Carson is such an amazing toddler. He is incredibly smart, he is funny, he loves chocolate and he is on the autism spectrum. Carson is a VERY high functioning toddler on the spectrum. People ask all the time what made us have him tested, what did we notice and that is for a different post, that I will one day make on either here or Carson’s blog. But today I come to you, our readers for advice.
With Carson you are either completely unaware that there is anything different about him, or there is no denying it. There are times when we are using his GAC pass that I feel bad, because I think, wow we have it so much easier than other families going through this. Then there are times, when I reminded why exactly we use a GAC for getting through lines quickly. Those times usually erase the times I feel bad.
Generally speaking we have gotten pretty good at redirecting to “change” behaviors or removing the stimulation/situation/problem in order to avoid or stop melt down, behavior or self stims from occurring. I know that some self stims are fine, they aren’t hurting him or anyone around him and they only kind of “look” weird/funny. I am never really sure where to draw the line when it comes to stopping some of stims.
When we are at home, we discourage spinning to excess. We correct when he tries to view the world from the corner of his eyes. When he flaps, we determine why and either join, redirect, do nothing or stop the behavior. (If we are flapping for excitement, then we all start jumping up and down and clapping. Some times it changes his behavior, he mimics us and stops flapping. If he is flapping out of frustration, we get to his level, hold his hands, encourage eye contact and talk to him to work to discover the issue.)
At the parks stims become a little confusing. I am not sure how to respond to some of them. Others are completely clear. But today, I am asking for help on a few stims that Carson regularly exhibits at the parks. I want to know what would you do? Would you ignore, redirect or something else?
Ear Covering – He does this for numerous reasons: Too Loud, Crowded Area, Excited, Scared, and Undetermined. For the too loud, we either let him do it, help to redirect his attention to something that requires concentration, or move locations. For crowded areas we deal with each situation individually. For Excited – I do nothing, I am not sure if I should. For instance, the other day we were at Universal Studios in the Woody Woodpecker Water play area, and he was having a blast, but every few minutes he would stand there and cover his ears, look down or to the side and then he would go back to playing with his car in the water. A few of the times I ran to him and tried to find out what was the matter and see what I needed to do to “fix” it for him. But after a few times, I realized there really wasn’t a “problem” to fix, so I just let him do his thing. I noticed a few of the other parents there looking at him when he was doing his ear cover thing, and wanted nothing more than to help my son get through whatever was making him need that stim. But do I need to do that? Should he be let to stim in certain situations? If your child is stimming out of excitement, or reasons unknown, what do you do?
Line Walking – At each of the parks there are areas where there are “lines” in the pathways. Magic Kingdom for instance – Main Street USA, the trolley car tracks – Fantasyland, “cracks” in the “stone” paths – Frontierland, Wood Plank pathways…. – It can take us a mighty long time to get through one land to the next when Carson HAS to follow the lines. Generally speaking one of us (generally me) stays with him as we take his path to get to the next part of the park. I don’t stop him from this behavior, or really redirect it. The few times I have tried to change the behavior we have had complete meltdowns until we got back to the spot where we removed him from. So – What do you do? Would you allow the line walking? What recommendations do you have to modify this behavior if you feel that it should be modified?
Mimicking or Reciting – So Carson repeats himself and others. Sometimes it is typical toddler repeating of 2 or 3 times, other times it is 10 to 15 or more times in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, in a row, Yes, I do attempt to redirect when that happens, sometimes successfully, sometimes not…. Now when he does his reciting something word for word, while at home and in the car we don’t do anything about. (I mean how cute is it when he says every word, makes every sound (grunts, doors shutting, wind blowing…) from his shows) but….. At Hollywood Studios Disney Junior Live or The Little Mermaid Show, I worry that we are “bothering” or taking away from another child’s experience. At this time I don’t correct this or redirect. I typical watch my little man in awe of his ability to memorize so much at such a young age. Am I wrong for this? What would you do?
Please, I ask that you keep your comments respectful here. I am learning as I go along, and while he started OT before he was two and he is doing great. There are many parts of this ASD world that are new to me and my family. We don’t have any community of other families with toddlers on the Spectrum, so my only resource it to come to you our readers and ask – What Would You Do?
it’s really amazing what you’re doing with your son. Attempting to understand him, treating him like an actual PERSON, etc. so lovely to hear 🙂 have you considered teaching him sign language? sometimes the signs are intuitive and easy to use to get a point across, and are a more acceptable form of stimming. love.
He actually signs quite well! He impresses us with how many signs he knows. He teaches us new ones all the time… he watches Mr Tumbles on YouTube and picks them all up.
Is your son receiving any early intervention at all? I cant stress enough how much it helps, by teaching communication skills and opening so many doors for these children
Hi Tracy! Carson started OT therapy before he was even 2 – we have seen HUGE progress. He used to not make eye contact, he now does 95% of the time. He also responds to his name, and lets people touch him. He is also speaking and communicating now, while he isn’t up to the “normal” amount, he is so much better than he was! I think it was because of early intervention that we have seen his regressions stop and started gaining footing again. No he doesn’t feed himself yet, but he is now trying to. He runs, almost jumps and says 2 to 3 word sentences. He even has developed his own language…he throws in a word or two that is “normal” but I will take his pretend talk any day over the silence…
This was a great read! I work in special needs, and WDW is a top destination for a lot of my kiddos. Thanks for putting this out there!
As far as your little guy bothering others, I’d just keep an eye on it and make sure he’s not getting too loud or boisterous (I have one student who almost choreographs when she’s scripting…large arm movements, spinning, etc.). My little guy is ADHD with sensory processing issues, and at times, he does need to be redirected when he gets overstimulated so he doesn’t encroach on others.
Like you said, we’re all learning as we go. Kiddos don’t come with a manual. Haha!
While I don’t even have a kid, I work with young children (preschool to 2nd grade) and many on the autism spectrum. For the covering his ears in the loud and crowds, have you tried noise canceling headphones? Like the ones the guys on the runway at airports wear. It would help him deal in situations like post parade or show where maybe you can’t get out of a crowd fast enough. Also strollers with a canopy make a great get away place. For the line walking if you don’t have a problem with taking it the slow way, I wouldn’t bother with fixing it. If you have somewhere you need to go fast, try carrying him or putting him in a stroller before you get to those lines and he starts following them. Also any distraction would be great. I once had a kid I distracted with a pinwheel. He would stare at the pinwheel for hours if I let him. Anything spinning is usually a great distraction.
I wouldn’t worry too much with what others think of the stims either. Most adults might just wonder what is the kid doing. Other kids don’t really notice. Most in the classrooms I have been in actually get others to do the stim (flapping especially). It is kind of funny. I once had a kid explain why he stims and it was an interesting point of view. Especially to hear a 7 year old high functioning autistic kid explain it. He said it helped him go through situations. Nothing he sees or hears gets filtered and by doing stims he could focus more (he moves his fingers in front of his eyes) on one task. If you cannot redirect a stim then let it because a meltdown would be a bigger distraction.
You are doing a great job with him! He sounds so much like my Aidan! So many of the same stims! One thing we do when there is a lot going on and it’s too much for him, we give him his Ipod, DS or my kindle fire. We let him take a break from the outside world and play a game which helps him to calm down. I have the cutest photo of his first visit to DW, he’s in front of the castle, and playing Angry Birds lol. Completely oblivious to the amazing world around him! The Kindle and Ipod have many educational apps that are great for young ones on the spectrum, such as Daniel Tiger, Cat in the Hat, Dora and ABC games. Some stims are just part of who he is, if I get looks sometimes I smile and say “Sorry he’s Autistic” Most people are then really great about it. The GAC is great, I only use it when we need it. I get it, hold on to it, and only use it if he’s really not going to be able to handle the usual wait. Since we go off season, our waits are rarely over 20 mins anyway so I don’t need it much. I don’t think you should feel guilty over using it. You are doing what is best for your precious child, stop being s hard on yourself. If others want to judge what they don’t understand, then how sad for them, it’s not your problem they are judgmental, your concern is what’s in the best interest of your family. We do a lot of redirecting, but as you said sometimes that just doesn’t work. I find with Aidan, bubbles can make him forget or do almost anything. If he were obsessed with line walking, and it was too difficult to do right now, I would pull out my mini bubbles (I buy those big packs of the mini ones for weddings) and start blowing bubbles. He’ll chase the bubbles trying to pop them and forget about the lines, usually.
I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of the bubbles! He loves them and they would be great for redirecting when he is line walking! Thank you!!!