Sunday Morning with Autism

Well Joe is still fighting a cold. Looks like he feels better but his nose is really running and he doesn't want to eat his usual food items. Joe's inability to speak makes everything a guessing game anyway but more so when he clearly has some undetermined discomfort.

So Joe is all happy that for the second day in a row he has been allowed to have icee treats for breakfast. Hey I have to rationalize it through-they contain real juice and it has been a surefire way to get him to have liquids. Of course none of this matters to Joe-he is just happy-no thrilled-to have frozen treats for breakfast. Did you ever see pure delight stream through a little body with so much joy that it results in a dance move that is unmistakenly driven by the uncontrolled urge to express that delight? This is Joe's clearest expression. And it fillls my heart so to bear witness to this moment.

Today we will be talking to Joe about his upcoming classroom change which takes place tomorrow morning. Joe's school is GREAT! We are so very fortunate that Joe goes to such a wonderful school program designed specifically for children with autism. Plus Joe's teacher and the whole team are great folks that have such passion for their work. With that all said-the school made an administrative decision to move some classrooms around and Joe is now going from a rather large room to a small room in a totally different building. Wow talk about challenging kids with autism to accept change! Well as with many things in our world-I am approaching it with a what is 'IS" philosophy and will be working with Joe to be sure he understands that tomorrow will be a different building/room/atmosphere for him. He did seem to understand what we told him first time through because he got a bit stressed and moved to the stairways to get away from us. Oh well, I will keep talking to him about it and using the pictures that school sent home. I actually believe that Joe will accept the change okay-maybe not great but I think that he will be fine because the teachers/aides/kids will all be the same. Plus I do believe that everyone at school will be working hard to help the kids all adjust.

So the other area that I am going to work on today is to try again to read a story to Joe. Joe just does not really like it but I feel determined to continue to expose him to looking at words/pictures. I have read thru the wonderful story about that 13 years old girl with Autism who uses the computer to type her words-and I just want to give Joe every chance there is to be like that one day. I am uncertain of how much I can push this-but I figure I can try to approach this different ways for awhile and then see what works best for him. I know that they do story time at school with mixed success.

Getting Joe to take medicine

Well Joe has been fighting a cold now for several days and not so unlike a typical child, Joe is not eager to take yucky tasting cold medicine. The negotiation are ongoing and he has given me some hope of cooperation soon. Hey a half dose is better than none. This is one of the many areas that although similar to a typical child-certainly is much more challenging with autism in the equation.

Surprisingly though Joe has been quite happy and joyful throughout this cold. It is obvious that he does not feel well (running nose, coughing, watery eyes) he does seem to be maintaining his normal activity level. I always like to think that Joe is learning to coop with more and more all the time. He has shown remarkable growth in his ability to deal with "new things."

My hope for Joe is that he continue on this path or growing and learning.

Yes there really is an increase in children with Autism

I swear I am so sick of hearing this so called specialists stating that there really is not an increase in autism but rather just an alteration of the diagnostic criteria. Who are they kidding??? Take a look at the schools. The increased numbers in children with severe autism is exploding. No change in the diagnostic tool would account for this---maybe some of the children with Aspergers may have been misdiagnosed but where were all the children with severe autism misdiagnosed before? Well....in the past they were no where near the numbers that are clearly evident today and quite simply yes there an increase in children with autism.