A few weeks ago Allen took his cousin Sean to see WWE Raw when it came to Portland. Sean is 16 and also autistic. Perservations: wrestling and the weather. So going to Raw got Sean about as thrilled as Sean gets. He smiled real broad and did some wrestling poses in the mirror.
Derek likes a more real-life approach to wrestling. This week at Music Together he mainly wanted to run laps around the room and crawl around head butting other kids in the belly. So he spent a lot of time wheelbarrow walking and wrestling. I drew pictures of his bad behavior and big no signs over them. "No running!" I said. "Yes running!" he said. "No running!" "Yes running!" "No running!" "Yes running!" No running!" "Yes running!" "No running!" "Yes running!" "No running!" "Yes running!" "No running!" "Yes running!" "Gagh!" "Tee hee!" Full of beans.
Derek's also exhibiting pushing and hitting behavior at preschool. I was parent helping today, and all day he would approach kids and push them. At snack he had to leave the table for a bit because he wouldn't stop hitting the kid next to him. Now on the one hand, it's great he's making social overtures. On the other, they are sooooooo inept, he has to be discouraged. I'm trying to figure out how to get him to make overtures that are both acceptable to other people, and that he's capable of doing. Many people over many months have told him to say "hi" or "let's play," but he doesn't want to use words. It needs to be more basic than words, but less violent than head butting.
The behavior may be related to his diet. We started the GFCF diet January 1. This last weekend we didn't have any infractions and I made an effort to keep soy consumption down. His preschool teacher was commenting early this week that he's talking more and looking at faces more. He's also being a bit more of a pain in the butt, but in a funny, happy, teasey way. Then Wednesday he ate several bites of cheese toast while Allen and I were having a conversation. Then Thursday he poured himself a glass of milk and drank half of it while I was distracted by something so stupid I don't even remember what it was now. And the later part of this week was marked by rigid thinking and head butting. So maybe this is an indication that the GFCF diet is working. Epsom salt baths are supposed to help purify the body after an infraction, so I tried that tonight. We'll see how the rest of the weekend goes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Social overatures that are acceptable and non-verbal, and doable... hmmm. Shaking hands? Hi fives? Peek-aboo? Making faces? Do you think he could/would like cat's cradles? It's something to brainstorm about anyway. Love you and love hearing about you guys. Very proud of you and all your hard work.
Sometimes I think life would be easier if I could just wrestle with people instead of talking, but I'm not a very good wrestler...
...Would Derek like to give hugs instead of head butting?
Awesome blog! I was allergic to milk when I was a kid and it was really hard for my mom to figure out what to feed me at first, but she got used to it pretty quickly (I think the all-night screaming ear-aches helped motivate her). So used to it that she and my dad still don't eat a lot of dairy to this day. You can do it! It's all about the olive oil.
Post a Comment