A New Behavior

On Wednesday evening, I noticed Calen concentrating on the TV remotes. At first he was banging them together which not out of the ordinary. Then, I noticed he would lay them down end-to-end. Then he would bend over and then squat as if he was checking something. Then he would stand back up and adjust the remotes......HE WAS LINING THEM UP. My heart was broken. This was something that he had never done before. He was working so hard trying to line them up perfectly. I sat there and watched him with tears streaming. Today, I called Dr. Elizabeth Griffith. She is the psychologist from the UAB Sparks Clinic in Birmingham that diagnosed Calen this year with autism. She asked if he had lost any of his skills, and the answer was no. She asked if there were any other new behaviors and I told her yes...he's biting himself and showing strong preference for tight, closed-in places. She said these behaviors usually manifest themselves around 3 and 4 years of age. It's just the course of the autism. She told me to watch him carefully to make sure he doesn't lose any skills. Losing skills is something to be afraid of. She asked about how things were going here, and I told her the lackluster help we've been getting. She made an appointment for September 5th at 10am for us to come to Sparks Clinics. She wants to see Calen and work with me on some things we can do at home to keep him engaged so he won't resort to those repetitive behaviors.

I went to pick Calen up today from his preschool. I talked with the teacher this morning while dropping him off about his vision. Calen is near-sighted and has astigmatism in both eyes. During circle time, he was strapped into his favorite chair and biting his fingers. His chair was OUTSIDE the circle. I talked to her about this and informed her of his vision problems. I stated that he would probably be more apt to pay attention if he could see and actually be IN the circle instead of outside it. When I picked him up this afternoon, he was in his favorite chair INSIDE the circle. That was all I asked....include Calen, too. Then there was another problem....he was in a great spot inside the circle, but he was allowed to play with a couple of strings of beads. He was now given something to distract him while the other children were singing and participating with the circle time activities! That defeated the whole purpose of my request!