Day 6-Part 2 Understanding

I promise I will get caught up soon on these blogs. Every time I think I am going to have a minute to catch up something happens...like puke all over my dining room last night...YUCK! I am the only one in the house that can clean it up too because my husband would only add to the mess if he had to clean it up...what would he do without me? :)

My non-biblical study for Day 6 was on understanding behaviors. I skimmed through the questions and only read the ones that pertained to me...I'm a bit selfish at times but I was actually really curious about this section because no one has ever explained to me the reasons for these behaviors or what they mean. I know my son lacks social skills but specifics I didn't know until now. He does not understand non-verbal emotions. When I cry because I am silent, he never notices. I was reminded of that just a few weeks ago when I was upset about something, God only knows what, I cry over everything, probably a movie, probably Toy Story 3, gosh the beginning of that movie when they show the home movies of Andy...gets me every time! Ok, way off topic! Both boys were in the room and Peanut comes over and crawls in my lap and wipes my tear away and says "you cry mama"...I can not remember a single time my Monkey has noticed me crying and said something, honestly and I have been right in front of his face crying because I am struggling to get him to stay on a time out or frustrated by one of his tantrums. The book explains that ASD children see the face in pieces rather than as a whole face so the subtle things like a raised eyebrow or tearful eye is not seen if they are focused on the mouth. It is like they compartmentalize the facial features and they don't see the emotion, just the body part. There were also a lot of questions about the over sensitivity and insensitivity and I kind of just skimmed over those because I have done a ton of research on that I have almost read front to back the book The Out of Synch Child. But the section that I really liked that helped me was seeing it in black and white a description of my son's social impairments. This has been an area where I have often felt like I have to defend my Son's Diagnosis, even to some professionals, like I want my Son to be Autistic!?! They look at him and think, he is so friendly and outgoing and affectionate and really he is over the top with it. He is only 4 so people think it is so cute but when he is still behaving like that at 10 will they think it is still cute probably not...here was Karen's description:
"The 'active but odd' group was first described in 1979 (since then, Dr. Wing has tried to come up with a name that sounds better). This group tends to be more assertive in social situations-sometimes to the point of being aggressive. You saw this in the case study of Michael, the boy with Asperger's, who became aggressive in the swimming pool and almost drowned another child. His Mother explained that his intention was to hug the other child, but his hug was inappropriately tight. Children in this group will also initiate verbal interactions, but often their interactions involve a one way desertion on their favorite topic with no concern for the other person's interests. Again, Michael would often alienate other children by lecturing them in a pedantic tone about Monarch butterflies."
And lastly the question I found helpful was the explanation of the imaginative play issues. My son has some imaginative play and recently seem to be developing more but this book kind of explained that to me. I was thinking he was getting better but really he is still not really "pretending" because he is only mimicking what he sees on shows and from other kids. That is not "spontaneous" play :( Oh well, they did say with proper therapies they can develop some imaginative play but most likely it will be more advanced forms of my Son's current style of imaginative play.

I am really loving this book, it is teaching me so much and helping me to better explain to others why my Son is doing the things he does. :)