Apr 18, 2012

"I'M TELLING MOM!!!"

"I'm telling mom!" was something that I heard a lot growing up.  My sister & I, being only two years apart, were constantly fighting and blackmailing each other.  One actual exchange that I remember vividly was "If you tell mom what I did then I will tell her about the time in first grade that you didn't even BUY a milk!" Yes, in grade one my darkest secret was that one day at lunch I skipped buying milk and yes, I let my sister hold that shameful day over my head until 3 years later.  So when she used the previously stated threat and I was a fourth grader I said "Go right ahead! Tell her!"  By this age we should have probably stopped blackmailing one another, but the look on my mother's face when she heard that three years before I didn't purchase a milk at school was one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen.

I bring this up because my son doesn't have a sibling.  He doesn't have someone to rat him out when he does things he knows he isn't supposed to.  He doesn't have someone to tell on him for lying.  Yes, my son is capable of lying, he didn't get the "everything is literal" autism symptom, which I guess could be seen as either a blessing or a curse.

Yesterday when I got him off the bus he started talking like a maniac.  He does this a lot, he is telling you a story but his brain gets ahead of him so the story might not make sense if you aren't paying very close attention.   His story went something like this:

"Miss Whittle istompedon her foot somadandIwassosorry and I was bad and had to gototimeout."

To the casual listener this would sound like "Miss Whittle -jibberish- her foot -jibberisth, and I was bad."

The story he was trying to convey was that he had gotten frustrated with his teacher (Miss Whittle) and stomped on her foot.  He was really sorry about it, he knew that was bad, and he had to go to time out.  His brain moves at such a quick rate that he often says words smooshed together so quickly that to the casual observer they sound like jibberish.  It takes him half as long to tell a story sometimes because his words come out faster than normal.  This tends to happen most often when he is upset about something.

He might not have a sibling to rat him out but he ratted himself out.  This is the first time he's ever admitted to doing something bad at school.  His teacher called after school to explain the incident and there were only two extra details added in "the teacher in question was wearing flip flops" *ouch!* and that "he was supposed to be doing schoolwork but he wouldn't stop bouncing around".  So he told me everything that was important in the story and I'm really proud of him.

I am going to make the assumption that the task in question had something to do with writing, which he absolutely abhors.  He can write every single letter of the alphabet, and his vocabulary is huge but getting him to write anything is damn near impossible.  He doesn't even like coloring.  He likes to paint but he hates anything involving a writing instrument.  His spelling tests are done on the computer because he KNOWS how to spell things, he just refuses to write them.

So that is the story of how Alden told on himself for the first time and I was really proud of him!

For more stories about my hilarious childhood, nerd things, and my life in general visit my other blog.

Apr 2, 2012

World Autism Awareness Day



Today is World Autism Awareness Day.  In case you have been hiding under a rock the past week let me bring you up to date, the CDC (who I am not particularly fond of) has finally updated their severely outdated statistics to say that 1 in 88 children in the U.S. have autism. That brings the "boys" statistic up to 1 in 54 since boys are more likely to have autism.

These statistics are startling to say the least.  I don't care what your opinions are on where the 78% increase over the last decade came from, what matters is that we make sure that our next generation are able to live full, productive, happy lives.  It could be vaccines, it could be the environment, it could be pollution, or some chemical in food, or that they have just gotten better at diagnosing it.  It could even just be the next step in human evolution, I mean really with all this texting and typing how much do we actually talk to one another anyway?

Regardless of why or how, we need to make sure that these children have the help they need.  Some of the cases are severe and some of them are going to end up in homes but there are also a lot of them are on the higher end of the spectrum and they are likely to grow up to lead normal lives.  We just need to make sure that all of them get the best shot they can get as early as possible.

Diagnosis is lengthy and expensive, occupational therapy is expensive, ABA is expensive, physical therapy is expensive, speech therapy is expensive, special foods are expensive, sensory equipment is expensive, and yes medications are expensive.  Another blow to families affected by autism is that a lot of the time one parent stays home or works very few hours a week because no one else understand's the child's specific needs and how to handle them.  None of us have the luxury of calling up just anyone who is willing to babysit for a few bucks an hour for a night out.

 This month is Autism Awareness month.  If you have the money to spare, please consider donating to an autism organization.  I don't tell people what sites I donate to because everyone is trying to help these kids. While we might not all agree on the causes, therapies, or protocols we all share a common goal and that is to help these kids grow into happy, healthy, productive adults.  Here are some suggestions for those who are interested.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Generation Rescue
Autism Society
Autism Speaks
lend4health
TACA Now!