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.