Dane has troubles understanding how to do things when told. Part of the ability to comprehend what we tell him has us explaining things over and over to make him understand things clearer. This is also true about his cognitive skills. Cognition is how we perceive, remember, learn and think about information given to us. The process of getting Dane to understand clearly is what is troubling to us.
Telling Dane "No" is probably the hardest for him to understand. His therapist recommend drawing him a picture so he can see a visual of why he can't do something. For example, why he doesn't hit his sister. His therapist drew a simple picture of Dane with a our cat, Tom. It says, "Yes, play with Tom." Another pictures is circled with a line through it and says, "No sit, chase, kick" It goes on to a 3rd picture of Dane kicking a ball. It says, "Yes, kick a ball. Finally, the last picture of Dane and Ally circled with a line through that says, "No kick Ally." These visuals are to help him perceive information that he shouldn't do those things. It's weird how his mind works. Words to him mean nothing but a simple picture explains everything for understanding.
This is my online diary about my son diagnosed with autism at age 2. His progress and regressions. His behavior and his sensory overloads. Therapy and picture schedules. Drama and humor to figure out how his mind works.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Summer School
Danes teacher thought it would be a good idea to have him enrolled in summer school. Even if the teacher didn't suggest this I was going to enroll him. This is to keep in into a routine and meet new teachers and students to help with his social skills and prepare him for kindergarten. This will also give him a chance to do things that he is more interested in.
Children on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) don't take routine breaking easily. Life changes and new obstacles lay ahead. It is best to keep him in a active school environment, or extended before the following school year.
Next year, Dane will have a new teacher and possibly new students added to his classroom. He will have to adjust like any other student but it will take longer with his autism. We show him his class picture to get to know the faces of his classmates.
We are slowly working Dane into a 5 day full time school week. We started with 1 three hour day on Fridays when he was 4 years old. At 5 years old we bumped him up to 2 full days a week. On Friday, he has his special education with more one on one time with his Speech Therapist, Behavioral Therapist, Musical Therapist, Occupational Therapist and Psychologist. Friday is the most important day for him and it upsets me when school is called off or there is no school. That is the day that focuses entirely on his needs.
Since Dane has been enrolled in school, he has gained much more in his social skills. He is talking more and not echoing back as much as he once did. Some of his vowels sound like other letters and is hard to understand what he wants. He gets frustrated until we figure out what he wants. After he gets across to us what he wanted he is very relieved as are we.
Being around children his age has had such an advantage to helping him learn to be more independent. He now can get himself dressed with less help. Sometimes it takes a few commands to get him started. Hearing him start to ask questions is very exciting also. Learning is an entirely different story with those of a certain disability. It takes more patience and time. Early intervention was the best option.
Children on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) don't take routine breaking easily. Life changes and new obstacles lay ahead. It is best to keep him in a active school environment, or extended before the following school year.
Next year, Dane will have a new teacher and possibly new students added to his classroom. He will have to adjust like any other student but it will take longer with his autism. We show him his class picture to get to know the faces of his classmates.
We are slowly working Dane into a 5 day full time school week. We started with 1 three hour day on Fridays when he was 4 years old. At 5 years old we bumped him up to 2 full days a week. On Friday, he has his special education with more one on one time with his Speech Therapist, Behavioral Therapist, Musical Therapist, Occupational Therapist and Psychologist. Friday is the most important day for him and it upsets me when school is called off or there is no school. That is the day that focuses entirely on his needs.
Since Dane has been enrolled in school, he has gained much more in his social skills. He is talking more and not echoing back as much as he once did. Some of his vowels sound like other letters and is hard to understand what he wants. He gets frustrated until we figure out what he wants. After he gets across to us what he wanted he is very relieved as are we.
Being around children his age has had such an advantage to helping him learn to be more independent. He now can get himself dressed with less help. Sometimes it takes a few commands to get him started. Hearing him start to ask questions is very exciting also. Learning is an entirely different story with those of a certain disability. It takes more patience and time. Early intervention was the best option.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sensory or Behavioral Meltdown?
There has to be two forms of an autistic meltdown. Sensory meltdown and behavioral meltdown. I'm not positive of this. This is just my concerns from what I witness with my son.
A sensory meltdown occurs when the nervous system goes into a sensory over-load. This involves the sense of touch, smell, taste, sound and vision. When an over stimulating environment causes the mind to scramble and not process the information fast enough.
A behavioral meltdown happens when the autistic child doesn't get to do something and can't get a hold of themselves till they get it done with. No matter how small the situation.
Tonight my dad was on the phone and he hung it up without my son saying hello and goodbye to who was on the other end. This upset him to a point of a tantrum that wouldn't end. It is one of his routines to say "hello and goodbye" to the other person on the phone. Thus, the behavioral meltdown in my view.
I put it off and tried to let him cry himself out and calm down without my help. I thought it would only last a few minutes but it lasted a long time. Usually I try to rub his back or give him a tight hug for sensory stimulation but tonight he wouldn't let me near him. Maybe being tired and a nap cut short triggered this?
Going on to 40 minutes he wasn't getting any better emotionally. I had to do something about this. He was making himself sick he was crying so much. All because he didn't say "hello" on the phone.
It came to the point where I called my parents home phone from my cell phone. The phone rang and he finally got to say hello and goodbye to me on the other line. Now the tears turned into sniffles and sighs of relief. All it took was for me to call and have him answer.
It makes me sick thinking that it will be like this until he has more therapy. He needs to understand that some things he cannot do. He needs to not get so upset over the smallest things. I know I could have prevented the prolonged tantrum by calling earlier. I should have. I wanted to see if he could end it on his own but it wasn't happening. How do I redirect his attention to not focus on the phone? Nothing was changing his mind.
Sometimes a parent feels lost what way they can do or should have done earlier to prevent a situation like this. The best way to handle a meltdown, is to prevent it from happening. You just don't know what will trigger it off.
A sensory meltdown occurs when the nervous system goes into a sensory over-load. This involves the sense of touch, smell, taste, sound and vision. When an over stimulating environment causes the mind to scramble and not process the information fast enough.
A behavioral meltdown happens when the autistic child doesn't get to do something and can't get a hold of themselves till they get it done with. No matter how small the situation.
Tonight my dad was on the phone and he hung it up without my son saying hello and goodbye to who was on the other end. This upset him to a point of a tantrum that wouldn't end. It is one of his routines to say "hello and goodbye" to the other person on the phone. Thus, the behavioral meltdown in my view.
I put it off and tried to let him cry himself out and calm down without my help. I thought it would only last a few minutes but it lasted a long time. Usually I try to rub his back or give him a tight hug for sensory stimulation but tonight he wouldn't let me near him. Maybe being tired and a nap cut short triggered this?
Going on to 40 minutes he wasn't getting any better emotionally. I had to do something about this. He was making himself sick he was crying so much. All because he didn't say "hello" on the phone.
It came to the point where I called my parents home phone from my cell phone. The phone rang and he finally got to say hello and goodbye to me on the other line. Now the tears turned into sniffles and sighs of relief. All it took was for me to call and have him answer.
It makes me sick thinking that it will be like this until he has more therapy. He needs to understand that some things he cannot do. He needs to not get so upset over the smallest things. I know I could have prevented the prolonged tantrum by calling earlier. I should have. I wanted to see if he could end it on his own but it wasn't happening. How do I redirect his attention to not focus on the phone? Nothing was changing his mind.
Sometimes a parent feels lost what way they can do or should have done earlier to prevent a situation like this. The best way to handle a meltdown, is to prevent it from happening. You just don't know what will trigger it off.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Oobi - language development
There is a show on TV called Oobi on the NickJr. channel. This show has been on for some time. I thought it was lame the first time I seen it a few years back. Watching it now I see why it is the way it is.
The characters are people's hands with a set of eyes on them. They speak in really reduced sentences for children to develop language skills. My autistic son actually sat and studied the characters. This show also has good moral teachings. That is a hard thing to find now days on cartoons and TV shows.
Cartoons today are either too educational and boring or violent. What ever happened to silly and funny cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Garfield? Even Sesame Street now is about eating veggies. Not that that is a bad thing, but where is the humor? Sesame Street used to have a bunch of segmented clips about numbers, letters, colors and other educational meanings. Now, it focuses on a topic, like bubbles, and has the whole show on that. Then comes Elmo's World. That doesn't teach much either.
Speech delay was a big factor in my son's autism. He didn't start speaking until the age of 4. When he started speaking, he was echolalic. He would copy things we would tell him to do. Now, he is starting to ask questions for himself instead of copying what we say. He still has a puzzled look on his face sometimes we tell him to do something.
I will say that Oobi is a really good tool of language providing and morals when you have a child who has a delayed speech. Speaking slow, short sentences is how to get the communication skills working.
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