Autism As A Whole: Sensory Processing Disorder

Showing posts with label Sensory Processing Disorder. Show all posts

Monday, December 12, 2011

I Am Starting to See Some Light!!

Unknown 12/12/2011 0 Comments

Things have been looking pretty dreary here lately and I have been getting depressed. Charles has a ton of doctors to see about his muscle atrophy and I have been very concerned. Christmas is almost here and approaching very fast. I wasn't even sure how I was going to manage Christmas this year with many unexpected purchases. With lots of thanks to Jessica from Jessica Hester Photography and Ellen Seidman from Love That Max, who connected me with Betsy Helmick, for your help in making Christmas a lot brighter for my wonderful children. I cannot thank you all enough.

I have applied for a grant from the Autism Society to provide Chucky with a Snuggle Swing, which is sold by a wonderful small family owned company. Sensory Goods was created to meet the needs of people affected with developmental disabilities while understanding the financial needs of those caring for them. They carry an assortment of items including chew tubes, swings, weighted products and even more. I do encourage you to take a look at their products and they are priced very reasonable too!

The owner has two children diagnosed with Autism and understands the struggles. I felt comfortable speaking with him and he was very kind. I had spoken about the swing and he had suggested a weighted blanket which Chucky does not have. He does however have two big heavy blankets that he sleeps with year round regardless of how hot it may be. He had suggested I get a weighted blanket and I had said that I would come at a later time because finances were tight and that was a purchase I cannot make right now. This generous parent did something that still has my emotions on a roller coaster. He bought my son a beautiful weighted blanket with the most comfortable weighted beads he had. I wanted to thank Cal from Sensory Goods for providing my son with this product. I plan on doing a review when it is received and telling everyone what my son thinks. Actually, maybe I will let him tell Cal himself!!

So, things are looking up for the end of December and a lot of things are starting to fall into place. My son's service coordinator also came out to the house and we completed all of the paperwork to get some behavioral therapy started and hopefully some respite. Sometimes things seem pretty bleak but I am so hapy there are caring individuals out there to help bring a little light into my tunnel. I cannot thank everyone enough!! Merry Christmas Everyone, We survived another year and to address January, my cursed month, BRING IT ON CAUSE THIS MAMA IS ARMED AND READY!!!

With lots of love from my family to yours,
Charlene, Chucky, Buddy, Chipmunk and Princess

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Chewlery and Chucky Cheese

Unknown 11/29/2011 0 Comments

He is picking his skin in this picture

I gave him the Chewlery to try to redirect him and.......
It worked!!!

Skin Picking is one of my little man's stims and I cannot seem to stop him from doing it. They say it is sensory related and he also chews on his fingers.

I have been contemplating getting him some Chewlery for quite a while now but my finances are not wonderful and they cost 18.00 a piece.

I finally broke and bought him one. I got the yellow heart because he loves the color orange. I was hoping this would encourage him. I was wrong.

Geez I can't even count the number of times I am wrong with this child. He saw the business card and wants the circle. A red circle at that and they don't make red circles. I am sure he would like the black circle but I have to wait to buy one cause I am pretty broke. So, one more sensory toy that doesn't work. The only thing about it that does work is he uses it but won't leave the house with it. I am just wondering when I will get it right.

Chewlery can be bought online @ www.kidcompanions.com

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Self Injury and Inaccurate Facial Expressions

Unknown 1/08/2011 1 Comments

My son is self injuring again. It didn't stop for long but he picks up something different after a while. It started with head banging, then biting himself as well as others, then pinching his skin and now he skin picks. There are other things he does as well but these actions were very constant. He will stick touch hot things and sharp nails. He also can go outside in the freezing cold half naked.(NO... I don't let him. He slipped onto the screened in porch once or twice LOL) I was really concerned in September because he had made marks all over his arms, legs, and back of neck, so I brought him to the doctor who discussed meds. I am really not sure how I feel about them. They talked about Tenex which is pretty safe from what I have read but I would rather not put him on meds.

Without medication, what do I do to ensure that he does not self injure? I have tried using stickers to encourage him not to pick and I have tried giving him alternate ideas to satisfy his sensory needs but I think it is the feeling that he perceives when he is picking. I am going to try redirecting him to a positive alternative. Not so sure what that may be but there has to be something. He used to have a pacifier and we stopped that because of his speech therapist which is when the biting started. Eventually he was biting his pillow case and now that that stopped he was pinching himself. I would honestly rather give him a pacifier again. I know that won't work now though.

Questions remain and answers are hard to find. When parents talk to the doctors they are so quick to put the child on medication without looking into the root of the problem. I am looking for more natural remedies to resolve this. Last night he was playing with a rubber band. I thought it was okay because he wasnt making himself bleed. That's an improvement, right? Wrong.... instead he left a welt on his arm. He didn't even react to it as if he were in pain. I found this concerning. Although I don't like to make a big deal of these situations to my son I did feel it would make a great awareness video for others to see first hand how a child on the spectrum's words, and facial expressions can mean two different things. Here is the video of my son when I asked him how it felt when he flicked himself.

I told him that it wasn't nice to hurt his skin and that it makes mommy sad to see him hurt himself. I am not sure that he understood and I am sure that I will have more situations like this in the future but at the moment I will continue to encourage him to engage in positive ways to stim. I think this is a stim. Any thoughts on this???

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Missing Comfy Alert

Unknown 12/15/2010 2 Comments

This is Orange Bear

This is a full size pic of the two comfies

Charlie went to school this morning with both of his comfies. Their names are Orange Bear and Doggie. I am on an all out hunt for these poor missing friends of my son's. When he came home from school he did not have them with him. I called the school and they said they were in his backpack, but they were not. I also called the bus company but no luck there either. We have no clue where they are and my son is NOT happy!!! He cried after school and then he was crying at bedtime. I did happen to purchase a spare "Doggie", and I gave it to him, but he wants his old Doggie back. Truth is, so do I!!! The questions remain, "Will he last through the night?, Is he gonna get on the bus in the morning?" These questions will undoubtedly be answered tomorrow. They also result in my desire to reunite Charlie with his comfies. These comfies keep me sane and keep him comfortable.

As important as they are for him, I want you to understand why they mean so much to me as well. I know I have spoken about his comfies before briefly, but I want to be a little more descriptive. Doggie has been in our house the longest and he was bought when Charlie saw him at a shopping trip. I thought I could get away with buying him a one dollar matchbox but nope, he wanted Doggie. Doggie was a ten dollar dog toy, that is actually a fox (don't tell my son that though). He is very soft and comfy and his head and tail have squeekies in them. Charlie doesn't like that part too much.

You would usually find Doggie wrapped around Charlie's neck. It was Doggies favorite spot and Charlie loved how comfy Doggie was. Doggie kept my house a little calmer and helped Charlie go to sleep easier too. Doggie went everywhere with my son, school, therapy, the store, the park, ect. They share many memories. Just last night Charlie was insistent that Doggie, and Orange Bear needed vitamins as well and they even help him eat his eggs in the morning. They are active members of my household and we want them back.

I have told you the story behind Doggie and feel compelled to share Orange Bears story as well. Orange bear belonged to Charlie's Dad, then his brother and now him. He stumbled upon Orange Bear at the very bottom of his brother's toy box and has been stuck to him ever since. Orange Bear has even gone on the horse with him. He loves him. A good part of this is because he is orange and orange is Charlie's favorite color, but also how soft and comfy he is. Charlie has Sensory Processing Disorder and he really likes soft items. If you have something really comfy and want to keep it in your possession, don't let him see or feel it.

These comfies are like people to Charlie. He talks to them, talks through them and loves them. They sleep, eat, and play with him. They are his best friends. Children on the spectrum tend to find it difficult to gain and maintain friendships. Charlie counters this difficulty with his comfies. He will talk to another child through his comfy. I found this interesting. He is problem solving sort of, cause he is attempting to socialize. What could have happened to his precious friends is a mystery. Many thoughts wonder in my head. One is that maybe this was the teachers way of finalizing the fact that she didn't want the comfies in school, but I don't want to accuse. It is also possible that the aide put them in the wrong backpack. I like the later explanation better but whatever may have happened I do hope that they will come back home.

Monday, November 1, 2010

My Family Introduction

Unknown 11/01/2010 6 Comments

I guess I should start with a little introduction into my family. I am a single mom of four beautiful children. I am 31 years old and enjoy photographing. As a child I led a challenging life and thrive to prevent my children from ever having to endure that.

My oldest is Princess, who is going to be twelve on the 7th of November. She loves to sing and has an amazing voice. She is a tomboy and loves hunting and skateboarding. As she was an only child for five years, she finds it difficult dealing with her siblings at times. She is very scattered in her thoughts but is an amazing young lady. Princess had a lot of medical problems when she was young but it has all cleared up now. She had GERD and Bilateral Syndactly. GERD is a gastro-intestinal problem and the Bilateral Syndactly is a birth defect in which the last two fingers of both hands were joined. They were separated at 8 months and again at a year and a half. About two years ago she underwent another surgery on her hands to attempt to straighten the fingers to improve function, unfortunately it was unsuccessful. The latest surgery was for her tonsils and adenoids. She also struggles with borderline ADD. Regardless, she is a beautiful young lady.

My second child was born in August 2003. She is extremely bright and thoughtful. I have thought about having her tested for gifted as she does have a lot of the characteristics of a gifted child. She met all her milestones early and knew how to write her name, recognize her letters and numbers and drew pictures with immaculate detail before Kindergarten. She is sensitive and bubbly. I call her my Chipmunk because she never grew out of her chipmunk cheeks. She also loves to sing and is reading at a Fourth grade level. She is mathematically and artistically gifted but has not been tested yet.

My third child was born in August 2004. We call him Buddy and he is Chipmunk's Irish twin. He was born on the same day, a year later. He had speech delays along with a lot of sensory problems. I might add that similar to his oldest sister he also had the issues with his fingers although his was actually one bone and not just joined skin. His was separated at 8 months and again at 1 year. This was done twice for him because as I called him"My Little Houdini", at 8 months old continually pulled the casts off his hands with his feet which caused them to web during healing. Buddy received early intervention until the age of three and currently receives Occupational therapy in school for his hands. He remains a very demanding child with a lot of sensitivities to sounds and touch. He has ADHD and is being evaluated for ASD.

My last child, was born in March of 2006. I may refer to him as either Chucky or Chucky Cheese depending on the circumstances and his mood. LOL He was named after my father whom he never met. He is an amazing young man but very challenging. He has High Functioning Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, Hypotonia, and an anxiety disorder. While he can now speak, is potty trained and able to do simple one step tasks he struggles to get through each day. Therefore my other children also struggle too. Chucky Cheese was born 3 weeks early at a healthy 7 lb. 12.9oz. He failed to meet any milestones on time. He couldn't hold his head up, rarely smiled at you, and didn't coo. The only vocalization out of my son was screaming. He was most content sitting in his swing rocking side to side. Early intervention started when he was 8 months old. He remains in a special needs school and is functioning at a two and a half year level. He has taught me a lot in his four years. Patience must be the first and well, unconditional love is right on top too.

It takes a lot to maintain a household and keep harmony and I have realized that Autism, ADHD, is not only a feat for the parents but also the siblings involved. Unfortunately in the mess of things there is always the child that feels he/she is not getting attention. In my case that falls on my girls cause they do not demand my time as much and they can function. I want to make this better but I really am not sure how. Most of all what a lot of people forget is that it is most difficult for the child who has it.

I hope this blog gives the whole story into a household with Special Needs children. It isn't just about the child with the disability but also the others that live with it and deal with it each day.