Colored lenses that filter out certain colors may help visual processing and reading skills for people with autism.
This case report describes a 10-year-old boy with autism who was sensitive to artificial lights, strobe lights, and reflected light. He also suffered headaches and nausea in response to certain colors of walls, food, and clothing. The authors allowed the child to choose a colored film that was placed over a page for him to read. He chose the color purple, and he was able to read faster right away with the purple overlay. He also said that he could see the words more clearly. When the boy wore glasses with purple tint all the time, he had fewer problems with headaches and nausea.
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Cabin fever in June...
Jun 15, 2009 by AnonymousSummer vacation has begun and I’m already being driven nuts by these children. These small, charming Gifts from God are making me wonder if we should move to a district that has a twelve-month school year. What’s really going on here is that Thomas and Hayley are driving each other nuts and that, in turn, is making me crazy. The root of the problem is that the weather has been so crummy (for mid-June) that we haven’t been able to do anything. If it’s warm enough to swim, it’s raining. If it’s sunny outside, it’s too cool to go swimming and all the slides at the park have big pools at the bottom. We’re still waiting and waiting for the weather to improve.
Today was actually pretty nice, but I made a grooming appointment for the dog that we had to work around. We left the groomer’s straight for Uncle Tom’s Pool and stayed there until the groomer called us to come pick up Sophie. Frantic pool and swimming activity usually works wonders on kids who have cabin-fever (in June, for crying-out-loud!) but my kids are not like other people’s kids.
We did have a few playdates a few weeks ago with the family I mentioned in my last blog. Thomas was actually really good with his buddy. I explained before they came over that he couldn’t just sit alone and play when we had “company” (what’s “company,” Mommy?) but he had to play with his friend. So, since he couldn’t play PSP, Thomas and his friend played MarioKart on the Wii. Whatever. They had fun. Hayley and her friend played Barbies and the littlest wee one just bounced back and forth, watching. Hopefully we’ll see them again soon and maybe meet at the park or something.
Graduation went fine, but of ALL DAYS for me to forget to give Thomas his Strattera, the graduation ceremony day was probably the worst. He had to sit quietly for semi-extended periods of time which didn’t work out too well for him. The video is funny because he kept waving me away, telling me to turn the camera off and go sit down. But he got an extra-special hug from Mrs. H., who I could tell was genuinely sad to have to say good-bye for the summer.
After the graduation ceremony, Thomas had just one more day of school that happened to be on Tuesday, my help-out day. So I got to be there for the last day, helping take everything off the walls and put things away for the summer. It was kind of sad. I’ve been there every Tuesday all year and have apparently built up a sentimental interest in the Kindergarten classroom and the routine. I really appreciated how much emotional investment the teachers must have in their kids by the end of the year and how hard it is for them to have to let them go. During the graduation ceremony, Mrs. H. gave a short speech about how once the kids go through her classroom for a year, they’ll always be “hers” and can come back and see her anytime. She got choked up as usual and it was very sweet. The kids all wore caps and gowns and Thomas kept pulling his up to reveal the decidedly un-formal t-shirt and shorts I put him in that day. No point making him doubly-uncomfortable in fancy pants AND mortar boards, I though. Nobody gave me any funny looks, though.
Hopefully the weather will turn better so we can walk to the park more often and maybe go to the zoo. All I know is that if we’re all cooped up in this house together for much longer, I’m going to start frantic home-improvement projects like re-painting or something. Hayley’s fifth birthday is coming up; her party is this weekend and Jonathan is apparently going to be up at 4 a.m., slow-cooking pork butts on the grill. It’s the only way, I guess. What I really want to do is get pictures of this madness. We’re going to turn the pork butts into pulled pork sandwiches made with Jonathan’s homemade BBQ sauce. He’s such a gourmand. I’m in charge of potato salad and coleslaw. And I’ll be buying beer too, I think.
We’re going to a wedding in Peoria June 26-28 and leaving the kids with Grandma Jackson. The dog’s going to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s house, God bless them. That’s the main reason I just had her at the vet and the groomer. Nothing says, “Gee, we sure do appreciate this” like dumping a shaggy, smelly and potentially unhealthy dog off with relatives. Jonathan and I certainly could use a break. We keep talking about taking a “date night” for ourselves, but there is just no time! This Friday, we’re going to be getting ready for Hayley’s party which is on Saturday, and I have to work on Sunday. We should be able to have some quality alone time in Peoria, if you can have quality alone time with twenty aunts and uncles, thirty cousins and their dates or spouses, your mom, dad and sisters all staying in hotel rooms nearby. We’ll have to take whatever we can get, I think. We’re going to be driving down with my sister and her husband, whose company we genuinely enjoy, so that will be fun too. Plus, I get to dress up! Yee-haw!
A couple weeks ago, Jonathan only had a half-day at work so we took the kids to see “Up” at the theater. We had never, ever taken both kids to the show before! Like so many things we’ve been doing recently, it was to be a litmus test for Thomas’ performance during stage and theater presentations at Disney. He was GREAT! Outstanding, even! He was, in fact, better behaved than Hayley. He sat in his seat and wore the 3-D glasses (yes, we sprung for the 3-D effect, but don’t think it added too much to the show. The previews were more impressive in 3-D than the movie was, so FYI, you can probably skip the 3-D showing and do the less expensive non-3-D show) and watched the WHOLE THING without complaint. The only problem was that he talked a lot during the show, asking a lot of questions, but he wasn’t too loud asking the questions and didn’t disturb others. There were plenty of children at this showing in particular that were allowed to run wild all over the place and I’m so glad to say that mine were not among them.
I’m trying to keep up with helping the kid’s reading and writing so that their brains don’t turn to mush over the summer but Thomas is totally on to me. He says, “I’m not in school anymore! I don’t have homework!” And then he finds something else to do. Hmpf. Hayley is still really interested in writing and will write words, asking how to spell them and drawing really cute pictures of people who look like potatoes with toothpicks sticking out for arms and legs. They’re really cute.
Well, there goes the random quiet moment I was able to enjoy today. Thomas is stealing noodles out of the colander and making Jonathan crazy and Hayley has fallen asleep next to me in a position that cannot possibly be comfortable. Ho-hum.
Compare and contrast
Mar 27, 2008 by AnonymousThomas has been enjoying a very busy week off school. The Easter Bunny came with lots of candy, as promised. The kids had chocolate eggs and jelly beans for breakfast on Sunday and it was very apparent. Sugar really seems to affect Thomas a lot more than it affects Hayley. We went to Jonathan’s aunt & uncle’s house for dinner that afternoon and the kids had a lot of fun there too. When did Easter turn into a “gift holiday?” There was quite a haul to bring home that night, but the kids weren’t part of it. They went to my mother-in-law’s house for the night. That was fine with us. Everyone spent the day filling the kids with candy; we thought it fitting that one of the feeders deal with the fallout. Grandmas never mind that kind of thing, though.
I was supposed to bring the kids home on Monday, but only Hayley wanted to come home! Thomas wanted another night with Grandma and we didn’t have any plans for Tuesday so I said that it was fine for him to stay. Tuesday came along with another phone call saying that Thomas wanted just one more night at Grandma’s house. I know that Jonathan’s mom loves the company and I really had no good reason not to let Thomas stay, so I spoke to him briefly on the phone about it before consenting. I went to pick him up Wednesday morning and we went straight to my parent’s house to visit with my mom. We went out to eat and to the park since it was such a nice day. Yesterday evening, however, the affects of Thomas’ sojourn with Grandma were beginning to show. There was a certain amount of disregard for authority. There was also a distressing attitude about bedtime schedules. Hmpf. So we’ve decided that two nights at Grandma’s house is the absolute limit in a non-emergency situation. More than that and Thomas begins to get used to the leniency. Not that there’s anything wrong with it! That’s what grandparents are for! They get to be the good guys.
This morning we went to a neighboring town’s park district to play at their little indoor playground. It was really neat, but there were so many kids there that it was like Romper Room on uppers. Thomas did really well with the large number of kids and I was very surprised! We went with Grandma and my sister-in-law and her daughter who is fifteen months old so I wasn’t all alone in uncharted waters. This park district also has an indoor merry-go-round; not a huge one but still an official midway ride that Hayley really liked. Thomas finally went on it and he liked it but wanted to - you’ll never believe it - pretend-drive the little kiddie cars they had in the play area. You know, the one with the red car body and the yellow roof that the kids use their feet to make go? Thomas was almost too big for them, but they were his absolute favorite things to play with. The rest of the play area was set up kind of like Chuck E. Cheese’s with all the tubes and climbing stuff. Thomas was actually really nice about taking turns with other kids and waiting for a turn himself. Every time I asked him to get out and let someone else have a turn, he did it without a fight. Sometimes he’d get out and walk around the car for a minute and if there were no takers, he’d ask if he could get in again!
As I said, he did really well listening and staying in-control of himself despite the fact that the place was overrun with excited children. This is a big deal for him because one of the reasons that Thomas’ teacher thinks he wouldn’t do as well in a regular classroom next year is that there would be a lot more kids and Thomas might find that difficult to handle. He didn’t mind it today and did a great job. Until it was time to leave. I’d say that he really had a fit, but he didn’t have a tantrum. He just cried and was sad. He kept saying, “Mommy, mommy, mommy! Please!” He was really upset and I think it was because I gave him no warning about leaving. Looking back on it, that was really stupid of me. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were kind of ready to go out to lunch then because Thomas and Hayley’s little cousin could only handle so much of all that before getting over-stimulated and cranky herself. I kind of just walked over to Thomas and said that we were leaving. God, how dumb! What was I thinking? Isn’t it funny how you can look back on something and things are so obvious – it’s so obvious what you did wrong – but at the time you were confounded? I wasn’t exactly confounded; Thomas was having fun and didn’t want to go. But, duh! I could have told him “Okay, five more minutes!” That at least would have been better than what I did! Okay, bad mommy moment. Minus ten points. I did donate an old pair of glasses to a charity box yesterday though, so maybe that good deed balances my bonehead move out just a little bit.
Since I was so lame, I decided that we could go back to the little “inside playground” as the kids call it, tomorrow. Thomas is very excited and he asked me if he could drive the “baby cars” again. He was so nice about it today that I said he could. Playing there costs three dollars per child and that includes all the vomit-inducing carousel rides you want, so you can’t go wrong. It’ll be a little harder by myself with the kids, but I think it’ll be okay. The kids promised to let me do my house work (Friday is my cleaning day) when we got home – wasn’t that nice of them?
Luckily, there are only three more days of “spring” break left. This has been such a crummy winter that has held on until today and will continue; we could get 1”-3” of snow tomorrow. We had an insane snowstorm two days before Easter! What kind of spring is that? Finally, there is a sixty-degree day in the forecast; next Thursday. All of us really can’t wait for the cold and snow to be over with. And we have no plans for the rest of the break (except the inside playground tomorrow), which is a blessing, believe it or not. The kids are both so over-stimulated that a little routine is going to do us all good.
Did anyone see “Autism: The Musical” on HBO the other night? What did everyone think of it? We’ve only gotten through the first few minutes of it. I have a hard time watching that stuff with Jonathan because EVERY SINGLE CHILD Jonathan sees who is on the spectrum is “just like Thomas.” At the very beginning, the boy Neal is throwing chairs and turns a table over. Jonathan says, “Geez, that’s just like Thomas.” I looked at him coldly and said, “Thomas does not turn over tables and chairs like that.” No inflection in my voice, no intonation. The next kid does something and Jonathan says the same thing. So I get very frustrated about that, even when he’s right because I don’t really want to watch something that forces the two of us to constantly compare our son to other kids. That’s what you do when you see other kids on the spectrum like that. The whole time, I’m thinking, “Oh, Thomas is better than that kid, but not as good as that one. Thomas knows how to sit still in circle time, but he doesn’t seem as high-functioning as that kid.” It makes me feel like I’m dissatisfied with Thomas when I’m really not. And I just get tired of playing compare-and-contrast. The other thing was that we weren’t really sure (just from the first five minutes, mind you) why this woman decided to put on a show with an all-Autism cast. Some of the kids who were participating seemed so uncomfortable and eager not to be a part of it that we weren’t sure why they were being made to join in. Jonathan and I are focused on trying to get Thomas to engage in more normal behavior and socially acceptable behavior. For us, not being in a play is perfectly socially acceptable. Anyway, I don’t know if we’re going to finish watching the show or not.
Back to school on Monday! Woo-hoo!
The zoo was a zoo
Apr 22, 2007 by AnonymousThe weather has finally made a turn for the better here in Chicago. We’ve been spending as much time as possible outside since Friday, when it was sunny and over sixty degrees. This was a truly glorious weekend in terms of weather, and we went to the zoo yesterday and today. Jonathan was working yesterday and I made the supremely stupid decision to take the kids to the zoo by myself. The thing is, Jonathan has been working every Saturday recently and when the weather is this nice I really want to get out and do something fun with the kids. Most of the time, Jonathan is so bushed by Sunday that he really isn’t up for anything that strenuous. I assumed that we’d hang out at home today so off I went to the zoo yesterday – by myself – with the kids.
Yikes. What was I thinking? We got there and Thomas didn’t want to do anything. He didn’t want to ride in the wagon. He didn’t want to pull it with Hayley inside. He didn’t want to see the elephants. He didn’t want to see the penguins. He didn’t want to ride the motor-safari. We walked around a bit and I finally gave up, after having to pull Thomas out of the way of the previously mentioned motor-safari, causing our legs to get tangled up. Over we went together, sprawling onto the pavement. I’m pretty sure that bit wasn’t in the ride description for the motor-safari. It was a little bonus for the riders, I guess.
Luckily, we’re zoo members so we don’t have to pay admission every time we go. I don’t feel bad about going for even just an hour or two and then packing it in. It is a bit of a trek, though…about forty-five minutes, door-to-door. I feel bad for Hayley, too. Every time we go in, I ask the kids what animals they’d like to see. Hayley always answers, “Giraffes!” or “Penguins!” She loves to see the animals and always says, “Bye-bye, penguins!” Or dolphins, or whatever. I can tell that she really enjoys the zoo but we can’t see as much of it as she’d like because of the way Thomas behaves. Today, we went and saw the penguins first and then headed for a playground area. Our thinking was that if we let Thomas wear himself out a bit, maybe he’d be a little better. I guess he was, actually. He did leave the playground without a fuss and we went to see the dolphins in the underwater viewing-area, but they weren’t around. So we went up to the gift shop and got each of the kids a little toy and decided that we’d had enough. The upside is that we all got plenty of fresh air and sunshine this weekend, and that’s never a bad thing.
One really great thing I can do with the kids in the summer (by myself) is take them to Uncle Tom’s Pool. Uncle Tom is my uncle, and he lives about fifteen minutes from our house. He has a really great pool that we are encouraged to swim in any time we want all summer long, since nobody is home much during the day and they want it to be used. We use the heck out of it. Thomas and Hayley both love to swim, and here is a pool that we have all to ourselves and we don’t have to buy pool passes and I don’t have to worry about other kids and people! And – the pool and deck are completely fenced-in. It’s really an ideal situation for us. I imagine we’ll be there quite a lot this summer since there’s no way I’m taking them to the zoo by myself again.
Hayley’s abilities have started to surpass Thomas’ abilities. It’s really more difficult to watch than one would think. Until it started happening, I never thought about it. Hayley recognizes numbers and some letters, telling us what sounds they make. She knows so many animals and their sounds. She talks to us, answers our questions and asks her own. She can hold a crayon better than Thomas can and she tries to color things in instead of just scribbling. Of the above mentioned skills, Thomas can name most animals. Until Hayley caught up and has started outstripping Thomas, it was never so apparent just how far behind Thomas remains. He makes small improvements, week by week, but Hayley’s learning and interest in things is growing exponentially. I feel really bad for her because her life is never going to be “normal.” Her good times are going to continue to be cut short because of her brother. When she gets older she’s going to have to explain to her friends about Thomas, and she will almost certainly be made fun of because of Thomas. Kids have enough problems with bullying today for their own natural traits – glasses, braces, pimples, being overweight – and Hayley may have to deal with all of that and more.
The worst thing – the thing that I feel most guilty about – is that she will one day be responsible for his welfare. When I was younger, I vaguely wished that I could have had an older brother. I thought it would have been nice to have someone to look out for me and pave the way for me a little bit. Hayley has an older brother, but it’s going to be the opposite for her. She’s going to have to take care of Thomas and look out for him. It’s so unfair to her. All we can do is hope that in most (if not all) cases, Hayley rises to the challenge. That’s what we all try to do. After all, I rose to the challenge of the zoo. I failed, but at least I tried.