Tag Archives: Autism

Baseline

Posted on August 6, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Before and after. Since we are not involved in any control group study, we need to establish a baseline reading of Emma’s brain waves before the stem cell treatment next week and then again afterward, probably a month or two post-procedure.

Joe and I will take Emma to the NYU brain research lab today where she will have a QEEG brain scan. It measures alpha, beta, delta, gamma and theta brain wave activity in the various regions of her brain illustrated with nifty color-coded pictures of her brain cross-sectioned from above and from the side. Black, navy blue, and brown – good news. Orange, yellow and red – not so good. We won’t see the results until after we come back from Panama so it will be a while until we can say anything about the ‘before’ baseline scan.

I’m hoping that we will see our doctor today and I’ll have an opportunity to ask him some more questions about the stem cell therapy. If so this will be a two-part entry. Before and after. If not, then it’s a brief blog today.

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Questions

Posted on August 3, 2010 by | 3 comments

“Do you think Emma will ever ask us a question?”

When Ariane asked me that question, I had to pause and think about it. Had Emma ever asked us any questions? After a few more seconds of scouring the memory bank, I answered.

“She asks us questions all the time,” I said. “They’re just simple questions.”

“Go to snake bite museum?”

“Watch Elmo movie?”

“Take a plane, see Grandma?”

“Have some apple juice?”

As far as I can remember, all of her questions are requests to have her needs met or requests for information or clarification, which are also needs-related.

“Go to snake bite museum?”  Request for needs to be met.

“Take a plane, go see Grandma?” Request for information related to needs.

She will also frequently make statements that are stealth questions, often with her voice rising up slightly at the end of a sentence like you do when asking a question.

“No see Becky today. No school bus.” Then she will look up at you expectantly, requesting an affirmation.

“That’s right Emma, today’s Saturday, there’s no school today.”

We probably say “That’s right Emma” more than any single phrase to her. As a consequence, she also says “That’s right” all the time.

“No take the bus.”

“That’s right Emma, no school bus today.”

“That’s right! No school bus today!”

“So what do you want to do Emma?”

“Make pancakes?”

“Sure Emma, let’s make pancakes.”

“Yaaaaaaay!”

When Ariane asked me the question about Emma asking a question, I instantly knew what she really meant by that. That’s why I had to pause a few seconds and think about whether she had or not.

“Why does Grandma live so far away?”

“How do they get all the music into an iPod?”

“Where is California? How long does it take to get there?”

“Why are the buildings so tall here?”

“How come they keep all the animals in cages at the zoo?”

“When am I going to be a grown-up?”

These are all simple questions you might hear from any four-year old child. They seem light years away from Emma’s capabilities right now. Why? When? How? Where? What? These questions never seem to materialize, at least not in that form.

“Can I?” “Have some?” “Go there?” Yes, they are all questions, but not the kind you expect to hear from a girl who is eight years old. Her teachers at school have told us she has made progress in asking questions, and will even tell us examples of the what, where, when, how and even some why questions she has asked. I can cite some examples too, though they don’t use the actual W words.

When and where questions are the easiest:

“Get on a plane, go see grandma?” That’s a when question in disguise. She wants to know when we are going.

If we are in an unfamiliar area she might ask a where question like, “Go find swimming pool?” Most kids would ask, “Where can we find a swimming pool around here?”

“Get on a plane, go to hospital (hosspull)?” That’s a when and sort of a where question. She wants to know when we are going for the stem cell treatment and where are we going, which foreign country do we have to fly five hours to reach because our government can’t get it together to have these treatments available here. Ha. Ha.

“Daddy, movie is broken. Daddy help?” That’s a when and how question. How can you get this thing working again? When can I watch Mary Poppins?”

What questions are a rare breed, at least the kind of what questions normal kids ask that stem from curiosity about something unfamiliar. She doesn’t seem to have that curiosity for more information about what something is, how it works, or why it is the way it is.

The rarest of the rare are why questions, and the rarest of the why questions, the albino elephants of the question world, are why questions related to abstract thought.

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

If we ever hear Emma ask a question like that, we are home free!

Presto, chango. “That’s a normal kid you got there mister!”

Why questions related to feelings are the low hanging fruit we strive to harvest, planting the seeds for them by asking her why she feels the way she feels, usually when her emotions are very intense – intensely happy, or intensely upset.

“Why are you so upset Emma? Why are you so sad (or angry, or frustrated)?

“Emma is so upset (…because…) Emma can’t find cokie.” (her blanket).

If she can truly understand a why question like that, and she does hallelujah, then she can ask one too. Since her receptive language (comprehending what we say) is stronger than her expressive language (communicating her thoughts), this is how we practice with her.

I know she asked me a why question once, related to my feelings. Probably something like “Why is daddy upset?” but I can’t remember exactly what it was.

Maybe Ariane, Joe or one of her teachers or therapists could add more examples they have witnessed in the comments section below. The more we can list, the more hope we have. Hope is the name of the game here (and the name of the blog).

I’d be lying to you if I didn’t have a great deal of hope that this next stem cell treatment will yield a few how and what questions.

If we get a few whys?  Gravy.

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Posted in Autism, Parenting, Stem Cells

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The Path of Most Resistance

Posted on August 2, 2010 by | Leave a comment

“No more camp,” Emma said, sitting near my face on the bed. It was sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 AM — my morning wake-up call.

“Camp all gone. Get on the plane, go see grandma,” she added hopefully.

“No Emma. One more week of camp, then we get on the plane and go to the hospital, meet mommy, then go to grandma’s house,” I corrected her.

Then came her inevitable follow-up: “Pancakes?”

I’m guessing she really misses mommy and Nic from her first-thing-in-the-morning declaration that camp needed to be over right now, and it was time to get on a plane. I’m flying solo with Emma this week. Actually Joe is my copilot, working the day shift, taking her to camp until we fly to Panama Sunday and meet up with Ariane.

We spent the morning après pancakes getting ready for our Central Park outing. I’d offered to take her to Coney Island but she surprisingly passed, opting for Victoria Gardens instead. We rode the rides, had lunch and then Emma wanted to “go to the sprinklers” – which meant a nearby playground with a water spray.

On the way over we passed by the carousel, which was closed for repairs. She took it well, no crying, no screaming, no meltdown – she seemed to ‘get it’ that it was closed and that was that. I thought of all the times I’d been in the park with her and she had one of those spectacular tantrums because she wanted to do something and I said no, because we had to do something else or go home. She was so well behaved this time, and we had such an easy day in the park thus far that I wondered if maybe those tantrums were a thing of the past now – that she had mastered another level of growth and maturity — that she had learned how to cope with frustration and disappointment without going haywire.

We went to the playground. She splashed and romped for quite a long while then said she wanted to go home. As we left she started walking north toward 72nd street. “No Emma, we’re going this way,” I said, pointing downtown.

“No this way!” she shouted, almost instantly frantic. “Take the orange train!”

“Emma, the orange train doesn’t run on weekends, we have to take the red train,” I said, trying to sound as reasonable as I could, but already feeling a tsunami of dread cresting above my head.

“NOOOOOOOO! TAKE THE ORANGE TRAIN!” she screamed, then followed it up with an instant cascade of crocodile tears followed by ear-splitting screams when I said, once again as calmly as I could, “Emma there’s no orange train today.”

And so it goes.

That was always one of my favorite Kurt Vonnegut lines. Such a perfect synopsis of life’s ceaseless challenges, fleeting success and predictable disappointment.

She kept screaming for the next half hour while I weathered, for what seemed like the millionth time, the looks of panic, concern, confusion, irritation and scowling judgment, or more accurately, indictment. Why was this pretty little girl screaming like that? What is that awful man doing to her? Who is he? Why isn’t he comforting her? Is she crazy? Some kind of spoiled brat?

And on and on and on. I could have ended it all instantly by simply doing what she wanted, walking where she wanted to walk, doing what she wanted to do, whether there was an orange train running or not. It sure would have made both our lives easier, not to mention the lives of all the traumatized onlookers.

And then what? Emma is a smart little girl who wants what she wants, like any other kid. But if I rewarded her tantrum with the gift of doing exactly what she wanted when she wanted it, the only lesson that would be learned was that screaming works, and the louder you scream, the more you cry, the better it works. I could have taken the path of least resistance, and believe me, I would have definitely preferred to — if my comfort were the only thing that mattered. But my comfort was as expendable as my desire to look virtuous or shield myself from embarrassment. I had to do the right thing for her and for me, regardless of the incriminating glares and withering head shakes.

I went to the nearest bench and sat down. Eventually Emma followed and sat next to me, still crying and screaming. I asked her if she wanted to take a taxi or the red train. More screams and crying. I explained over and over that the orange train wasn’t running and it made me wonder whether she is capable of understanding something even that simple. Ultimately she calmed down and said, “Take a taxi?” Part question, part capitulation.

“Okay Emma, we’ll take a taxi. Do you want to listen to your iPod?”

“Yes daddy.”

And so it goes.

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Emma at Camp

Posted on July 29, 2010 by | 1 comment

These photos are from last year, but until I can get some photos from this year, they will have to do.

Emma leaping with abandon into the lake.

Playing “Wonder Ball”.  The children stand in a circle singing:  “Oh the wonder ball goes round and round, pass it quickly you are bound.  If you’re the one to hold it last you are out! Boom!  Boom!”

Emma loves this game and we have even played it at home seated on the floor of the living room.

Emma with one of two little girls who befriended her and made sure she was included.

Emma woke this morning, saw the grey sky and said, “Uh-oh!  No swimming!”  As swimming is her favorite activity I think she was worried they would not have enough to do.  Joe reassured her as they left to get on the bus that there would be plenty of other activities, including gymnastics, her second favorite thing to do!

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Joe

Posted on July 26, 2010 by | 4 comments

Yesterday Richard, Emma, Nic and I went to a post wedding party for Joe, Emma’s therapist and Joe’s wife, Angelica.  It is always interesting going to a function together as we never know how Emma will behave.   Will she have a meltdown?  Will she insist on leaving right away?  Will she be so utterly unmanageable that we spend the entire party racing around after her?  When it is a dressy affair, one with speeches and food, which she will have no interest in, it becomes all the more worrisome.  We knew we had a better chance things would go well by the very fact that this was a party for Joe and Emma adores Joe.

Still, we did our best to prepare her before we left.

“We are going to get dressed up, then take a taxi and see Joe!” We told her.

“See Joe!” Emma repeated, nodding her head and twirling in place.

“That’s right Joe and Angelica,” I said.

“It’s a birthday party,” Emma concluded.

“No.  It’s Joe and Angelica’s party celebrating their marriage,” I said, not sure how else to describe a post wedding brunch.

“A wedding-birthday party,” Emma said.

“Well, sort of.  But it’s to celebrate their getting married,” I explained.

“Okay,” Emma said.

“There’s going to be food there and lots of people…” I said.

“And Joe and Angelica!” Emma interrupted me.

“That’s right.  Joe and Angelica will be there.”

“Angelica!  Angelica!”  Emma sang as she twirled in place.

“And there will be a few speeches and we will see a video and then we will come home and change,” I continued.

“Go to Chelsea gym bowling,” Emma said.

“Yeah.  Okay.  We can go bowling at Chelsea Piers afterward,” I said.

“Go with Mommy and Nickey and Daddy,” Emma said.

“Exactly,” I said.

“Okay!  Emma put on a party dress,” Emma said.

“Yes,” I said.

The party was lovely and Emma was terrific, on her best behavior.  Joe’s niece was there, an adorable two-year old in a party dress similar to Emma’s.   They ran around together, though in truth it was Victoria’s exuberant friendliness, undeterred by Emma’s less than attentive response to her, which kept their interactions going.  If Emma sat down, Victoria sat down next to her.  When Emma took her shoes off, off came Victoria’s shoes.  When Emma ran around the room waving her arms, Victoria followed waving her arms as well.  It reminded me of how neuro-typical children behave.  They follow the older child and often mimic them.  Emma never did that.

People ate and chatted with one another.  Both Nic and Emma ran around with the two other children there.  Then Joe stood up to give his speech.  Emma sat down and remained quiet as he spoke.  It was a heart felt speech, incredibly moving and left many of us in tears.

When it was my turn to give a speech, I pulled out my notes.  I had decided, when considering what to say, that perhaps I would use at least some of my time explaining exactly what it is Joe does.  I think it’s easy for people who know nothing about autism to assume he is a glorified babysitter.  Someone who hangs out with Emma and takes her to the park.  This could not be farther from the truth.

When Richard and I went to Bethesda to train in the DIR/floortime method with Stanley Greenspan, who invented it and his son Jake, we were exhausted before the day had ended.  Attempting to engage and evoke language from an essentially non-verbal child who is uninterested in any form of interaction is like nothing I have ever done.  It is physically and emotionally exhausting.  It requires a creativity, quick-thinking, concentration, focus and patience most people simply do not have.  Richard and I have met hundreds of therapists over the years, some have it and many more who do not.  The idea that anyone can effectively work with autistic children is just not true.

Joe is the ninja master, the autism whisperer.  He has a talent for it, an intuitive sense, which I have had the pleasure of observing many, many times.  Joe is not just a gifted floortime therapist, he is also a well trained one.  It is a formidable pairing.

And yet, what I have witnessed time and time again is how Joe and others like him are undermined, their work is seen as little more than babysitting, their profession consistently undervalued.  Devoting ones life to helping children with special needs is a noble calling.  Joe is royalty among the noble.

It was with these sentiments that I rose to give my speech.  I cannot say I got through it flawlessly because I did not.  I stumbled and I had to refer to my notes, I choked up several times and at one point had to stop speaking, as I was completely overwhelmed with emotion.  But mostly I wanted others to understand the importance of what Joe does everyday.   Joe has transformed Emma’s life in untold ways.  His commitment to her, his dedication to her has formed who she is and who she will become.

One story I forgot to mention yesterday was when we were having a hearing with the Board of Education.   Joe had testified as to what he does with Emma.  Richard and I had also testified regarding Joe’s contribution.  During the final cross-examination by our attorney of the attorney for the Board of Education regarding some of her arguments, she looked up from her notes and said, “Well I don’t know.  I’m not a Joe Kennedy.”

When I am with Emma during one of her legendary meltdowns I am fortunate if I have a momentary reprieve when I am able to ask myself – what would Joe say or do in this situation?  The times when I am able to emulate Joe are the times I know I’ve done the right thing.

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Posted in Autism, DIR - Floortime, Parenting, Siblings, Speech, Stanley Greenspan

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The Washing Machine

Posted on July 20, 2010 by | Leave a comment

“Should we put Emma in the washing machine?!” Emma asked, while pointing to the washing machine filled with clothing.  Then before I could answer, she shouted gleefully, “NO!!   We cannot put Emma in the washing machine!”  At which point Emma began to laugh hysterically.  “Should we put Mommy in the washing machine?” Emma asked, still laughing and pointing at me.

“Good idea, Em.  But will I fit?” I asked.

“NO!”  Emma shrieked with laughter.  “You cannot fit in the washing machine.  Mommy’s too big!”

“But maybe I could squeeze inside if I scrunched down into a teeny little ball,” I said, sucking my cheeks in and curling my arms up next to my sides.

“NO!”  Emma shouted.  “You cannot fit inside the washing machine.  Emma’s too big!”

“Emma’s too big?  Or Mommy’s too big?”  I asked, laughing along with her.

“Emma AND Mommy too big!  We cannot put Emma in the washing machine,” Emma said.

This went on for quite some time, with me asking if we should put a whole variety of people in the washing machine:  Daddy, Nic, Granma, Uncle Andy, Uncle Victor, Aunt Toni, Uncle Chris…  the list went on.

Each time Emma would answer, “NO!  We cannot put  Nic in the washing machine. Nic is too big!” or “NO!  We cannot put Daddy in the washing machine.  Daddy’s too big!”

“What about Merlin?  Should we put Merlin in the washing machine?” I asked, expecting the same answer from her.

But Emma surprised me by saying, “Yes.”

Taken aback I didn’t say anything for a second.  Then I repeated, “We should put Merlin in the washing machine?”

“Yes!”  Emma said.

“Are you sure?” I asked buying for time and trying to figure out how to save poor Merlin from such a murky fate.

“YES!”  Emma shouted.  “We can put Merlin in the washing machine!”

“Nooooooo!  We cannot put Merlin in the washing machine,” I said.

Emma threw her head back and laughed and laughed.  I don’t know that I have seen her derive so much joy from anything in days.

Poor Merlin.

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Theories

Posted on July 16, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Autism is nothing without theories.  Specialists, doctors, scientists, geneticists, parents, everyone has a theory when it comes to autism.

Richard claims I have more theories regarding autism than the most versed specialist.  And he’s right, I do.  The only difference is, I freely admit 95% of them turn out to be wrong and the remaining 5% have no validity because while they may prove right for Emma on any given day, they do not hold up long term or within the larger autism population.

Richard and I have a running joke about my desire, my need for theories.  When we are confronted with any new behavior from Emma, Richard will look at me and say, ”And your theory is?”

The beauty of having theories is, autism remains an enormous question mark and so the most impractical of theories hold weight if for no other reason than because they are difficult to prove wrong.  There is so much more we do not know than we do.  The other thing about theories is they give us  (me anyway) hope.  Hope that we’re moving forward.  Hope that maybe this line of thinking is going in the right direction.  Hope that the theory will lead to another theory, which in turn will prove to be true, leading us to a cure, a cause, something, anything…  No matter how crazy, the theory stands until proven otherwise and with autism that may be for a long time.  It’s something, anything, to go on amidst the great expanse of unknown.

Richard usually leaves the theorizing to me, so I was surprised when he said to me last night, “I have a theory.’

“Really?” I said looking at him to be sure he wasn’t making fun of me.

“Yes,” he said.

“Great!  Tell me more.” I said.

“Emma is doing great. “

“And your theory is?” I prodded.

“That is my theory.  She’s doing great.  The other day she and I were walking down the street.  I passed her and stepped off the curb to hail a taxi, but she didn’t see me.  She looked around, her eyes got really big and then she said something, I can’t remember what.  But she was scared and didn’t know where I was.  I called out to her – Emma!  I’m right here!  When she saw me, she cried out – There’s Daddy!  There’s Daddy!  I found you!  That’s never happened before,” Richard paused.  “She was really frightened when she thought I wasn’t there,” he said.

Suddenly I remembered when Emma was three and we went to New Paltz for the weekend.  We stayed at a huge rambling hotel right out of The Shining.  Richard and I in one room, the children with Joe in an adjoining room.  At around 2:00AM I heard a door slam, thinking nothing of it I started to go back to sleep.  Five minutes later our door opened and Joe said, “Is Emma with you guys?”  In a panic all of us threw on clothes and began searching the labryinthian hallways calling for Emma.  We split up hoping we might cover more ground that way, I ran to the front desk and reported her missing to the hotel staff.  It was the dead of winter, snow drifts piled up around the hotel, I was terrified Emma might open one of the self locking doors to the outside and not be able to get back in.  She was bare foot with just her nightgown on.  After about 20 minutes when panic had turned to ice – when your body no longer feels it is your own – one of us found her.  It was either Joe or Richard, I can no longer remember, but I know I began to cry in relief.  She was holding hands with some man who worked for the hotel.  He was quietly talking to her – at that time she had almost no language – and leading her back to the front desk.   I was in tears, thinking of all the horrible things that might have happened to her.  But Emma acted as though nothing unusual had occurred.

Richard continued, “Her sentences are becoming more complex, she’s become much more engaged, she talks all the time now and it’s not just because she wants something.  She’s talking to connect with us.  She wants to connect with us.  And except for the other night, she hasn’t wet the bed in almost a month now.”  He looked at me and then added, “She’s doing great.”

I remember when Emma turned four we had a big birthday party for her, hired a musician to come and play the guitar and sing kid friendly songs.  Emma was dressed up in one of her “party” dresses with a tiara on.  She spent most of the party trying to lie down inside of the musician’s guitar case, ignoring all the other children and the music.  I remember plastering on a smile for our guests, at one point I excused myself and wept in the back, giving myself two minutes to cry before returning to the party and pretending everything was fine.  I didn’t fully understand her sensory issues; I hadn’t developed any theories at that point.  I was still in the process of reading everyone else’s theories regarding autism.

“It’s a good theory,” I said to Richard.

“Yup.  I like it,” he said.

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Posted in Autism, Bedwetting, Marriage, Parenting, Speech, Stem Cells

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Pancakes

Posted on July 14, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Emma loves pancakes.  Until recently she was a purist, adamant that the pancakes not contain any other items.  Ours were not the pecan-raisin pancakes or the macadamia-banana pancakes, just pancakes, plain, drenched in pure maple syrup.  One weekend in a moment of elated inspiration I dumped a container of blueberries into the batter only to watch Emma’s face crumple into sobbing tears of despair by my act of betrayal.  I tried, on a few more occasions, to add something to the batter, hoping to expand her limited repertoire of foods.  Each time Emma refused to touch the pancakes and I learned my lesson.  Don’t mess with Emma’s pancakes.

And then we had my cousin and her two girls over for a slumber party one weekend.  We had discussed the “weekend pancakes in the morning routine” prior to their arrival.  When Liesl and Lily arrived they produced a plastic bag filled with chocolate chips.

“We brought chocolate chips for our pancakes,” Lily solemnly informed me.

“Great!” I said.  I looked over at Emma.  “Look Em, Liesl and Lily brought chocolate chips for our pancakes tomorrow morning!”

Emma peered suspiciously at the bag.

“We can make some with chocolate chips and some plain,” I said cheerfully.

Emma said nothing, but there was no mistaking the look of despair on her face.

The next morning we heated up the griddle and the girls and I got out the pancake mix, milk, a whisk, bowl and the chocolate chips.  The girls crowded around, taking turns pouring the milk into the pancake batter and stirring everything together.  I poured some of the batter onto the grill, making sure Emma would have two pancakes before Liesl and Lily dumped most of the contents of the baggie into the remaining batter.  Emma watched in resigned silence.

“It’s okay Em.  I’ve made you some without the chocolate chips,” I said.  “Look, they’re right here.”  I prodded the plain pancakes with the spatula.

When the pancakes were all cooked I said, “Hey Em, how about trying just one pancake with chocolate chips?”

“No!” Emma said loudly in her sing songy voice, edged with panic.

“Okay.  How about one bite?” I offered her the corner of one pancake sullied with a chocolate chip.

“One bite, Emma?”  Emma said, looking as though I’d just offered her someone’s intestine.

“Yes.  Just one bite,” I said.

Emma reached out and took the offered piece, very reluctantly she smelled it, then placed a tiny piece in her mouth.

“Is it good?  Do you like it?”

“Yeah!”  Emma said.  “Okay, okay, one more bite?”  She looked at me expectantly.

“Okay.  Sure,” I said offering her another piece.

Again she ate it.

“Hey Em, how about you take the rest of this pancake and eat it with the Liesl and Lily?”  I said, going over to the dining room table and placing her plate down next to her two cousins.

Emma then proceeded to eat the entire pancake along with the other two plain pancakes.

The next weekend Emma said, “Pancakes with Mommy?”

Yes!  Come on.  Let’s make pancakes,” I said.

“Pancakes with chips?” Emma asked, rooting around the cupboard for a bag of chocolate chips.

“Let’s see if we have any,” I said.  “Otherwise we will go to the store and buy some.”

“Have to get some chocolate chips,” Emma muttered, still searching.  “Here they are!” She exclaimed holding up a bag.

Emma looks forward to Saturday and Sunday mornings with unadulterated excitement and anticipates our pancake mornings by saying on a Wednesday morning, “Sleep wake up, sleep wake up, sleep wake up, pancakes with Mommy!”

“Yes!  We will have pancakes Saturday morning,” I answered.

“Sleep wake up, pancakes with Mommy!” Emma said the other day, hoping to trick me into making pancakes with her on a non-weekend morning.

I was tired and not paying attention,  “That’s right,” I said.

Emma jumped up and down.  “Pancakes!”

Then the realization I’d made a terrible blunder hit me.  I explained why we couldn’t make pancakes; it was a school day, we wouldn’t have time, the bus was coming, etc.

Now it is a given the pancakes we make will include chocolate chips.  Last Saturday morning I asked, “Hey Em!  What about adding sliced bananas with the chocolate chips?”

“No bananas,” Emma said.

On another Saturday I asked, “Should we add some blueberries?”

“No blueberries,” Emma said.  Then offering an alternative she added, “Do you want pancakes with chocolate chips?”

“Sure, Em,” I said.

“Yes, pancakes with chocolate chips!” Emma said.

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M

Posted on July 6, 2010 by | 1 comment

I took Emma whitewater rafting today, while Ariane attended a seminar. Emma asked me to go rafting a few days ago, so I booked it for today and we slathered on the sunscreen. We went rafting last summer, all four of us, with Nic and Emma riding in the front of the raft, getting soaked and laughing like crazy. Nic was attending day camp today, so he didn’t join us. Just me and Em.

I assumed that Emma would want to ride in the front again and asked the guide to accommodate us (and perhaps prevent a meltdown if she was denied her preferred seat selection). The guide said sure, but when we climbed in the raft Emma wanted to ride in the middle instead. I was surprised and a little disheartened to be honest, thinking she had lost her gung-ho enthusiasm.

It was a gorgeous, crystal clear, blue-sky day. The river was running fast with lots of great rapids. Emma sat in the middle of the seat in the middle row. I was behind her to the left, the guide in the stern to her right. In the formerly coveted front row was a mother and father and their daughter Sydney, who looked about three years younger than Emma, but who of course, was talking like she was three years older. They were all laughing and screaming and squealing as they got soaked to the bone in the 40˚ mountain-fed water — acting pretty much like Emma and Nic and Ariane and I did when we rode together last summer.

Emma sat silently for most of the hour long ride, looking around, or maybe not looking around at all. Maybe just staring off in space. It’s hard to tell. I tried to get her more engaged and excited by alerting her to upcoming waves and waterfalls, whooping it up. She seemed to get slightly more jazzed, but not enough to laugh or scream like she would on a carnival ride, or like she did in our last raft ride. I got a little bummed but then I thought about how much Nic’s and Ariane’s company means to her — how much she laughs when we all play together.

“She misses Nic,” I thought. “Misses mommy too.”

It made enough sense that I stopped worrying about her autistic detachment and just enjoyed the ride, which was about as perfect as a raft ride could be. When we hit a calmer stretch, Emma started singing and grabbed the strap they gave her to hold, leaning way back until her head was resting on the seat next to me, whereupon I tickled her chin and elicited those squeals I wanted to hear. This was repeated many more times between the rapids.

I asked, “Are you having a good time Em?”

She replied, “Yeah,” with a smile as convincing as the eager tone of her voice.

“Me too Em,” I said, smiling back at her.

I noticed how much I’d been calling her ‘Em’ lately, instead of Emma. For some reason, the thought popped into my head that Em should be her stage name when she becomes a huge rock star a few miles further downstream. Then I thought ‘M’ would be even better, out-abbreviating Madonna and Cher and other one-named divas — assuring her charismatic status with a single letter. I pictured what the T-shirt ‘M’ logo would look like – maybe a graceful art nouveau scroll – then I got concerned that Bette Midler, ‘The Divine Miss M’ might claim trademark infringement.

SPLASH! My daydreaming came to an abrupt end as I got soaked head-to-toe by a big wave that blasted over the side. Emma sat upright, placid and unconcerned in her self-selected (and very dry) seat in the middle of the boat. “Em, you’re not even wet!” I laughed and the guide laughed too.

“Yeah, looks like she picked the right seat after all,” he added.

Mmm hmm. I guess she did.

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Zurcher’s Folly

Posted on July 5, 2010 by | 3 comments

Yesterday I asked Emma, “Do you want to go to the indoor pool?”

To my surprise she answered, “No.”

“Do you want to go for a walk?” I asked.

She said nothing, which could mean she wanted to or it also might mean she didn’t.  It could go either way.

I needed to be more specific.  “Do you want to go to the cabin?”

“Yes!” She replied.  She ran into the mudroom and grabbed a leash, which she attached to my shorts.  There is a history (as there is with almost everything she does) to the leash.  When she was a toddler, she became absolutely terrified of dogs, all dogs.  We would explain to her that the dogs wouldn’t hurt her and anyway they would be on a leash.  The only way she could be convinced to go on a hike was if she could hold the leash.  Over time that led to putting me on a leash and now it is a given that the dogs run freely, but I am on a leash that Emma holds and occasionally tugs on if I am not going quickly enough or conversely, am going too quickly to force me to slow down.  In any event, it works.

Off to the cabin we went, the dogs racing around fighting over various sticks they found along the way and Emma and I leashed together.

The cabin, one room, no hot water, no electricity, a wood burning stove and fireplace, was nick named “Zurcher’s Folly”.  My immediate family built it log by log and at the time, my father, in particular wondered if it would sit unused.   In the 1970’s the ranch had no houses on it, just fields, shrub, irrigation ditches some beaver dams, herds of elk roamed through each winter, bears and coyote took over in the summer.   The only structures were a barn and the ranch house at the edge of the property where a revolving door of people lived in return for taking care of the irrigation ditches, sometimes boarding horses on the land.

Since the cabin was built various family members have slept in it.  During a brief break between colleges I even lived in it for four months, packing my food and water in, sitting out on the deck looking out onto the Rockies and contemplated life.  The cabin has always held a special place in my heart, a place my family built with their own hands and hard work, a place of solitude, removed from everything else.  Unless an airplane flew overhead one would not know what year it was.  We go out to the cabin at least once every time we come to Aspen.  A pilgrimage of sorts, it is a reminder of what is important in life and what we all love about being in this part of the world.

My two children have been going out to the cabin ever since they were born.  So it was with a certain degree of excitement that Emma and I made our way through the grass and fallen trees before rounding the bend and caught our first glimpse of the cabin’s roof.

Emma immediately began to run.  After I’d unlocked the door, she dropped the leash and fell onto a mouse dung covered platform, which serves as one of two beds.  We stayed there for a few hours, me rereading the journal we keep where everyone who has visited the cabin over the past thirty plus years is encouraged to make an entry, and Emma singing and dancing.

On the way home Emma grabbed the leash once again and tugged on it.

“What?” I asked.

“Go to the indoor pool,” Emma said.

“But it’s too late now, Emma.  We have to go home and get dressed for the picnic we’re going to,” I said.

Emma pretended to cry with an exaggerated facial expression.  Sometimes this leads to Emma actually crying, what begins as a kind of joke can soon turn into the real thing.

I began to sing, “We can’t go to the indoor pool.  We’re going to a picnic.”

Emma picked up where I left off, “I want to go to the indoor pool,” she sang, then looked at me.

“We can’t, we can’t, we can’t,” I sang back.

Then Emma sang, “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.”

We went on like this making up verses and melodies, sometimes overlapping each other, sometimes stopping mid “verse” until the other picked it up.

“I could hear you two singing all the way up the trail,” Richard said when we eventually returned to the house.

“Wasn’t that great?” I asked.

“She’s doing great, Ariane,” Richard replied.

And he’s right.

She is.

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Cutie

Posted on July 1, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Ariane and Emma were just dancing in the bedroom, no music, just a lot of finger-snapping and hip shaking. She was so cute, laughing like crazy the whole time, rocking back and forth, proud of her new-found finger-snapping ability, looking at Ariane and me with her million megawatt smile. Ariane tried to get her to do ‘the bump’ which made her laugh even more, though she didn’t quite get the hang of it…yet.

I’m sure she’ll be bumping all over the place in a few days.

Emma has been singing all the time lately. I take her for rides around the ranch every morning and late afternoon on a small four-wheel all terrain vehicle. She sings the whole time. She likes it when we drive out into an open meadow behind the barn. I like it too because a family of coyotes lives there. They romp around, looking for mice to chomp on, or sit in the field catching some rays. They are pretty fearless so we can drive right up to them until we’re about twenty feet away. They just lay there blinking, mostly ignoring us.

Unfortunately, Emma mostly ignores them too. I’ll shout out over and over, “Hey Emma, look at the coyotes!” but she barely gives them a glance, preferring to keep warbling while I point and shout. This morning, we went into the field and I saw the coyotes up ahead, so I drove toward them. As I got closer, I saw these little brown fluff balls bouncing up and down, their heads barely visible above the tall grass.

“Look! Marmots!” I shouted, pointing ahead, trying to get Emma to watch as they bounded along the tire tracks I’d made the previous day. Then I realized they weren’t marmots at all, they were coyote cubs, three of them, about a foot long from nose to tail. They were so cute I could barely stand it, hollering at Emma, “Look! Look at the puppies Emma! Look at the coyote pups!”

She looked at them without any reaction, still singing away as they ran up to Ma and Pa coyote. They circled around them, then headed over to a nearby irrigation ditch to lay low while we putt-putted past them. “Emma look! Look at the little puppies! They’re so cute!”

Still no reaction, except for a polite glance in their direction, probably just to appease me or get me to stop yelling so she could sing without any more interference. It bummed me out she didn’t care about the cute little pups. I was so excited I couldn’t wait to get home and tell everyone, but she couldn’t care less. I thought about her autism, how hard it was for her to engage with living beings or her surroundings, and I could feel a little air hiss out of the tire of my joyfulness, my hopes deflating because she’s been doing so well and has been so engaged lately, with Ariane and Nic and me and Paula and even her other young cousins who came over for a super-soaker gunfight the other night.

When I got back and told Paula, moping a little because of Emma’s lack of interest and excitement, she said, “Well you know how Emma is afraid of dogs…maybe she didn’t like seeing them or they scared her.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” I thought, looking at the glass half-full. She was nervous, she doesn’t like dogs. Maybe that’s why she didn’t care.

Or maybe she was thinking, “Puppies, schmuppies, they might be cute…but they got nothing on me.”

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Dedication to a Rock Star

Posted on June 28, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Ariane arrived in Aspen Saturday with Nic and Emma. I’ve been here for a week already, attending the Literary Festival. Ariane’s mom Paula Zurcher (who I adore!) lives here and we come out about four times a year because we love to see her but also to some extent, because travel anywhere else is too difficult. Emma only eats about nine different food items and she only likes to do physically oriented pleasure activities like swimming and skiing. While I think it’s pretty safe to say that Nic wouldn’t hold up too well on a four hour tour of the Louvre, he would at least enjoy other sightseeing activities and have the thrill of visiting faraway places he’s read about or heard about.

No sightseeing for Emma. Unless the sight is a roller coaster or a water slide, which we fortunately have close by in Glenwood Springs, where Nic and Emma went yesterday. Ariane arrived here in time for the reopening of the newly renovated Paepke Auditorium, named after Ariane’s grandfather Walter Paepke, who founded the Aspen Institute,  Aspen Music Festival and Aspen Design Conference, which is now known as the AIGA – the professional association for design. He was a true visionary, a man who accrued his wealth making cardboard boxes, yet had the audacity to run ads for his company that featured art by Herbert Bayer and sayings by Lao-Tzu  — not one word about boxes.

The auditorium opening was amazing, particulary due to the hugely talented Anna Deveare-Smith who performed a reprise of her impression of Paula and her sister Toni DuBrul having lunch with her, which is profound and poignant and one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.  She ends her brilliant performance with a story told to her by the Paepcke daughters.  Elizabeth Paepcke, their mother, planted a young sapling in her backyard.  Afterward she said, “It will be beautiful in 50 years.”  At the time she was in her 70’s and when it was pointed out that she would not be around to witness that she replied, “I know.  But others will.”

Paula and Ariane would never mention any of this family history stuff on this blog, but there is a legacy to be celebrated that is inspirational and it impacts Emma as much, if not more, as any of us.  After all Emma is the great grand-daughter of those two powerhouses.

Claudia Cunningham is a dear friend of ours who has been incredibly supportive to all of us – the children adore her and when she stays with us in New York, it’s pajama party time. She and I always talk about our firm, no intractable belief that Emma is going to be a huge rock star (and maybe already is). We don’t say this in a half-kidding tone. We mean it. Emma is a natural born performer. She loves an audience, she has an incredible pitch-perfect voice, a set of pipes that can blow the doors off a taxi cab, a gift for the grand gesture and the big finish. And she is staggeringly beautiful.

Why not? Why shouldn’t she be a rock star? She was raised on Gwen Stefani. She loves singing and performing more than anything – even a carousel ride or an all day trip to the water park, and that’s saying something. Should we not dream big dreams for her? Are we over-reaching, not being practical, have our heads in the clouds, our feet off the ground? Are we kidding ourselves? Are we in denial?

Hey, if a business man from Chicago can turn his father’s lumber company into The Container Corporation of America and then go on to create the Aspen Institute, why can’t a beautiful, talented eight year old autistic girl grow up to be a rock star?  She certainly has a head start by having the ambition and vision in her genes.

Here’s to you Emma! You are awesome. And when you read this ten years from now in the back of your limo heading to a sold out show at Madison Square Garden you will always know we believed in you – and never settled for anything less than encouraging your dreams and fueling your heart’s desire every step of the way.

Rock on!

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Emma’s School Bus

Posted on June 25, 2010 by | 2 comments

Emma came home this evening and said, “Sad.”  This was in answer to my question, “How are you?”

“Why Emma?  What happened?” I asked.

“Emma have to go on the school bus.  Emma make you sad,” she said, frowning and nodding her head.

“What do you mean?” I asked kneeling down so my eyes were on the same level as hers.

“You have to wait!  You have to sit!  Emma cry.  Emma bite yourself,” Emma looked directly at me as she said this.

“Why do you have to wait, Emma?” I asked.

“Want to go to Becky’s class.”

“Did your bus come to school early?”  I asked trying to piece together what Emma was trying to tell me.

“You have to wait.  Want to go to Becky’s class.”

“Did someone tell you, you had to wait?” I asked.

Emma nodded her head.  Shouting and pointing her finger she said, “I told you! SIT DOWN!”

At this point I was more than a little alarmed.  “Emma, who said that to you?”

Emma didn’t answer at first, then nodded her head.  “Yeah,” she said in a sad voice.

These kinds of responses from Emma only highlight how difficult it can be to communicate with her and understand her.

“Did the bus driver say that to you or the bus matron?” I asked, knowing these were the only two people on the school bus.

“Bus driver said – I told you NO!  Sit down!”  Emma said in a loud stern voice.  Then in a quieter voice she said, “Emma cry.  Emma so upset.”

I think it was at this point in the conversation when I went to the computer and wrote an email to our lawyer, ccing Richard and Emma’s head teacher, the head master and social worker.  I have no idea what kind of recourse is available to us and so we need advice.  What I do know is that we have had to deal with the Office of Public Transportation since Emma began going to school five years ago.  Emma’s bus arrives between 7:20AM and 7:40AM to take her some fourteen blocks to her school, which begins at 8:30AM.  When I called to complain about the early pick up time, insisting that it cannot possibly take an hour to drive fourteen blocks even if three of them are cross town blocks, I was told the bus picks up many other children who go to several nearby special education schools before Emma is eventually dropped off at her school.  In other words, Emma is driven around the city for close to an hour.  For years now I have questioned the logic in this and have been:  hung up on, yelled at or told this is the way the route is mapped out and there’s nothing that can be done.

A few years ago I was determined to have the bus change their pick up time from 7:15AM to something later.  For two months I went back and forth with various people at the Office of Public Transportation, sometimes calling three and four times in a single day.  By the time they finally agreed to change Emma’s pick up time the semester was coming to an end and we started anew with a new bus company and driver after the break.  Which is another bizarre thing.  Are special needs children the only ones who have a new bus company, new bus driver, new bus route every three to four months?  How is it that neuro-typical children in New York City have the same bus for the entire school year, often for several years in a row?

In the past few weeks I have noticed when the bus pulls up that there seem to be only one or two other children on the bus as was the case Thursday morning, no other children.  Emma was the only child.  So unless the bus is picking up children after Emma, it is driving fourteen blocks (which should take about ten minutes depending on traffic.  If the bus arrives early, (picks Emma up at 7:25AM drives ten minutes to her school, getting there by 7:35AM) it sits idling outside the school until the school’s doors open at 8:25AM.  Which means (if I am correct) Emma is waiting in the bus alone for almost an hour.

What makes all of this particularly horrifying to me is we put Emma on the school bus and cross our fingers she will be treated well and with respect, she will arrive safely at her school in a timely manner, but we cannot know what really goes on because Emma cannot tell us.  We have to trust.  And at this moment I no longer trust.

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Nic Teaching Emma to Play the Piano

Posted on June 24, 2010 by | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago Nic was playing “Hey Jude” on the piano.  “Hey Jude” happens to be one of Emma’s favorite songs, so Emma sang along as Nic played.  A little later, maybe the fifth or sixth time Nic ran through the first verse, Emma wandered over and stood beside him at the keyboard.  Every now and then she would play a note and look at him.  Within a few minutes she was seated at the piano and Nic was teaching her the notes.  (That’s Nic’s hand on the right side of the photo showing Emma which note to play.)

In the beginning Nic helped her by prompting her to find the correct notes, but after a few times, she was “prompting” herself.

This is an instance when her ‘perseverative’ behavior pays off.  After much practicing the notes Nic showed her, Emma was able to play the first verse of “Hey Jude”!

 

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Emma’s Language

Posted on June 23, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Emma’s language continues to fascinate.  What follows are a number of examples demonstrating Emma’s creative use of the English language.

This morning she said tearfully, “ Rope?”

I now know she was asking me to help her find Merlin’s cat toy, which Emma has become particularly fond of.  It resembles a fishing rod, only it’s plastic and at the end of a thinner plastic “line” is a cat’s version of a fishing fly.  The “fly” has feathers in royal blue and black though ours, or I should say, Emma’s no longer has any feathers.  Just a few defeated bristles are all that remain.  I tried to get Emma to call the toy “Merlin’s cat catcher”.  Emma repeated the words and then said, “rope,” in a matter-of-fact tone.  Fair enough, saying rope is certainly easier than the tongue twister I was suggesting.  Emma’s interest in Merlin’s toy is not to engage Merlin in any sort of play.  She likes to hold it and chew on the thinner plastic line.  Merlin, under the misguided impression it is still his toy, leaps at the bristled end and tries to grab it in his mouth.  Emma ignores him unless prompted by one of us to use it to play with him.  At which point she will whip the thing around her head so violently Merlin runs away.  Mission accomplished.  No one can accuse Emma of not being able to creatively problem solve.

“Leash?” Emma said the other day.  “Leash” is short hand for any number of things:  tape measure, jump rope, belt or dog’s leash.  It began out in Colorado where she loves to hold the leash attached to one of my mothers’ two German Shepherds.  She is actually terrified of most dogs, including my mother’s.  Giving her the leash to hold is one way to calm her when we are taking the dogs for a walk.  But since we do not own a dog in New York City I know when she asks, she is looking for my tape measure or less frequently her jump rope.

This morning Emma sat on the floor and looked at some work sheets that had been sent home in her backpack.  There were a series of numbers referring to corresponding red dots.  Emma looked at the number and said, “What’s that letter?”  She then counted the red dots, ” One, two, THREE!”

“What’s that number, Emma?”  I said.  “It’s a number.”

Dutifully Emma repeated, “What’s that number?  One, two, three, four.  FOUR!” She looked up at me and smiled.  “What’s that letter?”  She said pointing to the number 6 on the next work sheet.

“It’s a number, Em.  Look these are numbers and this,” I drew the letter A, “is a letter.  Can you see the difference?”

Emma nodded her head.  “A”, she said.

It was not clear she understood the difference.

As I watched her counting and naming the numbers I thought about how it must all seem so arbitrary to her.  A number, a letter, a rope, a leash, a toy…  All things we learn to identify at a very young age and never think about again.  But for Emma this is not the case.  Why would the symbol for a quantity – say the number 3 – be any different than the letter G if one does not understand quantity?  If one continues along this line of thinking all the names we apply to letters in the alphabet must seem incomprehensible.  Why is the letter H called “Aich”?  It’s phonetic sound doesn’t offer any clues either as it’s the sound one makes when hit in the solar plexis or something resembling a whispered “huh”.   As anyone knows who has attempted to learn the English language, for every rule there is an exception, making it an exceedingly difficult language to learn.

The other night Emma was recounting our trip to Costa Rica, something she often does.  She tapped her stomach and said, “Now go bang-bang!”  Which means she was remembering how her stomach hurt.  “Now see thunder.” She added.  Meaning she remembered her headache.  “Make you cry.”  She said and proceeded to pretend cry while looking at her reflection in the mirror.

We have an African Senufo Bird in our loft which is a primitive statue carved from wood.  It stands about five and half feet tall and Emma refers to it as – “giraffe”.  I have corrected her on numerous occasions, but she remains unconvinced.

Yesterday, seated next to Emma while she ate her breakfast, she looked at my upper arm and said,  “Ahhhh… you bit.”  She made a sad face while pointing to three scars on my arm, which I received when I broke my shoulder about 14 years ago.  The doctors inserted three metal rods into my arm to facilitate the mending of the broken bones.  Emma has never mentioned the scars, so it was interesting that she took notice and then showed genuine compassion for what she imagined must have happened – that I bit myself.  Something Emma does to herself when her frustration becomes unbearable.  That Emma was relating the scars on my arm to an action she often takes and was identifying with it was remarkable and very hopeful.

I have come to appreciate Emma’s use of language.   I would like to become fluent in it.

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