What's on our Plate Right Now!

Oh so much is going on right now! I could do lengthy posts about each of these things, but the time to do so just isn't here right now.



We have decided to enroll Samuel in public school. He will be entering 6th grade and will attend a "middle school." I am in no rush to get him there, they are moving to a new building. I'm sure I'm correct in guessing that the finishing touches of the building's renovation will be going on right up to the moment of the doors opening tomorrow! Also, I want him to transition VERY GRADUALLY back to school. We haven't even had the IEP meeting yet. All the details of his returning to school have yet to be worked out. I am looking for a part time start beginning with just the same amount of Speech therapy he has had at the schools for the past 3 years, then getting him to go to classes in the afternoon. My primary concern is for him to have the opportunity to work on his social skills.



In the past few weeks we have started some new in-home services, to specifically address Samuel's behavior difficulties. We are receiving them from a different source than we did 5 years ago. I am very impressed with the people who are working with us and I hope to post more about what we are doing soon.



Samuel is continuing to develop a strong sensitivity to the expression of emotions. Funny, I have been reading on one or two other blogs about how other children on the spectrum that are around Samuel's age are going through the same thing. If he hears songs on the radio that are emotional or sad he immediately wants the station changed! During a reading at church yesterday he asked, "Is this serious?" He asks the same question when he listens to news stories on TV. And, as has been happening for a while, he absolutely cannot tolerate discussions between my husband and I in which our vocal expression has anything resembling "seriousness." The problem with this is that my husband has a rather deep voice and an intense personality.. so Samuel is always misreading his mood! I am thrilled for Samuel's increased awareness of what is going on.. but it is making life rather crazy!

Let's see, what else is going on? After having some success with Samuel in a temporary tae kwon do class this summer I want to start him with some classes this fall. That might have to be on an individual basis at first. I had to closely shadow him during the summer session but I want him to learn to participate independently.

Samuel is taking part in a computer study being done by a phd student, who wants to test her hypothesis that word-recognition software helps students with autism improve their writing abilities. (This has been lots of fun, but has been challenging!)

At home he has started to work independently on some phonics curriculums, both on the computer. His attention span is so much better when working on the computer! Ironically, as we are considering putting him in school I feel like I finally "have it figured out" with his academics at home! I will consider this strongly as we develop his IEP.

Also, we are continuing to monitor his behavior after starting him on Risperdal a few months ago. If you have read my blog or if you know me, you know that I have always considered medication as a last resort. Well, we reached a critical point this past winter. If I ask Samuel why he takes the medication his answer is, "to help me be a good boy." Interesting, we certainly never explained it that way to him, rather it was explained as something to help him control himself when he got upset.

Do we have enough going on?!

I should not forget to mention... these are only Samuel's "goings on," there are 3 other children I have things going on with too!

Walmart and Life Skills/Social Skills Training

My husband and I are doing our best to continue taking Samuel out in public in spite of the chance that he may "melt down". When I take Samuel out I bring along some kind of visual schedule for him to follow. These visual schedules have had various forms over the years. The current one I like to use is a checklist of the broad activities we plan to undertake at our destination. I can just write it out on paper and carry it on a clipboard with a pen.

These days, Walmart is proving to be a great place to take Samuel. I am able to take him there about once a week. Our first trips there had to be very short on getting "my things" done, followed by an opportunity for Samuel to do his favorite thing.. look at the DVDs. (It took him a while to understand and accept that Walmart no longer carries VHS tapes!)

Yesterday morning I had planned to go to Walmart early in the morning. I had a relatively short list of things to pick up, but it was a longer list than I usually have when I take Samuel. However, it had been a while since I had taken him and I knew that taking him would be a real treat for him, so I woke him up and gave him the good news. Talk about a good motivator to dress himself!

Here was the checklist he had:

-Shopping

-Look at Electronics (just looking at DVDs isn't enough anymore, he has broadened his tour to laptops, Blue Ray players, and cameras)

-Pay (stay with Mom, no running around!)

-Look at the Red Box DVD machine on our way out the store (by that time I'm usually more than ready to leave, but giving him a chance to look at it at the end saves me from getting stuck at it when we walk in)

While we are there he gets to work on his social skills (it's okay to say hi to others, but don't ask them what year they were born or what their phone number is, walking down the aisles instead of skipping and running!), life skills (finding groceries, properly placing them in the basket, being patient while Mom has to look for boring things like canned vegetables and toilet paper, one of these days we'll get to paying...), and some OT-related things (pushing the cart, looking where you are going while pushing the cart, not crashing into other people while pushing the cart, not crashing into the shelves and displays while pushing the cart).

Other challenges we face right now when taking him out, besides the ones I just mentioned, are to keep him from manipulating us into getting him all kinds of snacks and sodas. The soda one is particularly difficult. He goes straight for the little coolers right by the cash registers when it is time to pay and gets very close to melting down when I tell him no. Soda is something I try to save an incentive for doing well at his OT sessions, and we allow all the kids to have it with dinner on Sunday.

Tell me about your experiences taking your child "on the spectrum" out in public and how you are teaching him or her!

"The Transporters" DVD Series, Recognizing Emotions in Others

Following are a few links for a DVD series called "The Transporters" that was made in Great Britain. It is supposed to help children with autism learn to recognize emotions in others.


I remember coming across a sample episode on-line a while back. It is VERY similar to the Thomas the Tank Engine videos.. and all my kids were captivated by it.

The series became available in the U.S. last month. You can get more info about it from this website, where you can also view an episode.
http://www.thetransporters.com/

Here is a recent article about the series, which was sent to me in an Autism Society of Northern VA Yahoo Group post.:Kids with autism learn to 'read' people" dated 11 February 2009 by Mark Roth from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09042/948176-298.stm?cmpid=MOSTEMAILEDBOX.

I'm going to see if my local library will buy the series. This will go along nicely with Samuel's desire to "explore emotions."

Soccer Update and Social Skills Update

I'm in another spell of being too busy to blog, but I wanted to give a quick update.

Unfortunately, Samuel's enthusiasm for soccer did not carry forward to the next practise. I was so eager, I had the entire family come along and Samuel was not interested at all. As his helper and I tried to keep him involved he got more and more agitated and finally had a bit of a meltdown, with curse words and all! We've been talking about it with Samuel all week and we'll see how it goes at practise tomorrow night. Hopefully there will be more staff on hand to help. There were not as many staff members to help this past week as there were the first time we went.

A trip to go shoe shopping, along with a trip to an electronic game store, started off very bumpy this past weekend. It ended on a much better note, however, after we took a bit of a break in the car. Samuel even apologized for his behavior later in the day.

Samuel is continuing to ask inappropriate questions as he greets people. The latest question at church to the ushers is, "Are you bald?" Fortunately, they are good-natured about it! As he looked around the church this past weekend I heard him whisper to himself, "Everyone's bald!" A good percentage of the men were! I mentioned Samuel's questions to his speech therapist yesterday and she pointed out that Samuel is becoming more aware of the differences in people, so in dealing with this we need to address that awareness in Samuel. I had been stuck on the idea that he was doing the whole greeting thing wrong.

Can anyone steer me to any good sources of teaching material that talk about how people are different?

Social Skills, Starting to Work on Appropriate Greetings

I have been reading short social stories this past week that I typed on "Writing With Symbols" to begin the process of teaching Samuel's to greet others in a more socially acceptable manner. One day I had him read about how we might go about greeting people we do not know. I wrote the story to say, "Usually we do not need to ask people we do not know what their name is." Later that afternoon he exited the car at soccer practise, immediately went up to a woman he did not know, and said, "hello, what is your name?"

Like I mentioned in the comments of my last post, I am afraid that if I point out to Samuel how sad (or otherwise uncomfortable ) his questions and comments might make others feel, he will just add the question "Did I make you sad?" I have to teach Samuel only in positive terms, guiding and teaching him in terms of what he SHOULD do, not in terms of what he SHOULD NOT DO.

We attended a wedding yesterday. Samuel came along to the reception and got along nicely during the entire event with his helper. His new question, after saying hello, was, "Are you married?" Yikes! Once again, I am grateful that so far people have been very understanding and patient with him!

I just got Dr. Gutstein's book in the mail "Autism Asperger's: Solving the Relationship Puzzle" and am reading it as fast as I can so we can begin some RDI activities!

Time to Polish the Social Skills a Bit!

Just when I think it is not possible to feel any busier than I already have been, I reach a new pinnacle! Recently this has come about because two of my sons started playing soccer and I actually have had a few social events to attend (after a rather sparse past year of socializing). I suppose the water pouring out of my living room ceiling (from a poorly built shower above it) and the resulting needed repairs have contributed to this as well.

Anyways, my 10 year old and 5 year old sons are playing soccer. They participate in a league of children educated at home and, thankfully, they only have practise once a week, both at the same time, and there are only a minimal number of games that involve travel. For the first time, well, ever (!!!), I have been able to take Samuel along to the practise field where I hang around for the 2 hours his brothers practise. I had to do this a few weeks ago because my in-home helper was not able to make it that afternoon and my husband could not take the boys because of obligations at work.

I made up a visual schedule of what we would do during practise. It wasn't really anything all that special, I just made sure we moved to a new location every 30 to 45 minutes. Part of the time we walked down to see his older brother play, we spent some time in the car and had a snack, and then we spent some time on a playset (swings, slide, "fort"). Yes, nine year old Samuel stood out a bit on the playset, but he was content so I didn't mind! While we walked from field to field Samuel kicked around his own soccer ball and tried talking to EVERYONE!

On the subject of talking to EVERYONE, I realize that we need take a step forward in conversation social skills! Here is one example: People that Samuel does not know come sit behind us at church, Samuel turns around and says, "Hello, are you old?" Or, "Hello, are you a man? " (This to a woman with short hair!) Does anyone have any suggestions for social skills lessons that are just a bit beyond the basics? I have a Carol Gray book about Social Stories (pictured here )and will look at her site to see if she might have anything more advanced, but I want to see if there is anything else.