Awareness 4 Autism

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Technology and Autism

So this seems to be a debateable subject but here is my opinions and thoughts on the subject.

People say that too much technology is not good for a child and that too much technology is used as a way of poor parents to keep their child occupied.  I think this can of course be true but I have a difference of opinion when it comes to children with autism.  Firstly, I don't advocate hours and hours of time on technology.  I don't allow my children to spend all their time on iPad but they do use them.  Both my eldest son who is diagnosed autistic and my youngest son who is starting the process of diagnosis both have an use iPad.  This happened by chance with my youngest son.  We had a broken iPad which he would adjust use to bash as his big brother had one but then for some unknown reason it started working again and as such he uses it. 

Now, I would like to point out right now that my children have a great deal of educational apps on their tablets.  They do also have games and shows that they like to watch but when a child with is on the T.V at the time.  Believe me its not worth the meltdown that would ensue if his program that he wanted to watch at that specific time wasn’t available for a my particular reason. 

Until my son was 4 he was unable to talk.  We went through a period where we would have to guess what it was he wanted or show him a million things in the hope that one of them wold be correct.  Now bear in mind at this point we had no speech therapist and I was still being told that my son was just a boy being lazy.  We got to learn about Mr Tumbles, and I will come back to him at a later date but for now know that he really did change our lives.  We sat for 12 hours straight watching every episode he had ever made and learnt all the signs that we then taught to him.  He took to it immediately and he learnt how to communicate with us.  It was amazing.  He could tell us what he wanted and needed.  Now the difficulty is is that we then needed to try and get him to speak he couldn't.  We needed him to talk.  We knew he could but he just needed some help. 

We fell across the use of an iPad with ASD children via a grant service called Family Fund.  It showed that people who used an iPad for children with ASD did so with success and it looked like it could be some help.  We sadly couldn't afford to buy one our self but they amazingly funded one for us.  It was a lifeline.  I thank them every day for the generosity they showed us when they gave us that iPad.  They brought my son out.  Suddenly he was copying words on the educational apps we had on there.  Small words and some of complete none relevance but it helped.  Horse was the first.  He knew the sign and he knew the noise and he thought it was the funniest.  The biggest word he said, or should I say the word that meant the most to me was mummy.  He just said it out of the blue and I remember crying for days afterwards.  It was literally the best thing I have ever heard. 

Without this app my son would possibly not have spoken to for longer.  Was this down to my parenting skills?  no.  He had more attention and interaction than a lot of children and yet nothing.  The speech therapist couldn't get him to speak either just this magical electronic device.  He has learnt his numbers, his shapes, colours and other words through this.  Now he has no speech issue and yet the iPad remains a firm constant in his life.  It is the thing he goes too when he is having a bad day or he is needing to calm.  He knows where everything is on it and how it operates.  its does what he wants it to do and he can control everything on it so that appeals very much to his autistic side.  we have noticed the same patterns with the youngest and as time progresses he appears to have similar difficulties. 

whilst I don't allow my children to spend day and night on the iPad I do genuinely believe that the iPad worked wonders for my child.  I see children all the time using iPad for speech apps and pecs and text to talk.  it has made a huge difference in a lot of lives.  obviously in moderation but the next time as a parent without an iPad in our life, f you see a child using it and think its bad parenting, maybe take a step back and wonder is it just a lazy parent or is it a child who has a reliant on something that can provide calm and continual understanding in a world where they struggle to control most other things.

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Autism and food

My son is 4 , up until aged 2 he would eat everything , well except broccoli but heh it looks like a tree so fair enough . My son has autism and one day he stopped eating . Now he eats beige food. Toast fish fingers waffles and shreddies , that's it . I hear and read a lot about children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are fussy eaters and will eat only a limited range of food. What can I do ? From experience , i think the first thing is to try and understand your child’s fussy eating habits , work out why . Worth mentioning you should see your GP or paediatrician , OT or dietician to start with, to rule out anything such as food intolerances. I know a lot of ASD kids with food intolerances! If tummy problems aren’t the cause, the fussy eating might be because your child: 1-has sensory sensitivities and prefers food with particular textures 2-likes routines and wants the same food at the same time every day 3- finds it hard to try new experiences, including eating new food has become preoccupied with a particular type of food. What can I try ? Encouraging a varied diet Try using foods with textures your child likes. For example, if your child doesn’t like soft foods and will eat only crunchy foods, try raw vegetables such as carrots, rather than cooked vegetables. Offering a choice between two foods can give your child a sense of control. This can be helpful for children who find change difficult. At the supermarket, let your child choose some food. He might pick a food you wouldn’t have expected – perhaps it looks interesting to him or smells good. You could even try cooking it in different ways together. Disguising foods can help your child eat a more varied diet. You could try chopping new food into tiny pieces and mixing it into something your child loves, like pasta or pizza. If your child finds change difficult, he might take a while to get familiar and comfortable with a new food. Let your child sniff or lick a new food to get used to the look, feel and smell of it. You might need to let him do this over several meals before he’s willing to take a bite. We found this recently with pizza he actually picked it up which was a milestone in it self them after an hour or so put it to his lips ! No bite but still huge progress If you show your child how much you or a sibling enjoy a particular food, over time she might be willing to give it a try. Praise your child when he tries a new food – for example, ‘It’s great that you tried those carrots’. Talk to school or nursery and work with them on a strategy

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Autism and Siblings

I get asked a lot how my eldest son’s autism effects my youngest son and if it does indeed have any impact on him.  The short answer is yes.  Everyday it has an impact on him but we have managed to deal with this as a family.  We have many strategies in place for the both of them but I do often sit and wonder if he just sees this as a normal life.  Does he see this as just how his family unit is?  If so is that fair on him?  Is it fair that his brother has a disability which can change how he interacts with him on a daily basis?  Is it fair that on a daily basis he has to make sure he gets his brother in the right frame of mind to ensure that he isn't hit or hurt in someway?  I don't know if the answer to that is yes or no but what I do know is that my youngest boy has had to learn to adapt and I wonder if this will benefit him in later life and if due to this he will have a more accepting personality? The other issues we now have are whether or  boy is learning behaviours and traits from his brother or does he indeed also have autism?  How do you know?  When do you look and think that the second child isn't just following what their sibling is doing, and that maybe there is something more that you need to look at?  Nursery settings have been helpful with that.  We have however had the issue that they seem to have very little understanding of autism and the associated conditions so are struggling to see any issues with him.  This is quite worrying especially when he has limited speech, is nearly 3, has limited social abilities and various other autistic traits which we have noticed.  Now we are in the process of again trying to get someone to listen to us so that we can get a referral to a paediatrician and finally get some kind of assessment.  Would it be easier if the youngest had autism too?  Would it make life simpler for them both?  Would we then end up with a family unit where both children didn't interact together and we had to force any kind of relationship?  I really hope not.  For all the battles and the screaming, shouting, tantrums, meltdowns, kicking and punching, at the heart of all that they are brothers how love each other.  They argue and fight like all siblings do but like all siblings they also kiss and make up.  The wont share toys and they both hurt each other but is that autism or is that just them being children.  That's the hard bit to know.  What we do know is that they love each other and they are brothers and if the youngest does or doesn't get diagnosed either way they will always be brothers and the youngest will always love and watch out for the oldest no matter what.

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Sensory Terms and what do they really mean

Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD is a complex disorder of the brain which effects both children and adults alike.  Sensory processing is how we take in information which we gather through our senses and then process it into things we hear, see, smell, taste and feel.  People with sensory processing disorder however gather all this information differently.  They can sometimes get too much of the information which is sensory overload or too little which prompts sensory seeking behaviours.  These behaviours are catagorised into different sections depending on if they have too much or too little sensory information.  Basically there is being under sensitive and over sensitive.  These are also referred to as sensory avoiding or sensory seeking.  I will stick with under and over for this.  Basically under seeking is when the person needs more sensory input to meet their needs and over means they need less.  There are the 5 areas of senses and as such different things can effect each person differently.  Below are some examples.  This is not a full list and there will be many others I'm sure but there are the ones I have personally come across.  Again this is just my personal experience and opinion.  I am just a mother with a child with autism.  I have no medical qualifications or experience.

 Sound

Sound obviously relates to things we hear.  Some one who is under sensitive to sounds may have hearing issues or hearing loss and as such needs volumes to be louder to hear in the same way.  They may also only hear in one side.  Due to this they may not be able to acknowledge certain sounds and this may be the same without hearing loss.  They may enjoy crowded places with lots of noise for the input.  For this visual aids can be used to reinforce the sounds and its also good to make people in regular contact aware so they can adjust how they communicate with the person.  On the other hand someone who is over sensitive will have sounds amplified.  This can cause physical distress to them and may even cause physical pain in to their ears.  They can find it difficult to section off sounds and hear things in a muddle so may get easily confused.  Background noise can also effect this.  As such things like ear defenders can be a useful tool to be used when its known that the area they are in is going to be loud, shutting windows and doors to outside noise if a busy day can also help.  My son uses ear defenders quite frequently when he is out and about and this helps reduce his anxiety as the noises are muted and more easily managed.

Smell

Someone who is under sensitive to smell can find it difficult to smell aromas and this can most certainly include strong odours.  This can cause an issue in older age too with personal hygiene.  A person with under sensitivity to smell may also choose to lick things to gain a better sense of the smell.  On the flip side to this people who are under sensitive to smells can find regular smells over powering.  This can include things like perfume, shampoos and soaps.  Flowers can also be included in this.  My son hates the smell of lavender plants and as such has a meltdown whenever he is near them.  It is simply a smell he cant handle.  Fortunately there are plenty of fragrance free items on the market now which can help with toileting routines.   

Taste

Someone who is under sensitive to taste may like very spicy food or food with a very strong flavour.  They may also eat or mouth non food items such as grass or dirt.  This is linked to the condition known as Pica.  Over sensitive means that flavours can sometimes end up being quite bland in flavour and the lack of strong flavours will usually be obvious in their diets.  Another connection to this is the need for certain textures such as only smooth foods.  For my son this is obvious with the fact that he will eat only very crunchy foods like toast or very smooth foods like cheese. 

Touch

Someone who is under sensitive can portray various signs of needing to touch including needing very strong feelings of pressure, a high pain threshold and a possibility of self harm, chews on things including clothing and inedible objects and can also do something called smearing which is when poo is spread across surfaces or themselves. This is due to enjoying the feeling and texture.  A way to stop this or to help them is to look at items which are weighted.  These come in various items including lap pads, weighted blankets, vests and other items.  This weight can be a way to stimulate the touch sense.  Chewing can be helped with chew toys and jewellery which is now very common in the autism community and can be found easily online in various places.  For the smearing aspect other activities can be tried which will allow them to have the same texture feeling but without the poo!! This can include jelly, cornflour mixtures etc and using them in a tray or bowl so they can manipulate the substance and get the same input.  Someone on the other hand who us over sensitive can avoid touching and cuddling for instance.  They can feel physical pain at the touch and will shy away from it.  They struggle with things like socks and gloves due to the feeling on their feet and can have difficulties with having their hair brushed and washed.  They can even find certain food intolerable and certain fabrics and materials will need to be avoided.  To help them they can be warned that someone is about to touch them and remember that hugging may not be suitable for them.  It may be suitable to change the food textures to something they are more able to manage and look at removing labels and finding materials and fabrics that they are happy with on their skin. 

Balance (vestibular) and Body awareness (proprioception)

Balance and proprioception relate also to the body and how it reacts to the environment.  Balance can be effected by SPD and body awareness relates to how our bodies move and occupy the space that we are in.  In regards to the balance aspect of this a person who is under sensitive may need to rock, swing or spin to get stimulation.  Their body awareness may mean that they struggle with understanding personal space and stand to close to people, bump into people and struggle with negotiating areas correctly.  For balance under sensitivity you can look at using swings, rocking horses, toys that go round and spin or even just standing up and down on steps.  For the body awareness side looking at moving furniture and teaching a rule about one arms length away from people could be a way of gaining understanding.  For people who are over sensitive balance can cause issues with travel sickness, controlling movements in games and sports, difficulties stopping an activity.  Activities can be broken down into slower steps to make them more manageable.  Body awareness with people who are over sensitive it might mean that the person moves their whole body to look at something and struggles with what is classed as fine motor skills.  Examples of this are tying shoes laces.  There are a lot of activities such as lacing boards which can help with learning fine motor skills and occupational therapist spend a lot of time working with people with motor skill issues to improve these.

Now it is not to be said that if a person displays more over sensitive features that they wont experience under sensitive too.  They can and are mixed as with my son.  Some areas he is very over sensitive and other very under.  We have managed to find many tricks that help him manage in a day.  There are lots of ways that this can be done and some of the examples above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sensory input and how to manage sensory issues.  You will find quickly what works for your child or young person and what is not useful.  SPD is diagnosed by an Occupational Therapist and they will then be able to explain what areas the main concern are for each child separately.   

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What is Stimming?

Stimming is a form of self regulation done by children and adults with autism.  Now lets put that into plain English for a minute.  It is short for self stimulating behaviour. Stimming is what happens when kids with autism need to find a way to calm or to express their feelings without the ability to speak.  My son is 6 and his main stim is to jump and flap his hands.  He does this at various times.  When he gets overly excited or happy he will jump and flap.  He has no idea that this may look strange to other people and as he is encouraged to do it at home when he feels the need too it means that he is happy to express himself in this way.  Stims are nothing to be embarrassed about.  They are simply a coping mechanism.  As children develop into teenagers and then onto adults they can find additional ways to control their stims with things like stress balls and the newest craze of fidget cubes and spinners.  Some people have become quite adept at masking these stims in various ways whereas others have them in plain sight. Stims can be catagorised depending on how the person portrays them.   There are some common areas which can be seen as follows: Verbal stims are quite a common one and is often referred to as echolalia.  Echolalia is repeating sounds or phrases but usually these words or sounds or phrases have little or no meaning to the current context of conversation. Visual stims can relate to lights and the use of lights to stim.  This can be simply staring at lights or things like repetitive blinking onto staring at spinning objects like wheels. Tactile stims relate to the need to do things like scratching or rubbing skin or objects with their hands.  This can also be shown with the need to continuously use a piece of fabric or clothing to remain calm.   Auditory relates to sound and can be expressed by things like listening to the same song over and over, a noise on repeat, rewinding and repeating the same piece of music or words on a video for instance.  Vocal sounds are also often seen, tapping ears and clicking fingers would also be noticeable as this is another way of promoting sound.   Taste and smell relates to not just what is eaten but also the smell and taste of inanimate objects including people.  This can be simply smelling a person or licking them or even things like licking toys, surfaces etc.  Chewing also features within the area and these things can also be linked to a condition called Pica.  Pica is when a person eats and or consumes objects not food related.  This can be anything and a person or child with Pica needs to be observed closely to ensure they are not ingesting things that can cause serious harm.   proprioception relates to an inability to feel where the body is at the time or what the body is doing.  Everyone has proprioception on  a day to day basis as this is how we do things like driving.  It is our body doing tasks and routines without us really thinking about it.  With autism this can be different and as such people who struggle with proprioception will do activities such as rocking, stamping, pull different faces, contort their bodies unusually, swinging, jumping, pacing, walking on tip toes and spinning to name a few.   As you can see there are lots of different ways to stim and stimming is just a way to handle the current situation.  Some children need to stim to seek the sensory input that they are not naturally getting enough of and other times its to control the over input stimulation that they are getting in a specific situation or environment.  Either way it is a coping mechanism and a way for them to express themselves when they are not able to do any other way.