Our son went into a fog called Autism. Every day, we are finding him.
Jackson slept for eleven hours straight! I cannot express to you how amazing that is. Insomnia is a common symptom of autism. It could be worse (he just sings and hums and scratches my arm for hours) but we are almost always tired. So we feel good this morning!
It happened twice this month.
He was there, then he wasn’t. If you’re a parent, you probably know the drop-me-off-a-cliff sinking feeling. I lost my oldest daughter in a MacDonalds Play Place once…
This was different. Continue reading “Finding Jackson (when he wanders)”
Good Question! Here are a couple of clinical definitions:
From the Autism Society
“Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first two years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Both children and adults on the autism spectrum typically show difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities.
Autism is one of five disorders that fall under the umbrella of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD), a category of neurological disorders characterized by ’severe and pervasive impairment in several areas of development.’ ”
From the Mayo Clinic
“Autism is one of a group of serious developmental problems called autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that appear in early childhood — usually before age 3. Though symptoms and severity vary, all autism disorders affect a child’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
It’s estimated that three to six out of every 1,000 children in the United States have autism — and the number of diagnosed cases is rising. It’s not clear whether this is due to better detection and reporting of autism, a real increase in the number of cases, or both.
What is clear is that though there is no cure for autism, intensive, early treatment can make an enormous difference in the lives of many children with the disorder.”
Here’s what it means for us
Autism means our 4 year old is developmentally delayed, and spends most of his time in his own world, which apparently looks and sounds different to him. It means he can’t connect the dots between thoughts and feelings. It means he doesn’t make eye contact. It means he doesn’t sense danger. It means that parenting is a whole lot more complicated than it used to be. And it means that we’re going to have to be curious, creative, tenacious, and patient in our training.
Jackson is our 4 year old boy. He was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in May of 2009, but we recognized many of the signs before his 3rd birthday.
What were the signs? Well, he wasn’t talking, and that was starkly different than his older sisters. He started losing the little language he did have. And when he did talk, it was mostly babbling or barely intelligible lines from his favorite video. But even more than that, Jackson stayed in his own world most of the time and would rarely come out for us. Eye contact was extremely rare. He occupied himself by wiggling his fingers in front of his face. His sisters tried and tried to get him to acknowledge them, let alone play with them.
After Jackson turned three and his behavior still had not progressed, we decided that he was not just a
“late bloomer” as we had hoped. We received an official diagnosis a month later.
In the fall of 2009, we enrolled Jackson in a special program for autistic children at the University of Oregon. The faculty employs a variety of A.B.A. (Applied Behavior Analysis) techniques, and we have seen some marked improvements.
Today, Jackson still spends most of his time in his own private world. And like other autistic children, he stims often. For him, that means scratching his dad’s forearms, or sitting by the window with two matching toys (or socks, spatulas, mittens, ribbons, etc) to see how the light interacts with is them. He loves to sing to himself, explore his environment, and eat tortilla chips. Over time, we have even come to appreciate these behaviors (well, not so much the arm scratching, but still…).
But one of the greatest joys of our lives is when Jackson comes out of his world to willingly communicate with us. When he finally makes eye contact with us. When he brings us a picture of what he wants. When he uses sign language. Or best of all, when he actually speaks to us.
Our hope and prayer is that, as we chronicle Jackson’s progress (and we believe he WILL make progress!), other parents of autistic children will learn how to help their own children, how to find resources, and how to make sense of their world.