My Family's Experience with Autism: 2 Quick Things

Saturday, April 9, 2011

2 Quick Things

There are a couple of quick things I want to talk about tonight.

First of all, a bit of self-promotion. I mentioned in my last post that I was going to be a featured "Guest Blogger" on the meta-blog "Multiples.....and More". Well, the link is there for anyone who is interested who hasn't seen it yet. I hope it isn't too heavy handed. But it IS honest.

Second, I wanted to talk about Daniel's birthday party. It was at a facility filled with inflatable toys, called BounceU. Translation, it's LOUD. There are powerful fans that keep everything inflated. And we were concerned that Simon would have trouble dealing with the noise and the insanity of a birthday party for a 6 year old. We were (surprisingly) wrong. He had a BLAST!!!!! One of the "party professionals" really helped him out and pretty much attached himself to Simon (and to a lesser degree, Rachel) to help them deal with potential sensory overloads. And they both had SO MUCH FUN!!!!! And overall, we don't think there was anyone there who didn't have a great time (talk about a successful kid party)!

So, today was a completely EXHAUSTING day, but it was an amazing one!!!!! Daniel had a wonderful birthday party, and we got to have the fun of watching all 3 of our kids (and approximately 20 others) have a great time playing together.

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A Little Bit About Me and My Family

Every once in a while, something happens to a family that seems to change everything, whether that change is positive, negative, or in an uncertain direction. One such thing happened to us in March 2009, when we were informed our 26 month old twins (girl/boy) were BOTH on the autism spectrum. Their older brother (nearly 4 at the time) had always been ahead of the curve for most developmental milestones, so we had never really considered that some of the delays the twins were having had anything to do with autism. Well, we were wrong. Since then we have been learning about learning techniques and doing everything we can to make sure they get any and all help they need so that they can live normal lives. This blog chronicles that journey.

The Autism Pizza

I don't know where this came from originally, but I found it on a post on Circle of Moms. It's a good explanation of how things line up on the spectrum.

1. The Crust: Lack of Social Interaction (poor eye contact, not sharing interests with you, no pointing/gesturing)

2. The Sauce: Impaired Communication (possibly no speech, poor conversation skills, repetitive language, echolalia, no make-believe play)

3. The Cheese: Stereotypical Activities & Interests (extreme routine, strong interest in certain things, stimming [flapping, atypical play, etc.] -- like spinning wheels, lining toys up, stacking, etc.)

If you have all of those things: crust, sauce, cheese, you made an Autism pizza. It might have different toppings, but you can look at it and know it's still a pizza. If your pizza doesn't have sauce, that's Aspergers's. If your pizza is missing more than that but still kind of looks like a pizza, that's PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified)