FirstAidAutism

Just came across this post on one of news groups I have subscribed to.

If you’re sick of hearing about all the “deficits” challenging people on the autism spectrum, join the club. But for every down side to autism, there seems to be a positive — an unusual trait that rarely appears among the “typical” community, but shines out among autistic folk. These plusses are
well worth celebrating.

1. Autistic People Rarely Lie
We all claim to value the truth, but almost all of us tell little white lies. All, that is, except people on the autism spectrum. To them, truth is truth — and a good word from a person on the spectrum is the real deal.

2. People on the Autism Spectrum Live in the Moment
How often do typical people fail to notice what’s in front of their eyes because they’re distracted by social cues or random chitchat? People on the autism spectrum truly attend to the sensory input that surrounds them. Many have achieved the ideal of mindfulness.

3. People with Autism Rarely Judge Others
Who’s fatter? Richer? Smarter? For people on the autism spectrum, these distinctions hold much less importance than for typical folks. In fact, people on the spectrum often see through such surface appearances to discover the real person.

4. Autistic People are Passionate
Of course, not all autistic people are alike. But many are truly passionate about the things, ideas and people in their lives. How many “typical” people can say the same?

5. People with Autism Are Not Tied to Social Expectations
If you’ve ever bought a car, played a game or joined a club to fit in, you know how hard it is to be true to yourself. But for people with autism, social expectations can be honestly irrelevant. What matters is true liking, interest and passion — not keeping up with the Joneses.

6. People with Autism Have Terrific Memories
How often do typical people forget directions, or fail to take note of colors, names, and other details? People on the autism spectrum are often much more tuned in to details. They may have a much better memory than their typical peers for all kind of critical details.

7. Autistic People Are Less Materialistic
Of course, this is not universally true — but in general, people with autism are far less concerned with outward appearance than their typical peers. As a result, they worry less about brand names, hairstyles and other expensive but unimportant externals than most people do.

8. Autistic People Play Fewer Head Games
Who was that woman, and why were you looking at her? I know I TOLD you I didn’t mind if you went out, but why did you believe me? Most autistic people don’t play games like these — and they assume that you won’t either. It’s a refreshing and wonderful change from the Peyton Place emotional
roller coaster that mars too many typical relationships!

9. Autistic People Have Fewer Hidden Agendas
Most of the time, if a person on the autism spectrum tells you what he wants — he is telling you what he wants. No need to beat around the bush, second guess, and hope you’re reading between the lines!

10. People with Autism Open New Doors for Neurotypicals
For some of us neurotypicals, having an autistic person in our lives has had a profound positive impact on our perceptions, beliefs and expectations. For me, at least, being the mom of a son on the autism spectrum has released me from a lifetime of “should” — and offered me a new world of “is.”

Here is the new challenge.

Paras is trying to learn razor and again his teacher is Shubhi.

Today was the first day at it and he learnt where to place his feets. He was not scared and tried to board it for almost an hour with complete dedication. Shubhi thinks that he should be able to ride it in one week.

Will keep you posted.

Happy New Year - 2009. May this year make all your dreams come true.

It was a good start of the year for Paras. In the morning, he went for another bike run. This time we took a shorter route.

Afternoon, he went for ice skating. He really enjoys skating, it is little difficult when he is not following the directions and just moving randomly in the court.

By end of day, he was very very tired from biking and skating and was ready to sleep early at 7pm.

Paras on the Bike Trail.

Paras in the Ice Skating Ring

As year 2008 comes to an end it is also time for Paras’s IEP. This year Paras’s brother created a video that highlighed some of the things that Paras likes to do. We shared the video with the IEP team and it really helped change the tone of the meeting.

Here is the video on youtube.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0YhY3_SU2lg

Paras - 2008

This weekend, Paras did his first 5K Bike run, with Vandana and me behind him. He did well, most of the biking was very focused with very minimum prodding. Towards the end got little tired, but overall he did good.

Here is the

We have been going for a walk with Paras for quite some time, actually for the whole summer. But today was amazing day. While walking, Paras did lot of things independently.

He walked all these ways with simple instructions and no other prompt.

- Straight

- Side ways

- With airplane hands

- Like Elephant

- Like bird

- Backwards

- rubbing the tummy

- wheels

- hair in the front

- neck in the front

- tummy in the front

- finger in the front

- thumb in the front

- hands in the air

- etc.

Amazing.

Paras enjoyed playing at Golfland. He played appropriately, trying to hit the ball with the stick.

If in few times, he was not able to put the ball in, then he will try with his feets and then ultimately he will just pick up the ball and put it in the hole.

He had fun playing. Here are some of the picutres.

Over the weekend Paras went to walkaround in his school.

Here are some of the pictures from walkaround.

Sorry for not writing here for some time.

Last Monday we had a meeting with Paras’s CAP superivors. It was a stressful meeting. Here are the details.

Background
We met with CAP team on Sept 22nd for Paras CAP review. We were surprised when the meeting started with a recommendation from CAP that Paras’s CAP services be stopped since he is still showing lot of running behavior in the classroom. In support, were provided a copy of his teacher’s email from Sept 17th, reporting that Paras is running an average of 20 times every day.

Paras’s running bahavior
According to the data collected between 1/16/2008 - 2/1/2008 in the classroom and as noted in the Behavior Plan, Paras was reported to run an average of 37 times every day. The behavior plan came into effect in late March with a target to reduce the running behavior by 50% by end of school year.

Here on Sept 17th, the email from the teacher indicates that the running behavior is 20 times a day. This indicates 46% reduction in the running behavior. This is very close to the target set in the behavior plan.

Inference
We are very confused about the way the status was reported to us. The recommendation to stop the CAP services were provided based on the reasoning that Paras’s behaviors are not getting modified and ABA is not an effective program for Paras. Further data was provided to support this reasoning.

However the data provided indicates that in just three and half months of school session, Paras is very close to achieving his aggressive behavior goals set by the team.

We are concerned that the CAP is focusing the energy and attention on finding ways to stop the services rather than closing the gaps in the CAP program to make it effective for the student. There has been gap identified and acknowledged by the CAP supervisor in the meeting that we had in July. Even in this meeting CAP agreed that the way CAP program was executed for Paras in the last two years with significant communication gap between CAP, classroom, OT and parents was not appropriate and it reduced the overall effectiveness of the program. We are yet to see a plan to close these gaps.

Lessons Learnt

1. Don’t give up.

2. Challenge the experts.

3. Go by your gut feel and data do not lie.

Another soccer season has started. Paras has not a new pair of cleats (Shubhi’s old ones), but new for Paras. He is all set to have another great season.

Last weekend, Shubhi was able to keep Paras engaged in playing soccer for full one hour. Great achievement for Paras and nice job Shubhi. If we are around then Paras will not play and will just cling to us therefore both Vandana and me had to hide ourself.