Re: This Is NOT Good

[Guest guest]

Such lovely autistic fun at nearly midnight.

Well, parallel play is still pretty good! And is pretty young.

>

> I have four days of this to look forward to.

Sorry!

Summer looms.

Oh, yes. Tell me about it.

Salli

[Guest guest]

Sorry the boys are having such a bad time.

I have a question, has just started lining toys up (yesterday exactly)

and it was matchboxes. I was horrified, beside myself. My DH Jack (who is a

great guy) helps him line them up neater!!! He thinks because NT used to

line them up that this is a GREAT thing....Now did line up cars but it was

like they were in a parking lot and then he would drive them out and make car

noises etc. just lines them up, knocks them over, lines them up...Should

I stop him?

BTW, DH is very supportive of the work I am doing with with the school

etc and he agrees that " something is right about " but he doesn't

understand all the details. He has been working 12 hr days to build our house so

I won't beat him yet LOL

Warm Regards

& ASD 11/25/00 in Maine

This Is NOT Good

is FIVE hours post meds and WIDE awake. This is bad. This is

VERY bad. Aaack. I don't know if I should drop the lexapro, stay

with it as is, increase it, or just konk him on the head. Shit.

And Mr. is WIDE awake stimming like mad and happy as a clam as

long as you leave him alone and don't interfere with his stimming

with the vcr and lining up the pokemon and digimon toys. I swear,

even as he is starting to speak a wee bit he is more autistic by the

week.

and are play fighting Pokemons now, lining them up,

arranging them, not really playing with each other, but parallel

playing off and on. Such lovely autistic fun at nearly midnight.

I have four days of this to look forward to. Summer looms. Heaven

help me cause I have no idea how we are going to survive.

[Guest guest]

And I believe www.overstock.com has Greenspan's book for an awesome

price.

Maggie

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[Guest guest]

Feeling your pain..not a good day yesterday..thankfully spring Hell

is over, and school is back on next week. Lucky for me my kids have

it 2 different weeks, so spring break was double the fun.

It did go better than last year though..gotta think positive.

Libby

> is FIVE hours post meds and WIDE awake. This is bad. This

is

> VERY bad. Aaack. I don't know if I should drop the lexapro, stay

> with it as is, increase it, or just konk him on the head. Shit.

>

> And Mr. is WIDE awake stimming like mad and happy as a clam

as

> long as you leave him alone and don't interfere with his stimming

> with the vcr and lining up the pokemon and digimon toys. I

swear,

> even as he is starting to speak a wee bit he is more autistic by

the

> week.

>

> and are play fighting Pokemons now, lining them up,

> arranging them, not really playing with each other, but parallel

> playing off and on. Such lovely autistic fun at nearly midnight.

>

> I have four days of this to look forward to. Summer looms. Heaven

> help me cause I have no idea how we are going to survive.

>

>

[Guest guest]

> I have a question, has just started lining toys up (yesterday

exactly) and it was matchboxes. I was horrified, beside myself. My DH Jack

(who is a great guy) helps him line them up neater!!! He thinks because

NT used to line them up that this is a GREAT thing....Now did

line up cars but it was like they were in a parking lot and then he would

drive them out and make car noises etc. just lines them up, knocks

them over, lines them up...Should I stop him?

>

SOOO many schools of thought on this one. I am of the 'sabotage' school.

It worked for , although sometimes it was hellish and would have been

easier to just let him do it. Basically, from the time he was 34 months old

until he stopped lining things up, every time I saw a line or another form

of stereotypical arranging, I would swoop in and mess it up. Sometimes I

would yell, " TORNADO!!! " and throw everything in the air. Sometimes I'd

pretend to be a godzilla-type monster and rampage through the line.

Sometimes I'd take one thing out and start playing with that thing myself.

ANYTHING to disrupt the line. Yes, he yelled, he screamed, he cried. But I

never stopped doing it. It worked for him, as now he doesn't line up

anything or exhibit any stereotypical behaviours at all.

I'm not saying my way is the only way or the best way; it's just what worked

for . I used to be the self-titled 'Stim Nazi'.

Stanley Greenspan, who wrote The Special Needs Child (or The Child With

Special Needs...) advocates taking the stim and turning it into a play

opportunity. His whole philosophy, Floortime, starts with this premise.

Your husband is almost there -- but instead of helping n make the line

neater, he could make one car leave the line and drive around. If n

gets mad and makes a move to get the car back, well bingo! - that's

communication, and that's a GOOD thing. The whole floortime idea is to draw

the child into communication, and even if he's vocalizing his irritation,

THAT COUNTS.

I totally recommend picking up his book. It's wonderful.

Too much information?

Jacquie

[Guest guest]

Jacquie,

Thanks for the great information!! 's DT (that he had before starting

school) told me that she basically followed the floortime method so I purchased

the book early this year. However once was DX, I stopped reading it. I

got it in my head that I couldn't do floortime while the school was doing ABA. I

don't know why, I guess I am so new to this that I get overwhelmed. Sorry

rambling again....

So back to reading and learning, LOL. I know that the head teacher told me that

she sabotaged his stimming when he was lining up crackers at lunch by breaking

them, he was none to happy but she said he moved on. I don't know why him lining

up cars got me so upset compared to lining up food.

Thanks for all the great information

Warm Regards

& ASD 11/25/00 in Maine

Re: This Is NOT Good

> I have a question, has just started lining toys up (yesterday

exactly) and it was matchboxes. I was horrified, beside myself. My DH Jack

(who is a great guy) helps him line them up neater!!! He thinks because

NT used to line them up that this is a GREAT thing....Now did

line up cars but it was like they were in a parking lot and then he would

drive them out and make car noises etc. just lines them up, knocks

them over, lines them up...Should I stop him?

>

SOOO many schools of thought on this one. I am of the 'sabotage' school.

It worked for , although sometimes it was hellish and would have been

easier to just let him do it. Basically, from the time he was 34 months old

until he stopped lining things up, every time I saw a line or another form

of stereotypical arranging, I would swoop in and mess it up. Sometimes I

would yell, " TORNADO!!! " and throw everything in the air. Sometimes I'd

pretend to be a godzilla-type monster and rampage through the line.

Sometimes I'd take one thing out and start playing with that thing myself.

ANYTHING to disrupt the line. Yes, he yelled, he screamed, he cried. But I

never stopped doing it. It worked for him, as now he doesn't line up

anything or exhibit any stereotypical behaviours at all.

I'm not saying my way is the only way or the best way; it's just what worked

for . I used to be the self-titled 'Stim Nazi'.

Stanley Greenspan, who wrote The Special Needs Child (or The Child With

Special Needs...) advocates taking the stim and turning it into a play

opportunity. His whole philosophy, Floortime, starts with this premise.

Your husband is almost there -- but instead of helping n make the line

neater, he could make one car leave the line and drive around. If n

gets mad and makes a move to get the car back, well bingo! - that's

communication, and that's a GOOD thing. The whole floortime idea is to draw

the child into communication, and even if he's vocalizing his irritation,

THAT COUNTS.

I totally recommend picking up his book. It's wonderful.

Too much information?

Jacquie

[Guest guest]

> Thanks for the great information!! 's DT (that he had before

starting school) told me that she basically followed the floortime method so

I purchased the book early this year. However once was DX, I stopped

reading it. I got it in my head that I couldn't do floortime while the

school was doing ABA. I don't know why, I guess I am so new to this that I

get overwhelmed. Sorry rambling again....

>

No, I think that's a common thought. but I know that Salli has used

floortime and aba together with Putter, so it IS possible! :-) We were a

strictly floortime household; I'm not sure why. No professional even

suggested aba to us, so we had to find our own path, which turned out to be

an amalgam of floortime, aba, whatever we learned from the ST and OT.

> So back to reading and learning, LOL. I know that the head teacher told me

that she sabotaged his stimming when he was lining up crackers at lunch by

breaking them, he was none to happy but she said he moved on. I don't know

why him lining up cars got me so upset compared to lining up food.

>

Maybe because while everyone has their own little food rituals (like eating

all the veg first, then potatos, then meat, or taking one bite of each in a

clockwise fashion, etc...) that others just don't really notice or care

about, because they have them too, lining up cars instead of making them go

vroom on the carpet is something that just SCREAMS " wrong! " There are a

million little eating pecadillos -- but only one real way to play pretend

cars. Seeing a lack of imagination is WAY more affecting than seeing what

could be just a mundane food preference.

?

Jacquie

[Guest guest]

,

We have had this type of discussion in the past. Some of us stop stims,

some of us don't. Some let the kids stim at home because a lot of them

don't do it out side of home and it is a calming activity. I worked on

stopping things that would be obvious to others, hand flapping and buzzing

noises. These make the kids look odd to peers. Lining cars up at home

isn't a negative activity. I loved the suggestion about using it to work on

his interaction and teaching him car noises and driving them, etc. It's a

great suggestion! You could work on teaching color sorting, color naming,

etc., with him too.

Sue

[Guest guest]

What we tried to do is replace a unacceptable stim with an acceptable

one. Like pacing to jumping on the trampoline or swinging outside. We

always tried to make it into something meaningful. I also think that

we as adults stim, (Hair and ring twisting, leg bouncing, pen tapping

are mine.) and that we shouldn't take it completely away.

I think it is a great idea to help the stimming by interacting and

teaching.

Just my 1 cent.Libby-who is bored to death at work and thankful for

her highspeed internet access and this posting board. :^)

> ,

> We have had this type of discussion in the past. Some of us stop

stims,

> some of us don't. Some let the kids stim at home because a lot of

them

> don't do it out side of home and it is a calming activity. I

worked on

> stopping things that would be obvious to others, hand flapping and

buzzing

> noises. These make the kids look odd to peers. Lining cars up at

home

> isn't a negative activity. I loved the suggestion about using it

to work on

> his interaction and teaching him car noises and driving them, etc.

It's a

> great suggestion! You could work on teaching color sorting, color

naming,

> etc., with him too.

>

> Sue

[Guest guest]

> This may seem weird but humor me. 1) how much do your younger two

sons

> weigh?

is close to 50lbs, is 37lbs I think.

2) could or would either or Gail help you if you

wanted to try

> something sensory with them?

likely not. Gail, possibly.

>

> My trick to a sleeping involves a warm bath a heavy jacket and

a ride

> in the stroller. Both boys I'm sure are too big for a stroller and

I doubt

> you could do that right now without the other kids destroying the

house

> anyway.

You are correct although would like that, maybe, unless he

decided he didn't want to be in the stroller.

>

> So what I'm thinking is a heavy blanket with someone on each side so

that you

> could swing . Is that possible? I've found that rythmic

motion really

> helps her and another friend gave me a tip that helps her son before

bed. A

> very fast up and down rubbing on her arms and legs.

has some real sensory issues with rocking, balance, etc. I

kinda think he wouldn't go for that at all. Hard to guess on the

rubbing, but he hasn't been a good candidate for brushing either so

far. He has trouble with vestibular stuff. He likes spinning, but

not any thing where he tips at all. He likes full body contact, but

not big hugs. He hates blankets on top of him except for the lightest

of throws. Guess that's why he still doesn't go down well. Haven't

figured out what works.

>

> Hope something here helps I worry about you and your sanity.

No, I'm fine. Frustrated a bit. Okay, I was really frustrated today

and irritated, but sanity wise okay. Thanks.

[Guest guest]

>>>>>>>

I have four days of this to look forward to. Summer looms. Heaven

help me cause I have no idea how we are going to survive.

<<<<<<<

I hear ya, .

Of course, I only have to deal with Jacqui...but if the last week is any

indication of what we can look forward to, I'm screwed. Her social skills,

as almost non-existant as they are, have just gotten worse.

I can't imagine 3 months of no school.

Penny :/

[Guest guest]

>>>>>>

I have a question, has just started lining toys up (yesterday

exactly) and it was matchboxes. I was horrified, beside myself. My DH Jack

(who is a great guy) helps him line them up neater!!! He thinks because

NT used to line them up that this is a GREAT thing....Now did

line up cars but it was like they were in a parking lot and then he would

drive them out and make car noises etc. just lines them up, knocks

them over, lines them up...Should I stop him?

<<<<<<

I wouldn't, not unless it becomes an all consuming stim. The fact that a)

you're dh gets down and plays with him and doesn't object, are

very good signs.

Penny :-D