Autism Awareness Day 17

Autism Awareness Day 17 - Teaching your child and/or providing therapy at home need not be drilling, boring, or uninspired. Today I taught Gatlin how to create art on ceramic tiles with alcohol inks. This was fun for both him and I, but it also counts towards speech therapy and occupational therapy as well as just learning colors. The occupational therapy comes into play when he was helping me unscrew the caps from the inks, touching the inks and blending solution with his hands (sensory), holding the small ink bottles to place the drops and/or draw lines with them, and also when he put the caps back on. Through out all of this he was using his hands and working on fine motor skills. 


Speech therapy was really occurring throughout the entire process as I talked to him about what we were doing and he responded when he could. He was listening to me, following directions or simple commands, and responding appropriately. He named the colors as we used them which helped further teach him about colors and he told me when he was done with each color and when he was done with the entire piece itself. So you see it was a fun experience for both of us but were still working on the skills he needs. Keep it simple, keep it fun, engage your child in their interests and they will learn. Best of all it will be a bonding experience as well.
And here they are ..... Gatlin originals .... the first of many more to come. :) Please note that even though I assisted him these are very much his works of art. I did very little to contribute to these masterpieces.

Autism Awareness Day 15

Autism Awareness Day 15 - P.L.A.Y. Project. Twice a month we have P.L.A.Y. Project home visits for both of our boys. They each have a separate appointment where we work with their therapist Heather to learn to engage them and open circles of communication through play. This has been amazing for us! In a lot of ways it's such a simple technique but something that a lot of us parents just miss out on. We have learned better ways to follow our boys lead and play with them to get them to engage with us and try to communicate with us. I highly recommend P.L.A.Y. Project for any parent of a child with Autism. Find out more by clicking on the link below.

http://www.playproject.org/

Autism Awareness Day 7

Autism Awareness Day 7 (sorry it's late) - Talk to your children, even if they don't answer you. One thing I have always done is talk to my children. I've done it since they were babies and I will always do it. Obviously when they were babies I knew they couldn't answer me but then later of course I found out that it would still be difficult for them.

Even though they can't always answer me I feel it is important that I talk to them and try to carry on a conversation so to speak. I know they hear me, sometimes I can tell they are listening though with Autism they don't always make direct eye contact or show signs of paying attention. Either way I know it's good for them and this is how they are going to learn to converse with others. Now that Gatlin talks more he will talk to me, though sometimes he just repeats what I say to him. Like I said though it's still important to talk to him so that he will learn from me.

One thing I've noticed is that when I go to the store with my boys, even when they were babies I always felt like people stared at me because I was talking to them. I always talk to them about whatever and now with Gatty I tell him what we are buying and try to get him to name some of the items. I know that this will help him learn new words and to identify different items. The thing is, I don't really see many other parents talking to their kids. It seems like a lot of them are just in a zone trying to get their groceries or whatever. Now maybe they don't want to look like a fool talking to a child who can't or doesn't answer but I'm not concerned about what others think when they are looking at us. My concern is teaching my children things throughout everyday life.

So don't be afraid to strike up a conversation with your non-verbal child. I'm sure that one day you'll realize how much they really were listening.

Autism Awareness Day 6

Autism Awareness Day 6 - Therapy alone is not enough. One thing that Dr. Soloman told us when our boys were diagnosed was that we needed to record our therapy sessions. He said that we shouldn't rely on therapists, that we needed to learn how to do the therapy ourselves at home. Dr. Soloman said that we as parents were the key to helping our children meet their milestones and that a few hours a week with a therapist was never going to be enough. So we took his advise and recorded the first several sessions so that we could replay them and learn how to provide therapy at home.

At this point in time we no longer record therapy sessions but at the beginning it was very helpful. We still observe therapy sessions and partner with the boys therapists to keep up with what skills we need to work on. We've done our best to incorporate the things they do in therapy into our everyday lives. We are constantly working on skills at home but we've made it more a part of life rather than endless therapy sessions. The key to teaching our boys is through fun and play. They learn so much more when they enjoy it and I think that is really true for just about anyone.

We've taken a lot of the advice given to us from therapists and put it into play (literally play time) at home. We've also found some of our own methods that work too. I don't feel that we are the best at this but I will say that the therapists have always told us that they can tell we're working on things at home. So if you ask me that must mean we're doing something right. All I know is that our boys have come a long way since the beginning of this journey.

Autism Awareness Day 5

Autism Awareness Day 5- Consistency is key. When you have a child with Autism you soon learn that being consistent and maintaining schedules can be very helpful. My thoughts on this are that if your senses can be easily overwhelmed, the world around you can seem chaotic and overstimulating, and you have difficultly clearly communicating with others then schedules and routines probably help you to feel more comfortable and secure. I think for my boys it is nice for them to know what's expected and what's coming next so they feel safe and in balance.

It is for this reason that we have a pretty set bedtime routine and schedule. We try to keep therapy appointments on the same days and times. We use the "clean up" song to signal the boys that it's time to put toys away. (songs in general are good but I'll talk about that on another post) I usually do not take my boys to the doctor if their regular doctor is not scheduled in that day. We like to keep the same therapists and the one time that we did have to switch therapists for a bit we tried to get Gatlin used to the new one before his regular one went on maternity leave. Doing these things helps to keep it familiar and comfortable for our boys. They are less likely to be overwhelmed and frustrated if we stick to the routine.

Now I'm not saying that you should never change things up because let's face it, life is full of change. What I am saying is that you should keep things on schedule when you can and when you can't it's best to talk about it, show pictures, or do whatever you can to clue a child with Autism in on what changes are to come. For example one time we missed physical therapy for the week so then when we took Gatlin in for Speech he became very agitated because it wasn't the right therapist. He was expecting to see Miss Megan and not Miss Jessica. This actually just happened with Draiman also since he's no longer in OT.

I have noticed that the more Gatlin understands what I'm telling him the easier he handles changes. On the other hand with Draiman it is just too overwhelming because he just doesn't understand what's going on. So we do our best to keep it consistent and when we can't we do our best to explain what is going on. We do incorporate change also because that's important to learn to deal with but we keep that in smaller doses since the boys have enough challenges on a daily basis any way.

Color Cards

     Lately we've been working a lot with Gatlin on colors. He's getting pretty good at it but he still needs some help. So I decided to make him some flash cards and games. I did a quick search to see if there was anything I could print online for free but I didn't really see what I was looking for. In the end I decided to make these cards for him.
     Pictured is a full sheet that I laminated to use as a game board. I'm going to color code some milk jug caps and have him match the colors with the board. Then I printed out two more sets which I will use for flash cards and also as a memory matching game. I think these are going to be really good for him. He was already very excited when we played the memory game the first time.
     If you would like to use my flash cards with your own children you may go ahead and download the free pdf file. These did take me some time to make so please do not post them for sale or anywhere else on the web. I am offering you them for free because it would have been nice if I had been able to find them for free also. I didn't want to have to buy cards because my boys are very rough on things so they will need replaced quite often. So here you go, my gift to you. Just click the link below. I would love to see some comments about how you choose to use these cards. ;)

Color Flash Cards

I'm back!!!

     Well it's been a long time since I've posted anything on this blog and I apologize for that. Life got busier and more interesting to say the least. We had a lot of adjustments to make but it has been a great journey. I'm hoping to get back into blogging this new year, as well as lot of other things.
     Before I start any new posts let me give you a brief recap of things since I last blogged. This blog is aptly titled BrothersBad because it's really all about my boys and life with them. At the same time my boys are the reason I took such a hiatus from blogging. In February of 2012 Gatlin was diagnosed with Autism and with that we as a family had a lot to learn. Shortly thereafter we started noticing the huge similarities between Gatlin and Draiman. Then in August Draiman was also diagnosed with Autism. Since that time Gatlin has started preschool, Draiman has started early intervention home visits, and we have lots of therapy appointments as well. On a regular basis there are appointments for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. We spend a lot of time working on sign language at home as well as other things and we also have a P.L.A.Y. Project consultant that comes to our home to teach us the P.L.A.Y. method of engaging our boys.
     So as I'm sure you can tell it's been a busy time for us but it has been wonderful as well. Our boys have progressed so much this past year but more importantly they have taught us even more. We are blessed and honored to have them in our lives. For us Autism has not been a tragedy but rather a wonderful learning experience. We have learned new ways to understand and connect with our boys all while they have taught us so many valuable lessons. I am thankful for them everyday and proud to be their Mama.