Saturday, April 25, 2009

Stemming

Hi everyone! It's the MIA lady! I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much time to post anything. Plus, I feel guilty that I haven't had time to read others' posts so I just stayed away.

I'm sad today. I feel like I'm going crazy sometimes in my attempt to prove to the world that my son has Autism. I go back and forth between convinced he has Autism and really unsure. We still have no official diagnosis. When do I push for this? It drive me insane!!! I can't tell you how many times I hear, "He can't be autistic! He communicates so well!"

Over the last month or so, Marshall has been shaking his hands. He used to only do it when he was frustrated and couldn't remember what he wanted to say. Now he does it ALL the time! He holds his hands up at about shoulder height and shakes them out to the side of his body. He does it more while jumping or taking big steps around. I don't know why he does it. It must be a form of stimulation. His OT is trying to figure out what what he needs to compensate for. When my friend asked him why he does it, he said to get the itch off. She asked him where the itch is and he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and shoulders and arms, and front as he showed her where it itches.

This week, 2 grown men have mimicked Marshall and I do not find it funny at all! Our downstairs neighbor did it right back at him as Marshall was saying that he had been waiting a billion hours for them to come outside. Then yesterday, Marshall was jumping and flapping his hands, and the guy whose kids I babysit shook his hands out exactly the way Marshall does. He said, "Hey Marshall!" and then flapped his hands. I don't find it funny. I don't know why they would do that. It just makes me sad.

One more thing... we have great news! The BEST NEWS IS: MARSHALL SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR 2 WEEKS NOW!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy!

3 comments:

Melissa said...

Congrats!! I love kids who sleep through the night. We started using Melatonin recently and it has worked absolute wonders!!! I wish I had more advice about stemming, but we don't have as much of a problem with that as other kids do.

ks said...

yay Marshall for sleeping through the night!! Since he is 4, I don't think he is too young for a diagnosis.

It sounds like you might think he has autism... or at least on the fence with that. His language skills sound amazing, which isn't typical for kids with ASD. However, one of my dear friends' daughter has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS which is a form of ASD and she has always been very articulate so...

Have you seen a Developmental Pediatrician? These specialists are often the go-to-guys for getting a diagnosis. In my line of work (speech therapy), a lot of the kids I work with go to this doc to get a diagnosis and they have been diagnosed as early as 2. In fact, some of the kids I have worked with have traveled to UT to see a doc down there for a diagnosis...

I'm just thinking from my own personal experience and for me, I felt getting a diagnosis was wonderful to 1- have a name for what was going on with my child and 2- rule out any other possibilities (which gave us peace of mind on other things).

Anita Nap said...

We saw 2 different developmental peds at PCMC. They didn't diagnose him with anything. He was not quite 2 then. Now that he's four, I am seeing WAY more characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome.

My Pediatrician is wonderful and we really love him. Sometimes when I tell him an example of something Marshall has done, he'll say something like "Autistic kids do that." It seems he is throwing Marshall into that category of things Autistic kids do. SO, he has Autism I guess?! ARGH!! WHY do I revisit this? Why can't I just leave it alone? I am pretty sure he has Asperger's Syndrome. Can't I just go with that, read and study about it and help him that way?

In the words of the famous Junie B. Jones, "I HAVE FUSTRATION IN ME!"