I read this and really wanted to share here. Thank you Jess from Diary of a Mom.
I typed something I thought might be poetic.
And then I deleted it all – one letter at a time.
It was a story about a house on Autism Street – I thought a pretty little metaphor might make it easier to say.
It didn’t.
The truth does not always fit into pretty metaphors.
My Brooke’s autism – our family’s autism – is a fact of our lives. It challenges each and every one of us – none more than my baby girl.
We walk a high wire, arms out, heads up. We search for our footing; we fight for our balance. We scan the crowd. We seek compassion. We sniff out pockets of understanding.
We hound the experts; we beg, borrow and steal the tools for our girl to live the fullest life she possibly can. We pray for acceptance. We try our damndest to celebrate what we have the luxury of calling her differences.
It isn’t easy. Not by a long shot.
But our neighbors on Autism Street live vastly different lives.
They live in houses where autism is about survival. Where there are no words. Where connection, engagement, a momentary, fleeting interaction is everything.
Where constant vigilance takes its toll. Where sleep is a precious memory. Where children growing up and growing stronger is terrifying.
Where tempests brew without warning and siblings are versed in self-defense. Where psychotropic drugs are a necessary evil. Where cabinets and pantries are secured behind lock and key. Where seizures are constant. Where skills once mastered vanish with the wind. Where potty training happens – again and again and again.
Where children vanish in the blink of an eye – wandering into the world armed with superhuman coordination, uninhibited by any sense of danger.
When we host a block party here on Autism Street, we’re reminded that our high wire act is really awfully quaint.
*
We need compassion, understanding and the tools to teach our girl to fly.
Our neighbors need HELP.
The need it NOW.
They need answers.
They need services for these kids – for themselves. They need a place to turn. They need a strategy – short-term, long-term, the distant future. They need a break.
Too many of them are living under siege.
*
To those of you who read Diary without a further connection to autism, I am grateful. I beg you though, please, please always remember as you read …
Our autism is just one house on the block, not remotely representative of its neighbors.
Our friends need help.
And by God they need it now.
Here is the link to her blog. http://adiaryofamom.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/autism-street/
Showing posts with label Autism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Autism. Show all posts
Monday, August 8, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Mother Warrior
A Mother Warrior is.....
A mother who hears there is no hope for her child and, instead of retreating and mourning, breaks down walls, weaves her way through obstacles, follows her intuition even when people tell her she is crazy. She is a mother who believes in hope. A mother who believes in miracles and is able to carry on with strength and determination, even when her partner doubts her and offers no support. A mother who never gives up when she keeps hitting dead ends. These are the women who will continue to open the door so future generations of children don't have to suffer. These are the mothers with hearts of gold and shields made of the strongest armor.
I know in my heart that somday this era will be marked as an era when a group of parents fought the giants to help save their babies and future generations. Margaret Mead, the late great sociologist, once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
These are the women I walk beside proudly and whose numbers I hope will grow. We are the seekers of change. We are the seekers of truth. We are the Mother Warriors and we will NEVER give up!
Jenny McCarthy~Mother to a child with Autism~Author of Mother Warriors~
A mother who hears there is no hope for her child and, instead of retreating and mourning, breaks down walls, weaves her way through obstacles, follows her intuition even when people tell her she is crazy. She is a mother who believes in hope. A mother who believes in miracles and is able to carry on with strength and determination, even when her partner doubts her and offers no support. A mother who never gives up when she keeps hitting dead ends. These are the women who will continue to open the door so future generations of children don't have to suffer. These are the mothers with hearts of gold and shields made of the strongest armor.
I know in my heart that somday this era will be marked as an era when a group of parents fought the giants to help save their babies and future generations. Margaret Mead, the late great sociologist, once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
These are the women I walk beside proudly and whose numbers I hope will grow. We are the seekers of change. We are the seekers of truth. We are the Mother Warriors and we will NEVER give up!
Jenny McCarthy~Mother to a child with Autism~Author of Mother Warriors~
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Holland Schmolland
Happy World Autism Awareness Day!!!!!
I wanted to share this today. I really love the Welcome to Holland by Emily Kingsley and I've posted it on my blog before but after reading Holland Schmolland by Laura Crawford I love it so much more lol....I had to post it because my family are Citizens of Schmolland :)
If you have a special needs child, which I do, and if you troll the Internet for information, which I have done, you will come across a certain inspirational analogy. It goes like this:
Imagine that you are planning a trip to Italy. You read all the latest travel books, you consult with friends about what to pack, and you develop an elaborate itinerary for your glorious trip. The day arrives.
You board the plane and settle in with your in-flight magazine, dreaming of trattorias, gondola rides, and gelato. However when the plane lands you discover, much to your surprise, you are not in Italy -- you are in Holland. You are greatly dismayed at this abrupt and unexpected change in plans.
You rant and rave to the travel agency, but it does no good. You are stuck. After awhile, you tire of fighting and begin to look at what Holland has to offer. You notice the beautiful tulips, the kindly people in the wooden shoes, the french fries with mayonnaise, and you think, "This isn't exactly what I had planned, but it's not so bad. It's just different."
Having a child with special needs is supposed to be like this -- not any worse than having a typical child -- just different.
When I read this my son was almost 3, completely non-verbal and was hitting me over 100 times a day. While I appreciated the intention of the story, I couldn't help but think, "Are they kidding? We're not in some peaceful country dotted with windmills. We are in a country under siege -- dodging bombs, boarding overloaded helicopters, bribing officials -- all the while thinking, "What happened to our beautiful life?"
That was five years ago.
My son is now 8 and though we have come to accept that he will always have autism, we no longer feel like citizens of a battle-torn nation. With the help of countless dedicated therapists and teachers, biological interventions, and an enormously supportive family, my son has become a fun-loving, affectionate boy with many endearing qualities and skills. In the process we've created . . . well . . . our own country, with its own unique traditions and customs.
It's not a war zone, but it's still not Holland. Let's call it Schmolland. In Schmolland, it's perfectly customary to lick walls, rub cold pieces of metal across your mouth and line up all your toys end-to-end. You can show affection by giving a "pointy chin." A "pointy chin" is when you act like you are going to hug someone and just when you are really close, you jam your chin into the other person's shoulder. For the person giving the "pointy chin" this feels really good, for the receiver, not so much -- but you get used to it.
For citizens of Schmolland, it is quite normal to repeat lines from videos to express emotion. If you are sad, you can look downcast and say, "Oh, Pongo." When mad or anxious, you might shout, "Snow can't stop me!" or "Duchess, kittens, come on!" Sometimes, "And now our feature presentation" says it all.
In Schmolland, there's not a lot to do, so our citizens find amusement wherever they can. Bouncing on the couch for hours, methodically pulling feathers out of down pillows, and laughing hysterically in bed at 4:00 a.m. are all traditional Schmutch pastimes.
The hard part of living in our country is dealing with people from other countries. We try to assimilate ourselves and mimic their customs, but we aren't always successful. It's perfectly understandable that an 8 year-old from Schmolland would steal a train from a toddler at the Thomas the Tank Engine Train Table at Barnes and Noble. But this is clearly not understandable or acceptable in other countries, and so we must drag our 8 year-old out of the store kicking and screaming, all the customers looking on with stark, pitying stares. But we ignore these looks and focus on the exit sign because we are a proud people.
Where we live it is not surprising when an 8 year-old boy reaches for the fleshy part of a woman's upper torso and says, "Do we touch boodoo?" We simply say, "No, we do not touch boodoo," and go on about our business. It's a bit more startling in other countries, however, and can cause all sorts of cross-cultural misunderstandings.
And, though most foreigners can get a drop of water on their pants and still carry on, this is intolerable to certain citizens in Schmolland, who insist that the pants must come off no matter where they are and regardless of whether another pair of pants is present.
Other families who have special needs children are familiar and comforting to us, yet are still separate entities. Together we make up a federation of countries, kind of like Scandinavia. Like a person from Denmark talking to a person from Norway (or in our case, someone from Schmenmark talking to someone from Schmorway.), we share enough similarities in our language and customs to understand each other, but conversations inevitably highlight the diversity of our traditions. "My child eats paper. Yesterday he ate a whole video box." "My daughter only eats four foods, all of them white." "We finally had to lock up the VCR because my child was obsessed with the rewind button." "My son wants to blow on everyone."
There is one thing we all agree on. We are a growing population. Ten years ago, 1 in 10,000 children had autism. Today the rate is approximately 1 in 250.[edit: in 2011 the number is now recognized to be 1 in 110.] Something is dreadfully wrong. Though the causes of the increase are still being hotly debated, a number of parents and professionals believe genetic predisposition has collided with too many environmental insults -- toxins, chemicals, antibiotics, vaccines -- to create immunological chaos in the nervous system of developing children. One medical journalist speculated these children are the proverbial "canary in the coal mine", here to alert us to the growing dangers in our environment.
While this is certainly not a view shared by all in the autism community, it feels true to me.
I hope that researchers discover the magic bullet we all so desperately crave. And I will never stop investigating new treatments and therapies that might help my son. But more and more my priorities are shifting from what "could be" to "what is." I look around this country my family has created, with all its unique customs, and it feels like home. For us, any time spent "nation building" is time well spent.
-- The End --
I wanted to share this today. I really love the Welcome to Holland by Emily Kingsley and I've posted it on my blog before but after reading Holland Schmolland by Laura Crawford I love it so much more lol....I had to post it because my family are Citizens of Schmolland :)
If you have a special needs child, which I do, and if you troll the Internet for information, which I have done, you will come across a certain inspirational analogy. It goes like this:
Imagine that you are planning a trip to Italy. You read all the latest travel books, you consult with friends about what to pack, and you develop an elaborate itinerary for your glorious trip. The day arrives.
You board the plane and settle in with your in-flight magazine, dreaming of trattorias, gondola rides, and gelato. However when the plane lands you discover, much to your surprise, you are not in Italy -- you are in Holland. You are greatly dismayed at this abrupt and unexpected change in plans.
You rant and rave to the travel agency, but it does no good. You are stuck. After awhile, you tire of fighting and begin to look at what Holland has to offer. You notice the beautiful tulips, the kindly people in the wooden shoes, the french fries with mayonnaise, and you think, "This isn't exactly what I had planned, but it's not so bad. It's just different."
Having a child with special needs is supposed to be like this -- not any worse than having a typical child -- just different.
When I read this my son was almost 3, completely non-verbal and was hitting me over 100 times a day. While I appreciated the intention of the story, I couldn't help but think, "Are they kidding? We're not in some peaceful country dotted with windmills. We are in a country under siege -- dodging bombs, boarding overloaded helicopters, bribing officials -- all the while thinking, "What happened to our beautiful life?"
That was five years ago.
My son is now 8 and though we have come to accept that he will always have autism, we no longer feel like citizens of a battle-torn nation. With the help of countless dedicated therapists and teachers, biological interventions, and an enormously supportive family, my son has become a fun-loving, affectionate boy with many endearing qualities and skills. In the process we've created . . . well . . . our own country, with its own unique traditions and customs.
It's not a war zone, but it's still not Holland. Let's call it Schmolland. In Schmolland, it's perfectly customary to lick walls, rub cold pieces of metal across your mouth and line up all your toys end-to-end. You can show affection by giving a "pointy chin." A "pointy chin" is when you act like you are going to hug someone and just when you are really close, you jam your chin into the other person's shoulder. For the person giving the "pointy chin" this feels really good, for the receiver, not so much -- but you get used to it.
For citizens of Schmolland, it is quite normal to repeat lines from videos to express emotion. If you are sad, you can look downcast and say, "Oh, Pongo." When mad or anxious, you might shout, "Snow can't stop me!" or "Duchess, kittens, come on!" Sometimes, "And now our feature presentation" says it all.
In Schmolland, there's not a lot to do, so our citizens find amusement wherever they can. Bouncing on the couch for hours, methodically pulling feathers out of down pillows, and laughing hysterically in bed at 4:00 a.m. are all traditional Schmutch pastimes.
The hard part of living in our country is dealing with people from other countries. We try to assimilate ourselves and mimic their customs, but we aren't always successful. It's perfectly understandable that an 8 year-old from Schmolland would steal a train from a toddler at the Thomas the Tank Engine Train Table at Barnes and Noble. But this is clearly not understandable or acceptable in other countries, and so we must drag our 8 year-old out of the store kicking and screaming, all the customers looking on with stark, pitying stares. But we ignore these looks and focus on the exit sign because we are a proud people.
Where we live it is not surprising when an 8 year-old boy reaches for the fleshy part of a woman's upper torso and says, "Do we touch boodoo?" We simply say, "No, we do not touch boodoo," and go on about our business. It's a bit more startling in other countries, however, and can cause all sorts of cross-cultural misunderstandings.
And, though most foreigners can get a drop of water on their pants and still carry on, this is intolerable to certain citizens in Schmolland, who insist that the pants must come off no matter where they are and regardless of whether another pair of pants is present.
Other families who have special needs children are familiar and comforting to us, yet are still separate entities. Together we make up a federation of countries, kind of like Scandinavia. Like a person from Denmark talking to a person from Norway (or in our case, someone from Schmenmark talking to someone from Schmorway.), we share enough similarities in our language and customs to understand each other, but conversations inevitably highlight the diversity of our traditions. "My child eats paper. Yesterday he ate a whole video box." "My daughter only eats four foods, all of them white." "We finally had to lock up the VCR because my child was obsessed with the rewind button." "My son wants to blow on everyone."
There is one thing we all agree on. We are a growing population. Ten years ago, 1 in 10,000 children had autism. Today the rate is approximately 1 in 250.[edit: in 2011 the number is now recognized to be 1 in 110.] Something is dreadfully wrong. Though the causes of the increase are still being hotly debated, a number of parents and professionals believe genetic predisposition has collided with too many environmental insults -- toxins, chemicals, antibiotics, vaccines -- to create immunological chaos in the nervous system of developing children. One medical journalist speculated these children are the proverbial "canary in the coal mine", here to alert us to the growing dangers in our environment.
While this is certainly not a view shared by all in the autism community, it feels true to me.
I hope that researchers discover the magic bullet we all so desperately crave. And I will never stop investigating new treatments and therapies that might help my son. But more and more my priorities are shifting from what "could be" to "what is." I look around this country my family has created, with all its unique customs, and it feels like home. For us, any time spent "nation building" is time well spent.
-- The End --
Friday, April 1, 2011
April=Autism Awareness
"When you open up to see and hear the unique ways children with autism express themselves, you can begin to see how accurately they respond to their environment. They are not clouded by social conditioning and conformity but rather live according to what is alive in them and what feels good or doesn’t feel good in that moment. They teach us to be present."
Daxton teaches me this all the time. BE present! Live in the moment, live for today :)
Daxton teaches me this all the time. BE present! Live in the moment, live for today :)
Friday, June 25, 2010
Camp
Last week Daxton had camp.
He really had alot of fun! And he did alot of new things....
He went fishing for the very 1st time
He caught his very 1st fish!
And then another one
He rode on a horse for the very 1st time
And absolutely LOVED IT!
Now instead of wanting a puppy...
He wants a horse :)
He really had alot of fun! And he did alot of new things....
He went fishing for the very 1st time
He caught his very 1st fish!
And then another one
He rode on a horse for the very 1st time
And absolutely LOVED IT!
Now instead of wanting a puppy...
He wants a horse :)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Brew Ha Ha
Today was the Brew Ha Ha festival for the St. Nicholas Center. Daxton goes to ABA therapy there. In April the building burned. They were on the third floor of the Children's Museum. Only the first floor where the fire started had major damage or so they thought at first. We were told we would start back therapy in a few weeks after they cleaned up from the smoke damage. Well the smoke damage was way worse than they thought and they lost everything. The entire building is now being gutted and redone. We are in a temp building by St. Pat's hospital right now. Anyway they had a festival today to raise money to replace everything that was lost and also help with the cost of therapy. It started at 2pm and mom, Aunt Lisa, Jordan, Tanya, Calvin, and Aunt Pam all came and helped out. We set up a booth to sell our raffle tickets. All the kids at the center are selling raffle tickets to help raise money for therapy. Everything we sell 100% of the profit goes into our account for our childs therapy. They are $5 a ticket and the prize is 6 LSU-Florida game tickets and tailgate stuff. Me and the boys walked around the festival and sat at the booth. It was soo hot! They never really had alot of ppl at the festival I guess b/c it was so hot. Daxton had fun though. They had face painting, a jump, pony rides. He stayed in the jump most of the time. Jana and Travis came and so him and Travis played. Hollie and Paislie came and so did Kayla and Isaac :) We left about 6:30 but the festival wasn't over until 10pm. The boys were exhausted and both fell asleep early.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
All about Autism
We had Autism Awareness shirts made for our family and friends. They came in this past week and they came out so cute! I had someone ask me to help them understand Autism better incase someone would ask them about it while wearing the shirt. So I decided I would explain it for everyone.
Autism is a complex neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Children with autism have problems with social interaction, communication, imagination and behavior. Autistic traits persist into adulthood, but vary in severity. Some adults with autism function well, earning college degrees and living independently. Others never develop the skills of daily living.
Autism causes kids to experience the world differently from the way most other kids do. It's hard for kids with autism to talk with other people and express themselves using words. They also may react to what's going on around them in unusual ways. Normal sounds may really bother someone with autism — so much so that the person covers his or her ears. Being touched, even in a gentle way, may feel uncomfortable. Kids with autism often can not make connections that other kids make easily. For example, when someone smiles, you know the smiling person is happy or being friendly. But a kid with autism may have trouble connecting that smile with the person's happy feelings. A kid who has autism also has trouble linking words to their meanings. Imagine trying to understand what your mom is saying if you didn't know what her words really mean. It is doubly frustrating then if a kid can't come up with the right words to express his or her own thoughts.
Autism causes kids to act in unusual ways. They might flap their hands, say certain words over and over, have temper tantrums, or play only with one particular toy. Most kids with autism don't like changes in routines. They like to stay on a schedule that is always the same. They also may insist that their toys or other objects be arranged a certain way and get upset if these items are moved or disturbed.
If someone has autism, his or her brain has trouble with an important job: making sense of the world. Every day, your brain interprets the sights, sounds, smells, and other sensations that you experience. If your brain couldn't help you understand these things, you would have trouble functioning, talking, going to school, and doing other everyday stuff. Kids can be mildly affected by autism, so that they only have a little trouble in life, or they can be very affected, so that they need a lot of help.
Autism affects about 1 in every 150 kids. This means as many as 1.5 million Americans today are believed to have some form of autism. And this number is on the rise making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. It occurs in all racial, ethnic, and social groups and is four times more likely to strike boys than girls. But no one knows what causes it.
The brain contains over 100 billion nerve cells called neurons. Each neuron may have hundreds or thousands of connections that carry messages to other nerve cells in the brain and body. The connections and the chemical messengers they send (called neurotransmitters) let the neurons that help you see, feel, move, remember, and work together as they should.
For some reason, some of the cells and connections in the brain of a kid with autism — especially those that affect communication, emotions, and senses — don't develop properly or get damaged. Scientists are still trying to understand how and why this happens.
There is no cure for autism, but doctors, therapists, and special teachers can help kids with autism overcome or adjust to many difficulties. The earlier a kid starts treatment for autism, the better. Different kids need different kinds of help, but learning how to communicate is always an important first step. Spoken language can be hard for kids with autism to learn. Most understand words better by seeing them, so therapists teach them how to communicate by pointing or using pictures or sign language. That makes learning other things easier, and eventually, many kids with autism learn to talk. Therapists also help kids learn social skills, such as how to greet people, wait for a turn, and follow directions. Some kids need special help with living skills (like brushing teeth, etc.). Others have trouble sitting still or controlling their tempers and need therapy to help them control their behavior. Some kids take medications to help their moods and behavior, but there's no medicine that will make a kid's autism go away.
Each child is different and each child with autism is different. Daxton struggles with several things. Last year his receptive language was equivalent of 8 month old and expressive language of a 10 month old. Today he has improved greatly. He still goes to speech therapy twice a week at school and privately. I think Daxton is good at labeling things and getting pretty good at requesting but he still can't tell me what he's thinking or feeling or tell me about his day or things that happened. He's understanding more but I still don't know exactly how much. I think he understands basic things we say but can't understand detailed explanations or descriptions. I think he pulls out the key words he knows and trys to make sense of that. I hope that one day he will be able to tell me a story or something about his day or even what he's feeling.
Daxton LOVES other kids. Some children with autism seem withdrawn or don't like to be around other kids. Daxton doesn't do that. He still has problems with social interaction though. He wants to play with them so badly but really just doesn't know what to do. Lack of communication play a part in this but also his sensory issues cause problems. Most children don't want to play with him because he is very aggressive, doesn't understand how to play and can't understand what they are telling him to do. Daxton usually likes to bump, hit or throw things because he is a deep pressure seeker. He can't understand why this wouldn't be fun for other people. Daxton goes to behavior therapy every other week and ABA therapy 3 times a week to help him learn how to interact and do things appropriately. He also attends school for half a day and seems to be doing very well interacting with the children there!
Daxton has many sensory issues. This causes him to have issues with getting dressed, brushing his hair and teeth, wearing shoes, taking a bath, and eating. Different textures usually bother him, especially in food. There are very few things he will eat or drink. Sounds sometimes do bother Daxton. Some days it's as if he doesn't even hear them and then other days he hears everything. The same thing with crowds of people or changes is routine. Sometimes he's ok and sometimes he just can't handle it. Daxton is a deep pressure seeker. Which is pretty self explanitory. He seeks deep pressure. He pushes, bumps, throws, hits, and crashes things together. He needs Occupational Therapy to help him through these things but as of right now he is no longer being able to go because our insurance will not cover it and we can't afford it.
Some of the other symptoms of autism that Daxton has is sometimes not answering to his name, not making good eye contact (although I think these are improving greatly because of therapy) appears not to hear you at times, performs repetitive movements( hand flapping, spinning, twirling hair), moves constantly, likes to line up items in a row, no fear of danger, has trouble going to sleep and staying asleep, and seizures.
I hope this helps you to understand Autism a little better and also understand Daxton. We are still learning more each day. This family has been forever changed because of his presence, he has taught us all a new level of patience and understanding for children who don't fit into the "mold" that society has created for them. Nothing is taken for granted. We are truly blessed for the many gifts he has brought into our lives. He has taught us immeasurable patience, tolerance, acceptance, and most importantly, never to judge.
***most of this was found on different websites***
Autism is a complex neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Children with autism have problems with social interaction, communication, imagination and behavior. Autistic traits persist into adulthood, but vary in severity. Some adults with autism function well, earning college degrees and living independently. Others never develop the skills of daily living.
Autism causes kids to experience the world differently from the way most other kids do. It's hard for kids with autism to talk with other people and express themselves using words. They also may react to what's going on around them in unusual ways. Normal sounds may really bother someone with autism — so much so that the person covers his or her ears. Being touched, even in a gentle way, may feel uncomfortable. Kids with autism often can not make connections that other kids make easily. For example, when someone smiles, you know the smiling person is happy or being friendly. But a kid with autism may have trouble connecting that smile with the person's happy feelings. A kid who has autism also has trouble linking words to their meanings. Imagine trying to understand what your mom is saying if you didn't know what her words really mean. It is doubly frustrating then if a kid can't come up with the right words to express his or her own thoughts.
Autism causes kids to act in unusual ways. They might flap their hands, say certain words over and over, have temper tantrums, or play only with one particular toy. Most kids with autism don't like changes in routines. They like to stay on a schedule that is always the same. They also may insist that their toys or other objects be arranged a certain way and get upset if these items are moved or disturbed.
If someone has autism, his or her brain has trouble with an important job: making sense of the world. Every day, your brain interprets the sights, sounds, smells, and other sensations that you experience. If your brain couldn't help you understand these things, you would have trouble functioning, talking, going to school, and doing other everyday stuff. Kids can be mildly affected by autism, so that they only have a little trouble in life, or they can be very affected, so that they need a lot of help.
Autism affects about 1 in every 150 kids. This means as many as 1.5 million Americans today are believed to have some form of autism. And this number is on the rise making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. It occurs in all racial, ethnic, and social groups and is four times more likely to strike boys than girls. But no one knows what causes it.
The brain contains over 100 billion nerve cells called neurons. Each neuron may have hundreds or thousands of connections that carry messages to other nerve cells in the brain and body. The connections and the chemical messengers they send (called neurotransmitters) let the neurons that help you see, feel, move, remember, and work together as they should.
For some reason, some of the cells and connections in the brain of a kid with autism — especially those that affect communication, emotions, and senses — don't develop properly or get damaged. Scientists are still trying to understand how and why this happens.
There is no cure for autism, but doctors, therapists, and special teachers can help kids with autism overcome or adjust to many difficulties. The earlier a kid starts treatment for autism, the better. Different kids need different kinds of help, but learning how to communicate is always an important first step. Spoken language can be hard for kids with autism to learn. Most understand words better by seeing them, so therapists teach them how to communicate by pointing or using pictures or sign language. That makes learning other things easier, and eventually, many kids with autism learn to talk. Therapists also help kids learn social skills, such as how to greet people, wait for a turn, and follow directions. Some kids need special help with living skills (like brushing teeth, etc.). Others have trouble sitting still or controlling their tempers and need therapy to help them control their behavior. Some kids take medications to help their moods and behavior, but there's no medicine that will make a kid's autism go away.
Each child is different and each child with autism is different. Daxton struggles with several things. Last year his receptive language was equivalent of 8 month old and expressive language of a 10 month old. Today he has improved greatly. He still goes to speech therapy twice a week at school and privately. I think Daxton is good at labeling things and getting pretty good at requesting but he still can't tell me what he's thinking or feeling or tell me about his day or things that happened. He's understanding more but I still don't know exactly how much. I think he understands basic things we say but can't understand detailed explanations or descriptions. I think he pulls out the key words he knows and trys to make sense of that. I hope that one day he will be able to tell me a story or something about his day or even what he's feeling.
Daxton LOVES other kids. Some children with autism seem withdrawn or don't like to be around other kids. Daxton doesn't do that. He still has problems with social interaction though. He wants to play with them so badly but really just doesn't know what to do. Lack of communication play a part in this but also his sensory issues cause problems. Most children don't want to play with him because he is very aggressive, doesn't understand how to play and can't understand what they are telling him to do. Daxton usually likes to bump, hit or throw things because he is a deep pressure seeker. He can't understand why this wouldn't be fun for other people. Daxton goes to behavior therapy every other week and ABA therapy 3 times a week to help him learn how to interact and do things appropriately. He also attends school for half a day and seems to be doing very well interacting with the children there!
Daxton has many sensory issues. This causes him to have issues with getting dressed, brushing his hair and teeth, wearing shoes, taking a bath, and eating. Different textures usually bother him, especially in food. There are very few things he will eat or drink. Sounds sometimes do bother Daxton. Some days it's as if he doesn't even hear them and then other days he hears everything. The same thing with crowds of people or changes is routine. Sometimes he's ok and sometimes he just can't handle it. Daxton is a deep pressure seeker. Which is pretty self explanitory. He seeks deep pressure. He pushes, bumps, throws, hits, and crashes things together. He needs Occupational Therapy to help him through these things but as of right now he is no longer being able to go because our insurance will not cover it and we can't afford it.
Some of the other symptoms of autism that Daxton has is sometimes not answering to his name, not making good eye contact (although I think these are improving greatly because of therapy) appears not to hear you at times, performs repetitive movements( hand flapping, spinning, twirling hair), moves constantly, likes to line up items in a row, no fear of danger, has trouble going to sleep and staying asleep, and seizures.
I hope this helps you to understand Autism a little better and also understand Daxton. We are still learning more each day. This family has been forever changed because of his presence, he has taught us all a new level of patience and understanding for children who don't fit into the "mold" that society has created for them. Nothing is taken for granted. We are truly blessed for the many gifts he has brought into our lives. He has taught us immeasurable patience, tolerance, acceptance, and most importantly, never to judge.
***most of this was found on different websites***
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