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