Thursday, August 4, 2011

The strangeness continues....

.....I've mentioned before that Rachel is sensitive to Simon. If Simon gets upset, so does she. She will cry. She will come over and bury her head in our necks. And we know this behavior holds true for some other children to whom she has a "sensitivity" for. However, this has been changing. And in a very odd way. And a very unpleasant way as well....

At home, whenever Simon gets upset, she no longer starts to cry and comes to me or Kevin for comfort. She will run over to Big Brother Daniel and ATTACK him, like it's his fault. She will hit him. She will try to pull him down. She will knee him in the chest if he is lying down. She will climb onto his bed and wake him up if it's early enough in the morning. She'll even try to strangle him. It's like she becomes a child possessed.

And today, things got even stranger. Hurting Daniel wasn't solving the problem, so now she's taken to hurting herself. She will bang her head into the table or onto the floor, then come over to us crying because "Rachel bonk". Well, DUH!!!! When you bang your head into the table or the floor repeatedly, it's GOING to hurt!!!!! She seems to recognize that she's not getting the comfort she needs from us when she's just coming to us. We keep telling her that she shouldn't be upset just because Simon is upset. So, now she seems to be legitimately making herself upset and crying. I think she's hoping this way she will truly get the sympathy that she craves. And also by hurting the way Simon appears to be hurting, perhaps she can take away some of his frustration.

Tomorrow I'm following up with our existing developmental pediatrician to go over the ADHD issues. The appointment will have several goals including her informing us what she believes we need to do to address the ADHD, but also to help us find someone who will continue to follow our cases once she retires in a few weeks. You can trust I'll be bringing this stuff up (as well as other issues).

There are always more questions.....

3 comments:

  1. I've been reading your blog for a bit, I was going to comment on this myself, but I thought I'd recommend another blog to you. Do you read the blog Journeys with Autism? There are a few great posts over there regarding autism and empathy... which I think you may enjoy. May or may not apply... Rachel (author of journeys) always gives me a lot to think about with my daughter. I know you probably don't have loads of time... (understatement) but they're worth the read.

    Melissa

    ReplyDelete
  2. Melissa, thank you so much for the info. I'm not sure I've seen this blog before (but I have read [and contributed]) to her (Rachel, I mean) Autism and Empathy page. I will definitely look for it over the next few days.

    Thanks again!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh gosh we have the same problem with Chananiah! Whenever Reena misbehaves, cries, screams, stomps her feet, or even just says NO when they know I want to hear YES, Chananiah launches into a full scale tazmanian devil routine. He usually bites me and lands in his room for a 4 minute time out. When I'm alone with them it's super fun. Reena, LISTEN to mommy. Chananiah, STOP before you land in time out....

    ReplyDelete