Express Yourself!

At one of our recent in-home therapies with Miller's cognitive therapist, we focused on validating Miller's emotional feelings, specifically, his anger and frustration issues. In the past, Miller would hit his head on the floor, or sliding glass door to release some of that frustration. He is now learning to vent that frustration through "squeezes", our own word for addressing those difficult situations. It is very common for people with autism to have sensory needs that differ from you and I. For example, a common sensory need is the need to crack ones' knuckles or neck. We view this as a nervous habit, but actually we are satisfying a little twitch that we most commonly feel on a subconscious level. These sensory needs are often stronger as well in children with autism. With Miller, he needs a very deep pressure on his head, chest or back. And when I say deep pressure, I mean a firm flat palm whap to his chest. He seeks out this feeling to ease that twitch or in most cases, frustration, but sometimes he comes close to hurting himself. Our new focus has been to help him learn to ease those feelings by reinforcing the positive behavior and rewarding him with a squeeze. I always feel kind of weird when we are out shopping or running errands because it looks like I'm hitting him, but he actually becomes more calm and focused when that little sensory need is met. Terry and I had to learn the early warning signs, ie. frustration, and learn get to him before he is able to complete that need in a negative fashion. He still needs a supplementary " sensory diet" to ease some of his feelings, but Terry and I are learning how to meet those certain needs with the help of our therapists. It is definitely a constant worry that we will miss something, but so far, things seem to be going well.

It has now been about 12 weeks since Miller started therapies, and about 6 weeks since he started going to "class". The progress he has made has been wonderful. However, sometimes I feel like he is taking one step forward and then three steps back. We have good weeks and bad weeks. This last week has been a very good week.

A big issue lately has been Miller's constant need to climb, crawl, pull and chew everything in our little baby proofed living room. And in there lies our problem. It's just BABY proofed, not "I'm Miller and I'm two and a half and I can lift and throw cinder blocks" proofed. Last week he pulled the TV out of the entertainment center. Terry has gone to great lengths to insure his safety, but it was just getting out of control. Almost everything has been bungee corded to the couch or wall. So, after a day that nearly caused a nervous break down, Terry started giving Miller warnings and time-outs. This hadn't worked before, not only because Miller didn't understand what he was doing wrong, but he didn't understand what Terry and I were trying to say to him. Now he receives a warning, usually "no" or "uhuh" and if he doesn't stop what he is getting into, he goes into his highchair without a snack and we ignore him for five to ten minutes. Sounds bad, I know, but the negative behavior has decreased and now when we mention the word "time-out" he stops doing what he was doing. A seemingly small triumph for Terry, but a huge step in how we work our days.

It has also been a great week because we are going to be participating in a research study being done by the University Of Washington's Autism Center! Our teacher approached us last week at class and asked if we would be interested. Of course! What an awesome experience for Miller. The study is focusing on how parents interact with their special needs children, specifically those with autism. Each of the 10 sessions will be taped and then more studies will be done based on those videos. We are so excited! Our first session is next week.