Living with Autism

Last night Bratty got the yips. By that I mean she was having an "episode". The kind that seperates the classic autism from the autism plus hyperactivity kids.

Nothing was right all day.

It was sunny but she kept making us take off our sunglasses and hats as we sat in the garden.

I couldn't put washing out when she was watching; or bring it in if she was nearby.

And as Boo had woken up with a tummy ache which he quickly resolved; (blerch) I had a lot of washing to do.

Mr Hammie took her to the beach, Chicken nuggets and then shopping in the morning. And I took her swimming and for more nuggets in the afternoon. We did everything right.

And yet at 9pm she was screaming so loud at her computer we took it off her and sent her up to bed.

Then she really got going. There are jet engines that are quieter than my Bratty girl when she has a mood on. So I went up and stayed in her room trying to calm her. I have learned to bring my MP3 player with the earbud headphones with me so wh…

"Out on the wiley, windy moors We'd roll and fall in green. You had a temper....."

Bratty looking gorgeous in her communion dress.
xx

(Forgive me my indulgence, she is a beautiful child. Just don't make her angry...)

I was watching a documentary last night where a presenter mentioned that so and so and been in the navy during World War II and had earned two medals for bravery.
And it rankled just a little bit.
I mean, this individual just happened to be in a really stressful situation (evacuating a boat that had been torpedoed or something) and had coped. Helped a few other people, didn't freak out and then they get a medal.

And it made me wonder quickly (in the way that you do) if I was put in such a situation; would I cope and would I get a medal?

Of course I would.

The way I see it, all you have to do is assess the situation, stay organised and look for the best possible solutions and then mobilise people to do what you say.

Which is exactly what all of us "special" parents do EVERYDAY!

We all try to forget the bad times; that is the way of survival. But think back to the last really shit time you had with your kids and what the outcome was. If you are not in jail or a psychiatric hospit…

Bratty is doing her First Communion next week. A Big Deal in this formerly purely catholic country where education is provided primarily by the church and the rituals of communion and confirmation are part of the curriculum.
In autism world it means that you are taking part in a "normal" ritual, important to some folk.
Some folk including me. We are a mixed marriage. Mr Hammie is your typical lapsed catholic atheist and I was raised Church of England. I actually insisted on having both babies baptized catholic as I wanted them to be like their irish cousins and able to take part in family rituals if we moved to Ireland. Little did I know at the time that they would be as different from most of their cousins in as they could get; but I am still glad I recruited the atheist catholics in the family to be godparents in order to qualify for baptism in the one holy catholic and apostolic church.

Religion to me is a matter of karma. I mean that if we can use it to teach people to do t…

I am off for my holiday tomorrow. Won't be around for 10 days and if I get near a computer I most certainly won't be "with the muse".

So, I am gonna do what they do on T.V. and put up a few re-runs!

My first, is the opening chapter of the book I am trying to write.

A is For Autism

A is for Autism.
I am not a psychologist or behavioural specialist or a Psychiatrist.
Therefore, I am not going to talk about the triad of impairments or assessment scales etc etc.

What I can tell you is that Autism is a sensory disability in which everything your child sees, hears, feels, tastes and smells is distorted.

They may see every strand of hair on your head individually with more detail than a dandruff commercial, hence the need to push your hair off your face.

They may taste food in individual components that make the slightest change to the recipe seem like an entirely different food.

Touch can be too light to feel or too intense to bear, or both!

And sound most unfortunately can be very …

Community.
As you might know my little fella has recently started at a new school, at the age of 10.
Part of his initial curriculum is to recognise his classmates and to greet all of the people in the new environment. I love this. In his previous placement I worked for years to get him to acknowledge his classmates; most of whom were in the same class as him for 5 years. I would draw circles around their heads in the daily photo's to prompt his recognition, I made PECS cards to point at when asking him "who is in your class". No dice. Every girl he ever met was Laura, and every boy; Conor. He was like one of those middle managers that deliberately get your name wrong to put you off guard.
Adults were less of a problem. As long as they could do something for him; he would focus on their features to recall if needed. I imagine him seeing a blurred outline of a face with a hand coming into focus holding a black marker; then sharpening focus to see the person who does the drawi…

This week I am pleased to introduce another guest contributor, this time a Dad!
It is not Mr Hammie, who prefers the sword to the pen (he he) but a Dad who writes his own blog; a diary of his experience of having a baby boy with Downs Syndrome.
He has very kindly written this piece especially for us.

It's different for Dads - Part 1:

Evicting the control freak.

One November evening a few short years ago our house got flooded. Not someone-left-the-bath-running flooded. No, this was three-feet-high-and-rising, can-anyone-see-the-bath-tub-anymore? flooded. Next morning we could see that we had lost the entire downstairs of our lives. I smile now when I think back to our pathetic attempts to keep the floodwaters out, using a kitchen brush and increasingly damp optimism. Might as well have asked Brenda and Audrey to soak it up with a Bounty wipe each.

I did learn one important thing though: that we cannot control anything. Not a sodding thing. We may have the illusion of it, or partial domi…