My Autism Insights

Mia Hysteria shares her inspirational, humorous and sometimes heart wrenching journey of raising 3 young children, one with special needs, while managing a life of chaos, in her blog: General Hysteria .  Mia has been blogging on General Hysteria since September 5, 2008 about her son, Ben (1), her daughter, Violet (2) and her oldest son, Alex (6).  Alex has cerebral palsy, autism, sensory processing disorder, developmental delays, epilepsy, and ADHD.  Mia is a mother, wife, blogger, and practicing writer.  Candid about her current and pre-insanity-brought-about-by-children life experiences, Mia’s writings will leave you shocked, laughing, and reminiscing. On a laptop, in a cul-de-sac, somewhere in Colorado, she is single-handedly attempting to share her stories, thoughts, frustrations and elations so that no person feels isolated, forgotten or unworthy of their own journey.

He is my first born.  I can still recall doing as many things as possible with him.  I would cut open yard size garbage bags, carefully taping them to the floor before inviting him to sling paint all around.  He wasn’t as interested.  Or placing him with me in the kitchen while I pureed his food rather than buying jar food, talking to him all the while – giving him words to all the crazy things his mom was doing, thinking that would all make me a better mom and him the best raised little man in the world.  I’m far from those ideas these days.

Though I gave up the pureeing of food, I have not wanted to stop the art projects, but those have been hard for us.  The projects that make you feel as though you’re showing your delicately developing child all that the world has to offer; giving your child things to feel, experiment with, explore.  For various reasons, they’ve never worked out for us.  An unfortunate admission from me is years after his diagnosis, and too many times of these best of intentioned projects ending in turmoil or not beginning at all, I threw up my hands and stepped away from showing him this world.  I was wrong.

Today, I am back to wanting to show my Angel more of his world through art projects.  Much of this has come from a better understanding of how his mind works, what his limits are, what he is capable of and what he likes.  Alex has cerebral palsy, autistic features, developmental delays, and more; fun activities can take some planning.  Alex doesn’t have a huge attention span, he can paint with assistance, and patience is a consideration.  This, along with a little sister who interjects herself wherever she deems she’s needed, is perfect:

You’ve all seen these, right?  If you haven’t, go check the dollar bin areas at your local Michael’s Craft Store.  This is Alex’s favorite project. The first hurdle we had to get over, which took just a few minutes…the plane is not in one piece.  We had to work through this one time and now he is versed on what to expect.   The fun begins.The way we work it is to take the pieces out of the bag and then choose our paints.  I encourage him to pick more than one shade of blue (his favorite) and if he’s feeling real good about the project, more colors will be chosen.  We distribute the pieces to the appropriate people (remember his sister is ‘helping’).  Alex always gets the wings.  We paint.

Why this works so great for him is that by the time we need to think about letting it dry so we can paint the reverse side, his attention has been caught by something else…or dinner is ready, or my one year old is pulling at my leg…we can leave the project for later.

Usually, we paint again the next day to its finish.  I glue it at night while he sleeps and in the morning, he’s greeted with a new present, yet another airplane, that he has pride in knowing he made (with his sister’s help).  It’s special for him.  It’s what he loves.  It’s blue.  I showed him another piece of this world.  And he molded this world to fit into his.

What about you?  Are you able to do project activities?  Are there projects that work for you?

  image by Designed to a T

I usually like to reflect on how our lives have developed over the past year.  Gus has had a very up and down year, but I think has come out ahead for it all.  Some of 2008’s highlights:

• Tried several dietary adjustments with no significant or sustained difference in Gus’s ability to focus or self-regulate in school.  But he is healthy which is always a plus.
• Tried medication, which in my opinion was a disaster.  It took my lively and brilliant little boy and crossed the roboticness of a Dr. Who Cyberman with the grumpiness of a Dalek.  I don’t see another medication trial in the near future unless there is some extenuating circumstance.
• Gus learned some new self-care skills this year: he can now put on shoes (with Velcro), dress with minimal prompting in the morning, and can put on fingered gloves independently.
• Gus learned to ride a two-wheeler AND within a month of learning completed a six-mile bike tour - a huge accomplishment for any seven year old.
• He joined a soccer team and really enjoys the game.

Those are just a few of the more momentous events of this past year.  Gus has expressed a desire to “behave better in school” in the coming year.  In addition, we plan to try to get him some more opportunities to socialize, possibly in a singing class or a special-needs bowling league.  In the spring, we should be able to start doing some bike riding together and we’re going to join a cycling club as a family.  That will open some opportunities for more of those long, scenic rides that are so calming for him, and may also allow him the chance to make a friend if that’s his wish.

One of the reasons I’m becoming attuned as a Kundalini Reiki practitioner is so that I can start using Reiki energy to help Gus to stay calm and focused.  If it has the benefit I’m confident it will, I’ll eventually teach him to channel Reiki energy himself.

In terms of the autism community at large, I’ll continue to share my lessons and experiences through this blog for as long as I am given a platform.  In the near future, a fellow blogger and author, Adonya Wong , will be guesting here on her virtual book tour.  She’s written a wonderful picture book entitled In My Mind and will discuss the book and her experiences with her son’s autism.  Adonya’s visit promises to spark some great discussion, and there will be a sweet giveaway as well.  Stay tuned!

So those are a few of our intentions for the coming year.  What progress have you seen this past year, and what are your plans for the days ahead?

To all my readers, new and old: Have a happy and safe New Year!