Monday, October 27, 2008

Backwards Day

I’d like to that we’re continuing the fabulous skill development that we saw over the summer with Thane, but while we’ve seen some progress in areas, we’re also seeing some steps back. The most noticeable is how stressed he has been getting about things. I am seeing him stim (self-stimulating behaviors) a bit more – like rocking his head back and forth against the headrest in his car seat, some more obsessive behaviors (“I know I am not supposed to peel the labels of crayons, but I have to, really I do. In fact, I will sit here for hours and peel crayons. And since I know I am not supposed to, I will either apologize with puppy-dog eyes or sit in a corner doing it and try to hide. If there is a crayon anywhere, it needs to be peeled!”), and he is definitely being defiant and a bit more backward than usual.

I’ve been trying for awhile to get Thane to say what he means. Often he will say “I don’t want to play [insert game name here]” but what he really means is that he does. Or he says he can’t when he means he wants to. I noticed my pushing was stressing him a bit, but he does need some shoves in this manner because otherwise he won’t be understood by the vast majority of people he encounters.

Today he has been a bit more backward about other things – not just negatives. For example, he told someone to stop leaning on him when he was the one leaning.

As usual, I find myself grabbing the humor where I can . . . I hope that doesn’t make me a bad person! He was offered candy corn at school. Luckily he didn’t take it because it was a cross contamination risk with wheat, gluten, and eggs. The humor part is that his reason for refusing it was “I don’t like triangles.” That’s right, no triangle food for Thane.

Braeden got the mail out of the mailbox and came back and told Thane he had two letters. Thane said he didn’t want a letter. Actually, he told us three or four times that he didn’t want a letter while I was backing up the driveway. I told him it was okay, he didn’t need to have a letter, but he still repeated he didn’t want one. Then as we’re getting out of the car, he looks at Braeden and says “I want a you.” Huh? This is where repeating comes in handy as he added something: “I want a letter u.” Brae is much quicker than I am and replied, “That’s good, because you got a U – I just unbuckled you and unbuckled starts with U!” And yes, that worked and Thane was perfectly content.

2 comments:

onesillymama said...

Bec, FWIW I think humor is what will keep you sane. If you were too serious and intense about all that goes on with Thane you could make yourself very unhappy. I wonder if he's having these regressions because something else is happening, like an imminent growth spurt or something? I know that progress is not linear, and since I am by far no expert on ASD, I am possibly way off, but it occurred to me so I thought I would mention it.

I love how Braeden picked up on the U. Good for him!

Bec said...

Liz, He has been growing, so that may be part of it, and he is developing some new skills so itsn't like all progress has stopped or stepped back . . . the problem for me is that I see him being more stressed out. He has renewed some behaviors that could lead to him getting hurt. I'm also feeling guilty because I don't know what is causing it and how to fix it. Because of the tummy trouble, I'm worried that it may be something he is eating that is impacting him negatively, and it is hard to figure out what that might be.