In response of Violence and Autism

It concerns me that quite a few people are bias against people with Autism and I am apologetic if this post looks like I am "attacking" anyone who isn’t Autistic or isn’t dealing with some form of Autism in their life circle. I have a son (Noah) whom I am very proud of and has severe Autism. He is the sweetest boy and loves everyone. There are times when he gets over stimulated and he will put himself in "time out" and go be alone. This is how he deals with too much stimuli. When he does this we give him his space (I am sure everyone and I mean everyone can relate to having to have your own space to be alone one time or another) When he was in preschool the psychologist told me she wanted to put him on “Risperdal” which was supposed to make him focus and make him have an appetite. I refused several times because I had a very bad feeling about it. She pulled me back into her office and told me that if I did not put my son on this drug she would turn me in for medical neglect on my son, I told her, I "would give it a trial" after a few weeks of him taking this medication he (at 3 years old) became very violent to the point we couldn’t turn our backs on him. This was not my son at all. He loved to laugh and loved being kind and helping and this child was not laughing he was a zombie that was mean. I told the doctor I wanted him off of it and it was making him violent. She refused to take him off and told me basically I was making it up.... until one day when she was observing him and he turned on her. At that point she had me take him off the medication and he went back to his smiley, snuggly self he used to be. He is now in 5th grade and still loves to snuggle and is a smiley boy. Now, to address social interactions with people under the Autism Spectrum… Kids in general don’t truly know right from wrong and certainly do not know how to be socially or politically correct I am sure all of you who have children have had them in some form embarrass you by pointing out either gender parts to a total stranger or just saying something they overheard you wish you hadn’t said or what -not. Dealing with someone under the Autism Spectrum is a lot like dealing with that on a long term basis. Not to mention that we are dealing with human beings that can’t process reality from make believe. As a “normal” human being we like to watch action movies, play computer games or read fascinating novels that take our imagination somewhere other than real life complications. Most children don’t understand what is real and what is not (And today’s c.g.i. affects are so incredibly realistic). This is how some, not all Autistic people relate to the world. (Autism is different in every case but they all soak in information one way or another). Noah can act out every movie he has ever seen. But cannot talk or tell you how he is feeling. The point to all this is coming up next… So Last month I was watching a funny movie with my husband at night called "Four Christmases" and there is a scene in a bouncing enclosure where kids were beating up and Reese Witherspoon’s character and bashing her head into the floor of the bouncer. Which as an adult we saw the humor in it and we laughed. What I didn’t know was that Noah was hiding at the top of the stairs watching the movie as well until I heard him laugh. Being the Mom I am I sent him to bed again and didn’t think another thing about it until the phone rang the next day from school. He had been playing with his friends in school and there is a girl he really likes a lot (I dare say his first crush) and another friend who is a girl came and was pretending to “fight” over him and he then re-an acted that part in the movie. He didn’t know this was going to hurt anyone, he didn’t see anyone hurt on TV so why would this hurt in real life? Needless to say, when all was done he was so emotionally distraught that he hurt the girl and was hysterical for the rest of the day until he saw his friend Lexi the next day and she gave him a hug and told him she still loved him and she was ok. He didn’t want to leave her side. I was being responsible by only watching adult movies with my husband at night when the children are in bed. We all do this. But, it still affected him and it affected other people. Children learn from what they see and hear every day. No matter what their ages are. A parent to a normal child has the same challenges to teach their child right from wrong, real and not real. A parent to child with Autism may never actually be successful in the real and not real aspect of things. But we try every day and every moment we breathe. As a member of the human society, I urge everyone to be responsible in their own actions. You never know who is watching you or listening to you and how they will interpret what your actions are. Like it or not we all are responsible for each other, and everything we do and say is reflected (mirrored) somehow out there in the universe. The old saying, “monkey see, monkey do” really isn’t that far off because we all learned by “seeing and doing”.

Our New Life

OUR NEW LIFE!

Wow, it's been a while and a lot has happened since I last posted. Last I posted, we were in American Fork and running a campground that kept our lives in total chaos and stress. Our children were completely sheltered from doing what normal kids do(sleep overs, having friends over or even going to a friends because we had to stay at the park 24/7 etc). Then the last week of August 2012 we were very fortunate that life happened and we are now living way out in the country where the children go to a very small school. The entire school is the size of one of wings of Noah and Abigails last school(Forbes Elementary whom we love and miss). We were so lucky to have the Apline School District in our lives for so long, they have a whole program dedicated to nothing but our wonderful autistic children. It's an Amazing program they have. The new school... like I said is very small and they dont have a program "just for autistic kids" They have a special needs director and the children all go to regular classes. At first I thought, "oh no, this isnt going to work for Noah" but then I dropped in unannounced and had the opportunity to check things out. It wasn't that bad, everyone seemed so nice and laid back. So I told them I would give it a shot. It turns out that this community is so dedicated to their kids that they have custom fit a program just for Noah. What they have done for Noah is incrediable he has someone with him all the time and he is talking more and more every day. He is singing, and goes outside to play and get this... he walks home from school with his sister everyday.

(Noah age 11) Honestly, I don't believe we could have made a better decision than to move to the country.

Noah and his brother and sister are so happy here. I have never seen them smile so much. I promise to be better at posting but for now I just wanted to give you all a quick update on Our New Life.