SV: the good, the bad, and the perplexing

[Guest guest]

-----Opprinnelig melding-----

Fra: Marty Landman

Dato: 9. juli 2001 20:02

>...I also notice his obsessive compulsive behaviors are now more evident when

>he's bored. I think if he's busy then he forgets about water and bathrooms

>and would rather play or do something else.

Marty,

One aspect of boredom is that there is a shortage of meaningful stimuli. His

OCB's have probably been (at least in part) triggered by this kind of shortage

all the time.

>At the same time though he is getting to be a real handful in other ways.

>He broke a toilet tank top yesterday, accidently. Fortunately he didn't get

>hurt, those things are heavy. He is more insistent on having his way. I

>wonder if he's just feeling his oats and being a typical boy.

This is the kind of behaviour we see every time our son's been through a diet

infringement, typically from day 2-4 to day 7-14. We interpret it as typical

withdrawal behaviour. It takes longer, the stronger and longer the exposure has

been. It will probably go away when the patient's biochemistry has adapted

itself to the new situation.

>I'd love to hear comments from others about this sort of thing. We are

>starting to discipline him more regularly, usually by taking him in his

>room. Unfortunately that isn't always seen by him as a punishment. Taking

>away his bike for half an hour might be better.

Punishment is one form of education. It seems to work with some children,

though its practical effects are debated. With our autistic son, it certainly

does not work. Sometimes we yell at him, but that's mostly a way of letting off

steam. He genuinely wants to cooperate, but when he's in a " bad " mood, his

interpretation problems become so great, and his " inner motor " becomes so

strong, that he's inaccessible to ordinary reason. When he desperately wants

something that he can't have, we have to lock some doors. Then he calms down.

n

[Guest guest]

At 08:48 am 7/10/01 +0200, you wrote:

>One aspect of boredom is that there is a shortage of meaningful

>stimuli. His OCB's have probably been (at least in part) triggered by

>this kind of shortage all the time.

He has a hard time in his ABA preschool because they have him repeat tasks

about 10 times and after the first 3 reps or so he gets bored. To what

extent I wonder is this good for him?

>This is the kind of behaviour we see every time our son's been through a

>diet infringement, typically from day 2-4 to day 7-14. We interpret it as

>typical withdrawal behaviour. It takes longer, the stronger and longer

>the exposure has been. It will probably go away when the patient's

>biochemistry has adapted itself to the new situation.

I wonder about that too. Do you use enzymes or any other type of substance?

Or just stick to the diet and live with the infringements?

>Punishment is one form of education. It seems to work with some children,

>though its practical effects are debated. With our autistic son, it

>certainly does not work. Sometimes we yell at him, but that's mostly a

>way of letting off steam. He genuinely wants to cooperate, but when he's

>in a " bad " mood, his interpretation problems become so great, and his

> " inner motor " becomes so strong, that he's inaccessible to ordinary

>reason. When he desperately wants something that he can't have, we have

>to lock some doors. Then he calms down.

When was peeing on the floors, a behavior he seems to have recently

stopped, the school had him cleaning the bathrooms. Of course this is much

more work for them because his teacher took him and they cleaned several

bathrooms hand over hand. This stopped his behavior at school. It took

longer at home because we don't have the 1:1 ratio his school has.

Something I've been thinking about lately with my son is comparing it

to what I'd read about schizophrenia as an undergrad psych

major. In that syndrome the diagnostic criteria are split into primary and

secondary symptoms. Diagnosis is predominantly based on primary symptoms,

but the secondary symptoms are the more obvious signs of illness,

especially to the casual observer. These would include things like

hallucinations and other bizarre behavior.

I see the same kind of scheme present in my autistic son. Although for the

autistic spectrum disorders they don't seem to put it the same way, I think

it's just as valid.

I think the primary symptoms of autism are :

- withdrawal

- severe speech delays

- lack of modelling

Secondary symptoms would include :

- self stimulation

- hyperactivity

- obsessive compulsive behaviors

- temper tantrums

- insensitivity to pain

- anti-social behavior

To some degree at least, the primary symptoms lead to the secondary

symptoms because for example delays in speech cause frustration and anger

leading to the temper tantrums.

I'm not a psychologist so this isn't something I'm qualified to say. Just

my thinking, and I am inclined to think in technical terms.

My point though regarding my son is that I think his primary symptoms are

going fast if not gone altogether. He's still behind, but maybe by just a

year or so speech wise and catching up quickly. However at his age and with

his desire to make friends it's heartbreaking when I see him be rejected by

other kids he meets or when I perceive adults observing him and deciding

he's weird somehow.

I believe he sees this as well, and it must be extremely hurtful to him.

Yesterday he was with my wife in the evening and wanted badly to play with

another little boy. The boy wouldn't play with him. So my son kept running

after that boy. At one point the boy went and sat on his mother's back, and

then my son did the same.

I think he just wanted to join in. I don't take this as a warning sign (as

my wife fears) that he isn't careful with strangers. On the contrary I've

seen him be very shy with newer people. He was with my wife, his Mom. And

he just wanted so badly to play with this boy.

All of this makes me wonder if the secondary symptoms will go away in time.

Marty