Serenity Now!

While Isaak continues to struggle, he has began blogging, which is truly interesting. I’m finding that his ability to express what’s going on in his brain is much better done on paper (or computer screen!). I’m gaining insights into him that I haven’t gotten by just talking to him. I will encourage him to keep this up. It’s also a good writing assignment.

Click here for Isaak’s Blog.

Today, he had another little outburst in Primary (church). They had to bring him to me because he had thrown himself on the floor when he didn’t get his way. I was feeling very at-my-wits-end. I hate regressions! I know they come sometimes, and his progress is (on an overall view) remarkable, but when we’re in the midst of one of these downturns, it just kills me. We had some great family discussion and guidance/perspective from Dave, and I feel better now.

We had him help write up a behavior contract with an incentive program and consequences for behavior. It’s like 3 pages long! But, he agreed to it and signed it. We’ll see if that helps this week.

He also wants to go off the diet. He doesn’t think it’s helping and is just upsetting him. We told him we’d let him try this upcoming weekend if he has a good week. We’ll see how that goes. Nothing can be worse that these past few days, so it’s worth a shot. I think I gave it a fair shake.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

Boy, this is a first. Today was Isaak’s first day at school. Well, I knew it wouldn’t be perfect, but I never expected to find out that he had to be removed by security from math class! No joke. Thing is, he can get overly excited and obsessive about math (big surprise) and is easily triggered in that setting. In this case, a little something set him off, but because the staff didn’t know him or how to deal with such an upset (not a big one at first, mind you), they accidently fed the fire and he spiralled out of control. To the point where they had to call in a security guard to pick him up (still in his chair) and remove him. I guess they were both laughing at that point, so I guess it wasn’t a total loss. Anyway, what a miserable way to start things off. I went to school and shadowed him for a few hours, and although he was a little “touchy”, he was just fine. I had to intervene once with him on the playground because he was getting a little stressed in a 4-square game. Overall, he was fine. I gave some tips to his aide (who I really like) and chatting a bit with his teacher. We will have quite the chat tonight, and I will go in tomorrow to math class to make sure he’s back on track. I will also make him stand up in front of them and apologize for his atrocious behavior.

He can really be a jerk, sometimes.

It’ll be fine, I’m sure. I just hate it when these things happen. Little setbacks can really be depressing. Part of life, though.

There’s a darling toddler in my autism class, a little girl (we don’t get many of those, so the ones we get are quite doted on!). She’s the sweetest thing, but she’s very low-key and has a pretty flat state of emotions. It was great today. On Mondays, we’ve begun putting all the toys away and just having a social referencing day. We put out tunnels and the sensory table and do music and blow up balloons and the like. For this student, thought, we haven’t seen a big change in her emotional state. She pretty much still lives in her own world and does a lot of spacing out. She enjoys the activities, especially the sensory stuff, but she’s still not “waking up.” Today, we had the music going, and I just put her face-to-face with me and took her arms in my hands and started singing with the music and shaking her arms to the beat. Poof! That girl woke up! If just for a few minutes, but she was right there, looking at me, smiling and watching what I was doing. It was a marvelous sight and one that I will try to repeat with her.

Sometimes you just need a wake-up shake!

What a bunch of goofs!

There is a story behind this. These are the three boys (Isaak in the middle) that were together when our old school started a preschool ABA program (after some “coaxing” from some of us ). We moved away when they were in first grade, so it’s been a couple years since we last saw them. We just went for a visit last week. You would *never* have believed these are the same three kids that began that program those 5 years ago. All of them had little speech (one had none), had significant behaviors, had very obvious autism symptoms, and I guarantee would have remained significantly impaired and needing support through their school careers if we hadn’t intervened. Today, all three of them are mainstreamed (Isaak full-time, the other two for everything but some academic intervention), and two of them can almost pass as “typical.” One is still fighting the overt autism symptoms, but he is doing *light-years* better than I ever would have imagined.

When the two boys came in to where Isaak was and the teachers re-introduced them, they all remembered each other. They got down on the floor and started playing a game like no time had passed, but this time, they played with NO intervention from adults. They were just a couple of boys playing a board game. It was remarkable.

No one can tell me that early, intensive intervention is not worth every effort and penny that’s put into it.

I will start posting more often. I promise (haven’t heard that before, have you?).

Well, kids and I are off to Vancouver this weekend. We found the area we want to live in, the school we want the kids to go to, and the one apartment complex in the area. We will move into there until we find the right house. That way, we don’t have to feel rushed. It’s in a more affluent area than than is “us” so we want to take our time to make the right housing decision. Lil’ Audra (aka Maggie) will go ahead and start school on the 13th, but the school won’t be ready for Isaak’s services yet. We will meet that day to get that into place and hopefully he can start the next day.

Lil’ Audra is having the hardest time with the move. For some reason, moving from Kent to Bellevue last year wasn’t a big deal. She says it’s because she didn’t have a lot of friends there, but she has made some close friends here, and it’s so hard for her to leave those attachments. She still pines for Bailey out in Sultan from three years ago! This is it, though. We knew that being in Bellevue was temporary (I hate the eastside and am MORE than happy to get out of King County), and I know that this move will be permanent (as much as I can be sure). That was the plan. Find a place and stick with it. The kids need that stability. I used to think it was Isaak that needed it, but I almost think it’s Audra, now. I think Isaak will benefit more from it and it will aid him, but I think Audra desires it more and it will make her happier and more complete.

Dave does not have an official offer yet. We are going on faith! He has turned in the final paperwork and they will be doing the background check. It’s just the waiting game for him right now. He finished Microsoft on the 17th and will either do computer temp work here and come down on the weekends or he’ll find a temp job down there. Either way, he’ll have to temp until the academy starts (probably in summer).

I decided to take the job with birth-to-three. It seems like a good fit for me. They do not have a specific program for their kids with autism and would like to develop one. That’s where I come in! Seems right up my ally. It will be a little trickier than a school district job in that I’ll have to juggle things through the summer, but they seem very flexible, and we’ll make it work. I’m excited about it.

So, life is making a big switch on us, but one we feel good about. I look forward to the new adventure!