Monday, 15 March 2010
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Am I the Only One Who Can Help My Autistic Son?
Who can help my son? My son is ten years old. He is nonverbal. His is autistic. Who can help my son? He can not write. He needs hand over hand assistance to write letters and numbers? Who can help my son? He has a short attention span. He has difficulty following verbal instructions. Who can help my son?
He can dress himself. He is not able to bathe himself. Who can help my son? He has sensitive hearing. He doesn’t like his hands and fingers touched. Who can help my son? He is extremely intelligent and bores easily. He isn’t able to demonstrate his knowledge unless he is using hand over hand to access a communication device. Who can help my son?
He has OCD. He flips through books from back to front. He doesn’t play with toys. He wants what he wants, when he wants, and there is no reasoning with him or changing his mind. Who can help my son? He has a limited list of acceptable foods that he will eat. He can operate the tv, the remotes, and his radio, yet he can’t or won’t operate a gaming system. He wants to, but is determined that someone else does it and he watches. Who can help my son?
He rebels against being made to do new things. He fights against being made to work and attend to tasks. Yet, if he is being asked to do something he likes or gives him what he wants, he will do it. Ask him to get a food item out of the pantry to good his favorite meal, he’ll do it. Ask him to get a cup so that he can have a drink, he’ll do it. Ask him to get an item off of the table you need, because you need it, he won’t. Who can help my son?
Really, is it too much to ask? I want practical help. I want real assistance. I don’t want pie in the sky solutions from quacks that think that because a certain therapy has helped other children, it will help my son. I want a real evaluation from people that have years of experience working one on one with autistic children instead of an evaluation from doctors that only sees a child once. I want a real plan of continued therapy that won’t bankrupt me. Who can help my son?
Am I the only one? Let me here from other parents. Let our voices, our pleas, be heard.
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Comments (5)
April Choulat at Pathways in Jacksonville, Florida is offering a series of web meetings to help parents - and the series is free. She's trained in several interventions and knows a great deal about development and sensory issues, including RDI and the HANDLE approach.
I understand how difficult it must be to try to assist your son in his many challenges. I think you ought to try the free web meetings in the above comment post.
Can Diet Help Autism ?
You may find the resources available on my website www.HorizonsDRC.com beneficial. My colleagues and I design customized treatment programs to address a wide variety of issues for children and families, including the ones you mentioned in your post. There are many free resources on our website to get you started with learning about what we do and how we do it.
Take Care - Nicole Beurkens
You're not the only one who asks themselves this question. I wrote an article about it and made suggestions as to what he needs. You'll be able to provide some of it yourself, for other things you will need outside professional help.
http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner~y2009m12d24-How-do-I-manage-my-childs-autism
What kind of services is your son involved with in your community?. What kind of school support does he get?.
Maybe your son doesn't need to be "helped". Maybe he just needs to be understood, and left to be himself. I often found with my 'clients' who have Autism that they don't need to change. There's nothing wrong with them and their behaviours such as wanting to flip through magazines, the only problem comes when Self Injurous Behaviour comes along. Help people around you understand your son, and see the beauty in him and what he likes, and doesn't like...
That's all I can really say, and I know that not everyone thinks the way I do.