When my son was small and i would hand him a hot wheel car he would grasp it and do nothing more than spin its wheels. He would not try and drive it push it or run it across anything.He would persevere on the circular motion of the spinning wheels and that is it.Then one day i put my hand over his and began to "make" the car go. Instinctively he tried to pull his hand away, and bucked at my forced example of what this object "should" do.That is until i used his own perseveration against him.I began to run the car in circles, around and around i went exaggerating the motion ,making car noises as i went. Like a fish attracted to the sparkle of a lure dangling in water, he came closer and started to watch me. He wanted his car back. Only this time he grabbed the car and with big wide circles in the air he whirled it around, exasperated i retreated to my kitchen. Upon checking on him a few minutes later, i found him laying onthe ground making circles with the car, blabbing out what seemed to be a strained version of vroom vroom that i had been using just minutes earlier. My heart froze. Time stood still. What was this i had just done? I taught my son to play. For a long time this scenario was repeated in the exact mirror way i had shown him, and other play teachings ensued, tea party's, "feeding" baby dolls, fighting 2 dinosaurs against each other complete with roaring and fighting voice over included. And then one day i saw him running his car along the back of my couch driving it in a straight line making car "noises" playing, on his own as if he were any other kid. There was a clear victory before my eyes, "we" my son and I had beat down 1 of the many "traits" that comes with having PDD-NOS.
.I asked myself to gather a list of all the "symptoms" "traits' and other oddities that seem to comprise this diagnosis and i pondered if i could individually chip away and ultimately slay most of what was before me. I knew it would not be easy . I knew it would be time consuming. But i also knew in my heart the answer was yes, it could be done. There were 2 things i knew i would need if i was going to pull it off. Endurance, and time, OK and maybe a little faith :).
My son wore a pair of jeans today. Regular denim jeans Granite i had to make sure he had socks on first so he wouldn't freak when he felt the bottom of his pants touch the top of his foot and i had his shoes ready to put on as soon as said jeans were on. Like a well oiled machine i did it socks jeans shoes all while he was heavily watching megamind on dvd. The distraction was the final piece to a puzzle that i think is pretty much solved. I started about 6 months ago with a pair of VERY thin move able jeans. I started putting those on him after i would rub his legs down with a bath towel after the bath. This provided the senses under his skin in his legs to wake up or to alert them, the rough feeling of the bath towel coupled with some small compression as i did it was a prep to then putting on the foreign feeling of denim, to a kid that up until this point has lived in cotton sweatpants and or shorts. He would tolerate the jeans for maybe 5min at first, then 10 then every once in a while 15 min. This exercise i repeated as often as i could.I did the exact same thing with collared shirts and it had the same success rate.I would put collared shirts like Polo's on him just before he went outside, one of his favorite activities, he would tolerate it for longer periods because he was distracted with being outside. Till one day i noticed he had it on for an hour. And then one bold day, picture day i sent him to school in one. He kept it on the entire time!
Sound exhausting? It is,on every level, mental physical spiritual.But the little victories are worth it.They sustain me, motivate me and keep me in the pursuit of.....
HappYness.
s.o.t.d.
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
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