done as I don't want the dogs redigging and tomorrow, I guess, I will try to rig up a fence.

The boys are doing really well. It is great that they are able to help me with things like moving stuff and fairly easy jobs. And I think it helps them learn too.

Later.

Noise Sensitivity for Children with Autism

It is difficult to determine how much noise really affects children with Autism but, it certainly seems to have an adverse effect on a majority of them.

When Kathleen first started showing signs of Autism, at first, I thought that she had a hearing deficit as she wouldn't turn her head when I called her name and if I banged two spoons together behind her, she didn't get startled or look to see where the noise originated from.

When she started stacking blocks and lining up all the animals in the house however, I had my answer.

A number of children with Autism can't stand the noise of common things like vacuums and lawn mowers leading them to have massive size meltdowns when these activities are being performed. It is not so hard to adjust your schedule around the needs of your child but it is a little difficult to try to explain to the people two doors down that your child can't handle the sound of their lawnmower and could they please warn you in advance so that you can plan for the inevitable meltdown.

Sometimes desensitization can enable your child with Autism to cope a little better with the noise.

When they were smaller, I kept a radio running 24/7.

At first, it was only on very softly and of course it was on an easy listening channel not something that was designed to shock their ears. I kept this up for several months before turning the volume up just a wee bit higher. This continued in minute increments for some time and I am pleased to say that usually normal noises do not bother my children.

However, currently we live fairly close to a railway track and that took some getting used to as it is a busy line and trains travel through town frequently throughout the day and they blow their whistles. Really, really loudly!

To start, the children would get upset and scream when outside when the trains blew their whistles. I found that if I heard them coming and covered up the children's ears, that helped a wee bit but not really enough so it was back to desensitizing.

First off they were kept inside. We can still hear the trains from inside the house but it is somewhat muted.
Then I cracked the kitchen window open a bit. Once again, a little muted but louder than before.
This went on for a bit and the window kept getting opened wider and wider and then I advanced to the back door.

Now I am pleased to say that none of my children with Autism are bothered greatly by the train.
My 4 yr old is still a little shy of them but she doesn't run to me as often now to hold her ears.

Assembly time at school is a little trial for John. There is a lot of noise and the gym echoes. Some days he handles it better than others. Ear phones were trialed for a while.

The nice thing about John is that he can now tell you if it is too loud and request to leave. This avoids potential behaviour problems and is a lot more comfortable for him.

Last year I took him to the Halloween party at the elementary school and I will say that the music was too loud even for me. He walked in there, covered his ears and said "mum, I can't handle this, there's too much noise. Can I go home?"
So he was taken immediately home.

I don't know if it the volume of the noises so much as the fact that there is just so much going on and it is too busy when you add volume. I know for a fact that John can hear what people say when they are standing next to him, meanwhile he is also hearing what people are saying standing apart from him and also what others are saying a distance away, all the while hearing all the environmental noises. A regular person can block out all the other noises and just listen to the one conversation while still being aware that there is other things going on.
An Autistic person seems to hear everything at the same time and to try and process that all at once must be really mind blowing.

Desensitizing takes a bit of time and energy but for the Autistic child's comfort, I think that it is well worth it.
Later.

Conference on Autism

On Monday and Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending an Autism conference run by the Anne Carlsen Center in Bismarck.

It was presented by Dr Stacey Goresko who has an Autistic son.

The focus of this conference was to present a treatment for Autism that was developed by Dr Steve Gutsein, a psychologist, who himself apparently has ADHD.

His theory is that the children with Autism deserve a "do over".
Their social development comes to a halt when they become Autistic and if they are taken back to the same time, this is a little hard to express, but basically they need to learn the social skills of babies or toddlers.
They need to go through a stage where they discover for themselves that they can learn from their mentors or guides. (parents or caregivers)

From what I could determine, it is a social basis for the child to draw on.
ABA teaches children to remember things by rote e.g. if I do this then this happens.
That is nice, but the world is not in black and white. If you throw something out of the ordinary at these children, they can't cope with it as they may not have a learned behaviour for it.

I can see what Dr Gutstein means. His consultants teach the parents/teachers who teach the child with positive dynamic interaction to think about why things are happening rather than giving them the answer and expecting them to learn it.
This way, the child has something to fall back on and also, this can be built on so the child has more episodic memories to draw on.

It teaches them to think for themselves.

I think that some of this can be used with my three children and will probably attempt it several times a day to see how it works.

The consultants, once they have done their initial face to face assessment conduct the rest of their coaching via videos posted by the parents on a website.

To contact them www.RDIconnect.com

I really missed my kids while I was gone. I had a couple of good friends who stepped in for me. I think that the kids were happy to have me back too. Thanks so much to those who helped me attend this and to West River Special Ed for providing the opportunity.
Later

Nathan

Nathan is 8 yrs old now. I would think that he is moderately Autistic with little speech.
I will add that since he started the NAET treatments, we have seen greater clarity in his speech and today I think that there was a little bit more intonation to his speech.

Usually he speaks in a kind of monotone. It sounds almost like a deaf person. But it has improved significantly.

He is also starting to become a little more active. He is running more now and it seems that he is becoming more inclined to walk off.

I am unable to determine where it is exactly that he wants to go but, he just meanders off. He is not upset or angry when he is brought back so who knows, maybe he is just enjoying the sunshine.
After we get back from his NAET treatment tomorrow, I think that I will take him for a walk and see if that does well for him.

The more progress that I am seeing with his NAET treatments, the more excited I am about going to them. The last 3 weeks, it seems that everytime I go, I have something new and exciting to tell his practitioner.

I believe that we only have about 15 more treatments left so I remain very hopeful that we will see a significant difference in regards to his Autism by the end.

Postnasal drip in Children with Autism

A lot of parents of Autistic children report that their child suffers from an almost constant postnasal drip, which basically means that there is always fluid dripping down the backs of the child's nasal passages.

Nathan suffered from this malady and I noticed the other day that it does not seem to be bothering him as much.

In the past before we started the NAET treatments, this seemed to be a constant thing. He would almost constantly be clearing his throat and snorting through his nose as if there was liquid in there.

Since he started the NAET treatments, this has decreased to the point that I almost never hear him clearing his throat anymore.

This would lead me to believe that the postnasal drip is allergy related and if that is the case, how many more symptoms of Autism are caused by allergies.

If you have a child with Autism, I would highly recommend that you at least get your child tested for allergies.

Over time, a postnasal drip can only corrode the canals that it travels down and it must be annoying as all heck for the child who has to almost constantly be clearing their throat.
Later

Nathan's NAET treatments

Well, the interesting thing about NAET is that it doesn't fully clear the allergen until the following day, so it you are going to see the results of the treatment then it will be on the day after.

Nathan's teacher reported today that Nathan walked quickly down the halls today and that he jiggled his feet under the desk, something that he has apparently never done.

I have noticed that in the last couple of weeks that my usually sedentary Autistic son has been a lot more active. Indeed he is moving around much more than he has ever done.

That is a good sign.

I was kinda hoping that the speech would kick in more than it has but, I guess that I really have to be patient.
Later

Just when things are going well

Something always jumps up and bites you on the arse.

My kids are doing marvellously, their recovery from Autism, I think, is going phenomenally.
It doesn't appear that Eric will become Autistic.
I even got a small tax return so I was feeling quite flush to have a little money in the bank.

I had decided that I was going to use it to start NAET treatments on John and I was going to get the kids a swing set for the backyard.

Today I went to the mail and got a letter from a collection agency in Fargo. This account was from 6 yrs ago.

Whamm, there goes the amount that I was putting away for the treatments and the swingset.

It really sucks to be broke!

So tomorrow it will be winging it's way to Fargo, hopefully all the work that I have been putting into these articles will start to pay off so it can be replaced.
Later.

The Likelihood of Eric Getting Autism

Today is the 9th of April.

It is a great day for us.

My baby Eric has not converted to Autism.

That puts my stats at 50%.

I have 3 children with Autism and 3 children without Autism.

I am particularly pleased that Eric did not make the conversion as it will be nice to have one son who is not Autistic.

As he gets older, unless one of his older sisters take it up, he will be the child who will probably make the decisions regarding his older siblings care when I am no longer able to look after them.

I would like to thank all of those who stood by me during the last six months regarding Eric and dried my tears and tried to soothe my worries about Eric becoming Autistic.

It has been an extremely stressful six months for me and I am glad it is over.

And for all of those who joined my family and I in prayer a special thank you for your faith and courage helped me through.
Blessings.

Nathan's New Personality

Along with the good parts of Nathan doing better with his Autism, I guess I will have to learn to take the bad.

After yesterdays little stunt, I figured that he would give my heart a little time to recover, but, this morning he was up early to turn off the alarm and quietly shut my door.

Mighty thoughtful of him one might say, but, I woke up at 8am which is the pick up time for the children and had to go out and explain myself again and then run around like a chicken without it's head on trying to get them all ready to go by 830.

Of course, the boys were not in a real co operative mood. John got dressed for me as I asked him but Nathan had to be chased around the house and cornered. Not a pleasant task.

John did a fair bit of yelling when he learned that he was getting ready for school but at least I didn't have to carry him to the car. God forbid that ever happens, Nathan is getting to be a chunky wee fellow like his mum.

When Nathan got home from school, he took himself a well deserved nap and even with giving him the Melatonin, he is still wandering around and it is currently after 1130pm.

Hopefully when he actually gets to sleep, it will mean that he will sleep all night and not wake up early to turn off the alarm.

I am thinking about putting a hook in the ceiling above my bed and suspending the alarm clock from it so that in the event he makes a play for it, I should be able to feel him place the chair or object that he intends to climb on to obtain the clock on the bed.

Well it's worth a crack.
Later

Escape Artists

One of the less pleasant caps that I wear is that of security officer.
Those of you that are reading this that actually have children with Autism know exactly what I am talking about.

Safety is a HUGE issue when you have Autistic children.

They have a tendency to wander off. God forbid that someone picks them up or they wander into the path of oncoming traffic.

I live near a railway line so I am particularly diligent when it comes to child supervision. I am scared that one day, one of them will wander onto the tracks and we have quite a number of trains coming through.

They don't know that the trains aren't going to stop for them.

Consequently, apart from the fact that I have a psychotic ex-husband who will be released soon, I have deadlocks on just about every door in the house. I have to carry keys on me all the time as they are the key variety so that is what is dragging my pocket down when you see me in the street.

I also have tall fences in the yard.

Well, this afternoon while I was mediating a dispute between Rachel and John about who was going to ride the only bike that doesn't require repair at the moment, Nathan took the opportunity to climb through the only open window in the front of the house and walk up the road.

Fortunately he decided to walk past the backyard where we were so we saw him.

I had to run through the house, unlock the front door, lock it behind me and hoof it up the road after him to bring him back. I walked after him so he didn't start running, and he turned every now and again to smile encouragingly at me.

I have no idea where he was going as there wasn't much up that way.

He only made it to the property line of the neighbours but that was enough to scare the living bejeebers out of me and by the time we reached our garage, I was crying.

I still can't believe that my extremely chunky, non athletic little boy would even attempt such a feat but he did.

I am so glad that he decided to walk in the direction that he did, I hate to think what could have happened if he hadn't.

I called his DD case manager to ask about the wrist bands that they place on wanderers and after discussion, we decided that he would probably remove it and so I elected to seal my windows leading to the front of the house and remove the handles so they can't be opened.

My house is even more like Fort Knox. All that is left is for me to place barbed wire on the tops of the fences.

It is really hard trying to keep them safe. It is more stressful than anything knowing that you are solely responsible.

Well, all I can say is, we were lucky this time. May we continue to always be lucky.
Later

Eric

My baby Eric turns 16 months on the 9th of this month.

Doesn't sound like a milestone?

Well, it is to a mother whose only other 2 sons developed moderately severe Autism between the ages of 14 to 16 months.



I maintain that if Eric has not developed Autism by the 9th of this month, he will not develop it.



So far apart from the one staring episode he had months back and the one incidence of rocking that could have been explained away by the fact that he had a slight ear infection, Eric had not exhibited any signs or symptoms of Autism.



His head size stayed within normal limits for a child of his age (see earlier post on head size), and his crawling remained symetrical although now he walks more than he crawls.

He also looks at the items that he desires, he doesn't just hold his hand out to try to retrieve them.

His balance remains good and he puts his hands out to catch himself when he trips.



Those were all early signs of Autism and they have appeared in my children who later became Autistic.

We are going to be having one heck of a party in 4 days, so I had better go and bake a cake.
Later

Nathan's NAET

Well this morning we headed off to Glendive to do Nathan's NAET treatment for his Autism. It was his 17th or 18th treatment and I was pretty excited as the DVD's I watched on the NAET casestudies showed the five children started to talk after their 15th treatment.

While we were waiting for Kay to see us, Nathan and I were discussing stuff and I was tickling his tummy.
The day before we had gone through all the christmas words I could think of e.g. christmas eve, christmas tree, christmas presents etc.

Since October something had been bothering me and I was about to have a revelation. I just didn't know it at the time.
Nathan would stand at the windows and look out and say something that sounded like "critisize".
It bothered me that he would keep repeating this negative sounding word over and over.
It came out a lot when it snowed and I just couldn't see how or where he would have picked it up and why he would have retained it.

While I was sitting there tickling his stomach, he turned to me and said as clearly as I talk, "Christmas time".
Then he added "Christmas Day".

There was my revelation!

He associated snow with christmas time, he wasn't saying critisize, that is what it sounded like when he said christmas time.

It brought tears to my eyes. The NAET seems to be taking forever to complete but if I ever needed confirmation that it was working, well there it was.

When Kay and Shirl came out, I told them and I was just so happy and grateful that my little boy is showing signs of getting his speech back.

The NAET had started improving the clarity of his speech but I was just so impressed with Christmas time. You could not have been able to tell that he was impaired if you just heard him say it.

Awesome, I fully recommend this treatment to anyone whose child has Autism.
Later.

Nathan's NAET

Well, Nathan turned my alarm clock off this morning but luckily I seem to be getting used to the change in times again so I woke up anyway.
Blondie came over and looked after the children while I took Nathan to his NAET treatment in Glendive.
Since Nathan started his NAET treatments, I believe we have seen more spontaneous speech and much greater clarity. It is just really slow going. One treatment per week for what seems like forever.

We did a combination spice and caffeine removal today and it turns out that Nathan is extremely allergic to caffeine so he was quite entertaining when the caffeine vial was placed anywhere near him. By entertaining I mean that this normally quiet and sedentary young man somehow came up with the energy to climb up on the table and do a little dance, then he expected me to give him the fireman lift. He was also extremely vocal.

I told Kay about his change in behaviours at the grocery store and we both agreed that maybe going shopping for groceries after his treatments was just not a good idea.

Turns out that I have to bring him back tomorrow to do another treatment to clear the caffeine so Blondie is going to come and she can take the 3 kids to the park while I do the grocery shopping.

In looking around the web, I did come across a website where they said that they had gone through the treatments with their Autistic child and made pretty close to a full recovery.

It would be nice to have Nathan's Autism reduced to the point where only a really discerning eye could pick it up.
Then I wouldn't have to spend the next 10 yrs teaching him to say, "Welcome to MacDonalds, can I take your order please?"
Later

Communication

Kathleen continues to throw out words.
This morning she told me that she wanted juice. Coulda knocked me down with a feather.
Then this evening while we were playing our after bath game, I hugged her and told her that I loved her and she repeated it.
Wow!!!

If Kathleen's communication improves, it will make a heck of a difference in her recovery from Autism.
A lot of her Autism signs and symptoms appear to be fading as she gets older.

It has been a long time since I have seen her line up any of her toys. Occasionally she will stack video cases, but that has been a while also.

Her screaming has been reduced to when she can't get you to understand what she wants or you tell her no and she really wanted to do it. But even that is short lived and most of the time, you can distract her by going off to do something else.

I feel that if Kathleen gained speech, very little would be left of her Autistic tendencies and what little was left, could be worked with.

She is currently not only throwing out words sporadically, but also 3 to 4 word sentences.
Unfortunately, these are not coming on a regular basis yet.
I am hoping that this is starting to change.

Wow, is our life going to be different.
Later

Autism In North Dakota

News Flash

For those families in North Dakota with Autistic children, Senator Dorgen has just approved funding for a new program which will provide families with children with Autism with hi-speed internet access and a digital camera which will enable them to communicate with the Anne Carleson Clinic in Jamestown and other specialised doctors for free.

This will enable specialised clinicians to come into your home via webcam and help you to set up treatment plans for your children with Autism.

It will give you access to care that you may not have been able to access before and lower the stress on you and your child given the extreme distances that we have to travel to visit clinicians.

Only seven families have signed up so far. If the program takes off like it should, then Senator Dorgen promises increased funding for next year.

It is definitely worth a try. If you know anyone that this could apply to, please bring it to their attention. More info can be obtained by looking at the ND news section of the Bismarck Tribune or call your case manager, they should be able to help you to apply for this program.

Any assistance in helping our children recover from Autism is appreciated and FREE help is rare so please, take the opportunity to check this out.
Later.

Kathleen and those three little words

I had to wait a day to post this, but, even thinking about it now, I still get tears in my eyes.

Yesterday the three girls and I were sitting at the table eating dinner. I was feeding Eric so he was next to me.
All of a sudden Katy gets off her chair and comes around the table to me, she climbs up on my lap and indicates that she wants me to put her on the table in front of me which I did.

She looked at me and smiled and I said, "Hi".
She replied "Hi".
Then she leaned forward and put her arms around my neck and hugged me and she said quite clearly "I ove you".
As if that wasn't enough, she squeezed harder and repeated a little louder this time " I ove you".

Wow, it still makes me cry, I have waited 5 yrs to hear those 3 little words from my beautiful, Autistic angel. Kathleen does not speak so this effort was phenomenal.

I hugged her and told her that I loved her and after a few minutes of hugging, she went back to her place at the table.

I got up and went to the kitchen where I promptly burst into tears.
All these years you tell yourself that you will find a way to get through to them and that they will recover from Autism but, there is nothing that prepares you for the stark reality of it.

5 years, I have waited for Kathleen to talk. 5 years to tell me that she loved me.
At least with Nathan, he had already talked before the Autism developed and he had told me many times that he loved me and for that matter, he does now.

I called my mum in Australia after a bit and told her then burst into tears again.
She said, "Aren't you happy?"
Happy?
I don't think there is a strong enough emotion to describe how I am feeling right now.
Later.

I Tried A Product Called Inner Sun On John

I was looking for a product that I could use on my Autistic son John.
He also has ADHD and although he is a very bright lad, he does tend to jump around a lot and flap like the dickens.

This not only tends to get annoying when you are trying to get and keep his attention, it also impairs his ability to learn at school.

I did have him on a multi Bcomplex along with Fish Oil for a week and although it was working to calm him down a little, I thought that we could do better so on Saturday, I added the Inner Sun which is put out by 4 Life.

All I can say about trying different products and treatments for Autism, is that you need to give them a decent trial period, then you need to weigh the pro's and the con's.

No two Autistic children are the same so it is quite possible that what works for one will not work for another.

On Saturday afternoon John burst into tears over a seemingly non-incident. It took him a while to calm down and he did the same on Sunday.
Also I noted on Sunday that although he was following two step commands with no further prompting and he did sit still and do his homework without giving me a hard time, the flapping was very much in place and he did bang his head on several occasions.

Monday, I found that he was much easier to put to bed. He is on Melatonin as it takes him hours before his brain finally shuts down at night time and this seems to give it a little push but even with that, it was sometimes 11pm before he would go off to sleep.

Tuesday he got up willingly and didn't give me a hard time about getting dressed to go to school which was a nice change but the special ed teacher reported that John's behaviour at school was not all I hoped that it would be.
Wednesday and Thursday continued the same and as a result, after discussing it with the distributor of 4 Life, I just don't think that it agrees with John so I have decided to stop it and continue with the Vit B complex and fish oil.

I may do that for a week and then add magnesium with calcium as my sister in law used this on her son with ADD and was able to drop his dose of Ritalin drastically.

It is not that I really have anything against psychotropics, I think that they definitely have their place as a treatment for different disorders but I would rather not use them if I can find something that works just as well for John without the horrific side effects.
Later.

Educating About Autism

One thing that you need when you suspect that your child has Autism is information.

You are not going to get far without it. You have many questions and you need answers fast.
There is a lot of information out there, some of it helpful, some of it misleading.

There are many reasons why your child could have developed Autism.

I have personally come to the conclusion with the eight years of research that I have done, that some children are genetically disposed to it and then their is an environmental trigger and this is why different children with Autism, react differently with different treatment modalities.

My two eldest sons were immunized and developed Autism but Kathleen who has Autism also, was never vacinated. So what caused her Autism?

At this stage, I don't know.

I am hoping to try her on the NAET and see if the removal of any allergens will help her.
I do know that having her father incarcerated certainly improved her social skills and reduced her frustrated screaming. I just wish that I had been able to do it sooner.

There is a book that I highly recommend for information on everything you might need to know about Autism, signs and symptoms, treatment modalities for the range of children on the Autism Spectrum. It is well worth a look and acts as a good reference guide for me.

It is by Rachel Evans and it is called The Essential Guide To Autism.
http://1annod.aut1sm.hop.clickbank.net

It helped me get started on the road to recovery of my children and I am pleased to report that they are doing just beautifully.

Each of them in their own way is starting to spend more time with us and less time in their own little world.
It is such a relief to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Later

There went spring break

Easter as such passed quickly.
The weather was warmer so the children spent a lot of time outside playing.
I broke down and brought their bikes out of storage, if the weather changes, I guess I will just have to pick them up and carry them in again.

I got some wonderful shots of all the kids except for Eric jumping up and down on an old door which they have hooked over the side of the concrete patio so it bounces.

Nathan and John, both Autistic, worked together on this venture until they had it the way that they wanted it.

At one stage there was all 5 of them out there bouncing on the board, all laughing and smiling, quite pleased with themselves.
I got some wonderful shots with the digital camera.

If I ever figure out how to do it, I will post photos on this site.

I have some great ones where you can see the light in Kathleen's and Nathan's eyes go on and off, as they move from the present into their own world.

John did marvellously, he played every game Rachel or Sarah suggested and except for a couple of incidents when he did not agree with what they were asking him to do, he looked just like he belonged.

It looked like a lot of fun and I even went out and joined in, until my old body reminded me that I was no longer a child.
Later

Tomorrow My Irish Twins Turn 4 And 5

Kathleen and Sarah were born on the same day a year apart.
Tomorrow they have their birthday.
It has been a year of enormous growth for Kathleen.
A number of her Autistic symptoms have indeed disappeared to be replaced by a greater socialization skill and more of an awareness of her surroundings and the people in it.
Not merely as useful tools for things that she cannot get herself but as people that she enjoys interacting with.

Kathleen was a normal child, can't say anything much grabbed my attention in her 1st year except that she was a decent sized child and when she crawled, she crawled like a frog.
I believe that her Autism developed when she was between 14 and 16 mths.
At that time she started screaming.
She screamed a lot. Incessant, ear splitting screams that just made you want to cry.
She wouldn't be held, she would fight you when you changed her.
She just curled up in a corner and screamed.

This went on for months.

By the time she was about 2.5 she lessened her screaming to outbursts. Usually late at night, or early in the morning. I waited for the sheriff to come by and tell us that the neighbours had reported the child screaming but he never came, to my great relief.
I had absolutely no control over it, it was a symptom of her Autism and just like Nathan screaming in the past when he entered a new building, it had to be borne.

Sure didn't make me feel any better about it. She would launch into these screaming sessions during the day when we tried to take her out.
Not many people understood Autism and I guess by the looks we got, that they thought we were incompetent parents with a very badly behaving child.
The amount of times that we left family restaurants like Denny's, MacDonalds or similar are too numerous to mention so finally, we stopped taking the kids out.

As her screaming reduced slightly so did her behaviour. She would spend most of her time downstairs in the basement, often climbing into the ashpit to retreive pieces of wood, glass or metal.
Kathleen has PICA which basically means that she eats all kinds of stuff. We blocked that ashpit off with cinderblocks, wood, boxes but she always found a way to get it moved and get in there.
We were vigilant with removing anything that she could possibly eat that could cause her harm. Just the thought of an Autistic child in the hospital with a lacerated oesophagus was enough incentive.

We tried desperately to reach her, touching her on the head or the shoulder as she walked by to attempt to desensitize her.
Finally she would come over sometimes and back up onto my lap and I thought we were making real progress. I learned later that this is an Autistic tendency to use people as a piece of furniture and she backed up with no more regard to me than if I was a chair.

At this time I would attempt to cuddle her. One evening I thought that I was making progress when she came running over to me as I sat on the couch and I welcomed her with open arms. She pulled my head towards her and as I felt her mouth on my cheek I was ecstatic. I thought that she was finally going to kiss me.
The pain exploded in my head as she sunk her teeth into my cheek, gouging out a piece of skin. I still have the indentation.
I burst into tears, not only did my cheek really hurt but I was so overwhelmed by hopelessness.
What if I never reached her.

I think the turning point for Katy came when we moved down to OK in the winter of 2006 for 6 mths.
There, she started to progress. Her screaming started to reduce once again.
I was able to be home more. I worked five twelve hour night shifts a week but I was home more as the two hospitals that I worked at weren't that far away.
And, even if I slept for a few hours during the day, the children always had access to me when they needed me.
They also spent a lot of time outside as the winter in OK is mild at it's worst.

When we came back in July of that same year, she was already developing more social skills and would look at people who came over rather than spending all her time downstairs.
Another major difference ocurred when we got back from Ok, I refused to go back to work, so Paul after a lot of carrying on, went out and got a job.

Kathleen continued to improve slowly with her social skills but she was still screaming a lot more than I would have liked.
When Paul wasn't working and was at home, Katy would come out to the kitchen in the morning and start screaming and wailing.
This went on for quite some time.

After Paul was incarcerated in I think August, within a couple of days, Katy stopped doing it.
She does scream occasionally now, when she is frustrated over a lack of communication or when something doesn't go her way but it is not nearly as often.

Today I heard her screaming out in the yard and went to see what the problem was.
We have a large lab/retriever. She is a good 85lbs with a wonderful nature.
Kathleen was trying to ride this dog. She would lead her over to a place where she could climb on her back and then as soon as she managed to get up there, the dog would sit down and it would start all over again. It was quite funny to watch, but, I don't believe Katy found it quite as amusing.

Over the last 3 months, she is throwing out a few more words, she is humming or using her own babble to sing, she kisses people, she loves to be hugged and carried, she can sit in the Dairy Queen and eat a meal without displaying any Autism signs, she loves to go to the park, her comprehension appears to be increasing and she has allowed us to put nailpolish on her 2 x this week, the second time actually soliciting it.

She is doing absolutely beautifully and I have great hopes for her future.

Happy Birthday to my little girls, you both make me so proud to be your mum.
Later

Autism-The Importance Of Facial Expressions To An Autistic Child

Part of the problem that Autistic children face in the area of communication is that they are unable to decipher facial expressions in others.
A child with Autism will watch you cry, sometimes even wipe your tears off, but for the most part, will have no idea that you are unhappy.
A large part of communication for most people is their body language and this includes facial expressions so the fact that the Autistic child can't understand this increases the difficulty in communication.

There are methods whereby you can actually enable some Autistic children to read facial expressions thereby increasing their own awareness of how people around them are feeling.

Repetition can help the child with Autism learn. By going over the same thing in different settings and at different times you are rooting it in their brain for them to pull out as necessary.

You can make a list of the different frequently used expressions and have it on a small card with the picture beside it for them to refer to in the beginning.
The most common being a smile, sad, angry, laughing, scared and thinking face.
This helps the child with Autism reference to something.

Another thing that you can do is discuss it with them in language that they can identify with e.g. "When you pat your puppy, you smile right, that means that you are happy".
The child identifies good things like patting the puppy, eating icecream and other things that he/she enjoys as being happy.

Then you can start to reference it to other people so the Autistic child will actually start to look to other people's faces to see what their expressions are saying e.g. "When you throw food on the floor, does that make your Mom smile?".
When you get a no answer, you could say, "Then your mom is not happy, what does your Mom's face look like?"
And then go on to discuss with the Autistic child the possible meanings of what their mother's face meant, angry, sad etc.

By doing this, you are reaffirming to the child with Autism that he/she can have more of an idea what a person is feeling by looking at the other person's face.
It actually works two-fold as it also increases eye contact while increasing the Autistic child's communication skills.

Sometimes the Autistic child will expand on this on their own by asking people if the expression on their face is actually what they are feeling which is great as it shows that they are learning and starting to read expressions for themselves.

Long term, it will lead to the Autistic child being able to understand and communicate more effectively.
This will lead to fewer miscommunications and more chances that the child with Autism has to explore not only their own feelings but, to be more sensitive to the feelings of others.

Autism-The Effects On Siblings Of Autistic Children

Another article published by www.ezinearticles.com


Oftentimes it is true that the child that makes the most noise, gets the most attention. This is true in a lot of families and moreso in families with children with Autism. Autistic children also require a lot more time and attention. In a family with more than one autistic child, it is doubly so. This could lead to a greater risk of sibling rivalry. Not for the challenges usually associated with these words but for attention. With the care that Autistic children need, it would be easy for the unaffected child in the family to get a little lost in the shuffle.

Over time, this could lead to the unaffected child feeling resentful of their Autistic siblings and to begin a little attention getting of their own or behaviors.

In time, the stress involved with this internal family conflict could lead to a rift that may take a lifetime to heal. There are several methods to deal with this potential problem before it gets out of hand.

Each Autistic child is different and each regular child is different and therefore the way that you would handle each child is going to depend on their age and personality.

Time needs to be set aside for the sibling of an Autistic child.

Their "alone" time with their parents.

You may need to hire a caregiver or find a friend or family member to watch over the Autistic child during this time.

The unaffected sibling needs assurance that although their brother or sister gets most of the attention, that they are going to get a share.

It important that you keep your appointment with the child.

The outing doesn't have to be anything spectacular, just something that the two of you can share. It can be done with one parent at a time or with both.

It is by doing this that you are demonstrating that no matter how busy or hectic things are at home, that he or she is just as important to you.

Another simple way of reassuring the child is to tell them that you love them. Three little words that mean a lot, but that children need to hear.

A special touch or hug that the two of you can share to let them know that you do think about them.

The occasional note under their pillow or in their lunchbox to assure them that even when they are not with you, they are in your thoughts.

These things take but a moment of your time but could mean the world to a child who already feels that they have so little of your time.

Another thing that you can do if your children are of school age is to ensure that the work that they bring home from school is not destroyed by their Autistic sibling.

Unfortunately, due to the behaviours that some children with Autism have, some artwork especially is attractive to them and it may get ruined.

Make sure that you do have a special place that it can be put where it is out of harms reach.

The other thing that you can do is obviously talk to them about Autism in an age appropriate manner. Explain as best you can why their brother or sister does the things that they do. Encourage them to be open about their feelings.

It is okay to dislike something that the Autistic child does, but that doesn't mean that they have to dislike the Autistic child.

Encourage participation in the fun things that the family can do as a unit. If the child with Autism is unable to handle outings, have a picnic complete with cloth and picnic basket on the lawn in the backyard.

Be creative.

By showing the sibling of a child with Autism that the family is important and by having them understand that their status in the family unit is by no means undermined by the fact that you need to spend more time with their siblings, the stronger and more secure the child will become. And the less resentful.

This is extremely important. The sibling of a child with Autism will quite possibly become the decision maker for that Autistic child at some stage in the future.

Donna Mason has been a Registered Nurse for the past 16 years. She is the mother of 6 children, 3 of whom have varying degrees of Autism. For more information on Autism signs and symptoms, and to learn more about this mother's battle in the fight against this misunderstood condition, visit

Autism-The Effects On A Family With An Autistic Child

Autism is on the rise.
This is an undisputed fact.
If 1 in 150 children are currently developing Autism annually, then that is 1 too many.
It is, quite frankly, a horrible debilitating condition. Not just for the Autistic child, but devastating for the entire family.
It requires adjustment from all members of the family as all aspects of everyone's lives will undergo a massive upheaval.

The cost of raising a child with Autism is astronomical.
ABA treatments average around 100,000 dollars per annum.
The major insurance companies baulk at paying to help recover the Autistic child so parents are looking at being out of pocket at about 50,000 dollars.
Even in a well paid two income family, this is still high.
And notice I said major insurance companies.
Some families with Autistic children are having to fight to obtain simple coverage for their impaired child, never mind attempting to get the insurance companies to pay for recognised treatments.

In a lot of families, it is impossible to have two parents working. One may have to give up their position to stay at home and look after the child.
Autistic children require a lot of time and attention.
Safety is a big issue and their homes may have to be reorganised to accomodate the different Autistic behaviours that the child may exhibit.

If the family chooses to go the Alternative Medicine route, all of this will have to be paid out of pocket as if it is not recognized by the Medical world, then it is not an accepted practice.
Currently, you would be hard pressed to find a physician to acknowledge that there are any treatments for Autism that don't involve medicating to control Autistic behaviours.

Other siblings may need to adjust to the amount of time required to care for the Autistic child and the fact that sometimes they are unable to do things or go on outings due to the fact that their Autistic brother or sister would not be able to handle it can lead to a bit of resentment.
Also, due to some Autistic behaviours, unfortunately despite parents best attempts to prevent it, some articles precious to the unaffected child may get destroyed or ruined.

It leads to little time off for the parent of an Autistic child. Their caregivers need to be specialized and a lot of times very familiar with the child to understand their non verbal cues. Approximately 40-50% of Autistic children will never speak.
This leads to a great deal of frustration in a child with Autism. A caregiver or parent who is tuned into the child is able to alleviate this by having more of an idea what it is the child is asking for when they indicate.
This means that in a two parent family, the parents often take turns in staying with the child thereby leaving little time for them as a couple.

In a home where there is only one parent it is both exhausting and socially isolating.
Sometimes it is next to impossible for the child with Autism to go out. They don't respond to a change in routine, loud noises or a lot of people can set off an Autistic behaviour such as screaming and/or flapping.
Also, although the public awareness of Autism has been increasing of late, there are still people who will look at you in the store and tell you to "control your child" when they are absolutely having a lay down on the floor, kicking, screaming and flailing meltdown because the lights in the store are too bright.
Good luck there.

A lot of changes do have to be made. Some actually for the better. It can make the family unit stronger. It can enable you to raise siblings of Autistic children to be compassionate, kinder, more well-rounded individuals. It can introduce you to the other side of the coin and you can become more patient and tolerant of people and families with disabilities.
It may also make you as a person more vocal to advocate for families with Autistic children so they do recieve some kind of financial aid and the medical world does start to recognize more Alternative forms of healing for the child with Autism thereby making insurance companies responsible, at least in part for payment.

A lot of changes are going to have to be made not just to the family with the Autistic child, but, to the community and the world at large. If the rate of Autism is at 1 in 150 children currently, who knows what it will have risen to next year.

Woohoo, Score One For Mom

I beat him to the alarm clock this morning.
Flew out of bed at 5am.
John was up and reading a book out loud in the loungeroom. Nathan got up soon after.
Hopefully I can keep it up for another couple of weeks until my internal clock kicks in.
He got dressed under duress this morning but he liked the idea that it was snowing this morning when I opened the door.
It came down pretty thick and fast too.
I think I need to pay a little more attention to the weather reports.
I am hoping that it will melt before I feel the need to go out there and shovel.
Later

My Alarm Clock

I don't think that Nathan is too keen on going to school.
Every morning since the time change he has got up before me, turned off my alarm clock, and quietly closed the bedroom door.
I am so used to waking up at the old 7am that my eyes open a couple of minutes before 8am. Just seconds before they are due to be picked up for school.

I have tried moving the alarm clock. But, he always manages to find it.

I can't shut my bedroom door at night in case I can't hear the ones that don't sleep in the room with me.

I am pretty much at a loss as to what to try next.
When I put the clock up high, he brings a chair into the room and climbs on it.
I don't like them being tardy, but until my internal clock changes, I am pretty much at a loss as to what to try next.

I bought another alarm clock today. I am going to leave the other out where Nathan can see it and hide the second one. Maybe if he is content to shut off the old one I will have a chance to hear the alarm clock.
Will give it a go.
Later

Well, Monday Came In And Left With A Roar

Can't remember much of today.
It just seemed to go so fast.
One thing I do remember is finding out this morning that Rachel was meant to be bringing juice to school for the St Patrick's day party so I rushed up the road, got them and delivered them to her class all in the blink of an eye.
When I asked her how her party went today, she said "We didn't have a party". So now I am at a loss.
Oh well, the juice is there, if they have a party, they have juice.

One absolutely wonderful thing happened today.
Kathleen has been wearing pullups. Guess it makes her feel like a big girl.
I put her on the toilet today and after a little bit of giggling.
She did it!!!
My little girl peed on the toilet.
She didn't do it again for the rest of the evening but, who knows, maybe that too is coming.

Last week I had started John on Vit Bcomplex and fish oil capsules in the morning and I am pleased to report that I think he is a lot clearer now.
He can be doing something and I will ask him a question and he will answer me while he continues to do what he is doing.
When I ask him to do something, I don't have to remind him. He gets it done.
I am so proud of him. I think he is doing great.
I was discussing with my friend today whether she thought he would be good enough to go to scouts and she thinks as I do that he would be able to handle it so I will give it a go this week.
That would be marvellous!
Later

I Waited Anxiously For The Weekend

I have to work on Niall's schedule as they are something like 14 hrs ahead of us. So for him the weekend is actually Friday and Saturday for us.
I really wanted to try Nathan with the webcam again and see if it made any more improvement with his speech.

It took a while for the internet to connect and I think he got bored waiting. He started typing letters on the keyboard while he waited.
When we finally connected with my brother, he was more interested in typing although he did say hello and pulled a few funny faces at him.

It was a bit of an anticlimax as Nathan had got up in the morning and connected the webcam to the computer himself having climbed up on the counter and got into my cupboard to obtain it, so I presumed that he was keen to talk to him too.

I will say however that Nathan does continue to spit out words on a regular basis and his following of directions has improved.
He will on occasion still practice words that he has heard us say.

This morning he put his rollerblades on and has been moving around the house with them on for the past 3-4 hrs.
His balance has improved significantly and he has only fallen once.

Kathleen is spending most of today out in the backyard. She spent some time chasing the dogs around and Honey is very tolerant of her as she climbs on the dog's back.

I put John on Vit B and fish oil in the mornings. I am hoping that it will help with his concentration and also help him to settle. I did notice that today he has not been flapping in front of the television.
I have also been limiting the amounts of cartoon time that they get, preferring to have the history channel or something similar on.
I think that will help too. It is mainly for background noise.
I did try the cooking channel for three days but it started to make me incredibly hungry!
Later

I've never seen an Angel

But I am pretty sure that I know what they look like.
I have met some pretty awesome people in my journey to get the better of Autism.
Common, ordinary folk who on a regular day wouldn't stand out too much from an everyday crowd.
It is what they say and do that makes them angels in my eyes.
Nathan has two special angels that are at the clinic where he gets his NAET treatments. I know it and Nathan knows it.
I can tell that he does by the way he responds to them and they to he.
After last weeks treatment and all the magnificent gains he has made this week, let me tell you, I was pretty excited about going today.
Shirl had got Nathan a chocolate chip cookie.
He was pretty impressed about that.
Kay asked her to keep an eye on Nathan while I updated her on what had been going on with him and he stayed quietly in the waiting room for the whole time.
He just kept himself amused.
I am so proud of him and all that he has accomplished so far.
He likes Kay and responds well to her requests even when he is obviously having a difficult time with the allergen that we are trying to remove.
Today we did organs.
We are trying to clear up his tummy trouble.
He got a little antsy while we were doing the treatment but nothing unmanageable.
His face looks a little different.
His manner certainly is.
He should clear this tomorrow so I look forward to seeing what changes we will get this weekend.
And to my two angels at the clinic, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you are doing for my son.
I am sure that when he is able, Nathan will thank you too.
Later

Nathan Helps Himself

He is one heck of a guy, my Nathan.
In trying to get the right and left side of the brain to connect there are some exercises that can be done.
One is to throw a ball from your left hand to your right hand and obviously keep going as long as you are able.
It is basically any kind of exercise that calls for using both sides of your body.
So, today we tried doing the wax on, wax off that was done on The Karate Kid.
Boy, that isn't as easy as it looked and he had considerable trouble doing it. But, he kept trying.
We started off with me moving his arms but then he tried it on his own for a while.
Practise will make perfect and we will try it again tomorrow.
I love that Nathan keeps trying, even if the task is difficult.
He is doing the same with his speech. He is taking opportunities to ask you to name things and watching the way that your mouth forms the words, then he will go off and repeat them to himself until he is more sure that he is doing it right.
He is speaking with the intonation of someone who doesn't hear well but I have had his hearing checked twice and it has tested ok.
After a while he came to me and asked me for "help".
He had a pair of rollerblades in his hands and he wanted to try them on.
He has been trying to get into the girl's rollerskates since they got them but his feet are too big.
These are just the right size and he walked along the carpet with them pretty well. He was occasionally chortling to himself.
When he got to the kitchen which has lino, that was when his trouble started.
As he tried to cross it, his feet went out from underneath him and down he went, "ouch" he said. "I hurt"
Then he got back up and tried again and tried again and tried again.
Nathan made the round from the end of the loungeroom to the end of the dining room 4 times before finally calling it quits.
We laughed and I helped him up a couple of times but for the most part, he figured out how to do it himself.
Rollerblading is a great exercise for left and right brain as it deals with balance and concentrating on what you are doing especially for a beginner.
It was almost as if today, he was looking for things to help himself when he knew that I was trying to help him.
He even came out to the kitchen and danced with us voluntarily.
He repeated words in the songs.
He mimiced faces.
He was just absolutely brilliant and tomorrow is his NAET treatment so wonderful.
We will see what happens then.
Later

My First Article

I wrote this article and published it to www.ezinearticles.com




Classic Signs and Symptoms of Autism.


Symptoms of Autism usually present during the first year and a half of a child's life.
Early diagnosis of autism can make a dramatic difference with the outcome of the child’s success.
Although Autism does not typically show up until at least 14 months of age there are some earlier warning signs that can act as red flags to watch for.
All of these signs and symptoms may be indicative of several disorders so it is important to get your child properly evaluated by a healthcare professional if you have any concerns.
The head growth in children with Autism seems to increase exponentially in the first twelve months.
When you have your baby evaluated at their clinic appointments, if they do not do so, ask them to measure the circumference of the child’s head and have it plotted on the growth chart so that you can see exactly where your child is in proportion with other children’s expected growth.
If your baby is still having trouble sitting up at 10-12 months and has a tendency to tip or not put their hands out to catch themselves as they fall forward then you may want to mention that at your Doctors visit.
Autistic children generally develop otherwise just like other children, then somewhere between 14 months and 3 years they start to regress.
Autistic children usually have problems in the following areas:
Communication
A number of children with Autism lose any speech that they have already developed since birth. Others speech becomes repetitive and rather than have an actual conversation, as much as a child will, they will repeat things they have heard or repeat the same words over and over again. They may also develop echolalia which basically means that the last thing that you say is what they will answer. For example if you ask if they want a hamburger or a hotdog they will say hotdog and if it was the hamburger that they really wanted they will become upset that you misunderstood them.
They also have difficulty with non-verbal communication as in reading facial expressions and have difficulty understanding humor or sarcasm.
Social Interaction
Usually Autistic children withdraw. They have difficulty making or maintaining friendships. They lose eye contact. They are happier keeping to themselves and appear uncomfortable in large settings of people. They are unwilling to be touched or held and will pull away when you try.
Unusual Way Of Playing
The Autistic child sees play objects in a different way and will use them differently than another child. They may like cars but will spin the wheels over and over again for hours. They have a tendency to organize objects and will spend hours lining them up and placing them in an order known just to them. Sometimes it is obvious to the casual observer but oftentimes not.
The child with Autism plays solitarily unless they are needing another person to use as an object e.g. they will sit on your lap at the table if they know that they need to be higher up on the chair to reach it. At these times they will simply back up and climb as they would an object.
Autistic children may engage in repetitive movements such as flapping of their hands or wriggling their fingers in front of their eyes.
They like a routine and will get upset if something is moved or if there is a change in the way things are usually done.
Note well, however, that these are just warning signs and a proper evaluation by a physician or psychologist is important to determine if it is truly Autism or another disorder.
It is also well to note that Autism is a Spectrum Disorder meaning that there can be a very large scale difference between one Autistic child and another.
Early intervention is important when dealing with this spectrum, the success of the child depends on it.

Donna Mason has been a Registered Nurse for the past 16 yrs. She is the mother of 6 children, 3 of which have varying degrees of Autism. For more information on Autism signs and symptoms, and to learn more about this mother’s battle in the fight against this misunderstood condition, visit her on the web at: http://www.autisticadventures.blogspot.com