Aspergers/Autism/Sensory Integration Chatter #4

[Freya]

We dont have the cutting food thing (although my Ds1 actually has this thing about sandwiches NOT being cut. At all. The few times Ive cut them in half or quarters he freaks out and refuses to eat it. He's a bit OCD lol) but we do have an issue with people touching his food or plate. If anyone touches a biscuit, sandwich, chip, plate of food he freaks out and refuses to eat it because its "dirty". I keep having to tell the other boys to just not do it because it creates a crappy situation and wastes food.

Ugh we had a bad bad day today. Ripley just woke in a mood; he was horrible and ended up doing a runner out the unlocked (thankyou Dh) internal garage door and down the driveway (we live in a townhouse complex) with Ds3 in tow. After chasing them up and down the driveway I finally got them inside and closed and deadbolted the door. Ds3 was tantying and Rip was being his usual "I dont understand" self so I went about my business doing dishes because I was angry. 10min later Ds3 is still crying so I go to check on him and find his finger wedged in the locked door Honestly I feel like such a crap mum. A trip to the drs later no broken bone but alot of bruising and swelling. Ugh. Some days Rip just manages to cause damage everywhere.

[*Efjay*]

Ahhh and there is the real meltdown of today's events. Poor Evan

What can I do for him when he gets this way? He gets really snappy at everyone (tonight Glenn being in his way was what set him off). Can't be reasoned with so I usually send him into his room. BUT while he is in there he rips things up, pull things apart & generally just breaks anything he can get his hands on. Obviously the ripping etc is helping him vent but far out! He doesn't think at all & he is destroying expensive things.

DH thinks we should get him a boxing bag! But in all honesty, he wouldn't punch it, he would take to it with a knife & pull it apart. I had thought about making him (getting him to help to take out that element of curiosity & temptation to pull it apart) some little sacks with rice or sand, something grainy or even little ball bearings & some magnets inside so they can join & giving him those to have like a stress ball. But I dunno, I think that would be good for general day to day BUT Im just not sure what to offer when he is in overload/meltdown mode.

[christy]

Freya I've had DD1 lead DD2 down the path before, she's gotten her out the gate and then run off... leaving DD2 to wander the streets alone... its so scary and heart breaking and yep everytime I feel like a crap mum. Its obviously not your fault, but its hard not to blame yourself.

FJ - your instincts are soooo in tune with what helps. OT can help wtih meltdowns and controlling emotions etc... but things we do when meltdowns have started or are about to start are core exercises, so things like wheelbarrows and squashing her between two bean bags and getting her to escape from inside.

She has wheat bags, and boxes full of rice with a few toys in there to put her fingers through. We are getting her a boxing bag for her birthday!!! Her OT suggested it to help her in the anxious phase. Breathing exercises also help calm them, you know how most of us take a deep breath to carry on, when they get anxious often they don't use their diaphram and are unable to take that deep breath to calm down, so blowing up balloons when they are stressed helps, we do blowing bubbles, blowing a ping pong (table tennis) ball down the hall with a straw.... races things that force deep breathing.

One of my FB posts recently went through a few activities to do at home which help avoid meltdown. We do these activities 3-4 times a day on a normal day, when she's having a bad day we do it more liek 6-8 times a day. If we miss them for a few days, she is more anxious and we have more meltdowns.

HTH!

[Yeddi]

Don't worry Freya, we all have those days! Kids know how to press our buttons at the best of times, and the lack of understanding and constantly having to repeat yourself can be frustrating. I've found that if my daughter doesn't seem to be "getting" it, sometimes changing the modulation in my voice can help. When we use cranky voices (which can be REALLY hard not to) ASD kids don't seem to hear the words just the tone. I find that if I talk at the front of my mouth rather than at the back she seems to "hear" me better, but it's not a natural thing for me to talk that way.

Fiona, I really encourage you to do a sensory profile, it sounds like he was either over stimulated or under stimulated. There's a do-it-yourself checklist here. It would still be worth getting an OT to do a proper one at a later stage though, even if it's just to confirm.

Often, for a sensory seeker, sending them to their room to calm down is the opposite of helpful unless they are over stimulated - In that case they need a cave (i.e. sensory deprivation area). Otherwise time in's, where you give them a job that is either tactile or requires heavy lifting, is a much more effective option (i.e. "go out in the back yard and find me three stones, a gum leaf and a yellow flower" - obviously no stones if you think he'll throw them...). It also gives you an opportunity to turn it around from telling off to praise which is more positive for both of you.

[*Efjay*]

I dare say (with out looking at that link yet, I just opened it though) he was over stimulated today. They had a mud filled day at school which he enjoyed at the time but now says it was good but he didn't like it?!
So an OT (Occupational therapist?) does what exactly? I kinda assumed that they were more for speech/(physical)developmental delays?

ETA - I realise sending him to his room isn't the best way to deal with it. But I just don't know what else to do. He is really nasty to the other kids when he gets like that & its usually Glenn in the firing line (which is kinda weird because normally he seeks Glenn out, as he likes to be in control & knows Glenn will follow him like a puppy). But Poor Glenn, he cries & gets really upset by Evan treating him that way. Glenn is very emotional & so so easily offended. So my natural reaction is to protect Glenn from being hurt. So Evan gets sent to his room.
We actually use to have those boys sharing a room. But it got so bad with them together we had to separate them. They play, be silly get worked up TOGETHER. Lots of giggles & good fun then in true Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde fashion out comes Mr Hyde & Evan would go ape **** at Glenn. Glenn of course would have no idea whats just happened & gets upset/offended. So yeah we had to put them in different rooms at bed time. Now Glenn & Isla share & just recently Iain has joined Evan. Fingers crossed though that we don't get the same issues forming between Evan & Iain.

ETA- hmmmm Well Evan ticks a lot in the first one, The Tactile one. Is it normal to say yes to a bit of everything in all 3 sections of that though?
Glenn on the other hand, is the second one, the Vestibular one. Again, not strongly but a bit of everything in each bit.

Also, I was meaning to ask... Is it a normal thing for an ASD child to have trouble putting on socks? It drives me nuts that BOTH boys even at the ages of 8 & half & 6 & Half can not put on their socks still. Evan can get it if they are loose enough or the ankle type socks, but doesn't actually like the "little" socks. But Glenn boy oh boy, no matter how many times you show him, explain to him, help guide him through it. He just can't do it! Surly most kids have learnt how to put on a pair of socks by 6?

[christy]

88% of kids with ASD suffer from sensory processing issues, which is why its included in this thread Matilda is multi seonsory and quite severe. She is sensory seeking in every area except for auditory. M couldn't put socks on until this year, she's nearly 7? So its not been too long...

The issue with sensory things is that most of us have some sort of sensory issue, and its not unusual for us to recognie ourselves in things we are seeing, but when it becomes so overwhelming that they are not able to overcome it, it means that its a processing issue.

Some kids have one area, others are multi sense effected. OT's deal with sensory integration issues, and will help them overcome everything from fine motor skills to proprioception. Our OT has changed our lives...

[*Efjay*]

Well Evan had his appointment the other day (I don't think I updated on that) to check his visual processing & out of the 5 area's the guy tests, Evan was below average in 3 of the area's. Im yet to get the report detailing it but basically he said his visual memory is poor, his visual processing time is delayed & also where they reverse things is below average. I can't remember what else he said that effects but he flips letters & numbers around the wrong way still. So he does have a visual processing disorder. Is that the same, or fall into the same boat as a SPD? vision is a sensory thing right?

[Yeddi]

^^What she said^^

Actually, our girls sound quite similar Christy, similar age and similar sensory profile. Mine also has issues with speech. She's at about 3 yo level lingually.

FJ- yes, it is common to tick quite a few of the boxes, and they can switch between the extremes when anxious. For instance, my daughter will normally seek people out to kiss and hug them, but when she's stressed, like she was when we had her in school for longer, she didn't want anyone to touch her and if they did she's punch them in the face. On a normal day mine is auditory avoider, under-responsive vestibular and proprioception, and sensory seeking everything else. We went through a horrible stage where she would lick everything, including public toilet doors - gross! When she gets over-stimulated we do things similar to what Christy said, or send her to her cave, where she puts her headphones on and listens to music.

Christy - Out of curiosity, whose you OT through, are they private or through somewhere like Aspect?

[*Efjay*]

Glenn was a terrible licker also. Not toilet doors thankfully EWWWWWWW But Mirrors. I would be standing at the check out & he would be there, nose right up to the little mirror they have on the side to check under trolleys/prams & his tongue would come out everytime! Or he would so the same in clothing shops. Stand there right up with face near the mirror & lick it. Come to think of it, Iain does the same thing in our room on the mirror. BUT I think he does it because I laughed the first time he did it as he just ran his mouth along it one end to the other LOL. BUT in saying that Iain also has a real love for things on his head. LOVES his head being touched, things that vibrate he loves to rub on his head/face, loves his hair being brushed, loved to stand in front of the dishwasher & run his face over the light steam that came out the top of the door. A few weeks back he was falling asleep on my lap & I had been playing with his hair. But I had to sit & hold his hair like it was was in a pony tail on the top of his head. Even when I thought he was asleep & let go, he woke & carried on until I put it all back & sat there holding his hair! He also use to (hasn't done it for a while though) tap his nose on the selfserve checkouts in big W, the prongs that hold the shopping bag. KWIM? He would walk along & tap his nose on each one.

hmmm So an OT, do you get referred to one? Should have the pead spoke to me about seeing one? Will the school maybe suggest it?

[Yeddi]

FJ - I wouldn't put the reversing necessarily under a visual processing disorder per se without finding out more, it could be an autism thing. They have a tendency to be very literal, so unless there are specific rules given as to why a b is a b and a p is a p, then a p is just an upside down b ITMS. When teaching letters, do they just say "a b looks like this and a p looks like this", or do they go into greater detail, like "starting at the hight of the tall letter, all the way down to the base line, then half way back up and around the clock face from the 9 to the 12 to the 3 and then to the 6, this is a b"?

The other stuff though could be visual processing or autism. I guess you have to work out whether it's because he's getting to much information from looking at the page and needs to have some of it covered to focus, or if he doesn't get the idea that the page is broken up into parts and is looking at it as a whole.

[*Efjay*]

FJ - I wouldn't put the reversing necessarily under a visual processing disorder per se without finding out more, it could be an autism thing. They have a tendency to be very literal, so unless there are specific rules given as to why a b is a b and a p is a p, then a p is just an upside down b ITMS. When teaching letters, do they just say "a b looks like this and a p looks like this", or do they go into greater detail, like "starting at the hight of the tall letter, all the way down to the base line, then half way back up and around the clock face from the 9 to the 12 to the 3 and then to the 6, this is a b"?

The other stuff though could be visual processing or autism. I guess you have to work out whether it's because he's getting to much information from looking at the page and needs to have some of it covered to focus, or if he doesn't get the idea that the page is broken up into parts and is looking at it as a whole.

GAH I DON'T KNOW! LOL I didn't realise it could be one thing caused by the other or something on its own.... crap. When he reverses thiings though its numbers also. So 3 are backwards for example. Not every time & you can see he will some times correct it. I noticed the 3 just yesterday, he started it the right way but then stopped & did it backwards. Maybe confusing it with an E? but also say fourteen will be 41 etc. He seems ok if there is no 1 involved with those sort of numbers (I think) its just seems to be the teens & if the number actually is 41, he may write 14. But if I really think about it, I think he mixes other number combos up also, just not as often.

Problem is though, the guy we seen in regards to all this didn't seem too convinced Evan has a ASD, Even after doing the tests & getting results that indicate that YES he has some issues. He questioned if it was the move interstate that had unsettled him. Ahhh no.. The move interstate is what finally got his problems recognised by someone other then me! But I don't think he believes me that this problems have been around for years & just no one would listen to me.

eta - Doesn't early intervention stop at 6 though?