Autism as WE Know It

Let me make something clear....I DO NOT want Autism to take over this blog.  While it is true that Autism is a huge part of this family and in turn dictates how we handle certain situations, I want this blog to be an outlet....a little peek inside this cray cray world we live in.  I want it to be so much for you, the reader.  A lesson, an experience, an outlet as well, and maybe even a pat on the back.  A reminder that we ALL have those days :)

So with that being said, today's blog is about Autism ;)


I realize that many of you are not familiar with Autism, or Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), so I thought I would take today to tell you what it means to us.  Many different features or characteristics are shared by people with ASD, however, there are no two people with ASD who are the same or who share the same presentation.  There are three specific areas of behavior which have to be present in order to make a diagnosis.  I will list these areas and their specifics, and then underline the ones that apply to Blake specifically.

Impairment of Social Interaction
-     Difficulty in understanding the non-verbal aspects of social interactions, such as being able to understand facial expressions, turn taking in conversation and understanding what is going on in the other person's mind.
-     Difficulty in making friends and interacting with people of the same age and preferring to associate with younger or older people.  (However since enrolling in school, Blake has gotten better at this.)
-     Not seeking to share experiences, objects, activities or space.
-     Difficulty in sharing social and emotional interactions with other people.

Impairment of Communication
-     Absence or significant restriction of spoken language.
-     Difficulty in engaging in conversation with other people by listening to and responding to what the other person is saying.
-     Using stereotyped/repetitive/idiosyncratic language.
-     Having no interest in participating in spontaneous make-believe play with other people of the same age.

Impairment of Activity and Interests
-     Encompassing and restricting preoccupation with a small range of ideas or things or topics.
-     Obsession with ritual, order and repetitive behaviors.
-     Showing repetitive motor mannerisms such as hand flapping, singing or making particular noises.
-     Preoccupation with parts of objects which interferes with understanding how the whole object works.

So far, no one has yet discovered exactly what causes ASD. There are a whole lot of theories, but none have actually been proved or gained acceptance in the medical field.  ASDs do tend to run in families.  In Blake's case, he has an uncle who had ADHD as an adolescent and an uncle who also suffers from ASD.  Both of which are my brothers.

With neuro-typical behavior, most of us resolve conflict over time by the use of rules, social norms, values and the ability to negotiate and compromise based on an understanding of what might be going on in the other person’s mind and what might be motivating them.  A person with ASD does not do negotiation or compromise.  They are not able to do a lot of things that allow them to be able to get along in a group (a family, a class, a school playground, or a workplace).  It's not that they do not want to be a part of the group.  It is simply because they do not know how to act within the social norms of their peers.  This one single attribute alone has forced Kevin and I to reevaluate every interaction with Blake and try to explain social situations to him.  Its hard, and most times telling him that's just the way it is doesn't always fly.

A very big area of concern for Blake are his senses.  We all take our senses for granted.  Pretend that you have no control over the signals that your senses are telling you.  Maybe the touch of clothing is unbearable to you and you can't switch that feeling off all day.  Voices are just noises and you can't respond to people because you can't decipher between the noises and the voices.  An ASDs world is STRESSFUL....everything sets their nerve endings off.  What we see as beautiful and lovely, they see as a problem, or something that causes stress.  A person with ASD is literally hard-wired differently then we are.

One area of our lives that we are still struggling with is the sarcasm.  We are a sarcastic household.  I get it from my dad, and Kevin, well it just comes natural to him :)  But in an ASDs world, there is no sarcasm.  They don't get it.  Non-specific instructions are bad too.  For instance, we cannot say 'Stay out of the street'.  Instead, we need to say 'Stop your bike at the end of the driveway'.  Or 'You're the apple of my eye'.  Instead we should say 'I love you very much'.

And we occasionally have meltdowns to deal with.  I say that because this is one area that seems to be improving more than all the others.  Meltdown triggers tend to cluster in certain areas.  One book describes four of these areas.

1.     Sensory Overload
2.     Physical/Physiological triggers:
          -     Food allergies or sensitivities
          -     Sleep disorders
          -     Gastrointestinal problems
          -     Inadequate nutrition
          -     Biochemical imbalances
          -     Unarticulated illness or injury
3.     Emotional Triggers
          -     Frustration
          -     Disappointment
          -     Maltreatment
          -     Sense of fairness
4.     Poor examples from adults

Blake's triggers usually fall in the Sensory overload or Emotional trigger category.  Frustration is huge for him.  He gets frustrated a lot for not being able to do something he sees others doing, and not realizing that he is still growing and learning how to do some things just takes time.

I have so much more that I could discuss with you on this, but this post is already longer than I had anticipated!!  So please, ask questions in the comments and I will respond with the best answers that I have :)  I hope that I have been able to show you a little bit about what it means to be autistic.

Jenn