Creatures at my Door

Halloween

In a few days, a lot of creatures will visit your door. Be open minded. The child who is grabbing more than one piece of candy might have poor fine motor skills. The child who takes forever to pick out one piece of candy might have motor planning issues. The child who does not say "trick or treat" or "thank you" might be painfully shy, non-verbal. They are thankful in their hearts and minds. The

child who looks disappointed when he sees your bowl might have a life-threatening allergy. The child who isn't wearing a costume at all might have SPD or autism. Be kind, be patient, smile, pretend you understand. It's everyone's Halloween. Make a parent feel good by making a big deal of their special child. ♥

I never know exactly how Caroline is going to ask when we are at big public events.  Sometimes she gets overwhelmed by all the people and noise.

Halloween is no different.  I also get embarrassed because my usual polite child forgets to say "thank you" and she sometimes either gets too much candy or she tries to get candy when the home owner wants to give it out.   Saturday, we went to a "trunk or treat" type deal.  A local park had vendors set up tables and gave out candy.  There were two separate lines and they went in a "U" shape.

There was also an area for face painting, magic tricks, and some stuff I didn't see.  They also had a hay ride.    Caroline was frustrated a few times with the different way of giving out candy.  There were so many people that she plugged her ears some of the time and didn't say thank you.

It was so cold that night and my kids costumes were not winter proof.  Caroline, above, is a Hippy Chick.  Lauren, right, is Harry potter.  At least Lauren has a robe and can wear warm clothes underneath.  

Wednesday night we will go out in the neighborhood.  I hope it is warmer!  

We will have to go through a social story about the night.  Maybe about remembering to say thank you and about getting candy.  Caroline gets mad at me when I reminder her to be polite.  This makes the situation worse sometimes but I'm not going to stop.

Good luck to all those with special needs kids.

They grow up too fast

We went to Target tonight to look for Birthday and Christmas ideas.  I also needed to buy the kids winter shoes.  They have gone form a size 5 to a size 7 in two weeks.

We did not find shoes for two 10 year olds but they found shoes that they did like.  I...no so much.

So, although we did not find the robe one child wanted or the game the other one wanted, AND we did not find appropriate Sunday shoes; they did find some shoes that would drive me to drink!!

Stimming

Stimming

What is stimming?  Stimming is a number of different actions done over and over.

Echolalia is another kind of stim.

Caroline has both.  She smells her fingers, she imitates a laugh track, and she talks to imaginary people.  Some NT, neurotypical people stim too.  Have you ever twirled your hair, tapped a pencil, or chewed on a pencil?  Those can be categorized as stims.

One of Caroline's Echolalia stims is talking about back flips.  No matter how many times we talk about them in detail she still comes back to the subject that day or the next.  I put her in gymnastics and told her she would not learn how do back flip the first day.  Every day she asks when she is going to learn to do a back flip.  

Caroline is also "interested", her word, in construction.  There are several buildings under construction in our town and she has to comment on each one every time we drive by.

I've tried to catch her in her stims but she is smart enough to ask what I'm doing and she will stop. 

So, it is a constant battle with, 'Caroline, stop talking to imaginary friends. Caroline, stop using a laugh track.'

I don't let up.  Every time I hear her or see her do a stim I am on her to stop and start something more positive.