Coping with Autism

I'm hoping that over the next few weeks I will be able to convert this blog to a WordPress Blog also. I did that with my politics blog and love what I am able to do in WordPress. If I am able to do the update, this blog with stay up for at least a year to redirect everyone to the new site.

The spinning top I bought for Peter was a huge hit but it couldn't hold up to his abuse and was destroyed inside of a week. He kept it around as long as he could but when it fell apart, it was basically shaped sheet metal so there were sharp edges that prevented us from keeping it past a certain point of destruction. But Peter did love it. Nathan, of course, loved just about everything he received. The light saber/swords I bought broke within the first week also but the boys continued to play with them anyway. Nathan loved a put-it-together-yourself Handy Manny toy and still carries it around from time to time. Nathan's newest obsession is R2-D2. I bought them the LEGO Star Wars game for the Wii for Christmas and Nathan is head over tails for R2-D2. Now he wants R2-D2 this and R2-D2 that. He even wants to build one a life-size working robot (uh, no, not happening--too expensive).

More evidence is coming out about Oxytocin as a possible treatment for autism. I don't want to use the word "cure" because I think a healthy dose of optimism should be tempered with a healthy dose of caution. The Washington Post reported on the story today. Oxytocin is also known as the pleasure hormone because we release under certain cirmcumstances. It's also released by a mother's body during delivery because it causes muscle contractions. I think for some children it could be a great help. I know my son Peter engages in all kinds of stimming activities and if we could calm those down and get him to focus, he is capable of so much more. He's already reading and doing well in school. His teachers and therapists all agree that his speech and focus are his biggest challenges. Oxytocin has the potential to help with eye contact and possibly even stimming. There is hope!

Mmmm... this is always a challenge. Nathan is getting easier to buy for. We have seen such an improvement in him it is astonishing. He still over-focuses, hand-flaps and has speech problems but he's interacting with others, playing, starting conversations, etc. It's fantastic! Nathan is getting cars, a "light saber" that lights up and Play-Doh. Peter as always is so much more difficult to buy for--he wanted books this year since he is reading but I'm not sure he will enjoy them as much as I would hope he would. I did find a choral spinning top at a Tuesday Morning store. It's big, about eight inches across and as you spin it (ah, spinning--what a wonderful thing for an autistic child!) it "hums" in chords. It's great and I think he will love it. They received other things as well but we'll see what happens tomorrow. I'll let you all know what the hits were.

Doctors at Duke University have found a connection between autism and the body's ability to recognize and utilize the hormone Oxytocin. Check out the story at Science Daily .

I've been meaning to write this for quite some time. We did well in Disney World and it was due to a few things: 1. For every child with autism, you need at least one parent, grandparent, aunt, etc. to help corral or monitor where each child is and what they are doing. 2. Get a letter from your child's doctor stipulating that he or she has autism. As soon as you enter the park, go to guest services and let them know that you need a Guest Pass for your child. This pass allows your child to go into the express/fast pass line or the disability line for nearly all of the rides. The pass allows for five other guests to ride the ride with the person who has the disability. We had two letters and two passes which allowed us to have as many as twelve people enter the express/fast pass line. The child with the disability has to be with the group entering the fast pass lane. Disney cast members will check for the Guest pass. At first we didn't think we would need the Guest pass beca...

I have strongly felt that there was a genetic link for autism but the focus on immunizations seemed to take the focus off of this kind of research. Today, U.S. News and World Report is reporting that scientists have found that an error on a gene may be related to autism. Scientists studied the DNA of families of those with autism, those with autism and then a control group of people without autism. They found a significant difference. In our family alone we have two with autism and one with ADHD. My husband is suspected of having had PDD-NOS as a child. We have a niece on the autism spectrum as well. I have no doubt that there is a genetic link--the question we face now is what are we going to do about it?