So, we're still alive.
We are black, blue, purple and brindle but we are still breathing.
Or so it's rumoured.
Staying on the quiet, keeping things even...steady....calm....
Sorta like holding back the waves of the ocean with your bare hands.
Yeah, and just as successful *snort*
-------------------------
Aspie teen has it set in his head that when he has a shower it HAS to be right before he goes to bed.
Not before and certainly not in any morning.
Unless he's got something on....then it takes days to get him psyched into an unscheduled shower.
So, tonight, we managed to talk him into having a hot, soothing shower to ease his aching muscles post-footy match in just 3 hours and without a major hiccup.
Mini meltdown that involved enough heavy breathing and wall-knocking stims that would make any Poltergeist happy certainly but it barely rated an "oh, crap, not again " in light of recent events so we won't log that one.
Gave him a thorough back rub after the shower with the good old Deep Heat, then he was shocked at how much better his back felt and how much more easily he was able to move.
Yeah, we got vindicated, baby!!!!
Parents don't talk through a hole in their heads, woot!
Showing posts with label sensory processing disorder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sensory processing disorder. Show all posts
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Back again
Dad is back home and Aspie teen is more settled albeit more clingy.
Thank goodness we've come a long way since he was in mainstream school with his integration aide; we are able to discuss the future of his grandfather's health with him plus he's able to spend extra bonus time with Dad being at home.
Some things about nursing Dad at home are perfect life lessons Aspie teen could read about but have little understanding until it's unfolding right under his very nose. Hopefully these are helping cement the foundations for him to follow in how to care for the elderly/infirm in his future.
He's so happy with his Silkie hens, they are another learning curve for him and he's spreading his wings a little in his new role of responsibility. They've imprinted with him as their parent and answer to their names when he calls them. The fluffy little mop tops are so sweet and cute; they have cheeky little personalities which make them appear as silly haughty madames strutting about in the Victorian era in their finery.
They are both a great distraction and a grounding mechanism to keep him focussed in this sad time.
We have no idea how long Dad has but each day is a bonus so we have to strive for positive thinking and keeping our chins up which is difficult for a teen at times.
The 2 cases of young teens being sprayed with capsicum spray has certainly grabbed his attention; his parents warning him was one thing but the police actually using it on kids his own age has given him a bit of a wake up call.
He's off for an EEG this week and still banned from bicycle riding due to his slow reaction times. He missed his first cricket match of the season as we were tied up at the hospital (almost but not quite literally in that sense) but he took the disappointment ok, only a few mild Tourette's grunts and tics.
We'll be reviweing Aspie teen returning to Uni study soon, too.
He has asked many times and loves the uni subjects, we'll just take it slowly to see what subjects are on offer (in his preferred field of study) and what really catches his interest (even those outside of his subject area).
Maybe a better time for him to start again, we'll see.
Thank goodness we've come a long way since he was in mainstream school with his integration aide; we are able to discuss the future of his grandfather's health with him plus he's able to spend extra bonus time with Dad being at home.
Some things about nursing Dad at home are perfect life lessons Aspie teen could read about but have little understanding until it's unfolding right under his very nose. Hopefully these are helping cement the foundations for him to follow in how to care for the elderly/infirm in his future.
He's so happy with his Silkie hens, they are another learning curve for him and he's spreading his wings a little in his new role of responsibility. They've imprinted with him as their parent and answer to their names when he calls them. The fluffy little mop tops are so sweet and cute; they have cheeky little personalities which make them appear as silly haughty madames strutting about in the Victorian era in their finery.
They are both a great distraction and a grounding mechanism to keep him focussed in this sad time.
We have no idea how long Dad has but each day is a bonus so we have to strive for positive thinking and keeping our chins up which is difficult for a teen at times.
The 2 cases of young teens being sprayed with capsicum spray has certainly grabbed his attention; his parents warning him was one thing but the police actually using it on kids his own age has given him a bit of a wake up call.
He's off for an EEG this week and still banned from bicycle riding due to his slow reaction times. He missed his first cricket match of the season as we were tied up at the hospital (almost but not quite literally in that sense) but he took the disappointment ok, only a few mild Tourette's grunts and tics.
We'll be reviweing Aspie teen returning to Uni study soon, too.
He has asked many times and loves the uni subjects, we'll just take it slowly to see what subjects are on offer (in his preferred field of study) and what really catches his interest (even those outside of his subject area).
Maybe a better time for him to start again, we'll see.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Fabulous workbooks for fabulous kids
I was trawling through one of my favourite book suppliers websites yesterday when I found a new category titled "Special needs".
Obviously, I was off like a shot and happily sticky-beaking through the extensive list of books, delighted to find a series of books addressing Multisensory Learning which is ideal for those with all types of learning difficulties including dyslexia, ADHD and behaviour issues, not to mention the Spectrum.
Maths for Concrete Learners...c'mon, tell me the title didn't leap up at you, too!
The old Bard hasn't been forgotten in special needs teaching, either, with Specials Coursework Shakespeare.
How often do kids over the many generations trot out the old "I don't know why they're making us learn this cos I'll never use it in real life" when it comes to maths?
Try these Maths For Living series which includes Mathematics for the body or Mathematics Around the home, as well as others; then see if they don't use the maths in everyday life!
Just bought the Dinosaurs Downunder book for Aspie teen, to encourage him into text work again - he breezed through his first few pages, is looking forward to going back to check out the many other titles on the shelves.
My friend was overjoyed to watch her son, who had an auditory processing disorder and had many gaps in his learning at school, pick up so many missing pieces in the Excel workbooks.
He went from being in the bottom of the class with poor self esteem and no enthusiasm to even attempt schoolwork to completing almost a workbook each night after school and blitzing the other kids in the class within a few months.
Sometimes a different approach through these books can spark an interest in areas that were masquerading as little more than bones of contention to get our kids all angsty.
Obviously, I was off like a shot and happily sticky-beaking through the extensive list of books, delighted to find a series of books addressing Multisensory Learning which is ideal for those with all types of learning difficulties including dyslexia, ADHD and behaviour issues, not to mention the Spectrum.
Maths for Concrete Learners...c'mon, tell me the title didn't leap up at you, too!
The old Bard hasn't been forgotten in special needs teaching, either, with Specials Coursework Shakespeare.
How often do kids over the many generations trot out the old "I don't know why they're making us learn this cos I'll never use it in real life" when it comes to maths?
Try these Maths For Living series which includes Mathematics for the body or Mathematics Around the home, as well as others; then see if they don't use the maths in everyday life!
Just bought the Dinosaurs Downunder book for Aspie teen, to encourage him into text work again - he breezed through his first few pages, is looking forward to going back to check out the many other titles on the shelves.
My friend was overjoyed to watch her son, who had an auditory processing disorder and had many gaps in his learning at school, pick up so many missing pieces in the Excel workbooks.
He went from being in the bottom of the class with poor self esteem and no enthusiasm to even attempt schoolwork to completing almost a workbook each night after school and blitzing the other kids in the class within a few months.
Sometimes a different approach through these books can spark an interest in areas that were masquerading as little more than bones of contention to get our kids all angsty.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Ssssssenses plus or minus the commonsense one!
As I peck this out on the keyboard the Aspie teen is off in the city to a lecture with his Dad.
I won some tickets to a talk, part of the Melbourne Writer's Festival, on White Noise in a Networked World.
Science + history + lecture + digital + networking = right up Aspie teen's alley of interests!
Of course, when I complained about the 'inland moisture event'(you and I know it better as a big bloody storm) hubby leapt to the rescue of taking him in to the lecture.
Now, Aspie teen has had increased sensory sensitivity in the past 18 months, increasing to the point that he throws his arms out wide declaring
"I'm a tree! Hug me!"
To which we are expected to give him really tight squishy hugs.
Which he returns.
And almost busts our ribs.
Anywho, he'd been banging on about getting a Snuggie for almost a year when hubby snaffled him one at a local cheapie shop (plain blue, no faux leopard print in this house!) and Aspie teen has been in 7th Heaven.
Cos he can wrap it around himself tightly.
His sense of smell is so sensitive to the point he was refusing to have showers cos he was overwhelmed by the perfume of soaps/shampoo, toothpaste, etc.
We became somewhat sensitive to his particular smell but that's another tale *snort*
Same with his hearing - he's able to partially block out everything around him while out by playing his DS Nintendo (it's saved our sanity a bajillion times) but he can hear us speaking softly from several rooms away and he's become increasingly light sensitive to the point you'd describe him as photo-phobic.
Side-tracking here... he used to be on medication that made his eyes more sensitive to UV light leading to a higher chance of developing cataracts if he didn't wear sunnies while outdoors yet the school fought us on every attempt to allow him to wear them at recess, interesting to see SunSmart Victoria is now including it as part of the sun-smart clothing!
Aspie teen has often complained about white noise distracting and irritating him to the point he has a meltdown.
Not that he can pin-point that white noise is the cause, we have to work our way back through Every.Tiny.Little.Itty.Bitty detail and it's not something that used to automatically spring to my mind.
I'm so glad I live in this techno-savvy world where we can use hand-held computer games to block out irritants, use iPhones and iPads to help kids to communicate and where we're able to identify and recognise irritants like white noise whereas 50 years ago people would have been labelled insane.
He's now home describing the lecture, talking about a room in Cambridge University where it's minus 13 decibels and so noise dampened that you can hear your blood running through your veins, hear the electrical signals of the nervous system and your digestion!
Some people become so overwhelmed they can become nauseous, pass out or have audio hallucinations.
Yeah, how abouts we don't build one at home here?!@
I won some tickets to a talk, part of the Melbourne Writer's Festival, on White Noise in a Networked World.
Science + history + lecture + digital + networking = right up Aspie teen's alley of interests!
Of course, when I complained about the 'inland moisture event'(you and I know it better as a big bloody storm) hubby leapt to the rescue of taking him in to the lecture.
Now, Aspie teen has had increased sensory sensitivity in the past 18 months, increasing to the point that he throws his arms out wide declaring
"I'm a tree! Hug me!"
To which we are expected to give him really tight squishy hugs.
Which he returns.
And almost busts our ribs.
Anywho, he'd been banging on about getting a Snuggie for almost a year when hubby snaffled him one at a local cheapie shop (plain blue, no faux leopard print in this house!) and Aspie teen has been in 7th Heaven.
Cos he can wrap it around himself tightly.
His sense of smell is so sensitive to the point he was refusing to have showers cos he was overwhelmed by the perfume of soaps/shampoo, toothpaste, etc.
We became somewhat sensitive to his particular smell but that's another tale *snort*
Same with his hearing - he's able to partially block out everything around him while out by playing his DS Nintendo (it's saved our sanity a bajillion times) but he can hear us speaking softly from several rooms away and he's become increasingly light sensitive to the point you'd describe him as photo-phobic.
Side-tracking here... he used to be on medication that made his eyes more sensitive to UV light leading to a higher chance of developing cataracts if he didn't wear sunnies while outdoors yet the school fought us on every attempt to allow him to wear them at recess, interesting to see SunSmart Victoria is now including it as part of the sun-smart clothing!
Aspie teen has often complained about white noise distracting and irritating him to the point he has a meltdown.
Not that he can pin-point that white noise is the cause, we have to work our way back through Every.Tiny.Little.Itty.Bitty detail and it's not something that used to automatically spring to my mind.
I'm so glad I live in this techno-savvy world where we can use hand-held computer games to block out irritants, use iPhones and iPads to help kids to communicate and where we're able to identify and recognise irritants like white noise whereas 50 years ago people would have been labelled insane.
He's now home describing the lecture, talking about a room in Cambridge University where it's minus 13 decibels and so noise dampened that you can hear your blood running through your veins, hear the electrical signals of the nervous system and your digestion!
Some people become so overwhelmed they can become nauseous, pass out or have audio hallucinations.
Yeah, how abouts we don't build one at home here?!@
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick...tick...tick
Aspie teen had no idea of time.
He can't 'sense' when time has passed while he's been reading or working on a project.
He can't look at the sky or the shadows and guess whether it's morning or afternoon, those little things around us that we pick up mostly without being told.
A friend of ours suggested an egg timer, a little $2 cheapie thing with one of those ear-piercing bell alarms that lets the whole world know you've over-boiled your eggs again.
So.
It worked for Aspie teen.
No longer did he park himself in the backyard for hours watching ants or prattle his "in a minute" when engrossed in a book/tv show/game.
We put the egg timer on his games when arguments ensued - 30 mins on the games and 1 minute less for each time he'd refuse to do something with the "In a minute" chant.
How often do we say that "In a minute" without any real intention of being literally just one minute?
To someone with no concept of what the value of a minute was this was just a throw-away comment.
Until those precious minutes started flying past on the egg timer - how often did we hear "That can't be right! I just started eating my dinner!" when we got tired of dinner being dragged out for 2 hours or "But that can't be 30 mins already!" when his gaming time was up.
Suddenly, he realised how quickly time was whooshing past without his noticing and when he's reminded of losing some of those precious minutes from his gaming time - whoosh!
It's amazing how quickly he gets a wriggle on these days!
Sure, it's not all sunshine and roses and we've had to incorporate a large-faced analogue watch for him to use (with muchnagging reminding to wear it) as he's great with digital but analogue gives a more precise indication of time passing.
Look at a digital clock.
It's just numbers.
Look at an analogue clock face.
It's hands are a picture telling you how much time until the next hour.
You can count the 5 minute increments between the numbers, the value of a minute is right there staring you in the face and the movement of the hands gives you the underlying message that time does not stand still.
Aspie teen still isn't fantastic but he's better with time management, organisation and study.
He can't 'sense' when time has passed while he's been reading or working on a project.
He can't look at the sky or the shadows and guess whether it's morning or afternoon, those little things around us that we pick up mostly without being told.
A friend of ours suggested an egg timer, a little $2 cheapie thing with one of those ear-piercing bell alarms that lets the whole world know you've over-boiled your eggs again.
So.
It worked for Aspie teen.
No longer did he park himself in the backyard for hours watching ants or prattle his "in a minute" when engrossed in a book/tv show/game.
We put the egg timer on his games when arguments ensued - 30 mins on the games and 1 minute less for each time he'd refuse to do something with the "In a minute" chant.
How often do we say that "In a minute" without any real intention of being literally just one minute?
To someone with no concept of what the value of a minute was this was just a throw-away comment.
Until those precious minutes started flying past on the egg timer - how often did we hear "That can't be right! I just started eating my dinner!" when we got tired of dinner being dragged out for 2 hours or "But that can't be 30 mins already!" when his gaming time was up.
Suddenly, he realised how quickly time was whooshing past without his noticing and when he's reminded of losing some of those precious minutes from his gaming time - whoosh!
It's amazing how quickly he gets a wriggle on these days!
Sure, it's not all sunshine and roses and we've had to incorporate a large-faced analogue watch for him to use (with much
Look at a digital clock.
It's just numbers.
Look at an analogue clock face.
It's hands are a picture telling you how much time until the next hour.
You can count the 5 minute increments between the numbers, the value of a minute is right there staring you in the face and the movement of the hands gives you the underlying message that time does not stand still.
Aspie teen still isn't fantastic but he's better with time management, organisation and study.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
I've bitten the bullet and given in
It's not as drastic as it sounds, really.
I've bitten the bullet and bought a laminator.
They're on special at the moment and it's the one thing I need to plaster signs all over the bathroom for Aspie teen.
Signs like "Brush your teeth!"
"Wash your hair!"
"Have you got a clean towel?"
"Get a towel from the cupboard!"
"Shampoo your hair!"
"Dry between your toes!"
"Get dressed in CLEAN clothes"
Cos the Good Goddess on High knows I'm sick of the sound of my own voice chanting the same things over and over and over and over...
Then I thought I can plaster a few signs up on his bedroom walls and in the kitchen, like,
"Eat your brekkie"
"No Tv while eating brekkie"
"Put the newspaper down and EAT your brekkie"
"Wash your bowl"
"WASH it with water and a sponge"
"Get your medicine"
"Get your medicine, you forgot"
"Don't forget your MEDICINE!"
"Have you swallowed your medicine???"
Then, on the back of the front door I can nail,
"Don't you dare set one foot outside this house unless you've tossed your medicine down your gullet!"
And underneath...
"Yes, I WILL check!!!!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)