I was familiar with Temple Grandin well before little guy came home as I was going for my teaching certification. I was researching autism and came across her, specifically her relationship about how she relates her thinking to the thinking of animals, specifically herd bound animals like horses, cows, etc. Then I saw all the Emmy awards for the HBO movie "Temple Grandin", which I didnt even know existed until the other night, so I dug around through my HBO onDemand, and low and behold, there it was.
For those who are not familiar with Temple Grandin, you can get a full bio here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin
For those who want an abridged version, Temple Grandin was diagnosed at age 4 with Autism. She was mute, had very little social interaction, displayed "typical Autistic Behaviors" (ASD parents know exactly what that is), didnt play, etc. This was in 1950. It was recommended that she be institutionalized for the rest of her life, as she will never be able to speak, never be able to function in the world, etc. Well, with much hard work, dedication, the influence of the right people, and a Mom who wouldnt give up, Ms. Grandin went to school, college, received her Masters Degree, then went on to become a Doctorate in Animal Sciences. She is now a professor at Colorado State University working in the fields of animal behavior and autism.
I watched the movie last night and all I can say is "Simply Amazing". If you have an autistic child, or are a teacher who works with autistic kids, or just someone intrigued about the austism epidemic in our world right now, I HIGHLY recommend seeing it. The movie did a FABULOUS job of describing visually, how her mind works, as per her direct input. They covered self soothing behaviors (spinning, flapping, even the self created means of "holding time" that she used to calm herself), sensory overload, panic attacks that result from things being "out of line", etc. Her mother was such a HUGE influence and advocate for her as well, and it is shown beautifully in the film.
As I watched this last night, I saw my child. Or rather, I saw "inside' my child".
Albeit, his ASD issues are fairly mild compared to others, but they are there. I saw him, or rather, the inner workings of his mind as depicted in film, specifically the sensory overload, the panic, and even the thought process of how I believe he may think. HIS point of view about how he processes the world why he does what he does, and why things may set him off.
For those who are interested, here is a youtube link to one of her lectures....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn_9f5x0f1Q
Again, simply amazing...
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
More "Behaviors"
To continue on with my previous post about the inner workings of an autistic/ASD mind, here's how we play with blocks.
I opened the box of blocks and animals that we used yesterday to make "a farm" and he proceeded to dump and "organize" the pile as seen below. Before this, the animals were separated further from the blocks.
Then he pushes everything across the floor to another part of the room...
Then he spends the rest of "the playing time" shoving everything under the "workbench", behind it, etc.
After 10 minutes of "getting it right" he is done and moves onto the next "activity" - back to the rainbows....(before cleaning everything and putting the animals in the ziploc bags and the blocks in the box...at least there is ONE beneficial thing to all this).
"Finished Playing with Blocks" AKA "Push them under the other stuff", and yes, the dog was displaced 3 times during this....
We will do this probably 3 more times today if we stay in the house and not go out (like when it was raining).
I opened the box of blocks and animals that we used yesterday to make "a farm" and he proceeded to dump and "organize" the pile as seen below. Before this, the animals were separated further from the blocks.
Then he pushes everything across the floor to another part of the room...
Then he spends the rest of "the playing time" shoving everything under the "workbench", behind it, etc.
After 10 minutes of "getting it right" he is done and moves onto the next "activity" - back to the rainbows....(before cleaning everything and putting the animals in the ziploc bags and the blocks in the box...at least there is ONE beneficial thing to all this).
"Finished Playing with Blocks" AKA "Push them under the other stuff", and yes, the dog was displaced 3 times during this....
We will do this probably 3 more times today if we stay in the house and not go out (like when it was raining).
Living with "The Different Mind"
Yesterday (and today for that matter) I was really down in the dumps. Here is what I posted as my Status on Facebook:
It is so sad to me (like literal tears right now) that my son has ZERO inherent ability to play. Just gave him a box full of blocks and a bag full of little people animals, and all he can do is put them in a pile on the floor and push them around. I make a barn for him and all he does is shove all the animals in it. He... has no imagination. A child with no imagination is a tragedy.
Here are a few add-ons to I posted as well:
Its truly heartbreaking...it really is....I think about how when I was a child his age and how easy it was to slip into that world of imagination, to make something out of nothing, to be "in that world" for as long as you were allowed. Jack is literally void of that. It is so sad to know what he is missing...
....its just really sad to step back and see it in action...He has been doing play therapy for quite a while, but it still doesnt cut it, KWIM? Again, having to teach a kid how to "play" - its hard to digest...
I decided to snap some pics of the things he does to give folks an inside look into "his thought processes". He will be 4 in 2 months.
This is "Lining Up". Remember the movie Poltergeist? Remember when JoBeth Williams is in the kitchen and the chairs are "normal", then she does the dishes or something like that, and turns around and they are stacked up? I joke that I live in the Poltergeist house because everytime I straighten everything out and put it back in the right places, I turn around and see this. On a more serious note, he flips out if I change things back to the way they should be. It's sad. As I was writing this, he moved another ottoman into the room to fill the space between the cooler and the other ottoman.
And yes, the dog looks miserable because he is miserable. He can't move around this stuff and really cant lay down and relax with this going on.
"Rainbows"
There's 20 of them, and I probably make 10 a day. He knows ALLLLL of them. We spend the day with me drawing them, then us putting them in a bag, then him taking them out of the bag and scattering them on the floor (I didnt snap a pic but will), repeat bag/floor throughout the day. He takes them to bed and know when one is missing. Usually when they go over 20, I can thin them out and toss em, but I cant toss them all. Intermixed are projects from school that he made, and badly drawn animals, which are always, in this order: Peacock, turkey, chicken, duck, rooster, goose....repeat.....
When my husband comes home, he begins the process with him all over again...
This is how he plays with his cars. He doesnt shoot them across the floor, or make "vroom vroom" sounds, run them down tracks or ramps (we have them, he doesnt use them, and when he does, it is only after modeling and he will only do so for 5 minutes before reverting back to this). He shoves them under our subwoofer. The Mickey Mouse stethascope is in there too for some reason or another. The cars will make their way through the house by either being, here, or put in a bucket (where they are now), then sorted and organized into their carrying case, then repeated back to the sub woofer...
So there ya go....some insight into the mind of an ASD child.....
It is so sad to me (like literal tears right now) that my son has ZERO inherent ability to play. Just gave him a box full of blocks and a bag full of little people animals, and all he can do is put them in a pile on the floor and push them around. I make a barn for him and all he does is shove all the animals in it. He... has no imagination. A child with no imagination is a tragedy.
Here are a few add-ons to I posted as well:
Its truly heartbreaking...it really is....I think about how when I was a child his age and how easy it was to slip into that world of imagination, to make something out of nothing, to be "in that world" for as long as you were allowed. Jack is literally void of that. It is so sad to know what he is missing...
....its just really sad to step back and see it in action...He has been doing play therapy for quite a while, but it still doesnt cut it, KWIM? Again, having to teach a kid how to "play" - its hard to digest...
I decided to snap some pics of the things he does to give folks an inside look into "his thought processes". He will be 4 in 2 months.
This is "Lining Up". Remember the movie Poltergeist? Remember when JoBeth Williams is in the kitchen and the chairs are "normal", then she does the dishes or something like that, and turns around and they are stacked up? I joke that I live in the Poltergeist house because everytime I straighten everything out and put it back in the right places, I turn around and see this. On a more serious note, he flips out if I change things back to the way they should be. It's sad. As I was writing this, he moved another ottoman into the room to fill the space between the cooler and the other ottoman.
And yes, the dog looks miserable because he is miserable. He can't move around this stuff and really cant lay down and relax with this going on.
"Rainbows"
There's 20 of them, and I probably make 10 a day. He knows ALLLLL of them. We spend the day with me drawing them, then us putting them in a bag, then him taking them out of the bag and scattering them on the floor (I didnt snap a pic but will), repeat bag/floor throughout the day. He takes them to bed and know when one is missing. Usually when they go over 20, I can thin them out and toss em, but I cant toss them all. Intermixed are projects from school that he made, and badly drawn animals, which are always, in this order: Peacock, turkey, chicken, duck, rooster, goose....repeat.....
When my husband comes home, he begins the process with him all over again...
This is how he plays with his cars. He doesnt shoot them across the floor, or make "vroom vroom" sounds, run them down tracks or ramps (we have them, he doesnt use them, and when he does, it is only after modeling and he will only do so for 5 minutes before reverting back to this). He shoves them under our subwoofer. The Mickey Mouse stethascope is in there too for some reason or another. The cars will make their way through the house by either being, here, or put in a bucket (where they are now), then sorted and organized into their carrying case, then repeated back to the sub woofer...
So there ya go....some insight into the mind of an ASD child.....
iPad and Autism
So, as an attempt to "normalize" my son with his activities, we decided to take the plunge and get him an iPad. If left to his own devices, the boy will occupy himself with "inappropriate" activities. Not inappropriate in a negative or bad sense, but inappropriate to what a child should be doing at this age. He is a hoarder, stacker, liner upper, dump and filler, etc instead of a "player". Even though I am not thrilled about introducing "computer/video games" to him at such a young age, I figured that if he could do something like a video game, he would be engaging and learning, vs. spinning his wheels with unmeaningful activities. We first thought about using one of our old PCs for him to use, but as hard as we have tried, he cannot make the connection between moving the mouse, clicking, etc and its associating to whats happening on the screen. The same holds true for Wii, PS3, etc. He needs to be hands on in order to get it. As much as I would have loved to put a huge SmartBoard in the house, we neither have the money or the wall space! So we opted for an iPad.
Can I tell you it has been nothing but miraculous?
He can do it. He can navigate to find his "games", work within them, and close them out when he is done. He is following the directions of what "it" is telling him to do, and he can engage for a decent amount of time (like, long enough for me to crank something out!). He also can reciprocate his activities to "show" someone else how to do it.
When doing school work, one on one work, or even his own "play behaviors", he jumps from one thing to the other. It's like living with a whirlwind. With this he TAKES HIS TIME.
Off the "apps" we have installed, the best ones so far are the "doodle" apps (Cookie Doodle, Cake Doodle, and the lesser used but more parent enjoyed Jelly Doodle). Cooking and decorating cookies, cakes and jello without the mess is fine by me!!
Can I tell you it has been nothing but miraculous?
He can do it. He can navigate to find his "games", work within them, and close them out when he is done. He is following the directions of what "it" is telling him to do, and he can engage for a decent amount of time (like, long enough for me to crank something out!). He also can reciprocate his activities to "show" someone else how to do it.
When doing school work, one on one work, or even his own "play behaviors", he jumps from one thing to the other. It's like living with a whirlwind. With this he TAKES HIS TIME.
Off the "apps" we have installed, the best ones so far are the "doodle" apps (Cookie Doodle, Cake Doodle, and the lesser used but more parent enjoyed Jelly Doodle). Cooking and decorating cookies, cakes and jello without the mess is fine by me!!
Been a while...
It's been so long since I have visited my blog that when reading through the old posts, I didn't remember half of them happening! I have to write on a more regular basis because aside from the intelligence and articulation oozing out of my head in a steady flow as a result of being home full time raising an autistic 3 year old, I apparently am less intelligent because I do not take "the pill", as outlined on a feature seen on Channel 2 news last night. School starts back up again in two weeks, so I may be able to regain some of my sanity then.
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