aaron  I have an autistic child.

 

I have no idea how to raise an autistic child.

I know how to raise my son, who is becoming less like an “autistic” child every day.  I don’t know what to make of it.  I am amazed… and grateful.

 

One year ago, my son was a wild, flailing, agitated, non-verbal puzzle of a kid.  His therapies were intense and often very difficult for his to tolerate.  Now, he looks forward to all of his therapies, and handles them with ease, greeting his therapists happily at the door.

 

What has changed?

 

Well, there’s the gluten-free diet, for one.  I would never have tried it had I not seen the profound impact on our son after exactly ONE DAY on the diet.  The endocrinologist says he thinks celiac disease was the cause of Aaron’s discomfort, and some of the behaviors we were seeing were evidence of the cognitive impact of the gluten in his system.  I know that eliminating a product you might never have even heard of seems sorta… well… “new agey”, but the fact is, starting the diet (just to see what the changes might be) is well worth the effort.  Mind you, you don’t have to run out and buy anything new at all.  For us, we just took away wheat products at first (bread, crackers, cereal, and anything with wheat as an ingredient), and gave Pediasure to him to make sure he had enough nutrition for the day.  Now, about 10 months later, his diet consists of fruits, vegetables, cheese, rice crackers, rice cakes, rice, potatoes, falafel, codfish cakes, and whatever else he’s willing to try. How did it help?  Well, it practically eliminated his hyperactivity, caused him to take real naps, sleep through the night, and somehow erased the purposeless frantic running. His bowel movement improved, too…

A weighted compression vest.  Considered voodoo-like by some, my son finds it calming, and it slows him down. First, we used a simple, homemade compression vest, which I made by sewing pockets to the inside of a store-bought vest, and used sealed “beanbags” to in the pockets to weigh him down. Think of it as wearing a hug. From day one, he loved it. If you order a ready-made one, call the company first, since the sizing is weird, and you’ll need it explained.  Trust me on this… (see end of this post for instructions to make your own)

 

The brushing technique.  Only the most diligent need apply for this one, but I learned the techniques of joint compression and brushing to soothe him and get him ready for therapy.  His response was positive and boldly apparent.  He could focus better after being brushed, and I had to repeat this procedure once every two hours during all of his waking life for about two weeks.  When we felt the effects were wearing off, we have repeated the two weeks sessions again.

 

ABA therapy.  Two hours, five days/week.  When we began, one year ago, our goal was to get him to sit still for ten seconds at a time.  Now he does two hours daily, with very little resistance.  Colors, shapes, numbers, animal noises, books, drawing… all take place during his ABA sessions with his wonderful, loving therapist. 

His head shape.  Even after asking doctors and ordering an MRI to make sure no part of his brain was being squeezed, his balance an concentration imporved as his head shape improved. The MRI said his brain development was fine, but he had an odd lump on the back of his head… that gradually improved… as did his balance.

Speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy.  Through the services of Early Intervention here in New York City, his therapists each come to our home three times per week, engaging him in activities that help him grow and learn.  Who knew that anyone could be taught to chew? We’ve learned so much vocabulary in this process.  Speech apraxia was an important one.  Discovering that he actually knew so much, but simply couldn’t get his mouth to cooperate, gave his speech therapist a new approach… and as we started to recognize that his words just didn’t really sound like the words he was trying to say, we started to get used to his “accent”, and discovered how intelligent he is! The physical therapist showing us how to give him vestibular stimulation taught us why he jumps. Winged scapula explained how his upper body weakness shows itself physically on his body.  We have learned strengthening exercises, and he is getting better at raising a spoon to his mouth! Sensory issues, and how he feels about wet, mushy, chewy or otherwise unfamiliar foods in his mouth, sand under his feet, and any other strange feeling has changed our approach when we introduce him to new circumstances.

Benefiber in his juice… a lifesaver for his erratic bowel schedule.

Love.  He loves us right back. with hugs! Oh, and he says “I love you”… unsolicited.

 

God.  Because it is more than obvious, that Aaron was born exactly as he should be, and that his progress has been divinely guided.

 

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY!

 

Weighted vest instructions:

This is how I wrote the instructions for a woman who asked me… so know that this isn’t medical advice, just how I did it… blah, blah, blah.

“You want a vest that has no stretch, and isn’t too warm, so he’ll be comfortable in it.  Vests for kids can be kinda hard to find, since it isn’t particularly in style, so I would go to a store that sells school uniforms if you have trouble finding one.

To make the pockets, cut a few rectangles, using a durable, non stretch fabric like denim or a sturdy, thick cotton - I made 5 of them, about 4″ x 6″ or so.  Position them near the lower edge of the vest, evenly distributed around the vest ( 1 on each side of the vest front, and 3 across the back) The goal is to place them as low as possible on the vest.  To be effective, you want him to feel the weight suspended from the child’s shoulders… does that make sense? Then, sew them in place to the inside of the vest, around the bottom and sides. You can use a safety pin to secure it closed at the top, so you can take the weights out for washing the vest.
 
To make the weights, you can use a postal or food scale (If you don’t have one, the scale at your local post office, UPS store or supermarket - hee!) to make little sacs of beans, coins, whatever non-perishable, consistent item you want to use to make the weights.  3 to 5% of his body weight should be the total weight of the weights you’ll put in.”

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