Before I talk about this post, let me give you an update on Operation OILHIT: we haven't done it yet. Our air pump has disappeared and as soon as we fix that little issue, we will be Inserting Logan into Hollow Inflatable Thingy. I'm sure he'll have a blast.
I think one of the "myths" I posted on this site was that autistic children do not make eye contact. That is a myth, they DO make eye contact...but a lot of times, they also avoid it.
A lot of people still don't really understand what autism is or what it means when you say someone is "autistic". They picture Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man" or they picture a catatonic head banger. These are both really extreme examples of someone who has autism or other mental deficiencies.
Because autism is a "spectrum" disorder, you will see different levels of communication in different children or individuals. One autistic person may have no speech at all but actually be brilliant in his/her way of thinking. Another autistic child might talk you to death, going on and on about one particular subject and boring you with statistics and other irrelevant minutia.
My son is autistic. His autism was diagnosed as severe. But he has always interacted with us. In the beginning, when he started to lose words, his speech was extremely limited. He would get really frustrated because there was something he needed or something he wanted to say, and he couldn't figure out how to get those thoughts out.
Gradually, through therapy and some very patient teachers and therapists, he is being pulled out of his shell. He can ask for things now that he needs or tell us about basic emotions he is feeling. And he loves to play games with us. These are games that he makes up that might seem redundant to other people but that he finds extremely hilarious. One such game is "tackle". He stands in front of me and backs up. I hold my hands up palms outward. He charges and rams himself into my hands as hard as he can, and bounces off. He loves this game, and each time he does it he bounces a little higher until he ends up "tackling" mommy. I think he would do well at football if he had the attention span for it (he doesn't). He also likes to throw a blanket over our heads and proclaim: "It's dark in here." (Yes, thank you. We know.)
So what kinds of things do we do to get him to interact and draw him out? At school he is on a strict schedule and his teacher actually has expectations of him. He is expected to do work and he is rewarded when he follows those instructions. He also receives speech therapy at school. At home, if we want to know something, we ask him a question. And we don't assume what he wants. If at all possible, we repeat the question over and over until he gives us some sort of answer. Sometimes, if it's obvious what he wants, we will give him the answer and have him repeat it. He also has a specialist that comes from the school once or twice every six weeks to work on educational skills, pattern recognition, opposites and things like that. Every one that's worked with Logan has had his best interests in mind (except for one time, which I've mentioned before and is pretty much a non-issue now.)
So, since having Logan, my new motto has been "Never assume anything." Never assume your child can't do something, never assume he/she will never progress, never assume anything about anyone...why they speak the way they do, why they appear to be rude or anti-social, why they can't seem to control themselves. Sometimes the explanation is not what you think.
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