Autism Moms and Dads! Let's Share Stories About Our Kids!

[mtnprotracy]

Zeke also loves Ariel. It's one of the words he says that EVERYONE understands. We take him to all the shows at WDW that have Ariel. Now anytime we're in an auditorum setting and the lights dim, he starts jumping and squealing in his REALLY high-pitched voice, "Ariel!!!Ariel!!!"

 

[Starr W.]

My 10 yr old son is an Aspie. Right now his favorite obsession are the Sonic video games. He researches Sonic on Google and Wikepedia(we pointed him to those sites so he could look up "things" without driving DH & I crazy). Then he loves the Guiness & Ripley records book.

He is doing well in his "exposure therapy" to get over his obsessive compulsive behavior(this involves a few things, but he had a big problem with people touching his shoes).

 

[Dis1978]

Anyone know about ABA therapy?

 

[DisneyDreams4P&B]

Anyone know about ABA therapy?

ABA stands for Applied Behavior Analysis.
The most common and distinguishing type of intervention based on applied behavior analysis is discrete trial teaching. It is what people most often think of when you say "ABA" or "Lovaas method." This is partly because there are so many hundreds of hours of DT teaching, and partly because it looks so odd. But it is what it is because that's what works--every aspect has been refined (and is still being refined) to result in maximum learning efficiency.
(Briefly: the student is given a stimulus--a question, a set of blocks and a pattern, a request to go ask Mom for a glass of water--along with the correct response, or a strong 'hint' at what the response should be. He is rewarded (an M&M, a piggy-back ride, a happy "good job!") for repeating the right answer; anything else is ignored or corrected very neutrally. As his response becomes more reliable, the 'clues' are withdrawn until he can respond independently. This is usually done one-on-one at a table (thus the term table-top work), with detailed planning of the requests, timing, wording, and the therapist's reaction to the student's responses.)


There are many types of learning styles for children with ASD. With our son, we used the Floortime method with great success but there are parents who have found the same success with ABA or other methods. I am a firm believer that you need to pick the style that you think best suits your child and you as you will be the main practitioners of it.

Here are some sites that may help:

http://www.tacanow.com/startaba.htm

http://www.autismspeaks.org/whattodo/ask_a_therapist.php

www.floortime.org

 

[Christine43]

My son, Perry, learned how to talk via this particular type of ABA although the rewards were a little different. We were very successful with it. I'm currently fighting with the school system to get a therapist to come to our house to do this or a similar type of ABA for behavioral approaches to some self stimming he's doing. I'm getting an advocate for the first time because I think this fight amongst others is going to get very ugly this year. Both twins are being reeval'd at a great hospital for children w/autism this April and I KNOW the recs are not going to be something the school system wants to hear. I may even have to get an atty. This is why I literally go broke going to Disney World when we can. We truly need it, we leave it all behind there.

 

[leanan]

Nyssa is obsessed with Sonic The Hedgehog and has been since the day my mom died and we found out while she was playing Sonic. That was over 2 years ago and she is almost as obsessed today as she was back then. It got so bad at one point though that her teacher actually encouraged me to ban Sonic out of the house. She also adores and obsesses about Egyptology and anything to do with Dragons. She read Eragon faster than my SO read it. He is still reading Eragon and she is half way through Eldest already.

She is also into World of Warcraft and will talk to you about her characters in the game. She stole all but one of my sims games for the gameboy. I gave her Sims 2 Pets after my dogs ate my gameboy.

She got mad one day at school because she sat in the middle of the play area on the playground at school reading. The other kids were teasing her. She may not want to play on the playground but she wanted to be near them while they did so.

 

[Christine43]

Funny, one of my sons has gotten a thing for King Tut recently so I'm getting the twins Egyptology for Easter. Your daughter must have Dragonology, Tristan has that and loves it. He loves dragons too and it all ties in with the fantasy stuff he's into.
My oldest is obsessed with World of Warcraft.
The teacher story with Sonic sparked some memories because Perry's anal retentive teacher told me to "stow away" our tv set once which set off gales of laughter from the family in general. I'm totally for kids not watching too much tv but her suggestion was ridiculous.

 

[leanan]

My daughter has most of the ology books. I think she still needs piratology and fairieology. She adores the Egyptology book. She collects Horus figurines. She had a plastic one from a pyrmid playset that she slept with for months. Discovery Kids has a show called Tutenstien that she loves. I suspect your little one is gaga for it too.

We attend Dragon Con each year. This is a science fiction convention that now bills itself as a multimedia convention. She would squeel with delight everytime somebody walked by in a guild tabard or other WOW gear. She is normally very shy but this one lady was dressed as a blood elf. She walked right up to her and started chatting away. The same child who cant go to Ohanas for breakfast because she is too shy to meet stitch. She has never had a good photo taken with santa because he scares her.

 

[Christine43]

Wow. Even though she and Tristan aren't into exactly the same things, I think they'd certainly understand each other. He is uber obsessed with Harry Potter to the point of looking like him, I swear. He has the real HP glasses etc..I've never heard of a kid so happy to learn he needed glasses. We're also very Narnia, Lord of the Rings and King Arthur oriented here. I admit, to some extent, they get it from me and I actually like the fact he's the way he is. I'll take Gandalf and Dumbledore over SpongeBob any day, I can relate to them. He'd so talk dragons to your daughter. Take care, Christine

 

[leanan]

Nyssa loves Harry Potter but she does not obsess about it. Her father is quite the HP look alike without any extras. She thinks it is boring that everyone stares at Daddy cause he looks like Harry. She does not watch it when I have her with me because she does not want to think about her Dad. I find this greatly amusing. She is also fond of Narnia and Lemony Snicket. She enjoys LOTR but has not reached the obsessed point YET!

 

[KathyRN137]

My autistic son, Billy, loves my hair. He will sniff and stroke it whenever he gets the chance! He gets upset when I wear it up or in a ponytail because it looks different.

Tonight I came home from getting a haircut and, of course, not only does it look a bit different, the smell is also different because they use a different shampoo at the salon.

"Mommy, take a shower!" he commanded.

I washed my hair so that it smelled "normal". He rubbed his face in my hair and then said, "I love you, Mommy."

He is almost nine and I think that he has only spontaneously said "I love you" to me perhaps two or three times in his entire life.

Kathy

 

[leanan]

I have similar related issues with my daughter. She likes her own hair long for the same reason that your son plays with your hair. She just hates for it to be brushed. You would think I was beating her or something the way she reacts. Thank goodness some clever soul created a snag free hairbrush. I think whoever created it should get some kind of award.

 

[disneymom3]

My autistic son, Billy, loves my hair. He will sniff and stroke it whenever he gets the chance! He gets upset when I wear it up or in a ponytail because it looks different.

Tonight I came home from getting a haircut and, of course, not only does it look a bit different, the smell is also different because they use a different shampoo at the salon.

"Mommy, take a shower!" he commanded.

I washed my hair so that it smelled "normal". He rubbed his face in my hair and then said, "I love you, Mommy."

He is almost nine and I think that he has only spontaneously said "I love you" to me perhaps two or three times in his entire life.

Kathy

Oh that is such an awesome story!!

 

[rentingspace]

I was just emailed this web site www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com it has beautiful videos and songs of wishes and thoughts. You'll get it when you see. Click on the word video in the top bar.

 

[isyne4u]

DS6 is HFA and while walking around the Inner Harbor in Baltimore one day this week he decied that his shirt needed to be tucked in. So what's a guy to do...stop in the middle of the road, unzip his pants, tuck his shirt in, then rezip the pants. He was totally oblivious!!!

He definately keeps life interesting!!

 

[daughtersrus]

I hope that you don't mind me posting. I do not have an autistic child but have one in my home daycare. (I do have a daughter that has a VERY rare genetic disease ~~she's one of about 200 diagnosed cases in the WORLD). He is 4 1/2 yo and a very adorable little boy. It can be frustrating for me because his parents are still not acknowledging/accepting that he has some issues that he needs help with. I know that we all grieve at our own pace.

He came to me when he was two. His obsession is shapes. As long as I've known him, he could point out a trapezoid, octagon, pentagon, hexagon, diamond, heart, oval, rectangle, as well as the standard square, circle, triangle...

He doesn't respond to questions or hold a conversation but at lunch he will scream, "Eat your sandwich" at the top his lungs. He is on a GFCF diet and I don't think that he likes the bread. Apparently, at home his dad has to remind him to eat.

If you say, "what does a dog say?" He will say "woof-woof". "what does a cat say?" He will say "Meow-meow" and so on for just about evey animal. If you say, "what does Mommy say?" He will say "No! No!".



He has been on a supplement regimen (candicyn, cell-max, biotic silver, flora guard, pro dphilus) for about 2 years and has recently started HBOT but yet the parents are not willing to admit that he is autistic.

I'd love to hear any suggestion of ways that I could help this little guy.

 

[rentingspace]

I'm not sure what you could say or do for the parents. Just help the child when he is in your care. We're not doctors so therefore, you really can't say if he is autistic. I'm not trying to be too strong just be careful. Obviously you care for children. Let the parents deal with this very difficult time. I know if someone asked anyone of my kids, autistic or not, what does momma say. WOW who knows what would come out of their prescious mouths. If you want to help start a pex system for him.

 

[daughtersrus]

I'm not sure what you could say or do for the parents. Just help the child when he is in your care. We're not doctors so therefore, you really can't say if he is autistic. I'm not trying to be too strong just be careful. Obviously you care for children. Let the parents deal with this very difficult time. I know if someone asked anyone of my kids, autistic or not, what does momma say. WOW who knows what would come out of their prescious mouths. If you want to help start a pex system for him.

I'm not sure that my post came across as I intended. I do care for this little guy just as much, if not more than the other kids in my home. I posted the "what does ....say" to show that I thought was a *typical* response. This is something that his mom showed me. I can only imagine what would come out of the mouths of my own children if asked the same question at his age.

I'm just looking for ways that I may be able to help this little guy. His parents do have in EC at our local school but when I ask, they haven't offered me any suggestions or guidance on what I could be doing to help him while he's in my care.

I do use some sign language but I haven't tried PECS. I will look into it since I do have a lot of the Boardmaker symbols printed out that we've used with my daughter. Is there a good website that may be helpful?