A few months ago I asked for help getting my son to let me cut his nails. We tried a lot of different things, but nothing worked, so I talked to his ABA team about it. They worked on just making the nail clippers less frightening. He got comfortable with touching them and holding them, and now I can cut his nails!

He still doesn’t like to get his nails cut. I’m sure it’s uncomfortable and scary for him sometimes. But we talk about it. I promise him I’ll try to never hurt him with the clippers. I tell him it’s okay to be afraid. That sometimes you have to do things you’re afraid of, and that’s what courage is. 

We do “clip, clip, take a break.” And he’s cool with that. We watch Team Umi Zoomi between fingers. And at the end I tell him how great his fingernails look and how awesome he is for doing it even though it’s hard. And he smiles and so do I. :-D

josiahd:

I know some autistic kids and adults who really need iPads.

Do you think you could use some of that money you keep raising to help them?

Sincerely,

Wishing autism charities made helping autistic people a priority

^^

/signed.

goldenheartedrose:

mquester:

goldenheartedrose:

paisleytie:

goldenheartedrose:

uncannytech:

Popchilla robot helps autistic kids connect: read more

I don’t actually have words for this.  But it’s totally creeping me out.

It’s kind of cute, but also kind of scary — I’m not sure if I would have liked it as a child, especially if it could move.

It’s sort of furby-ish? I think? So I guess that’s where it’s freaking me out.

This thing is just awful looking to me, but I hate Furbies as well :P

Personally, when I was a kid I adored my “Teddy Ruxpin” because I could listen to the same story over and over at will. I wonder how many autistic children would rather something like that?

Oh, same with Teddy Ruxpin. Omg. I should dig mine out of storage and see if it still works.

My son wouldn’t get within 10 feet of this thing. lol. His speech therapist had a dancing Elmo doll that freaked him out so badly we had to set it on the front porch before we could do anything else, and I asked her not to bring it back. He’s not a big fan of stuffed animals that move on their own, and honestly, I can’t blame him. Creeeeepy.

I guess the ABA therapist has been working on family members. That, or my son has just decided to work it out on his own, which is fine by me.

We’re going to use Cakes for my daughter because my husband calls her Crabby Cakes.

My son this morning, completely out of the blue, said:

Let’s see Cakes.

She’s your sister.

Let’s go see Cakes.

She’s your big sister.

Let’s go see your big sister Cakes.

He did that a few times, just talking to himself, then he came up to me and said, “Let’s go see Cakes.”

Unfortunately, Cakes is at school, or we would’ve jumped in the truck right then and gone to see her. 

goldenheartedrose:

I’m willing to answer any questions you might have. Also, I won’t make any promises, but if you’d like to get the perspective of an autistic child (vs an adult, as I am), I can ask my kids if they’d be willing to answer some questions. They might say no, and that’s fine, but I’m always willing to ask them.

My askbox is always open!

I am really excited for this. I’ll try not to wear out my welcome. :-P

I have to leave again soon and there’s a lot going on, I don’t know when I’ll be able to properly sit down and reply—to those of you who offered suggestions for how to help my son nail cutting, THANK YOU. Your insights are going to help us a lot, and I’ll try to reply to you guys and let you know how it goes. :-)

My son needs his nails cut badly. Not only is he starting to scratch himself, he’s also scratching us until we bleed. My daughter, especially, has scratched up arms. It’s not out of meanness at all. Sometimes it’s a way to say “no.” (We’re working on that one in ABA, it usually means “I don’t want to do what you’re asking” or “I don’t want to be taken away from my videos right now.”) Sometimes it’s just because he’s really, really excited.

I don’t know how to do it. He’s terrified. Holding him down (and yes, we gave it an attempt) is traumatizing to us both, so yeah, we’re not going to do that again. Any of you have any suggestions, what worked for you? Specifically asking autistics for insight.

spectra-v:

interruptedcadance:

Normally when I see Autism mentioned on TV I automatically turn it off because I know Autism $peaks will be involved somehow.

I was watching Arthur and they had this segment about an Autistic kid as a character and he was pretty stereotypical (trains…

I was showing my husband this yesterday. Here’s a link to a segment of the episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9eATBV-_lg

Little Megatron has been right as rain since he went ahead and threw up yesterday. I am so glad, I hate when one of my kids is feeling bad and I can’t fix it.

So that’s good news number 1.

Good news number 2 is that, from what I saw of his teacher today, we’re going to get along quite well. 

This was the exchange I witnessed before we left his classroom today.

Aide leaning forward in her seat, right next to my son’s ear.

My son: ”Back up? Want back up?”

Aide doesn’t move.

Teacher: “He wants you to back up.” gestures for her to scoot back.

Aide complies. 

Yes ma’am. You keep going like that and we’ll have a good year.

Pretty sure I taught my son the most useful two words he’ll ever know. This is how that conversation went down:

Him: Need some help?

Me: What do you need, son?

Him: Need some help? pushes his hand against me

Me: Do you want me to back up?

Him: Back up?

Me: Okay. scoots back

Him: Grins

One conversation, and he has the concept mastered. He’s been using it whenever necessary since last night. 

I really can’t wait until he uses it on a therapist. I’m going to laugh really hard.