The Evolution of an Appropriate Response

Here's a story from some time ago, when I had just begun working with 7-year-old Rhythm, a nonverbal autistic boy. On one of my earliest visits with the family, Rhythm held his hands up in front of him and began slapping them loosely one over the other-- a type of flapping I had never seen…

Coda

The day after my last post, I brought my pair of woodshop headphones with me when I went over to babysit Rhythm. And when he started to fall apart, I said "I'd like to try something for you" and put them on him. He loved them. He wore them for the majority of the afternoon.…

Complicated Thoughts About Words

One of the hardest things for me to get used to when working with Rhythm is that he doesn't like me to talk much. He gets overwhelmed by either processing language or the sound of human voices (especially female/higher pitched voices, it seems), or both. I don't know the specifics, just that he often gets…

Communication, Attention, and Priority

I need to remember how often, when a child doesn't seem to understand what I am telling them, the real issue is that they are simply focused on something else, something they consider more important. This is true of all children-- they focus on what matters to them, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else…

Processing, communication, and cooperation

Working with Rhythm today, I came to the realization that there's a significant time lag in a lot of his responses that I suspect is common for autistic people (children and adults) and often gets read as uncooperativeness, inconsistency, or other negative traits. Simplest example. I asked Rhythm if he needed a potty break and…

Appreciating my job

I wish I had the time and brain-focus to write about every single time I take care of “my” kiddos. It’s a wonderful experience and I get so much from them. Sadly, I’ve been realizing just how temporary a pleasure it is. Not only do children grow up so quickly, but this job isn’t exactly…

Tangles is making communication progress!

Tangles and I had a wonderful moment of communication today. I was hanging out with her this morning while her mother came and went running errands. Tangles and I were both pretty tired, so we curled up together on the couch, just relaxing, doing her special fist-bump. She likes touch, so I started rubbing her…

The first night with Rhythm

I recently introduced a new client-- 7-year-old Rhythm, who has diagnoses of autism and epilepsy. He lives with his parents, older sisters, and a rambunctious young dog whom I'll call Bounce. My first night caring for Rhythm was rough on him. His mother scheduled me to come a bit early and eat dinner with the…

Introducing Rhythm

I am so terribly behind on writing, I don't even know where to start. I'm terribly behind on many other things in my life as well, and I don't quite know how to readjust things so that I am accomplishing what I need to do, much less what I want to do. Aside from that,…