The touch point method may be helpful for some children with autism who are learning to add numbers.
This study was designed to see if the use of touch point skills is a good way to teach math to children with autism. Touch point was very helpful in teaching addition to the three elementary students in the study. Two of the three children were also able to use the number line to add numbers. The study did not look to see if the ability to add lasted after touch point was faded out. The authors hope that a better knowledge of addition will translate into better math skills in general, telling time, using money, buying things, banking, and problem-solving.
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An hour of sunshine....
Jun 26, 2009 by AnonymousFor me this has been a week of discovery, decisions and disbelief. Discovery came in the form of the realization and finalization that my son’s autism support group had indeed fallen pray to budget cuts and that no 11th hour call for restoration would be forthcoming. I admit that while I have become a very strong advocate for my son, I took comfort in knowing that reinforcements were always just a phone call away, and that his support person would always be there for me to help me find the right program, piece of information or just sit quietly on the other end of the phone while I vented. Although she was often quick to remark that I was as much a support system for her as she was for me (she herself a mother of a child with special needs) it was the knowledge that she would be there when I needed her that had gotten me through many emotionally difficult and overwhelming times. I knew that in times of crisis all I had to do was break glass! People so often take for granted the importance of emotional support from those who get truly get it, so today I feel a void and a profound loss that I had not anticipated even though I had been forewarned.
Perhaps borne out of a frenzied grasp at trying to make sense of my world and indeed to genuinely make a contribution to my community, and the ASD community at large I have decided to return to school and complete my degree. Whoaaa, easy with the applause...do not read Masters, Ph. D. or anything so lofty just yet. Read Bachelors of Science (Human Services). Many, many…(ok , to be blunt I left school mid-junior year…my son is now a junior in college, you do the math) years ago I fell on financial hard times and left school saying I would return in a semester, maybe two. Life happens. At least now I know what I want to do when I grow up.
Disbelief has come for me as it has for the world that we have lost two pop icons in one day. While you may or may not have been a fan of one or both, their contributions to music and cinema, as well as to humanity were monumental and should not be diminished. So maybe it’s just the unrelenting rain, or the overall feeling of sadness at this loss that has cast a dark pall over my day. Suffice it to say that I can only sum up this weeks blog with these thoughts…Time is too precious to wallow in negativity, regret, superiority complexes, inferiority complexes, grief, despair and pain. This week Joshua shaved almost 7 seconds off of his 50 meter freestyle meet time. Not quite Michael Phelps and no, he did not come in first place, but in my eyes he is a winner. Today the sun came out for an hour where I live (it has been raining almost nonstop all month). That’s what I want to remember about this week, the little wins and that brief moment of light and warmth. God bless you all!
Repetition...Here I go again!!!
Jun 7, 2009 by AnonymousThis week was much like many others in the respect that I was going through a period of feeling totally overwhelmed with life in general and my emotional pendulum was yet again swinging from one extreme to the other, a phenomenon my family have long since chalked up to mom having “one of her days.” Nothing extremely out of the ordinary actually. I had been asked to submit again further documentation to my insurance company to substantiate the need for my son’s ongoing speech therapy. I had requested and received home work material for the expressed purpose of practicing hard won skills so as to ward off the ever present monster in the closet; regression. I had intended yet again to organize files, stow away winter clothes, check the fit of summer clothes, etc., etc. And then it hit me. As I checked emails, twitter accounts, my space pages and face book…it hit. This emotion that was at once akin to emotional vertigo and short of a panic attack. The overwhelming enormity of all that goes with caring for a child with ASD. It was a feeling that I could not quite place the night before as I watched my son struggle to perform math problems that we had been working on all year and still seemed to just escape his grasp. It was the feeling of clawing your way up a mudslide. It was the feeling of being stuck in one place while the world seemed to move around you. The repetition of it all in an effort to gain some minuscule ground and trying to find contentment in that. When that realization came, with it came the self-loathing. How could I possible feel tired of it, resentful, angry…and if I did, what must he feel?
In reading submissions from others on line and parents that I have personally connected with, I have come to one conclusion; the drive to protect, nurture, and see that our children flourish is all consuming. I have met some truly awe inspiring parents with children on the spectrum and have found evidenced in them immeasurable strength. But almost universally I have found that the same strength that drives us alternatively burns us out. We are called upon to wear so many hats that we find ourselves filled to overflowing. I have sought alternative ways to deal with this sense of feeling overwhelmed…therapy, exercise, prayer and mostly that works. I have learned to reprioritize my life. No longer is it most important that my house be spotless. There are days when I feel it would pass inspection by the Board of Health…barely. No longer are my finances handled with the precision of a calculator wielding accountant…thank goodness for online payments! The laundry may not be done to Martha Stewart’s standards…(ok, did that pile in the corner just move by itself…it’s small, I think I can take it!). Point is I am doing the best I can. Today. And maybe tonight in the solace of my beloved shower I will cry, long, shoulder wracking, hiccup inducing, eye swelling cries that will leave my eyes red and puffy as only my favorite shampoo can. I will toss and turn and watch another episode of Law & Order with one eye on the clock, and then sleep the sleep of a parent whose mind will not be still. Tomorrow is a new day, a new fight, a new challenge. A bus pulls into my driveway and his voice sing-songs on its way out through the closing door…”bye mom, love you” as it has every school day this year. I smile and realize repetition ain’t that bad.
Spring Break #2
May 1, 2009 by AnonymousSpring Break #2 is here! Unfortunately, Thomas' school is one of those that has been closed due to a "probable case" of this swine flu. Perhaps I'm a slacker mom, perhaps I'm being far too blaise, but I think that this whole thing is a lot of hooey that conveniently coincides with the network ratings time, generally referred to as "May Sweeps."
As a result of all of this Swine Flu stuff, Thomas' school is closed until May 11 - a terrific thing indeed for an autistic child who has a difficult time adjusting to schedule changes - and especially unscheduled schedule changes. We're going to try to do a lot of reading next week and some math in the new Everyday Mathematics book Mrs. H. sent home last week.
As for Hayley, she's lucky she was even let into Preschool this morning, being the sister of a boy who attends an infected school. They had to have the director of the preschool call their insurance agent to see if she could attend. Luckily, they gave her the all-clear, but I feel like we're about to be quarantined with a big blood-red cross painted on our front door. However, instead of lamb's blood, they'll have to use the small can of Ralph Lauren "Hunting Coat Red" we have in the garage. A modern spin on a medieval plague classic.
Again, I think it's a load of hooey.
Last Wednesday, Jonathan took the kids to see Thomas' Sea Life exhibit at school. The kids mostly played in the classroom centers, but Jonathan (I was working) got a chance to talk to Mrs. H. who again expressed her desire to "take Thomas home," because she is so attached to him. She has no idea what she's talking about since Jonathan and I have positively decided that Thomas is a different kid at school - a more focused and less energetic kid. She also said that Thomas is reading at level C, which means absolutely nothing to the lay-person, but she explained to me on Thursday that it's a first-grade level. We think that's great, but why won't Thomas read at home for us?! It's like an exercise in futility trying to get him to sound out words. He'll make the letter sounds but then he won't put them together to make a whole word. Mrs. H. says that it's okay; he'll get it and she's just thrilled with his ability to read so far. That should be good enough for us, but I keep trying to find opportunities for him to read. I've tried saying, "You have to learn to read before we go to Walt Disney World 'cause we'll need your help reading the signs!" I don't think he buys it. Honestly, I don't either.
Thomas will be attending Hayley's dance recital with us this year and he will hopefully be well-behaved. My parents are going, Jonathan's mom is going and the three of us, so Hayley will have quite a little audience watching her dance to "I Feel Pretty." She does a lot better than she did last year. I was talking to one of the other moms from Hayley's dance class who's daughter was in Hayley's class last year too and we both agreed that we and our husbands laughed ourselves silly watching the little girls' recital - they were just so interested in the people and the lights and the costumes that any interest in dancing was not a priority at all. It was adorable.
Thomas has expressed an interest in participating in a dance class next year. Jonathan and I are both fine with it, but we wonder if that will open Thomas up to a bunch of teasing. Of course, it will roll right off of Thomas' back as he is nearly immune to that kind of thing, if he has even experienced it yet. Maybe we'll sign him up and perhaps notify the staff of the special circumstances, adding a stipulation that if Thomas can't do it or is too disruptive, he can get out of the class and we can get at least most of our money back. I have to admit that I think it's kind of cool that he would even want to do a dance class. Another Billy Elliot, maybe? Mommy can dream.
Memory lane
Apr 14, 2009 by AnonymousDisney World continues to be a main topic of discussion in our house when we really should be talking about first grade and what lies ahead for the next school year. I can’t believe kindergarten has gone by so fast. Already it’s April and May will fly by…June 9 is Thomas’ last day of Kindergarten which makes it a good thing that we cancelled our trip to the “vacation house” in June. That vacation was scheduled to start on June 6.
Thomas’ class is almost done with the Sea Life unit and will shortly move onto the Farm unit. At school today, Mrs. H. took delivery of twelve eggs and an incubator. All of the kids were very interested in this and I’m told that the eggs will be hatching 21 days from today. Hopefully, I will be there on that Tuesday to see what happens. Mrs. H. told me that the year she was pregnant with her daughter, she had to bring the eggs home on the weekends to turn them (the new incubator does that automatically, so there are no worries unless someone unplugs the unit) and she didn’t keep them warm enough and there were no hatchlings. She was already emotional and pregnant and she told me that she cried and cried about it, saying, “See! I can’t even keep little chicks alive and I’m going to have a baby…” She ended up borrowing hatchlings from another class.
Thomas is not as excited about this turn of events, as is his usual way of handling new and different things. He wants nothing to do with the eggs, the eventual chicks or any of it. What a surprise! I get so frustrated when he’s like that and I never know what I can say, if anything, to change his mind and make it okay for him. I usually just drop the subject which works in the short-term, but I need to know how to handle his apprehension about anything new or different. Maybe I should go back to the pictures I used to draw for him.
Thank goodness that the one new and different thing we’ve got planned (Disney) is something that he seems very eager for. That’s Mickey Mouse Magic for you, I guess. We’ve watched countless YouTube videos of different rides and views of the park and even a video someone took of the interior of the rooms at the hotel we’ll be staying. Nothing can prepare us better than that sort of thing. We’ve been doing immense amounts of Internet research as well. There’s actually a website called AllEars.net which has a whole section on touring Disney World with an autistic family/group member. Most of the time, it says that Disney can work magic with an autistic child…there were testimonies about autistic, non-verbal children saying their first words at Disney, beginning potty-training there and other amazing feats. One contributor to the site says that their family plans a yearly trip to Disney just because their autistic child makes such vast, lasting improvements there that they consider it therapy. The kind that insurance, lamentably, does not cover.
Thomas has been doing very well in telling us what has been happening at school. Today, I was there so I know what happened – but on other days, I get a very good description of books they read, math problems they did and what the question of the day was. They’ve been learning about sea creatures and Thomas told me all about sea turtles and dolphins; which sea creatures are actually mammals who breathe air and which breathe the water through gills. I think that the Strattera really helps him pay attention and retain information to be regurgitated later. I remember back to when he was in his first year of preschool and we would ride home in the car, me peppering him with questions about what he did and Thomas sitting there, stone-faced and staring out the window. He’s made such a huge improvement with that.
I was home alone on Saturday after working because Jonathan had taken the kids to his mom’s house for a while and I popped his preschool DVD in to have a stroll down memory lane. It’s amazing to watch how he never participated in circle time and showed extremely low interest in whatever was going on in class. Several times on the video, the teacher herself or one of her aides had to try and drag Thomas back to the action. It remains difficult to watch how he used to resist that kind of contact. On this video you could also hear Thomas’ echolalia…little repeated snippets of what the teacher was saying. We don’t hear it in that context anymore, which is wonderful. That video is so hard to watch at times (like when Thomas was kicking the teacher as she brought him back to the circle) but it’s a good thing for us to watch at times, too. Living with Thomas day to day, we don’t notice the huge improvements he’s made. Looking back like that reminds us of how much he’s able to do now and how hard he’s worked over the past few years. And despite the fact that Thomas did a fair amount of kicking and resisting that first half-year, the teacher still referred to him as “My Thomas;” another reminder of how Thomas, though difficult at times, endears himself forever to these marvelous people who work so hard to help him. He is very cute, so that helps too.
We have Hayley’s dance recital coming up on May 15 and Thomas says he’d like to attend with us and Grandma. We think that it may be good practice for the shows and things we’ll see in Disney World in which he’ll have to sit and enjoy the spectacle. We’ve been trying to explain to the kids that not EVERYTHING in Disney World is a “ride;” many of the wonderful things we’ll see will be in a theater-setting. So the dance recital will be a great tool to gauge how well Thomas can sit and wait and watch without being loud or difficult. Plus, if we have to haul him out of the theater, I don’t think it will cause too much disruption. We’ll be sure to get aisle seats and bring snacks…or the PSP – probably both.