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.