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