progress!
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| Tue, 05-10-2005 - 9:01pm |
ok, any little thing right now that is progress and positive I need to celebrate-- I'm not having a great week (kids home sick, not great IEP meeting for Warren, feeling generally down)
Weston (8 1/2) has had a virus and was feeling a bit better today-- but still not himself and had a fever yesterday so couldn't send him back to school. Amelia(11) has bronchitis and isn't bouncing back very fast. Weston was upstairs and had asked me to bring him some juice w/ ice in a straw cup. I thought he was in the play room so I took it in there. Amelia was there coughing up a storm and asked 'please' for the juice so I gave it to her. Weston was in his room playing cars on his bed; he heard me give her the juice and went crazy! He was so angry that she got his juice. So I went down and got him juice in the same kind of cup and brought it to him. He was tantruming and screaming and would not calm down, went in and screamed at Amelia and finally w/ my help went back to his room, shut the door and played w/ his cars.
What I find is the progress--- is that when he was screaming at her he was using words! the words were understandable even to me downstairs and he was making sense. OK, the screaming at the top of his lungs was not acceptable nor was the turning red and shaking, BUT he used words, he expressed his position!!! this is new and just started happening w/i the last month!
Betsy

Oh my! That sounds familiar! I have such a hard time with the angry screaming, words or not. But, if the words actually say something meaningful, I see how that's a step in the right direction. My 3.5 gets screamed at way too much by his big brother, and the words are usually something like, "You IDIOT, I HATE you!!! I'm going to KILL YOU!!! Why did you purposefully touch the doorknob when you KNEW I'm the only one who is EVER allowed to touch DOORS!!!" (?!)
Wow! That's weird. This message window just disappeared and I just saw a bunch of computer code.
Anyway, it sounds like you could use a break. (Not that moms ever get one). HUGS
Evelyn
Betsy,
I totally agree! That is great progress for Weston. It means he is starting to think and communicate during times when he is very upset. This is quite a feat for an ASD child. We are seeing a similar change in Cassian. Cassian used to not even make eye contact during tantrums. It was as if he was lost in his own emotional storm. Now he makes eye contact and verbally expresses himself. He also follows my verbal directives and seeks his own vestibular stim (crashing on beanbags or something soft, which I have said is acceptable to do). Very few parents can appreciate what a milestone this is. Parents of ASD children know it means significant progress.
I just started reading The Explosive Child. Have you read this book? I'm not far enough into it to give a review, but it sounds like it might apply to Weston. One thing I will say is that there are examples of kids in the book that actually make Cassian look pretty tame;) That fact alone is a good reason for me to keep reading it. At least I can feel that my kid isn't the worst at emotional control.
Suzi