Autism Unit at School

I should have written this blog immediately after we got home last week, but I think I've been processing it. Now, I've forgotten half of what happened!

Last week, Z's teacher arranged to have us and one other mother (whose son also has autism and is in Z's class) to come speak to the class. They put together a whole unit on autism.

First, Z's special ed teacher read a book on autism (can't recall which one, now, but I liked it). Then we (the parents, Mr, I and the other mom) sat down and just answered questions. The questions I remember are:

Why does Z cry in school? This was news to me and I need to ask teacher about it.

How do they communicate?

What does he do on the computer?

How does he go to bed? I thought this was a funny question.

Besides the computer, what does Z really love?

How does he play?

What does he do when he gets angry?

The other mom also did an exercise with the kids that was really cool. She wrote up a bunch of random things and told the kids to play the game-with no further instructions. It was to demonstrate how difficult it was for kids with autism who don't understand the "rules" or understand what is expected of them. To show the kids how frustrating it could be.

A kid also said something I really love, that kids like Z can't speak because they can't find their words in their mouths.

After the question and answer period, there were 4 activities.

(1) listen to instructions to do something while also listening to a story. I really liked this one because it shows how difficult it could be for our kids to focus or filter out background noise.

(2) stringing beads while wearing gloves. Another good one to show the difficulty of fine motor skills.

(3) Writing sentence while wearing goggles smeared with vaseline. While not directly applicable to autism, per se, it did demonstrate how difficult it was to write when you couldn't focus on the lines to guide you.

(4) walking forward and backwards on a tape line while looking through the wrong end of binoculars. While not obviously or directly related to autism, per se, it does demonstrate the difficult for anyone who can have difficulty with depth perception or spatial problems.

It was wrapped up with a few more questions and then the school day ended.

All-in-all, it was pretty cool and I was very appreciative of the school making an effort to help the kids get a better understanding of what autism is and the challenges our kids face. Of course, this meant I had to agree with the school revealing Z's diagnosis. I understand that can be a very difficult step for some parents, especially those parents of children who aren't overtly autistic. However, since Z already has an aide, it is pretty obvious that something is different with him, so it was an easy decision for us to give them a name and context for what that is.

I love my school. They aren't perfect, but they do try hard.

Guess What? Monster has autism.

I admit, I couldn't think of a good title.

There are some characteristics that are associated with autism spectrum disorders.

1. Lack of social awareness
2. Difficulty communicating
3. Requiring rigid routines
4. Concrete thinking

Yeah, there are more, but those are the ones I think of as fairly common across the spectrum.

Monster was unofficially diagnoses with autism when he was 4 months passed his 2nd birthday. He got the official diagnosis when he was 3 and his diagnosis was confirmed when he was about 3 1/2. However, because he lacked the ability to communicate effectively with us, it was always hard to determine how he viewed the world. In the past few years, his language has improved so much. Even more, he has gotten better and better about expressing his emotions. A few weeks ago, he asked me for a magic wand. since he watches a lot of Disney movies, I'm sure he has a good idea what a magic wand is. Anyway, I got a stick off the ground and gave it to him and he proceeded to wave it around for a while (it really was cute to watch).

Last night, I picked up a stick and told him "look, a magic wand". I had pointed it at him and started signing "bippity boppity boop", but he got very scared and wanted me to point the wand somewhere else. I'm sure he thought the wand really was magic and I was going to turn him into something. I then had a discussion about him regarding pretend vs. real, of which I'm not sure how much he understood since he kept giving my stick a wary look.

So another check off of the list-Monster is a concrete thinker, though coupled with a rich and amazing imagination.

So, yup, Monster has autism ;)

Our first day of school Odyssey

Well, we managed to miss the bus this morning-not an easy thing to do when they are picking up your child AT YOUR HOUSE (and no, I don't mean a bus stop that happens to be at our house, they actually came to our house to pick him up).

The school secretary told me 8:00, same bus driver, aide on board. The bus showed up at 7:45, new driver/monitor and no aide. We aren't the type of folks to be ready early, so after oversleeping this morning (and having only been awake for 15 minutes), we hit the high gear and I tried to set a speed record for Z to be dressed. Mr just went and told the bus driver, sorry we thought it was 8:00, we'll drive him.

Anyway, Monster fell asleep without a problem last night (I was expecting a full out war) and seemed happy this morning. When I was getting him dressed because "the bus is here", he said "Camp", and when I said no camp, school, I got the customary "No school", but his heart wasn't in it. He was just testing boundaries. We got him medicated, washed, brushed and dressed (sorry, no pictures). When it was time to go outside, he didn't even detour to the swing or bubbles, just straight to the car and got in h is seat.

On the way to school, we asked him what he says when he gets to school and he responded "Good Morning, Miss V"-and we hadn't prompted him before this, he just remembered from last year! When we got there, his aide had us pull around the way the bus would (to get him into his routine somewhat, we had texted her about the bus kerfuffle) and let him out at the bus stop. He got right out (after putting his shoes back on), grabbed hold of V's arm and started rubbing his forehead on her arm-kind of like putting his scent on her Wink.

He seemed eager for his overly emotional, hovering mom to leave, so Mr and I said good bye and headed back home.

I told Mr I didn't think Monster would last past lunch; Mr thinks V can coax him to stay until the end of the day. I suspect Mr is right.

Not a bad beginning.