Category Archives: Autism

A Different World

Posted on March 22, 2012 by | 5 comments

To piggy-back on to Richard’s “Shift” post; mine began with a slight tremor in the form of a book.    Autism and Representation Edited by Mark Osteen.   That book opened my eyes to so many things, but most importantly it introduced me to the words, the voices and lives of many adult autists.  After reading Autism and Representation, I started looking for other writings by autists.

While I was doing all of this, my friend, Kelly (I consider her my friend, though we have never actually met, nor spoken) commented on one of my posts with a link.  I went to the link, (written by an autistic adult) couldn’t believe what I was reading, read everything on her blog and began reading all the blog links she listed.  From those links I was introduced to dozens more and finally mustered up the courage to respond to someone’s comment on one particularly controversial post, written by a mom of an autistic child.  For me, someone who was now showing up very, very late to the party, I was fascinated by the comments written by autists much more than the post itself.  Being the compulsive and thoroughly obsessive person that I am, I systematically went through every single comment, madly clicking on each and every person’s link and began reading their blogs.  This was the beginning of what turned out to be the education of a lifetime.  Wow!

One of the links led me to the WrongPlanet where I read the interview with Henry Markram about his Intense World Theory of Autism.  His theory confirmed everything I felt I’ve known about Emma, but that many specialist said wasn’t true.  On the contrary, the common thought about autists is that they lack empathy and therefore feelings.  Finally I was reading something that resonated.  Markram’s theory has opened up another world to me.  I have always known Emma was very intelligent, I have never doubted that, ever.  But his theory of intense feelings and pain memory and how this causes the child to withdraw… well it was like being told you really are seeing what you thought you’d been seeing all these years.

Up until this last week, my fear of what the future held for Emma was something I could not begin to describe.  Everything about her future filled me with terror.  Every birthday marking another year gone by, filled me with trepidation.  Each time we had to teach her to state her correct age, I gulped down massive amounts of fear.  The fear was so great I could do nothing other than tamp it down.  I kept a firm grip on it.  The minute I felt myself sliding into it, I pushed myself back out.  That takes a lot of energy.  It takes up a lot of space.  I didn’t even know I was doing it until I began reading these blogs written by autistic adults.  Adults with a wide variety of issues and challenges.

It’s not as though I read these blogs and thought – oh isn’t it great how cheery and easy everything is for them.  Because it isn’t, far from it.  But somehow, reading about individual lives, feelings, struggles made it less frightening.  Reading the outrage, the cries to be heard, the desire to be respected and treated as such, the ridicule many have endured, the bullying ALL have endured, made it real for me in a way that I could not have anticipated.  And in doing so, the abject, nameless, all encompassing fear I have tried so hard to shove away,  dissipated, because there is this community that is like her, a community of people who understand her, who are fighting with courage, tenacity and determination to be heard.  They are fighting and speaking out, many with the hope that one day Emma and those like Emma who are just being diagnosed now and those yet to be born, won’t have to.  I am profoundly grateful to each and every one of them.  If we want autism awareness, these are the voices that need to be heard.  It is up to us to listen.

For more on our journey through Emma’s childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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Posted in Autism, Autism Books, Parenting

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Buffalo H & Buffalo J

Posted on March 21, 2012 by | 4 comments

When we are in Aspen we stay on our ranch.  It is no longer a working ranch, but my mother and her sister built houses on it, separated by a stretch of dirt road.  You can’t actually see either house when inside one or the other, which is wonderful as each have views of the mountains, but they are close enough that you can walk from one house to the other.  Or as is the case with the children, they run.  Except in the summertime when one of us will yell after them, “Remember if you see a bear, don’t run!”   This comment usually elicits a dramatic display of bravado with the children demonstrating how they would raise their arms while yelling loudly until the bear wandered off.  We are hoping the bears are still hibernating, though it’s been so warm they may be out and about, it’s hard to say.  Yesterday afternoon, Emma and Nic went over to their cousin’s house and spent many blissful hours playing.

At one point Emma stopped, looked up at the enormous buffalo head situated in her cousin’s living room and said, “Buffalo head!”  Joe, who was standing nearby confirmed that it was in fact a buffalo head.  To which Emma replied, “Two buffalo heads.”

“No, Em.  Not two.  Just one.”  Joe pointed to the buffalo’s head.

“Two,” Emma said matter-of-factly.  Then she pointed to the house that was once owned by my sister, just up the road and said, “Buffalo H and,” she pointed back to the buffalo above her, “Buffalo J.”

I realize this story requires some explanation – my cousin’s name is Jennifer and the last name of the people who bought my sister’s house is Hunt.  When my sister moved out, she left the buffalo head hanging above the fireplace and when the Hunts moved in they decided to leave it there.  As we are good friends with the Hunts, who also happen to have two boys Emma and Nic’s age, we have been over to their house many, many times.  Hence Emma’s designating their buffalo as “Buffalo H.”

Excuse me while I bask in the glow of my child’s brilliant mind.

Neurotypicals =  The art of small talk, Kim Kardashian and Snooki.

Autistics = Einstein, Mozart, Nietzsche and Isaac Newton.

‘Nuf said.

Buffalo J.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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Posted in Aspen, Autism, language

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Greeting Granma

Posted on March 20, 2012 by | 6 comments

Friday we arrived safely in Aspen, or as Emma described it, “We have to take two planes, then get to see Granma!”  Despite my reservations about not having any seats together, people were kind and accommodating, several happily moved for us and we ended up all together.  I didn’t have to plead with anyone, or explain; I think this was a first!

Upon our arrival Nic and Emma ran ahead, first Nic flinging his entire body against my aging mother with all his might, so happy was he to see her and then Emma, more timidly perhaps, but with no less excitement wrapped her arms around her granma and hugged her.  We have been through this routine dozens and dozens of times, taking two airplanes, arriving in Aspen, my mother always there at the airport to greet us and never has Emma greeted her granma like this without at least some prompting.  My mother looked up at me with her beautiful smile and said nothing.  She didn’t need to.  Emma was now holding one of her arthritic hands and exclaiming, “Oh, Granma hurt her fingers!”  But instead of then racing off or letting go, she continued to hold her granma’s hand, tenderly examining her arthritic fingers, the same misshapen fingers my grandmother had, that as a child, I too had found so fascinating.

Later as Richard was unpacking and I was setting my computer up in the adjoining bedroom, Emma came in and said, “Going to go outside.  We can go outside and talk. Talk with Mommy.”  She then opened the door to the porch directly outside our bedroom and sat in one of the chairs.  “Mommy sit here,” she said, pointing to the other chair.

Obediently I did as she directed and we talked.  Emma talked about how high it was from where we were sitting to the ground downstairs where she could see the dogs playing.  She talked about how I was sitting with her in the chair next to her.  She walked the length of the porch and talked about how she couldn’t reach the dogs, nor could she reach the ground downstairs.  We discussed distance and the difference between being inside and outside and then she stood in front of me and said, “Now I’m going to sit on Mommy’s lap.”

Which she then did.  And I wrapped my arms around her, while we looked out at the Rocky Mountains, jagged and covered in snow and breathed in the crisp mountain air together.

The next morning, outside with the dogs, who were behind me looking at Emma.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:  Emma’s Hope Book

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Posted in Aspen, Autism, language

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Shifts

Posted on March 19, 2012 by | 6 comments

Richard back again, with more good news. Emma continues to amaze and delight us with her nearly continuous playfulness, mischievousness and affection. Ariane and I have also been spending a lot of time visiting the blogs of autists and aspies, which have opened up a whole new world for us — and caused a dramatic shift in our perspective on autism and our goals for Emma. I’m a big believer in synchronicity and lately it feels like we are being bombarded with ‘coincidental’ occurrences that have had the accumulative effect of completely altering the way we’ve always looked at our journey together (I only say ‘we’ instead of keeping it to myself because Ariane and I have been talking about this about twenty times a day and we have been on the same page with most everything we’ve discussed).

For those who don’t know me well, I write fiction. My first novel is a supernatural thriller called The Book of Paul, which will be published soon. It is very dark and creepy, with graphic sex and violence — in other words, definitely not for kids. So quite some time ago I began writing a book I could read to Nic and Emma (or they could read to me) — a young adult fantasy called The Dream Palace. In many ways, it was and is my attempt to process my feelings about Emma’s autism and my hopes for her recovery – in other words, it began as a fantasy version of this blog. However, my perspective on what constitutes Emma’s “recovery” has altered in ways I never could have imagined only a few weeks ago.

Let me try and connect some of the synchronistic dots: we met BL in Aspen while on vacation who also has an autistic child. She introduces us to Dr. Sandy Lowe who has a very different theory on the cause of autism. He believes that a genetic vulnerability coupled with a viral infection of the mother during pregnancy, probably also combined with an environmental toxic insult causes a biochemical reaction that alters the natural neurological development of the fetus (something to do with cytokines but I don’t want to get lost down that rabbit hole). Sandy recommends stem cell treatments which we try without any dramatic results, but when discussing one of Emma’s post-treatment brain scans, he tells us about Dr. Marion Blank who is working miracles with autistic kids with her new learning program. Lo and behold, her program begins working miracles with Emma!

In my ‘spare time’ I also happen to have run a program for K-12 schoolchildren, encouraging healthy eating, exercise, literacy and other good works via positive messaging on the side of milk cartons — as in billions of milk cartons to tens of thousands of schools across the country — a very powerful influencer. So I decide to commit all these resources to an anti-bullying effort because we have had many issues with bullying at Nic’s school — and lobbied with only partial success for a more aggressive curriculum to address those problems. Needless to say, with our steadfast goal of getting Emma into a mainstream school environment, we worried about how much she might be bullied because of her differences.

In looking for established anti-bullying programs to partner with, I run across the Kind Campaign. It was founded by two exceptional young women, Lauren Persekian and Molly Stroud who were both traumatized by girl-on-girl bullying in school. They have produced an amazing documentary called Finding Kind where they toured the country, compiling a heart-breaking collection of stories from high school girls whose lives have been devastated by bullying. By the time Ariane and I finished watching this award-winning film, our previously entrenched goal of getting Emma mainstreamed has flown out the window! No way do we want Emma exposed to this vicious, cruel and traumatic behavior! While we’ve had issues in the past with her school, one fact is undeniable — she is loved to death by everyone in that school, teachers and students alike.

Our sudden abandonment of the mainstream goal had the most unexpected side benefit — our overall stress level plunged like a bowling ball from the Empire State Building! We had no idea how much of our day-to-day anxiety was rooted in our conviction that we absolutely, positively had to get Emma into a ‘real’ school right now! Voila! Our ‘happy index’ leaps from a 2 to a 9 overnight!

Next, my truly amazing wife, partner and life-saver Ariane, in her relentless pursuit of knowledge — not just to benefit Emma, but to enlighten herself about what life is like for adult autistics, begins visiting all these blogs which she then introduces me to and also blow me away. I’m hoping Ariane continues to provide links to all these wonderful sites since this post is already approaching my typical epic length, but I’ll just say that it completely alters my perspective on ‘curing’ Emma.

I’ve never felt that Emma had to be ‘normal’ for us to have succeeded as parents, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hold out hope that someday she’d ‘lose the diagnosis.’ Now, much to my relief — and Emma’s too I’m sure, I couldn’t care less about her obtaining a ‘complete recovery.’ She doesn’t need one! We want her to be able to function in our crazy world well enough to live independently and happily, but her quirkiness is a-okay. The strange thing is, I’ve always been an oddball, OCD type and so are all my favorite people –artists, visionaries, scientists, geeks and obsessive weirdos of very stripe. To be off the mainstream kick is like getting back to my own roots.

The synchro-fun continues with Ariane’s discovery of Henry Markram’s Intense World Theory for Autism — which oddly enough is almost identical to Sandy Lowe’s in regards to the cause of autism — and goes further to postulate that all autistics are savants of one type or another — and autism itself may be the next leap in human brain evolution, though apparently it’s still working out the kinks. Which brings me back to The Dream Palace.

One morning a long time ago I remember going into Emma’s bedroom and as she woke up, she said something to me in a long and completely articulated sentence. I was shocked to say the least. I remember telling Ariane about it but I’m not sure I could remember what Emma said by the time I told her. In fact, I no longer know for certain whether or not it really happened! Had I been dreaming? To this day, I can’t tell for sure. Given how strange it would have been for Emma to talk like that when she could barely speak at all, it seems obvious that it had to be a dream. But then again…

Regardless of whether it was ‘real’ or not, that incident became the inspiration for The Dream Palace, where Emma’s character named Daisy in the book, is able to talk perfectly in the dream world.

I’m a research nut. I enjoy the research process as much as the writing. Unfortunately, I could only find one research study of dream patterns and content in autists and it pretty much sucks. So of course, I wrote my own survey! I’m trying to get it out to autists who are willing to participate so if any readers have suggestions on how I could do that most efficiently please let me know. In the meantime, I’m rewriting the story because after reading Markram’s findings, I’m now convinced like he is, that not only does Emma sense, feel, and perceive much more intensely than us highfalutin ‘normals’ — she may indeed be much farther advanced than we are — which hopefully we will discover as her communications continues to advance so rapidly.

Bottom line? Life is good, very good. All it took was a complete shift in our perspective.

For more on our journey through Emma’s childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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Posted in Autism, oxytocin, Parenting

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The Third Glance, Theory for Autism and Flying

Posted on March 16, 2012 by | 6 comments

Two things – the first is that I wanted to mention a post I loved reading, written by E. of The Third Glance –  a 22 year-old autistic adult.  Her “Growing up Autistic: On Nature, Nurture and Abuse” piece is powerful, heartbreakingly honest and written with elegance.  Hers was one of the stories I was referring to when I wrote in the Evolution of a Perception post, “The abuse, the prejudice, the cruelty all of these austists have endured is staggering.”  Richard and I also loved her post – My Cat Is My Hero.  It’s beautiful, but then so is the writer, E.

The second thing I want to mention is an interview with Henry and Kamila Markam about The Intense World Theory for Autism on the blog – Wrong Planet.  It’s interesting, problematic in that I worry it will be misinterpreted by some, (leading to the type of  universal parental blame demonstrated by both Kanner and Bettelheim) but this quote was such an amazingly accurate description of what I’ve always suspected Emma experiences, I had to read it twice just to be sure I’d read it correctly the first time.

“The Intense World Theory states that autism is the consequence of a supercharged brain that makes the world painfully intense…”

They go on to say – “The theory was triggered bottom up from neuroscientific studies and the real changing point for us was when we found that fear memories were so quickly acquired, lasted longer, were difficult to erase and over generalized. This put all the results into context because the neocortex could render the world intense, highly fragmented and overly specialized while the amygdala would dial up the emotional component of the intense world making it potentially extremely painful and aversive forcing the autistic child to take refuge in a secure bubble. If they don’t succeed to take refuge through repetitive behavior, routines, rocking, and other types of behaviors, then they may display self-injurious behavior – like ants crawling all over your body. The diversity comes from the fact that we are normally diverse and if you add hyperfunctional circuits to that then naturally each autistic child will be even more different from each other. It is like taking all our normal differences to an extreme. This challenges society to accommodate autists, but diversity is the key to social evolution and so it is a good challenge.”

We are flying out to Colorado this morning.  I wasn’t able to get a single seat together.  I even called the airlines and begged them to do something. I told them we were flying with two children, one of whom is autistic, but they said there was nothing they could do.  We aren’t even in the same rows!  Wish us luck.

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Posted in Autism, Parenting, travel

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“I’ve Got the Moves Like Jagger”

Posted on March 15, 2012 by | 7 comments

This morning, Emma turned on Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger featuring Christina Aguilera.

It began like this…  (By the way, the turquoise thing Emma is holding is her string.  It’s a work in progress.  Every few days she adds more duct tape to it.  Pretty soon she’ll be able to use it as a snowboard.)

and then she did this

Which turned into this

and then this

“I’ve got the moves like Jagger”…

and she did and she was…

It was beautiful.

In it’s purest form – joy.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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Posted in Autism, music, Parenting

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The Evolution of a Perception

Posted on March 14, 2012 by | 18 comments

As I wrote yesterday’s post about Emma’s progress in the past year, I realized how much my perceptions and views have changed since beginning this blog.  When Emma was first diagnosed I cycled through a series of emotions fairly quickly.  Some, like guilt, grief and anger hit me with a violence that took my breath away.  Others ebb and flow, while still others, like acceptance, came more gradually, but all of these things continue to change.  My ideas about autism, what that means to Emma and to us have changed.  I no longer believe there is a neuro-typical child named Emma hidden beneath guaze like layers of autism.  A child who, if we could just find the magic thing that would remove the autism, would emerge, intact, speaking in beautifully, articulate sentences, a child who would suddenly converse with us as though all these years had been silent practice for her grand debut.  I do not believe we can extricate Emma from her autism.

I have gone from thinking it was wrong for me to slap such a potent label on her, that it was kinder, gentler, more empathic to say – my daughter has autism – than to use, the more blunt and direct, “she is autistic,” to the question I now find myself continually asking – what would she say, if she could?   I don’t know.  Until she tells me, I cannot know.  But I won’t stop trying to find out.

In my search to understand Emma, I have found voices, and there are dozens and dozens of them out there, autists who, now in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s have blogs where they articulate what many cannot say with spoken language.  These are the so called “high functioning” autists who can communicate, some not verbally, but who have found ways to communicate through typing and other forms of communication.  Their opinions, their voices, often poetic, at times angry, despairing, brutally honest, always insightful, are making themselves heard through their blogs.  Finding these sites has been akin to learning there is a vast alternate universe.  There is so much I did not know, do not know, but want to learn.  Over the course of the past eight years, with the sole intention of helping my daughter, I have done almost every single thing many speak out against.  I didn’t know.  I thought I was fighting for Emma.  I thought my focus on a “cure” was a good thing, the noble thing, the thing that would release her from the bondage of autism.  It never occurred to me that my focus could be perceived as a kind of bondage in and of itself.  By the way, I am not beating myself up over this, or more accurately am trying hard not to, but am doing my best to listen and learn.

I know I’m wading into tricky territory here, with many differing opinions about “cures” and how that word is negatively perceived by those on the spectrum, and I don’t want to get into the semantics of it, only to suggest it is a dialogue that is important.  It is a dialogue I am trying to understand.  I want to understand.  One I hope I am coming to understand.

The abuse, the prejudice, the cruelty all of these austists have endured is staggering.  One of my favorite blogs, by the incredibly talented Julia Bascom, called Just Stimming is filled with such pain.  She writes so beautifully and with such honesty, I read her words and feel overwhelmingly grateful for her voice.  E. is another such voice with her blog, The Third Glance.  Then there’s Landon Bryce, who’s blog ThAutcast is peppered with youtube videos of himself talking.  Provocative,  passionate, he is always interesting and someone I would love to have a conversation with.  There is LOVE-NOS, a group blog with three authors sharing their views and thoughts, one of whom is Julia Bascom. Another group blog, Wrong Planet describes itself as – “a community designed for individuals (and parents/professionals of those) with Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD, PDDs, and other neurological differences.”

The point is, these sites are educating me in ways I could not have imagined.

Someone named Kathryn commented on another blog:  “Here are two broad categories of parent attitudes about autism. (Others may exist, but these are common and pertinent.)

1. I want my autistic child to function the best he/she can, and will do anything I can to help him/her overcome the difficulties posed in his/her life by autism.

2. I want to have a normal child and will do anything to get rid of this autistic child’s autism, because then I’ll have a normal child again.”

I aspire to be the parent described in #1.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

Emma during gymnastics last Sunday


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Posted in Autism, Parenting, special needs

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Crocuses, New York City Firemen and Emma

Posted on March 13, 2012 by | 5 comments

As Richard and I revel in Emma’s affectionate embrace, New York City is experiencing an extraordinarily, early spring.  Purple, yellow and white crocuses are peeking out from mounds of dirt in great bursts of color.

This weekend the weather hovered around 60 degrees, today it’s suppose to go up into the 70’s.  The firemen, always good indicators of the temperature outside, across the street from our loft, are wearing shorts.  People are smiling, daylight savings time is in effect and this morning Emma was still asleep when Nic and I left the house.  Short of pinching myself to make sure this isn’t all a dream, as we waited for Nic’s bus to arrive, I couldn’t help but wonder – What’s going on around here?!

In addition to Richard’s beautiful post from yesterday, Emma is making progress in countless ways.  So I’d like to take a moment here to take stock, a kind of inventory gathering of this past year, to highlight how far Emma has come.

One year ago, Emma was struggling with forming the letters of the alphabet.  (I’m not kidding, I just went back and looked at my old notes.)  Today Emma is reading at a first grade level or higher.  In addition, Emma is writing and typing full sentences in answer to questions posed.  Emma knows more than 200 words by sight, she understands punctuation and uses a period, question mark and comma appropriately.  Emma knows to use an upper case letter when beginning a sentence both when writing by hand and when typing.  Emma is learning to use the past, present and future tenses when speaking, writing and typing.  Emma has made a massive leap forward in her use of the correct pronouns.  In addition (no pun intended) she is able to write simple math sentences, adds and subtracts 1, 2 & 3 up to the number 30.  Emma loves doing mazes and connect the dot pictures.  Emma continues to enjoy favorite picture books, but is now reading them herself!  She is no longer simply flipping through the pages, but is actually pointing to the words and READING!  I know, I just said that, but I find this really, very, very exciting.

Emma’s greatest deficit is in her expressive language, but we have been working on that through Dr. Blank’s “Step into Stories” program and through a number of other exercises and work we are doing with her.  Emma is working with Joe after school for a solid two hours and is able to attend during that entire time, with just a few two to three minute breaks throughout.

For the past three weekends, we have taken both children out to brunch at a different restaurant each time and Emma has sat and eaten food from the menu.  Any idea how exciting that is?   We live in New York City, after all.  People here eat out more than they do in, but for us, it’s exhilarating.  She sits in her chair, waits for the meal to arrive, engages with us, and enjoys herself.  Eating out together as a family was not something we have, up until now, been able to do.  One year ago we were having to pack a separate suitcase with the foods Emma would eat whenever we traveled.  Going out as a family to a restaurant was not something we even considered doing.  Emma has slowly expanded what she will eat.  This past Sunday Emma ordered apple juice and made no fuss when it arrived in a tall glass with a straw.  A year ago, not only would she not have ordered apple juice that she was unfamiliar with, but had one of us ordered it, she would have refused to even take a sip without a great deal of protest.  This is the same child who would spend an entire day refusing to drink or eat anything, if it was not familiar and known to her.

In gymnastics Emma is beginning to be able to perform a cartwheel that actually resembles a cartwheel.  She is able to do a hand stand, does jumping jacks on the trampoline and has learned how to touch her toes during the stretching period.  I know, all of this sounds pretty rudimentary,  but for Emma these are monumental leaps forward.

As Richard so eloquently wrote, Emma spent Sunday walking with us, not running ahead, there were no grunting or squealing noises, no sudden bursts of arm waving while jumping about, just walking, arm in arm, sometimes reaching for one of our hands, sometimes stopping to give one of us a hug.  There was a great deal of laughter, playing and interacting while Richard and I floated along on a cloud of joy and gratitude.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book


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Posted in Autism, New York City, Parenting

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Grappling With The Right Thing To Do

Posted on March 9, 2012 by | 1 comment

When Emma was first diagnosed she was still two years old.  The supervising ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapist from the agency who provided us with Emma’s early intervention program was a huge imposing man with a beard.  During one of her more difficult sessions, he took Emma into her bedroom where he told me he needed to have me not intervene as it would only make matters worse.  I was told that she needed to learn she must comply or she would never be able to progress.  I was told that no matter what, I was not to enter her bedroom.

As her screams grew louder and more desperate I huddled in the hallway against the wall to her bedroom, confused, horrified and angry and wept.  It was a form of torture, listening to her screams.  As the minutes wore on I wavered between the instinctive need to protect my daughter and the desire to do what would prove best for her.  The problem was, it was not clear what the right thing to do was.  If I went in and rescued her, according to the therapist, I would jeopardize all the hard work they had up to that point accomplished, reinforcing the idea that screaming would get her out of doing any “work” and if I didn’t intervene I had to sit with the knowledge that I had allowed a complete stranger to traumatize my daughter.  These are the kinds of episodes we parents replay in our minds, with new ones constantly being added to the queue.  Did I do the right thing?  Should I have stopped him?  What sort of long term trauma did I subject my daughter to?  If I didn’t stop him, if I allowed these sorts of sessions to continue was I not an accomplice in harming my daughter?  Was the therapist correct?  Would the rigorous ABA program we fought so hard to implement have worked had I not doubted it so much?

As it was, I did not intervene that day.  However, months later during yet another session when Emma cried and screamed with the therapist, while sequestered in her bedroom, I finally did.  I was told by the therapist that it was my behavior that was causing Emma to not progress with her ABA program.  I was told in no uncertain terms that the therapist (whom I liked) could no longer work with Emma because I wasn’t sufficiently supportive.  Later that day I received a call from the head of the agency telling me they would no longer provide services for Emma because I was too difficult to work with.  The year was 2005 and in New York City there were few other options.  ABA therapy was considered the gold standard, the only scientifically “proven” methodology that worked with children on the spectrum.  We had fought hard to obtain 35 hours a week of it for Emma.

The point is, whatever the methodology you employ with your child, there is no way to know whether it will help.  Uncertainty is part of parenting.  With a child on the spectrum that feeling of uncertainty is heightened and more loaded, the stakes feel so much higher.  Are we doing the right thing?  Will this help her in the long run?  What will do the least amount of “damage” and help her the most?  We neuro-typicals cannot know what it is to be autistic.  We cannot speak for people on the spectrum.  All we can do is hope that the decisions we make are going to help our children so that they can one day speak for themselves.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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Dionne Warwick, Somersaults and Feelings

Posted on March 8, 2012 by | 3 comments

Every morning after her breakfast, Emma listens to music, which she dances and sings to.  This morning she played Dionne Warwick.  Emma has choreographed specific dances for specific songs and in one she has even incorporated a series of somersaults; it’s a kind of Cirque Du Soleil goes disco moment.  When one of us dances with her she will sometimes dance with us while laughing, but just as often will turn her back or, as she did last night yell, “No Mommy.  Sit down!”  So horrified was she by my undulations.  At other times she will hold an arm out in front of her with her hand held like a shield blocking her eyes from us, although I think from her perspective we are the ones being blocked from her.  We’ve made a game out of this and will dart around her so that we are within sight while Emma shrieks with laughter.

“She wants to engage with others,” one of the many specialists noted during an evaluation when Emma was just three years old.  “No one can teach a child that.  You’re way ahead of the game.”

When Emma was first diagnosed I read about how autists are unable to understand emotions and have little if any desire for interaction.  I then reached the conclusion that were this true Emma didn’t feel the full range of emotions we neuro-typicals do.  But I quickly found this to be false.  In fact, I would say the opposite is true.  Emma feels the full range of emotions available to any of us in high-def.  I have seen the look on her face when she thinks she will get to see one of her cousins, but is told they are not coming after all.  Emma’s feelings get hurt, she feels tremendous disappointment, she prefers being with her family more than anything in the world, she finds comfort in specific people just as any other child does.  She has favorite friends at school whom she seeks out.   If anything Emma is an extremely sensitive child, just as her brother is, the difference is she isn’t able to talk to us about her feelings, at least not yet, and the way she conceptualizes situations may be different, I don’t know.  What I do know is that Emma feels a great deal.  Her feelings are easily hurt, she feels tremendous frustration, disappointment, sadness as well as happiness, joy, excitement, anticipation and love.

Before Joe took the kids to a giant indoor water park two weeks ago, Emma said, “I’m so excited!  Mommy and Daddy come too?”  Her full range of emotions were obvious in those two utterances.

Regarding our IEP meeting yesterday – thank you to all who reached out.  These meetings are never fun and this one proved to be no different from the rest.  We did insist that Emma’s sensory issues be noted, though we were told the words “sensory diet” could not be used as they were a specific methodology and therefore could not be included in the report.  We found this somewhat baffling as a sensory diet is not a “methodology.”  It’s a bit like saying someone’s wheelchair is a “methodology,” but rather than quibble with them, we made sure specific references were made throughout her IEP, which should help, if anyone actually bothers to read it.  At least they didn’t say – “Oh yes, I see here that she eats a limited number of foods,” which was what was said to us several years ago during another IEP meeting when we spoke of the need for a “sensory diet.”

I will end with a series of Prepper acronyms WTSHTF (When The S**t Hits The Fan) at least we’ll have our BOB (Bug Out Bag – enough supplies to last a week or so) or at the very least our GOOD kit (Get Out Of Dodge) so that we’ll be prepared for TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It).  I am not making these up.  They exist.  I swear.  Gotta love that.  And for all of you as amused by The Donald’s (TD’s) “hair” as I am, he claims it is NOT a weave, though some have speculated that it’s a “double comb over” (DCO) which is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard, so I’m going with that theory.  I promise I’m done.  OAO.  (Over And Out.)

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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Posted in Autism, Parenting, sensory issues

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What the BOE and Preppers Have in Common

Posted on March 7, 2012 by | 8 comments

Today is our IEP meeting with the BOE.  Perhaps the only organization using more acronyms than the BOE (Board Of Education) are Survivalists.  How and why do I even know about such a group, you might ask?  Because my husband, in his thorough research for his almost finished YA novel (it is so good, so wonderfully written, so exciting, it will turn YA literature on its head) has told me all about them.  Survivalists or Preppers as they are also known, are preparing for the worst.  Don’t ask me anything more because that is the extent of my knowledge regarding Survivalists.  However I am a bit chagrined that the name “Survivalist” has been taken by this group as it seems an appropriate name for our children on the spectrum, though if they rejected it, I suggest we parents adopt it.

But I digress… this afternoon we have to go to the BOE and meet with three or four members of their staff to go over Emma’s IEP (individualized education program) mandated by the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).  The point of the IEP is to help teachers and related service providers understand the specific issues, challenges and strengths of each specific child, with specific written goals for each and every child with a disability.

This is how the NYC DOE (Department Of Education) describes the IEP: “An Individualized Educational Program (IEP) describes the special education and related services specifically designed to meet the unique educational needs of a student with a disability. An IEP is the guiding document for a student’s educational program. It includes all of the goals, objectives, present levels of performance and related services that are recommended for the student.”

The first time I went to such a meeting, I was very excited, assumed the BOE cared about my daughter and her educational needs, wanted what was best for her, would urge for the best possible services, would work with me to get those services, suggest the most appropriate placements, write up a detailed and suitable IEP for her, etc.  To say that I was disappointed does not in any way express what actually transpired.  I left that first meeting surprised by my naivety, realized that of course this was a huge bureaucracy, bound by law to write an IEP, underfunded, understaffed doing the best they could with limited resources in a very imperfect world.  In addition to all of that, one sits at an oval table with complete strangers most of whom have never met Emma.  One person at the meeting will have done an assessment of Emma for 30 minutes, several months earlier.  Emma will have been one of hundreds of children they saw.  From that 30 minute “assessment” a report will have been written and all parties from the BOE will have that report in front of them, which they will refer to during our meeting.  This is a sample from last year’s report:  “Emma is minimally verbal, spoke in single word utterances, or short, attenuated sentences for the most part, was able to repeat simple phrases heard, and was echolalic.”

When I read that report last year, not only did I not recognize Emma, but I wept for this child that I did not know.

During the IEP meeting the staff from the BOE will not use the words “sensory issues” in fact, the word “sensory” will not be uttered in any context.  Nothing will be mentioned about the necessity of having a sensory diet, that in order to focus and attend to academic work Emma will need certain sensory supports.  Richard and I will mention these things.  We will insist that they be included in her IEP.  We will go on at length regarding her need to be allowed a break so that she can move between tasks, we will insist that a compression vest, a slanted writing board and various other sensory aids be added to the report.  To be blunt – we will be a pain in the BOE’s ass.  They will be relieved to see us leave.  This is not our intention.  Our intention, our sole purpose during this meeting is to ensure an accurate and appropriate set of goals are written for our daughter.  Even if no one from the BOE ever reads them again until our next meeting next year, we will leave knowing that we did our best for our daughter.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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Chest Hair, Zombies and Laughter

Posted on March 6, 2012 by | 8 comments

A friend of mine in describing a man we both knew who had a surprising amount of chest hair, so much that it resembled ivy growing up a trellis and a love of wearing white tank tops, exclaimed, “He looks like a chia pet in a wife beater!”  It was one of those moments when I laughed, the kind of laughter where you are actually doubled over, gasping for breath, that kind of laughter.  Those words were said to me over 15 years ago now, yet I still remember it as though it were yesterday.  I know, it’s not nice to make fun of people, but these are tough times, calling for tough measures.  I’m on the front lines here, so this morning I decided to pull out the big guns.

Can we all agree?  This is nothing short of hilarious.  I don’t know which is more troubling, the fact that Donald Trump has insisted on wearing his hair this way for decades or the fact that I felt the need to actually go on the internet and download this photograph.  Like I said, these are desperate times, requiring desperate measures.  And might I just add?  This man has done me a tremendous service.  I cannot look at this photograph and feel sad at the same time.  It simply is not possible.

Yesterday, while talking to Richard, I disagreed with him.  (It doesn’t matter about what, and anyway I can’t remember.)  He began to argue with me about why I was incorrect.  I then raised my voice and accused him of going “global” and that this was a specific comment, not a broader condemnation of everything he’d just said.  Richard looked at me with a look of annoyance mixed with amusement and then gave me the finger.  He held it there, about four inches from my nose.  “Get that thing out of my face or I’m going to bite it,” I said.  But he didn’t move his finger for a few seconds, just to get his point across.  I looked over at him and then we began laughing.  Because really, what else can one do?

I don’t pretend to know how Emma experiences the world.  I cannot speak for her.  I can barely speak for myself.  But I am grateful that she, too, finds arbitrary and seemingly random things funny – like zombies and Winnie the Pooh and her friends Charlie and Gabriel and Justus from her school.  I am thankful for those things and the people who make her laugh.

“Who’s the best girl in the whole world?” I asked her this morning when she came into our bed and snuggled up against me.

“I am!” she shouted.

Yes, she is.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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The Fallout

Posted on March 5, 2012 by | 4 comments

I was thinking about how we had to take Emma to the hospital last week because she was complaining about a pain on the right side of her abdomen.  Once there they took an x-ray, told us she was constipated and that we should give her an enema.  Everyone became focused on the “constipation” issue, us included and while I wouldn’t agree to the hospital restraining her and giving her an enema no one said much about the fact that she had a fever and that the pain she was complaining about may have been due to the stomach flu.  That night when her fever spiked, her body burning up and the following morning when she threw up, it was pretty evident that in fact she did have a case of stomach flu, just as her brother had three days before.  But the doctors at the hospital didn’t mention the flu, even though we told them her brother had had it.

What happened in the hospital is an example of how quickly things can derail with an autistic child.  The idea that an enema was considered an appropriate next step for a child with a fever, complaining of a stomach ache who’s brother just had a bout of stomach flu, seems somewhat incredible now looking back.  I don’t know how many people have experienced an enema, but it is not pleasant.  When I was in labor with Nic, I was given one to speed up my contractions.  I was in labor for 38 hours.  I was determined to give birth naturally and it was thought that the enema would help.  I have no idea if it did, but it was both horrific and memorable.  I no longer have any memory of being in any real pain during labor, though Richard assures me I was, but I can still vividly remember the enema.

Emma hates enemas.  She has had many of them.  The minute the word enema was said, she began to cry.  The idea that we were going to allow a group of strangers to restrain her as she tried to fight them off (all the while with a fever and the stomach flu) seemed, if not abusive, damn near.  I just couldn’t give the okay.  I couldn’t.  But then once home I began monitoring her bowel movements and that didn’t seem like a good idea either.  There is so much talk, articles and books have been written about the relationship between autism and GI tract issues.  The whole leaky gut theory adds to the concern that if allowed to continue constipation may even cause neurological damage.  With this in mind the word “constipation” when applied to an autistic child feels loaded and it is difficult to step away from the feelings of panic long enough to gain any perspective on what is happening.

Last night, having, until then, somewhat successfully tamped down my feelings of uncertainty, worry, concern, rage and guilt (there is always the guilt lurking) I came in touch with all those feelings and more.  But instead of feeling each of these things, initially I just felt guilt.  Tremendous guilt that I had begun monitoring her trips to the bathroom, that I hadn’t seen right away that she had the stomach flu, that I had allowed the doctors suggestion that her pain was due to constipation (a hot button for us, as it was such a daily concern for so many of her early years) to override all the other evidence, this was my crime.  And last night, I became judge, jury and prosecutor, the only thing missing was my own attorney.  I forgot to bring along someone to defend me.  Years of blame, years of condemnation came bubbling up as though they had always been there.  As though I hadn’t done any work on any of this, as though blaming myself for Emma’s pain would somehow lessen it for her.  Let me take her pain.  Let me bear the brunt of it.  If only I could, I would.  If only this was how it worked.  Give it to me, just please, please remove hers.  She’s just a little girl.  I can take it.  But it doesn’t work that way, does it?  I can’t take her pain from her.  I have held on to guilt, the feeling that somehow I am at fault for Emma being born autistic, for the pain that causes her, it is somehow my fault.  A kind of mental contortionist, I have found ways to always blame myself.  I thought I had gotten better at this.  I thought I had let go of most of it.  But last night showed me, I have not.  It’s all there, waiting.  Waiting for the first sign of weakness.  This is the fallout.

For more on our journey through Emma’s childhood marked by autism, go to:  Emma’s Hope Book

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Bliss

Posted on March 2, 2012 by | 3 comments

My friend Kelly sent me this link to a post entitled The Obsessive Joy of Autism.  The piece is written by Julia who is on the spectrum and one of three contributors on a blog, Love-NOS.  I have only begun to read some of the posts, but it’s a terrific blog regarding autism and being autistic, but also about being human, our differences, our intolerances, our society and culture and how we hurt others with our judgements and by insisting our ideas of what is “right” should be adhered to by all.

“One of the things about autism is that a lot of things can make you terribly unhappy while barely affecting others. A lot of things are harder.

But some things? Some things are so much easier. Sometimes being autistic means that you get to be incredibly happy.”

Julia goes on to write – “Without this part autism is not worth having.”

I have written before about Emma’s joy.  We call it her bliss.  Left on her own she is in a state of almost constant bliss.  The kind of bliss we neuro-typicals work so hard to attain.  We take classes, read books, go to retreats and meditate all with the hope that we will be able to feel that bliss, no matter how fleeting.  Emma’s bliss is a part of who she is.  It is one aspect of her Emmaness. It is infectious and beautiful.

Julia writes – “If I could change three things about how the world sees autism, they would be these. That the world would see that we feel joy—sometimes a joy so intense and private and all-encompassing that it eclipses anything the world might feel. That the world would stop punishing us for our joy, stop grabbing flapping hands and eliminating interests that are not “age-appropriate”, stop shaming and gas-lighting us into believing that we are never, and can never be, happy. And that our joy would be valued in and of itself, seen as a necessary and beautiful part of our disability, pursued, and shared.”

My wish for Emma is that one day she could articulate her thoughts and opinions as beautifully as Julia has here.  Everything I am doing, every “study room” session we do is with that hope in mind.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book

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Laughter

Posted on March 1, 2012 by | 4 comments

I used to believe I could cure Emma.  I used to believe if I just looked hard enough I would find the thing that would take her autism away.  I read the memoirs by parents who, through various bio-medical or behavioral interventions had “recovered” kids, I avoided reading the memoirs by parents who did not.  I used to believe that by force of will, hard work, focus, dedication and diligence I too would one day have a daughter who had gained membership to that exclusive club of “recovered children.”

I no longer believe that.  However that does not mean she cannot be helped.  Emma can grow, learn and progress as we all can.  It just takes her much, much longer and requires a great deal more support.

Emma has a stomach bug in addition to her other ailments.  She was up on and off all night.  Her ears are bothering her, her stomach hurts, her bowels are sluggish and blocked and despite all of this, despite having just thrown up what little food she ate for breakfast, she is cheerful.  “Belly go bang bang,” she said, before turning on Michael Jackson’s Beat It.

Belly go bang-bang is what Emma calls the sensation she feels before she throws up.  It’s an apt description.  Right now she is singing to MJ’s incomprehensible lyrics and dancing.  It’s a muted version of her usual singing and dancing, but given how uncomfortable she must feel, it’s admirable.

As we lurched through traffic yesterday morning, headed for the emergency room with Emma, Richard said, “Well, you couldn’t accuse us of having boring lives.”

No, you really couldn’t.  And then for some reason I thought of Donald Trump’s hair.  Why this arbitrary and completely ridiculous image came to mind, I have no idea.  But it made me smile.  His wacky, and timeless, I might add, hairstyle is one of a number of constants in life that make me laugh.  I’m grateful for that.

For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to:   Emma’s Hope Book.

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