Loud Noises - sensory intake

I had gotten the kids to sleep last night around 9 pm.  I sat down and read the new Wall E book with Dane and Ally.  Afterwords, it was time for them to get to sleep.  I was tired out from the sunny day we actually had.  Will this rain and cold and wind just go away so the kids can run around outside?    Where did summer go?

I woke up on the couch around 2 this morning.  I was going to go to my own bed and go figure, Dane wakes up crying and looking for me.  I have to get him back to his bed and lay down by his side and then Ally wakes up screaming.  Dane pushes away at Ally so I have to lay between them to get them to sleep.  I wake up at 4 and sneak out to get into my own bed.  Dane wakes up 5 minutes later crying for "Daddy!"  I swear these kids have instinct when I leave.  How else do they always wake up?

6 am I wake up with both kids again and I lay on the couch trying to get a little more sleep while they are wide awake scaring the guinea pig.  Eventually, I pull myself off the couch to get the house picked up. 

We go out to eat at the family restaurant in town.  We place our orders and get our food.  I am sick of ordering meals for the kids when they don't eat.  When we get home they say that their hungry.  We lock up all the cabinets because I don't want them snacking all the time.  We try and have a nice sit down family meal and Ally is falling asleep and antsy.  Dane is staring at the ceiling and shaking his head.  He has been shaking his head a lot lately and looking up.  That is something new.  Probably something to do with his sensory input.  My wife gives him a back rub to make him settle down.

I'm halfway through my meal and the kids have to go potty.  My wife takes them.  I make her take the kids to the womens room because mens rooms are disgusting.  After they do their business Dane washes his hands and is frightened to push the blow dryer butten.  He doesn't want to but he's curious if it will be loud or not.  He always gets ready to plug his ears.  He pushes it and runs out of the bathroom back to our table.  The kids are getting tired so I guess it's time to go.

My wife takes the kids out the door and they run off towards the highway.  She yells at them to stop and they do.  They get into the truck and I stay back to clean up the table and pay the bill.  We decide to go to Grandpa's house to relax.  The kids fall asleep within minutes of driving.  If they could only fall asleep that fast when it is bed time at home.

Fear

My son has never showed any fear towards anything that I can think of. He has been going into the bedrooms and basement with only a flashlight to shine things. When I turn on the light he tells me to turn it off. He says the lights hurt his eyes. He will push a stool to the lights and then pull the chains to shut them all off. The next time I go into the basement I can't see anything.

My 3 year old daughter is developing normally and having the typical scares and carries a security blanket. My son never developed a special bond with a blanket or a stuffed animal. He preferred to sleep next to a pin wheel or a matchbox car because he enjoys spinning things for visual stimulation. That is his security now that I think about it.

If I do not shut the doors behind me, my daughter will yell to "Shut the door!" She is afraid of monsters or something. She is very afraid of the dark. My son thinks it is funny to shut off the light and shut her inside the room. I think I need a social story to teach him not to do that. It scares his sister and he needs a visual aid to help understand.

Spiders also have my daughter frightened. My son does not show terror to something creepy like that and will pick them up.  My daughter will scream and tell him to "Stop that! That's scary!" The nastiest thing he picked up and put in a jar was a centipede. Those freak me out.

I couldn't imagine my life without fear. That would be the life. Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy said, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." We can learn a lot from our children.

Humming & Flapping Arms

My son started flapping his arms and waving his hands in front of his face.  I guess that we are supposed to discourage this activity.  He hums and makes weird noises all the time also.

I remembered watching a 20/20 episode about a girl who was non-verbal who started to communicate at the age of 11 through typing.  When asked a question, she could respond with a computer.  How exciting is that a severely autistic girl taught herself how to read and write and communicate.  When asking her questions, she can answer by typing one letter at a time.

Carly Fleishmann describes what it is like to be autistic.

"You don't know what it feels like to be me, when you can't sit still because your legs feel like they are on fire or it feels like a hundred ants are crawling up your arms."

"It is hard to be autistic because no one understands me. People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can't speak."

"I think people get a lot of their information from so-called experts but if a horse is sick, you don't ask a fish what's wrong with the horse. You go right to the horse's mouth." 

My son bangs his head at times.  I often wondered about that.  She answered this and it is something to think about.

Carly says,  "Because if I don't it feels like my body is going to explode. It's just like when you shake a can of coke. If I could stop it I would but it is not like turning a switch off, it does not work that way. I know what is right and wrong but it's like I have a fight with my brain over it."


About my son when he hums and flaps his arms, I found that this is what Carly had to say.

Carly: "It's a way for us to drown out all sensory input that over loads us all at once. We create output to block out input."

I don't know what made me think of this episode or how I remembered it but somehow it just crossed my mind tonight and I wanted to research it more.  If you go here http://abcnews.go.com/2020/MindMoodNews/story?id=8258204&page=1 you will be able to read more on her or go to her site here http://carlysvoice.com/

Watch Carly's story on 20/20 here http://youtu.be/34xoYwLNpvw

 

Day 1 of Intensive Therapy

My sons first day of therapy went very well. The therapist came in and asked my son if he wanted to play. He took her by the hand and went into a room where we watched from the other side through a 2 way mirror. This was mostly "play therapy" on his first day. The therapists do not want any disturbances from the parents or other siblings. This is intensive one one one focus working with my son.

We got some interesting observations and learned something about them. When my son is moaning he is crying for sensory stimulation. He also has little seizures which I have noticed when he was still a baby starting to sit up on his own. Soon he will have to have an electroencephalogram (EEG) scan done on his brain. They want to trigger a seizure to find out what causes them. I think they do this by flashing lights at him while monitoring his brain waves. I'm not sure though what they will do. I pray it's not epilepsy. 1 in 4 autistic children have seizures from what I have read.

The therapists ordered us a weighted vest to help with his sensory issues. We tried a weighted blanket in the past when he was being observed through the Birth to Three program. At the time we didn't know how to use it. The same with that little brush they gave us to brush him when he was having sensory-overload. We were supposed to brush his arms to stimulate his nervous system every couple hours. I don't know what ever happened to that brush. I know we gave the blanket back and shrugged our shoulders because we were new parents. A baby doesn't come with directions and what were we supposed to know about autism at the time?

As parents of a child with special needs you learn as you go. I am trying to document what therapy does for my son as to help my readers new to autism learn more about what they may expect. Parenting autism is hard work. Keep faith and hope that the future is bright filled with happiness.

"SENSORY STIMULATION"

Sensory stimulation is a vital role of sending information to the brain of the autistic child to help settle their nervous system. It is important to have sensory breaks to help the child be alert and focus on learning.

Sensory issues can involve how the child sees, hears, smells and how their bodies react to their environment. This can result in the child's mind as conflict, bringing overwhelming sensory information the brain cannot process. The child could appear fearful or clumsy. The textures of what they touch may irritate their skin and make them feel uncomfortable.

Spinning on a sit and spin, jumping on a trampoline, brushing the arms, deep pressure massage, being pressed between bean bag chairs, swaddling, squeezing stress balls and being covered with a weighted blanket are some examples used for a sensory break. Sensory techniques like these help increase alertness.

My son has to start his school day in his classroom and slowly be emerged in the lunchroom where all the other children start their mornings. Eating breakfast. To start him off in the cafe with all the loud children and smell of food sets off sensory over-load. To walk him into it helps his brain prepare for whats coming.

Our sons teachers send him off on sensory breaks about every two hours. Taking this time off from the classroom to help settle his nervous system. Sensory integration helps him come back and focus on learning with the other children.

With my son, when he goes into sensory over-load it's like he is full of energy. His body gets jittery. He clenches his fists. He makes moaning noises and bangs his head on me. He can't sit still. How can he sit and focus at school if he would act like that? He wouldn't be able to if he wasn't getting the sensory breaks.

I think the most effective sensory stimulation involves the playground. This is where they can run, jump, swing, slide and just be a child at play. It will also give you the chance to sit back and watch your special child enjoy being young and stimulate his/her brain to all the sensory needs that need to be filled.