Solving the World

Making a switch…

Tee — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:32:10 +0000

Before this blog begins to pick up subscribers, we are going to change over to our new server: From now on, all new posts can be found at http://www.solvingtheworld.org. Head over and subscribe now!

Thanks!

S-H-E-L-L

Tee — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:36:05 +0000

Driving to speech therapy on Wednesday, we came to an intersection with a Shell gas station on the corner. Without prompting, he declared, “Hey! That spells S-H-E-L-L!” I immediately jumped into “teaching mode” and asked him what that spelled. Without missing a beat re replied:

“That spells ‘Get A Gas!!”

He was so proud of his answer and said it so enthusiastically, I didn’t have the heart to do anything but be encouraging. Sister and I applauded and praised him through the rest of the red light.

When the light changed and we started moving, Sister very patiently sounded the word out for him.

Just a happy sibling moment I had to share.

Little Adventures

Tee — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:56:27 +0000

Yesterday, Mommy told me of a small, but very significant hurdle we cleared yesterday. Let me set this up:

Up until a few months ago, Little Man would not go on anything other than stairs to get above the bottom floor of any building. In the case where there was no choice, one of us would have to carry him while we rode the elevator. The mere mention of the word “elevator” would cause panic attacks. He would not cross the threshold of one unless one of us were holding him. We patiently rode out the storm for over a year silently wondering when this would end, if it did at all.

Then, this summer, I had surgery on my foot. I was on crutches for over two months. Just given the fact that I couldn’t use my hands should’ve told me that sooner or later we would face a time when we’d have to ride an elevator when neither of us could carry him. Sure enough, on my way to physical therapy one day, it happened. Mommy had her hands full and I couldn’t carry him. He saw the elevator and panicked, but we told him to be a big, brave boy and that we’d be there with him. He stepped on reluctantly and held on to the hand rails for dear life. Mommy, sister and I did everything we could to make it a game for him. We hit the button for the third floor and off we went. He got past the initial change of “gravity,” smiled a big smile and said, “I’m flying!” When we got off the elevator, we made a big deal out of his success. High-fives flew all around.

The biggest success came when we left the physical therapy office and he trotted right onto the elevator without batting an eye and even pushed the button! He had a huge smile on his face. Neither of us said a word until we got off the elevator, but needless to say another round of high-fives was in order.

Skip to yesterday. Unfortunately, I wasn’t present for this one, but when Mommy told me about it, I couldn’t help but tear up. She took the two kids shopping with her yesterday afternoon while I had a long day at work. They went into a large department store and, of course, the kids section was on the second floor. So, they had to take the escalator. She said that, at first, he was apprehensive, but she let him watch sister step onto it and he relucantly agreed to do it. He was holding on to Mommy’s hand so tight that she could feel his arms shaking, and he looked really nervous, but he did it. More importantly, he did it all on his own.

So, that’s two of his major fears that he’s conquered just in the last two months. They don’t sound like big obstacles, but to him, they were huge. I wish that I could’ve seen elevators and escalators from his 4-year-old point of view before he’d overcome that fear. What was it about them that caused the panic? Is he overly sensitive to that slight feeling of being off balance that comes with being in an elevator? Was it the appearance that he was going to have to jump on something moving?

Just more questions…different kind.

To see the world through his eyes….

Mommy — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:27:07 +0000

Everyday, each and every moment of every day, that I am with my child, I see things so differently. I was just watching him play on the computer. He was solving a puzzle, moving odd shapes of train track around to make a continuous track and when correct the little train would chug along to the station. He was flying through it and was so excited to show me – “Look, we did it!” And right back on to the next puzzle he would go. He loves to pretend play! Most of the time he lives in his own imaginary world….playing out favorite movies….Wallace & Grommit…Jimmy Neutron…and so on. Our dog named, Toby, becomes Grommit or even Jimmy’s dog Goddard. Our daughter becomes Cindy, Jimmy’s sister. We’re usually mom and dad….but it’s become normal for us to live with him in his world. Instead of trying to force him into ours and see what we see…we try to be a part of his. His world is so colorful and complex…yet simple. We’ll be riding a rocket ship (laundry basket) into outer space or exploring dark caves in the jungle (closet) and he’s in the moment. He’s there, in the space ship or jungle. It’s real to him. He can tell you all about it with great detail and I sit amazed. Just amazed. It brings tears to my eyes to think of it. His world is so big….much bigger than my own.

Another Day…another yellow..

Mommy — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:48:35 +0000

So, today marks another 3 day run of yellows for my little man. If you don’t know what a yellow is, well it’s a way to easily show how he did behaviorily in kindergarten for the day. You get a green if you’re good, a yellow if you have a time out, and a red if you have multiple time outs. Needless to say, three days of yellow is not a good thing. It means he looses his TV time until he can go a whole week with greens – which he has only achieved once in the past 5 weeks.

Today to earn his yellow he did the following: After completing his morning work – he cut it up into tiny pieces and threw it in the trash. So, now he has to redo his morning work in the afternoon. Then, later on as his class was lined up for lunchtime, he decided he didn’t want to line up with them, but with another class. When he was re-directed back to his line, he laid down in the floor and refused to move.

It was after this I get a phone call from the Sp Ed teacher. He was serving his time out in her room and she called me on the phone to let him know that I knew what he had done. Then she let him know that there will be no TV time.

So here I sit typing this. Why in the world would he do that? Obviously he’s testing his boundaries, but why do the work ~ then cut it all up and throw it away. To get a reaction? Who really knows. He’s very smart – we all know that – it’s just he has to make up his own mind to do something. I know he can read – it’s just a matter of whether or not he wants to.

I search for ways to get through and help him ~ but right now I’m at a loss. I look down the road for him and want him to be a success and happy in life. I’m not sure what success will be for him – but happy I know he will be. I just want him to be able to function to acceptable norms in the classroom. I worry kids will make fun of him. Kids can be so cruel. I dread the day, he comes home upset because someone made fun of him.

But, alas, all I can do is pray and put it in the hands of God.

Kindergarten…The First Few Weeks

Tee — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:52:30 +0000

My son was in the final days of his preschool program when he was diagnosed. As soon as preschool was over, we were into summer. He’s made so much progress over the past year, but we were afraid that he might lost some of that forward progress when faced with the freedom that the summer can bring. Little to no schedule, getting to play with sister and mommy and daddy all day, etc, lead to a much more lax schedule for him. Less structure can equal harder transition back into structure.

However, even with the added challenges of a new school building and new teachers, he has made the transition like a champ! The overall structure of “school” is still there even though the individual parts of it are a little different. Yet another example of how he sees the world differently.

Each day we learn something new.

A New Beginning…

Tee — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:34:43 +0000

Late last week, our 4-year-old son was diagnosed with high-functioning autism. While we’ve been kind of expecting this for a while now, to actually get the diagnosis is a little overwhelming. Especially since most of the information available on the web is focused around more extreme forms of autism.

Next week, he turns 5 and will be starting kindergarten in the Fall.

My wife and/or I will be posting our thoughts and experiences here. This is just a quick post to let you know what this is about. I’ll be posting more soon.