New Year another day, Autism

Thank you so much that today is the last day for December.

I'm late getting the magazine done cause I was sick with the same stuff Doodle was sick with and that meant I could barely function. But naps were my friend. Doodle has taken to her Christmas presents. I have to push Doodle and keep her out of her comfort zone. Yeah, I know the comfort zone is what keeps our kids calm. Well, I'm not one of those parents. She somewhat loves learning as long as it's not at school. At home learning new things helps keeps her busy and out of trouble.

For the new year I'm going to try my hardest to turn her pictures she drew as a 6 year old into a book. That would be awesome to get that done around her birthday. But I myself am learning a new program for my publishing company. I'm keeping with my goals for myself that I have for Doodle. Stay out of your comfort zone.

Yeah, I know I already have so much that I do already and I am adding more stuff to my plate. I love my kid and I want her to have the same opportunities as a NT child. But she won't get there if I don't push her. No, I'm not gonna push someone else. My job is to push my child. Get my child to learn what she needs to learn. Practice, practice, practice. That's the key to meeting goals.

The saying in the autism community is, "You have to be taught something over a 1000 times before a child on the spectrum learns it". So there you go for how long it takes for your child to get where you can see change.

Today is New Years Eve and tomorrow is New Years Day. Start a visionary board on the goals that you want your child to reach. Just remember the hard work that you have to put in there to get them to that goal. Cause it takes teamwork to make that dream work.

See you all on the flip side and happy new year!

Happy Holidays, Autism

With Doodle being sick and now out of school. The days have been daunting. Add making a ton of pom poms for a craft I feel will never be finished and getting the same crud Doodle got. It's just not been fun.

Plus side is we are ready for the Holiday which is later in the morning. Doodle opened her Christmas Eve gift up and she fell asleep watching Dragons. She kept herself on schedule, which made me really happy.

So as of right now, she's out. I'm typing this while feeling like I'm having a hot flash. I hate this sore throat and congestion but my energy is finally coming back. And I'm not sleeping so much. So there is that.

Another note is the doctor's office mailed the mitts that I mentioned in a previous blog for when Doodle has meltdowns. So of course that has to now be handled with another IEP meeting. But not until the Holidays are over.

So from our family to yours, Happy Holidays! May your day be joyous and bright.

See you on the flip side.

You've got the fever, Autism

When a typical child gets sick it's easy for them to tell you what is wrong with them. But when you have a child on the spectrum get sick with limited speech, well that one is hard to figure out.

Doodle had her Christmas program at school. And she did very well but she wasn't herself. That morning before getting on the bus she was coughing and hacking up phlegm. Signs of an asthma issue. So she had to have a breathing treatment when she got to school.

During her program she wasn't her normal out of control self. But she did the program like a champ and I was so proud of her. I went to her when the show was over and gave her a kiss. And that's when I noticed, she felt like she was running a fever. So we headed to the nurses station. She was running a temp of 99.8. Time to check out of school and head home.

She's pretty much stayed in bed since she's been home. Her fever fluctuates from high 102.6 to 98.8 and she can't go back to school until she is fever free for 24 hours without the aide of of fever reducer. Doodle has requested soups and sprite during this time.

So far she has missed school on part of Wednesday and all of Thursday and at this point she's gonna miss Friday as well. I'm hoping that she will be well enough to go back to school on Monday and Tuesday. If not I will go to the school on the 18th and drop off the gifts for her classmates and pick up her treats and school shirt before coming home.

I hate that she's sick. And the only thing I can do is just treat the fever and cough. I know her throat hurts because the words she can say, her voice is having a hard time staying the octave that it's suppose to be.

Her fever did finally break on Saturday. Which means she's going back to school today and she is not pleased at all! She wants to stay home and watch the iPad. I'm ready for her to go back to school so I can get the last of Christmas taken care of.

Just two days, Doodle. That's all you have to worry about and the last day is a party so you will be fine! I still have to make sure her classmates get presents and treats and the teachers are taken care of too.

At least you have an update, though it's a short one because she is needing a lot of care and she's wanting to be cuddled. Which I don't mind as cuddling is not something she ever wants to do when she's well. I will take what I can get!

Bonus, I haven't gotten sick. So there's that!

See you on the flip side!

Self harming and Autism

Self harming is something almost all children on the Spectrum do. Some parents get lucky and the child will stop self harming. From slapping themselves, beating their heads on the floor to trying to remove their skin, it's not uncommon.

So what do you do when you find yourself in this situation? So many years ago when Doodle was little she beat her head on the floor. She was limited in speech and this was one of her coping mechanisms. Now that she's older and has speech it's not normal behavior out of her anymore. But during that time in her life she wore a ton of winter hats to soften the blows.

But we find ourselves in another boat. And we thought we had it pinned down. But that doesn't appear to be the case. Now we are trying to figure out why Doodle is trying to remove the skin off her body.

Until then we have to condition her to stop. And the only way to go about that is with medical mitts. Good news and bad news of this one. They work to help the person stop hitting or scratching their skin off. Bad news is, there is not a single medical supply store in the lower part of my state that carries them.

And believe me I have called around to every single medical supply store within 50 miles trying to locate some. Our pediatrician even has the prescription ready to go when I find a medical supply store who carries them. Unfortunately, couldn't locate one.

So I called out pediatrician and informed her and I'm at the point right now where I will just make some using genuine leather that I have on hand and the insides will be padded with warm fleece. She can think they are gloves. And she won't try to take them off to scratch herself, because I'm adding a velcro strap.  Then I received a call back from our pediatrician and they have contacted the rep for the medical mitts company and they are waiting on a call back from them.

That is the best news to receive. I will know that during these difficult meltdowns Doodle will be having a hard time scratching her face or her arms or her legs.

The reason I'm having to go this route is last week when Doodle got off the bus she looked like she got in a fight with a rabid dog and lost the fight. Her face was torn up! And it was one of the things she had done to herself according to the bus driver and bus aide.

Yes, the school is investigating the incident.

See you guys on the flip side.

   

Revelations and IEP's Autism

As you all know I've had to do a few extra IEP's due to regression. Wasn't sure what was causing the regression and wasn't sure why she was going through meltdowns, which was something that was not normal for Doodle.

So there I was on Wednesday sitting in the IEP meeting with the Vice Principal and Transportation, the speech therapist, teacher and LEA. Doodle had two meltdowns on the bus last month and I would feel better knowing that my child is being well behaved and not cause issues putting the safety of the driver and the rest of the students in danger. So that round at the table went very well. Vice Principal was on board with trying to find the triggers. It the way I felt. She wasn't having meltdowns at home. And for Doodle to have meltdowns at school and on the bus. That's not normal of Doodle.

When the Speech therapist was going over her data of what Doodle could and could not say and the sounds she was having trouble with she turned to me and said, " You had a death in the family? I wanted to say that I'm sorry for your loss." And that's when it hit me. We didn't have a death in my household family. We had a death in my work family. My co-worker lost her battle with cancer. And Doodle adored her! Even renamed her Jasper. When Trish lost her battle that was the time the meltdowns started. This was Doodle's way of grieving.

I informed the speech therapist of this and asked our teacher if when she got my text about my co-worker passing if that was the time the meltdowns started. She said yes it was. The speech therapist informed me that when that text was sent that's the two days they couldn't get Doodle to even go to therapy.

It all made sense. Now we know how we can better help her. We can help her with her grief and we can help her with those meltdowns. Doodle's not great at articulation which is why we had to do the first IEP. And it didn't help that she was losing speech again. She is at a really good school and there is no reason for her to be losing speech. At this point I can honestly say it's not regression. And it's not tantrums, she's locking herself in her mind because she's trying to convey what is wrong but just can't. Doesn't understand how.

I know of a few parents that can't make their IEP's. To me I'd better be dead to miss one. Because if you are requesting something, you won't get it 9 times out of 10 if you miss the IEP meeting. But to me this IEP was an eye opening one. It took about a month from the first meeting requesting the extra data accumulation so we could try to find out the cause of the loss of speech and the meltdowns. To resolving the problem at the second IEP.

I'm a pretty strict parent when it comes to Doodle and I know to a lot of people I make raising a child on the spectrum look easy. It's my dedication to my daughter, all the excess classes and training to be able to better help her. It used to take over a hundred times teaching her something before she could actually learn something. Now it doesn't take that much. Schedules and calendar of events that help her to stay on task every moment of the day. To me I've got it down to being easy according to most. But it also takes a lot of prep the day before to make sure that everything is ready to go even if her routine changes.

I like to be laid back and easy going and that's not always the case when it comes to autism. But I get through it. There is always so much that has to be done. Her routine means that I have to be on routine. The magazine has to be done. My classes have to be planned. I'm learning a new art form and I'm learning animation again. My life stays busy with me just being a regular mom. But I want Doodle to be independent. And if the laundry fairy doesn't get the laundry done while she's at school, well that causes an issue. If her snack box isn't made, yeah that causes an issue. Even if the vacuum cleaner isn't where it's suppose to be anything can set off a meltdown at home. Which is one of the things I've been lucky enough to make sure is avoided at all cost.

I'm off to get more work done. Have to create templates for online classes that will be coming to my website in March or possibly April.

See you guys on the flip side.