Aspergers/Autism/Sensory Integration Chatter #4

[meow]

TBH I'm self-diagnosing as I'm not sure SPD was diagnosed 35years ago? My Mum was just told I was sort-of like an autistic child and I had therapy for speech & general early intervention through specialist kindergartens.

I had tactile issues and screamed/arched at touch. I have no memory of that so I guess I grew out of it quite young. I am still very sensitive to touch. I'm ticklish & have major aversions to certain areas being touched (wrists, collarbones & throat).

I used to scream and have meltdowns to noise too. My Mum couldn't take me to the shops as I would flip out but she said she trained me into it by taking me for soome chips then home again. Then quick shop, chips and home etc till I was happy to go. I do remember being sensitive to noise & covering my ears at times but I was also hearing impaired so it could be more related to my buggered ear drums. I still find some tones hurt my eardrums when they don't bother other people.

I was a very, very fussy eater. No foods touching, no sauces or spices etc. Very limited diet. No grains, no vegetables... I kept that up till I was 19 and realised it was all in my head. Slowly started eating more & more foods till 4 years later I became a vegetarian! Complete turn around. I mix up my food & love sauces, flavours, spices etc.

So I mostly seemed to grow out of it- maybeit depends on why you have the sensory issues in the first place? ie. the underlying cause.

[Early Kids]

Thanks so much for sharing I'm glad that for the most part you've grown out of it and learned to cope better as you got older. Certainly gives me a lot of hope with Brendan and his sensory issues. I think you are right regarding underlying cause. I'm hoping that's something the child psych can help me with.

Thanks again xx

[suse]

Thanks for sharing meow! Sally, DS' OT had a good perspective on sensory things, that most people have sensory issues to some degree, and the threshold at which it starts to bother them fluctuates depending on stress, it's just that spectrum people experience a much lower threshold. I can identify with this, I have tactile and auditory sensitivities, and I actually think that they are getting worse as I get older, but I am more aware of them and better able to manage them.

[Early Kids]

Yep I understand SPD, I did a two day course and learnt a lot about myself and DS. It's the future that worries me, no-one else understands him the way I do, and as we are all aware I just can't be there every second of the day. It's just good to hear that it does get better for them.

[lilima]

Wow! He would like the awesome full moon at the minute then!
How about a docco on the moon landing??

Christy - I think it would be great if you could print off the thread to help out. I also was speaking to Lu a fair bit through PM's about specific services in her area. If I can find the info again, I will PM it to you.

My brain in fried, so I will come in another day.

[mrsmac]

Christy- I think its an awesome idea to post them to Nick. He will also have Lu's blog about Cyclone too which is good.

[christy]

Lilima, I ran out to the street this arvo when you dropped off dinner but you had already left I wanted to say Hello! Thank you so much for dinner, the lasagne was awesome!

[lilima]

Yeah Christy - Wanted to give you guys your privacy. Hope it was Ok. I am no goumet cook! My parents live so close by. Just the other side of Canterbury Rd. I could walk there!!! I grew up in the area, so when I saw the address, it was weird, as I knew exactly which street it was!

[Gigi]

I had tactile issues
I used to scream and have meltdowns to noise too.
I was a very, very fussy eater. No foods touching, no sauces or spices etc. Very limited diet. No grains, no vegetables

gee this is sounding like bilby
most of me wants to believe she DOESN"T have sensory issues
but a small part of me wants it to be true, so that maybe some of her "issues" can begin to get better (or the way i handle them, improve - once a therapists points me in the right direction.

[meow]

I think we're all "on the spectrum" too- we all have our quirks and thresholds but for most of us they're minor & manageable.

I'm glad it helps to see that a very difficult child grew to a normal adult. It's really helping me believe that with some therapy & understanding this will all be different in a few years time. I'm seeing my childhood in another whole light now... it makes me really wish my Mum was still here though so I could find out more and possibly find ways to help my son

[Freya]

Oh.my.fugging.god.

If R doesnt stop freaking out because I put his blankie in the wash...............at his fugging request mind you..................Im going to go mental. I can see its going to be one of those days today, yesterday was a rippa too.

[suse]

Hugs Freya. We're having one of those days so far too. The current obsession is 'watching moon'. Which roughly translates to - I want to watch something on TV which has moons in it. So every single DVD that has a moon on the cover gets dragged out and presented to me - how the hell do I explain that just because there's a picture of a moon on the cover doesn't mean it's about moons!!! And then there's the opening sequence to EVERY dreamworks movie, which has the little guy sitting fishing on a crescent moon. Which, because we have all of our DVDs on the harddrive, the first few seconds display as the preview thumbnail. So of course he sees moons everywhere. I'm really looking forward to when he finds a somewhat attainable obsession, normally they only last a week or so but this one's being rather stubborn, probably because I've never been able to satisfy it.

Anyway, you're allowed to giggle at my dilemma, or if you know of any kid-friendly shows about moons - hit me with them. And I hope that you can find a blanky solution. I don't suppose you can try sleight of hand - put it in the machine but quickly take it out and hide it so that it doesn't actually get washed? Or does he need to see it actually washing?

I heard from another ASD mum that when kids go into meltdown mode it causes an adrenaline rush, which can take a couple of weeks to stabilise. So something triggers a meltdown, then they have all of this excess adrenaline sloshing around their bodies for a while. So a 'meltdown' can actually be more of a cycle than a single event. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me, because DS had a big meltdown a week or so ago, and since then his sleep has been off, he's been very flappy and generally 'more' autistic. And the littlest thing triggers him off at the moment, maybe because of the adrenaline. It was an interesting theory though. It was anecdotal, I didn't find any supporting research (but then I didn't look particularly hard) but it makes a lot of sense.

[mrsmac]

Hugs Suse- Bear in the Big Blue house has a friend Luna who is a moon (obviously) she is in the show quite a bit.
My OT said sensory kids like that feeling of being "hyped" and will hype themselves up to get that feeling, when they do it its "stimming" cause they are trying to stimulate themselves. Riley spins around a lot when he is stimming and will bump into things like a pinball.

If you can ever go to a Sue Larkey seminar or read her books they are awesome. I also borrowed "The out of Sync Child" from Christy and have since bought "The out of sync child has fun" which is heaps of sensory activities in it and is well worth a read.

[Freya]

Suse, that theory holds some promise I think! Because it would explain why Ripley has been feral since yesterdays meltdown; he was absolutely feral at swimming lessons, his teacher is the sister of his godmother so she knows a bit about his issues and even she said its the first time she has really seen anything bar really poor concentration first hand. He wouldnt sit still, fell in the pool because he didnt want to sit on the edge like normal, kept running back to me to be silly.

The blankie needed to be washed, unfortunately I usually do it on daycare days when I "forget" to pack it in his bag but Ive been working the past week so it hasnt been done. And it did have pee on it *sigh* He's shut up about it now.
Ive also noticed he's started walking on the knuckles of his toes more and more lately. I keep having to tell him to stop it.

Update on our psych stuff - turns out the main psych wants R to do the Griffith and the Standford Binet; and from there the ADOS (or if its cheaper for us to do all 3 together then thats what we'll do). So now I have to wait for an email with the medicare item #'s from the psych so I can ring and see how much we'd be covered for before we make a decision.

[meow]

I googled and found a kids animated movie called "Fly me to the moon" which looks good. The book "Goodnight Moon" also has an animation that if on video and used to be on youtube so that may be available too- the moon is in the pictures a bit. Good luck!

What's the deal with walking on the knuckles of their toes? Does it damage their feet? Maybe I should be telling my son to stop too? He doesn't do it for a long time though.