My son & Autism

So as some of you may know, my son was diagnosed with autism when he was 3. There are three “stages”, mild, moderate, and severe. My son has moderate. It has been a year since that official diagnosis and I wanted to give an update, as well as talk about some things that are prevalent in his disorder.

Saying disorder sounds a bit weird to me because in my eyes, there is nothing wrong with him. He just processes the world a bit differently than others. But don’t we all?

In fact I have been curious if I am also on the spectrum.

I don’t like loud noises, when people make strange sounds, I hate the feel of tags (or even the thought of a tag touching me, regardless of if I can feel it or not). I used to listen or watch specific bits of music or movies over and over again. And making eye contact has been a massive struggle for me. I also, did not speak until I was 4.

Now enough about me, let’s move on to my sweet boy.

In my last post about my son, I talked about how he wasn’t speaking and that we were going through a big process to get a speech device. At that time, it was a trial device, but we soon got a permanent one for him to keep. Now that we have it, he rarely uses it at home, because he has started speaking a little! And he can mimic like no other!

One thing about kids on the spectrum is that they learn language in a different way, it is called gestalt language processing. Where in neurotypical kids learn the meaning behind each word, gestalt language processors will memorize whole phrases by sound and then eventually pick out individual words from those phrases, and use them separately.

So my son will walk around repeating sentences or words he’s heard (mainly from his shows) and he says them in exactly the same manner and tone in which he heard it. Sometimes (most of the time) the words themselves are mushed together or a bit wrong, but I know what he is saying because I recognize the tone and way he is saying it, and I can recall the scene of that show and decipher what he’s saying. From there I can help him better pronounce the words.

He has started to verbally ask for things as well, and he surprises me all the time by naming something I didn’t know he knew the name of!

One amazing thing, is that he is already starting to read! Most kids don’t start reading until around age 6. Mind you, Ronan is 4. Amazing! And there is a word for this, it is most common in neurodivergent kids too, but it is called hyperlexia.

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Having a neurodivergent child is a bit difficult at times, but honestly I have nothing to compare it to, he was my first child. And parenting in general has its challenges, so honestly, I’m not sure life would be any easier if he didn’t have autism. All I know, is I am lucky to be his mama!

I want to kind of go over some things that my son does because of his autism. Some things never stuck me as different until I was told that they were traits of an autistic child. This list is what my son does or has done.

• Stimming- humming a single tone repeatedly or continuously, chewing, bouncing, scratching.
• Climbing and jumping off high places
• Running into me repeatedly
• Collecting similar shapes and lining them up
• Shredding paper and throwing it in the air (he also will pick at the carpet or hair or blankets and throw it in the air)
• Being over stimulated by sounds especially toys.
• Running away from a source of excitement
• High pain tolerance
• Loud sounds are scary and overwhelming ( so are kids or babies crying or being too loud *input sister and classmates*)
• Some textures are gross
• So are most foods, seeing others eat something he doesn’t think he likes will make him gag
• Doesnt like being touched by sister or animals unless he initiates
• Some music makes him uncomfortable or panicked and he will run away, sometimes have a meltdown
• Runs 24/7 (especially when overstimulated)
• Needs the comfort of his soft blankets and bed when overwhelmed and/or having a meltdown
• Likes to look at things from the sides of his vision
• Can stand having his hair brushed, washed, or cut. ( though they are getting easier)
• Will run off and not come back because he thinks it is fun to be chased (this is dangerous out in public as you can imagine, and he can’t tell anyone if he’s lost or call out for me)

Now this isn’t everything, but it’s as much as I can think of right now, and it’s a majority of the things he does.

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I’ll do a quick little dive into the things we do to calm him and get him centered and able to focus.

These tactics are not going to work for everyone, but they are what work for us, and some are tactics taught to us by his occupational therapist.

We all need certain types of input to our bodies and nervous system in order to relax and function calmly. People with neurodivergence tend to need these types of sensory input a bit more to calm the mind and body.

Proprioception

— The sense that tells us where our different body parts are, how they move and how much strength our muscles need to use.

— types of proprioceptive input:

• Moving heavy objects
• Pulling heavy objects
• Lifting
• Deep pressure to muscles and joints like massage, squeezing and joint compressions

Vestibular sense

— The vestibular system functions to detect the position and movement of our head in space. This allows for the coordination of eye movements, posture, and equilibrium. The vestibular apparatus found in the inner ear helps to accomplish this task by sending afferent nerve signals from its individual components.

— types of vestibular input

• Spinning
• Jumping
• Sliding
• Bouncing
• Rocking
• Swinging

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A few things that my son does specifically for sensory input, pushing on my with his toes, or kicking things, lining up toys in very specific places, getting extremely upset at people singing,humming or whistling unless it is on tv or we are driving in the car. He was ok with me singing until he was 2 years old and then he would just start crying.

My son also goes through times during the day where he is very very high energy and almost like a manic state where it is incredibly hard to calm him down, these times usually happen right before bed too!

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These things don’t apply to every child on the spectrum, but they do apply to my son. I wanted to share in case anyone else is interested and wanting a little sneak peek into what life is like when your child is autistic. This isn’t everything, but for now, it’s all I can think of!

I hope this was somewhat insightful!

~A

P.S. I would like to give a massive thank you and shout out to Andrea Benko, her support and art are incredible! Check out her blog!