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You opened my mind to concepts obvious but gone unnoticed by me. I know in past years I have seen behavior as you describe but could not understand it until now. I have read about autistic children needing or abhoring contact, how sound can be painful, even how a bean bag chair is sometime so comforting in the way it envelopes the child, or adult.
Sounds like you get quite a bit of exercise each day. Did the OT come to your home and help or just give you ideas after seeing your son?
Hi Paul...so nice to see you!
In answer to your question about the Occupational Therapists we have had...we have had all the different scenarios...we had one in a school setting, we had one come to our home, and we also took my son to a center where the OT had a special room with all sorts of cool equipment. I found that it was some of the best therapy that he ever had...it was fun...purposeful...and it helped him.
Thanks so much for your comment and for asking more about sensory integration!
Yes, a fabuous summary. I have one of those too but I also have the opposite, the unresponsive which makes life much more exciting. If you had a tick box I could mark each one. Glad to know that someone else is bouncing off the walls but then we also have jet lag to add to the mix........what joy!
Cheers
You're very welcome. I do post regularly [daily] on my own website about my boys and family. It's called 'Whitterer On Autism.' It's a wordpress site not the 'blogspot' site as that's really difficult to load and makes people's computers crash [oopsie]. I'd be happy to see you there any time. Now I know where you are I can bookmark the site as I'm a little technically challenged so I'll have trouble finding you without a book mark.
Best wishes and the very best of luck.
Maddy
Good oh! If I knew what a sharepost was I might give it a bash but sadly, I'm a bit unfamiliar with your terminology. Here's the link to my site and I expect I shall pop back over the weekend when there are more grown ups around to help with the 'team.'
Cheers
Maddy
I will definitely be coming to your site Maddy!
A sharepost is easy peasy! Just go to the blue button up there which says CONNECT and then a drop down menu says Create a sharepost....and voila! Just cut and paste one of your blog posts and give a link for us to come to your blog. I would love to create more community here so...please do come back to visit and share!
Gosh that does sound easy. Far easier that cooking supper for our [now extended] family of 8, entertaining all and sundry and digging out the carpet cleaner after a little accident, laundry......I'll give it whizz over the weekend. [see if I can find something relevant as I loved your piece] How I love Fridays!
Cheers
Maddy
I wanted to say a huge thank you for this advice. As I have said before my son has many diagnoses only 1 of which is a.d.h.d He was daignosed with sensory integration disorder when he was just a little guy of 3 or 4 years old. He will be 11 on july 11th and what you described made me shake my head yes over and over again. Even with his meds many nights he doesnt fall asleep till after midnight ( he is awake as I type this although he is finally calm and quiet- 11 pm my time) and he wakes up as early as 5 am, jumps outta bed or off the couch and is literally bouncing off the walls and very loud. He has 2 volumes loud and louder. I have tried so hard to teach him about indoor voices but to no avail. Anyway, I use the water technique whenever possible and he gets plenty of exercise throughout the day. He also takes the trash to the dumpster for me every day so he gets the pulling and lifting you were speaking about. None of this seems to be helping. He has had an extremely difficult couple of weeks and I am not giving up although I do feel like Im losing my mind. It is hard to keep going when I live on literally 2 or 3 hours of sleep a night and maybe get an hour nap during the day while he watches cartoons ( thats a rarity though). Anyway, I will continue to try your methods and thank you again for such detailed advice.
Sincerely
Mary Posey
Mary:
Has your child been evaluated for Aspergers? You mentioned several diagnosis, I don't know if this is one of them. I have a set of twins whom both have Sensory Distrubance or Integration. Lucky us! One thing we have found that helps both to sleep soundly is Seroquel. Their minds and bodies need rest and so do we, just to deal with them the next day! Also, if you don't want to try a prescribed med per se, try melatonin. Finally, we have had some success with sensory blankets ( weighted according to their body weight and sensory needs) and relaxation soft music. These have been very soothing at night for them. Good luck! 
Thank you for the advice. No all autistic diagnoses except for pdd have been ruled out. My son has been on more meds than I can count since the age of 3. He was on 400 mg of serequel a day and still wasnt sleeping. We tried melotin as I was becoming desperate but it made him very ill. He has been on trazadone, and many of the other sleep meds. Currently he is on trilyptal, clonidine, and strattera. His diagnoses are as follows and mind you they have been changed from time to time so this is the most updated list. Mental retardation (iq= 46 total), A.D.H.D., O.D.D., P.T.S.D., Bipolar (NOS), Sensory Integration Disorder and a possibility of P.D.D. (Pervasive Development disorder). He will be 11 next saturday and he is very excited. I think the hardest thing for both of us right now is that he is in full blown puberty and doesnt understand whats happening to his body. Continues to ask why he cant shave down there and why it is itchy and all those questions that boys ask when puberty hits. Trying to explain it to a child who functions at a 4 or 5 year old level has been really difficult. Anyway, I do thank you for the advice and other things we have tried have been the brushing and massage techniques to no avail. Water is still our best advocate and I use it whenever possible. We get through life 1 day at a time with the help of God. Prayer and meditation and sites like this help me to keep my sanity. Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Mary Posey
Hi Mary!
Has your son ever had some Occupational Therapy yet? It really is helpful. About the sleeping...have you tried giving him Melatonin? This is a natural substance you can buy at the health food store. I crush up a tablet into my son's drink and...he sleeps now! It is a miracle for us. I had tried this upon a friend's recommendation and then my son's neurologist also confirmed that this is a good natural way to get him to sleep. I use it too and it works for me...I am usually asleep within an hour of taking it.
I hope this helps some...thank you so much for your comment!
Oh my Mary!
I just gave you advice about Melatonin without reading what you say here. I am so sorry that did not work for you. Maybe I will try to do some research for you to find out if there are other things which may help...I know how precious a good night's sleep is.
Please do stay in touch here...I would greatly love to build up a community here with lots of other parents. I have gotten some of the best ideas from parents who have been there.
Hang in there!
Thanks so much for your input! I also have a son now 10, who I put into the pool at 2 months to calm him..what relief..it gave me time to relax myself until we finally got a correct dx. at 6 yrs. We immediately put him on rx. Also being a SPED teacher, I was unprepared for the constant challenge this was going to be as a parent..This morning at 5:00 AM he had organized his buddies to "watch the sunrise, at the tree house" only after his Mom said he would need 7 hours of sleep first! I'm glad it does get bit easier when they get more independent!
That first paragraph just described my daughter to a tee.... I am not kidding . She drives my husband nuts because everysingle time she walks by him she has to touch him in some way , like smack his arm or poke his arm kick his foot . It irritates him alot and I have always wondered why she does this . She can't just sit on your lap she runs and jumps on it. When she was around 4 we bought her a bunk bed set, I used the top bunk to store her stuffed animals only to realize everyday she was throwing them on to the floor and jumping off the top bunk into them. She runs and jumps head first into the cousch so hard some times I am afraid she is going to break her neck.
Its like you have been to my house and observed my child and then wrote the article. She has a counsler appointment tomorrow I am definately going to bring this up, but we don't have one of those therapist near where i live . I would love to hear some more ideas on how to work with this at home , Thank you som much for writing this article
I read these stories and smiled because I saw I wasn't alone and this is how I've for so long. My son age 7 now was diag with a developemental delay in almost all areas except physical at age 2. I was told that even though they don't diag kids with ADHD so young, she was sure he was and then at 5 he was. My son almost never sleeps. When he was an infant he use to rock extremely hard in his exersourser and in chairs and until this day he still does. It drives my mother crazy but I'm fine with it b/c it soothes him. The only problem is he rocks so hard you swear it has to hurt and at night he wakes up every hour to get in a chair and rock until it bangs the walls, fall asleep and then less than a few min later doing it again. His father and I don't get sleep until he is at school. I have a 3yr daughter that copies everythg he does. He jumps off and climbs anything and constantly annoy her and school mates just because. He always wants to sit on our laps but can't sit still. He will move around constantly then when made to get up he will get in a chair and rock. Punishment means tantrums and then the same behaviors. We have to even change that up b/c he quickly will be ok with it and won't be bothered that he can't watch tv, play his wii or basketball. We keep him in sports all the time such as soccer since age 2 and basketball, baseball, football and karate. What can I do. He see a speech and language therapist 2x a wk at home and 1x a wk in school plus a SPED teacher 45min a day at school! Help
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Thank you so much! I sure hope it was helpful. I hope you come back to read more of the articles here on Health Central.