So, I have taken Brycen to Wal-mart with me twice this week and it's the same route we take to get on the highway to head to speech therapy. I've read and heard about children being quite rigid with their parents taking the same exact route home from school, or not being able to drive by a certain eating establishment because the child gets very upset when they don't stop...but until this week, Brycen never really did those things.
He is very rigid in many other aspects of his life: getting out of the car the exact same way, needing certain things with him when getting ready for bed, having a particular order of doing something, etc. Since he loves being in the car so much, I guess I never really thought we would have issues with going certain places...until this week!
Brycen LOVES his speech therapist...he will hug her and pull on her until she is ready to take him to the other room...he never allows me to actually talk with her before the session because he is so excited knowing they are going to be having a 1/2 hr of fun focused entirely on him! So when we drove to Wal-mart once earlier this week and then again this morning, I never expected to hear his protest when I pulled in the parking lot! Earlier this week, he just did some gesturing, grunting, and a little screaming, but it ended as soon as I parked the car. This morning was a whole different story...he was kicking the seat in front of him, hitting the window beside him, trying to unbuckle himself, screaming to the point of tears...all because I pulled in the Wal-mart parking lot instead of continuing down the road to the highway that goes to speech therapy. WOW is about all I could think and just stared at him in shock of this outburst! Is this how I felt the first time he had a meltdown that lasted 45 minutes? So much has happened over the last year or so that I can't even remember his first meltdown and how I felt...was I in complete shock that a tantrum could turn into 45 minutes of a struggle, aggression, stress that could not be stopped or even understood by either me or him?
Lucky for me, as soon as I opened his door to get him out he calmed down and the entire thing was forgotten...is it because I promised him a new box of diapers?!!! Wasn't that nice of me?! Or was it because he realized he wasn't getting his way...or because he loves Wal-mart (someday he will learn differently!). Whatever the reason, thank you, Brycen, for calming down! That actually set the stage for a fast and easy shopping trip (yes for diapers)!
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
Helen Keller
Friday, June 25, 2010
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Autism and Our Family
"Autism"----It's one word that can change the life of a child and family in so many ways. Autism Spectrum Disorders are being diagnosed at a rate of 1 in 68 children currently. If you do not already know someone that has been diagnosed, the statistics say it won't be long before you do.
Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!
Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.
Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.
Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!
Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.
Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.
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