Lots of very interesting topics and ideas on here.
I have a son who was diagnosed about a year and half ago. He will be 5 this spring. We were very lucky a family member who had worked with kids for 30 years knew his doctor and asked him to check our son out for autism or other disoders and ask us some tough questions.
We had a very loving, caring boy who knew the alphabet and could count to 500 at 2 years old. He had great eye contact and while he liked routines, he wouldn't meltdown if they were broken.
However, he cried constantly 90% of the time we were driving somewhere. He line up cars for play and hated it if we pretended to be anything when playing with him. His verbal skills were next to zero in terms of being to express wants, needs, or emotions which triggered lots of screaming episodes.
After Aspergers diagnosis, he went to OT for about 6 months while also going to Speech Tx. He 'graduated' OT but continues with speech which is really more 'play' therapy.
He has become an entirely different kid since we know what's going on and how to react to most of it and he has learned how to verbally communicate pretty much anything he needs to communicate. It is also excitiing to hear him talk and being able to express his feelings, wants, and needs. His pretend play, while sometimes odd, is just awesome. His sensory issues seem to be how food looks and it's texture if he tries it. Dinner can be a chore sometimes but he is now trying really hard to sample new foods. He put lettuce and tomato on his hambuger last night. That was a shocker to me and his mom!
He also has some space issues but I found out as long as I start him slow on the swing or throwing him in the air that he will tell me higher, faster, or slower and as long as I follow those directions he has a blast doing these things that were out of the question a year ago.
Anger has become a mild to moderate issue lately but our therapist has asked us to let our son know that angery, sad, etc will be over in a few minutes and to just hold him while that is happening. This has erlly helped reduce not only the number but the duration of the tantrums. He also knows he can't slam the door or hit someone but can go into his room and hit his bed if he isa really mad.
He has a brother 18 months younger than him that is all typical boy. They get along great and really balance each other out well. We let everyone know about the Aspergers diagnoses right after we got it. Our family has been great and when I tell new people that ask about my boys (I always have their pictures in my office) and I tell them one has aspergers they ask if it is hard to deal with. I tell them my more 'normal' son is just as challenging, just in a different way. And I am not lieing one bit, LOL!!
Anyway, just wanted to give a quick introduction and based upon some of things I see with my son and some of things I read on here I hope I can help you all on here out as much I see myself and my son being helped out from you all.
I got to say I am absolutely, 110% proud of both of my boys and am trying to best to give them the tools they need to makes the best decisions in life and teach them how to handle some of the tough or disappointing situations. They are both great boys and I look forward to getting home from work every day to see them.
Which BTW...
It's time to do!
22 Jan 2007, 4:55 pm
