T-15 days…the countdown begins…
This month has been full of emotional turmoil in our house. Several people were battling vicious cyclones of internal turmoil causing a bit of overspill onto the rest of the family. After a few times of being dumped on from some particularly physical, intense and hurtful attacks, RoseBud (my 8 year old with Autism) started having some pretty severe anxiety that showed itself in annoying behaviors. Like getting into everyone’s personal space and saying “HELLO” over and over. And sticking her hands right near our faces and yelling “TICKLE, TICKLE”. I admit, if it were only once or twice we could all just ignore it. But this goes on and on. Just about the 50th time I hear her yell “TICKLE TICKLE” I feel like my head will explode! She targets her younger siblings who have no patience and simply can not ignore her obnoxious behaviors.
Therapists will usually tell you that in order to extinguish a behavior, you must figure out what she wants from that behavior and NOT give it to her. In this case she wants attention. If I were they typical mom with 2.2 children, life would be so much simpler and the behavior would be squelched in the blink of an eye (theoretically, anyway). That simply doesn’t work with a house full of 7 children. While I am body blocking her from poking her fingers in the 3 year old’s eyes, the 5 year old walks nearby so she makes a lightning fast 180 and yells “HELLO GRUMPY BEAR!”. Meanwhile the 3 year old is STILL crying “Stop it! Stop it!” and now the 5 year old is screaming “I’M NOT GRUMPY BEAR!”. And as I escort her to the time out spot, she kicks yet another sibling and spits at them. So now I have a trio of yelling, screaming and crying.
Then there is the ultimate in stress related behaviors: biting. When RoseBud is overstimulated, it is like she is a bottle of soda pop shaken with pressure building up. She has to release that pressure somehow and very rarely she turns that energy into biting. Twice this week she was so agitated that the energy bubbled over and she bit her 3 year old brother and me.
Her stress symptoms have gotten better over time, but I have to admit I can not WAIT for school to start again. The strict structure and routine of the school week is exactly what she needs at this point. Structure and routine are cornerstones towards building a sense of peace with many autistic individuals.
Southern Fried Momma 