Feeling cautiously optimistic

Posted December 28th, 2009 by LA.MA.Mom

Autism Experience

The last two weeks have been amazing. I almost hate to put this out there, as I might jinx something. All of a sudden, Luke's behavior has improved. He's more even-keeled, he's less impulsive, he's more focused and engaged and less aggressive. I don't know what to "owe" it to - but it's like he turned this corner. Mind you, life is not "normal" - but, with me as a Mom, it wouldn't be anyway. :) But, our quality of life as a family has improved. We can go places - and actually have fun! He might have a small tantrum, but not the day-ending blowouts. Now, most of the time, he seems more like a strong-willed and mischievious almost-4-yr-old. Anyone else had a similar experience? He started Spec Ed pre-school for Autistic children in September - he's been making great improvements with school, but does that explain the sudden change? We've had him on a GFCFEFNF (Gluten, Casein, Egg, Nut-free!) diet for a few months now and have him on doctor-recommended supplements. Is this stuff helping his behavior? I mean, he still might have a behavioral "flashback" - but we haven't had heinous days for over two weeks - completely unprecedented. Any comments?

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My only comment would

On January 3rd, 2010 John H. says:

My only comment would be......enjoy!

I'm 39. I didn't have the

On December 29th, 2009 seebert says:

I'm 39. I didn't have the benefit of modern therapies for my autism, heck, we didn't even know that what was wrong with me WAS autism until I was 30.

And yet, I resemble the remarks above and below. My development was very much in fits and starts, and sudden turnarounds. The reason for this is obvious when you talk to an adult autistic; our social behavior is like a computer program made up of coping skills. New skills help modify previous behavior.

Translating that to the younger generation who have the benefits of early intervention, GF/CF diets, and the like does not change this; as the veils are lifted and the child is able to see the world more clearly, the coping skills come even faster, and new coping skills result in more acceptable behavior.

Thanks for the comments

On December 31st, 2009 LA.MA.Mom says:

Thanks for the comments everyone. I still have so much to learn and experience as a parent. I really appreciate the insights into the development. Now that you have said "our social behavior is like a computer program made up of coping skills. New skills help modify previous behavior" - it makes perfect sense to me. He is trying process it ALL first, then do it. He constantly says "I do it all by myself" and doesn't want help with ANYTHING. He'll do something a million times to get it right. He has even learned to do it patiently - FAR more patient than I am - and it blows my mind. I appreciate the tenacity.

Patience is one of the great

On December 31st, 2009 seebert says:

Patience is one of the great virtues of autism in general. It's also the thing that neurotypical society seems to be most unable to deal with in us. The flip side of patience is obsession.

Watch your son for his obsessions- they will be the key to a brilliant career one day.

I agree completely with

On December 29th, 2009 Perz says:

I agree completely with standalone. This also sounds very much like how my son often progressed - fits and spurts, leaps and bounds. We never did the GFCFEFNF (wow, what a tongueful!!!) diet, so my son's style of progress can't be attributed to that, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't been a factor here... you'll probably never know for sure.

Personally, I attribute many of my son's periods of amazing advancement to "gestalt" thinking and processing. My son does his learning "internally" - out of the view of others. Rather than proceed with "neurotypical" trial and error (visible attempts at something, followed by visible failure, then visible adjustments to get around the failure)... he would sit back and observe and observe along with throwing frustration related fits at not being able to learn everything all at once in an instant. To us, he would appear completely locked down and stalled. Then when he had it ALL worked out in his head, he would proceed to amaze us - all of a sudden almost perfectly demonstrating everything we had be trying to teach him for the previous several months. I think Temple Grandin also describes something similar. She designs facilities for processing cattle and does so by visualizing how the whole plant will work... then she draws the whole design in one step.