Julie on Autism

From my work experience people with autism needed explicit instruction and a special kind of support. Most of the people I worked with had violent tendencies were difficult to work with as they did not like eye contact or being touched. The problems with adults with autism in government care had to be controlled with medication as the staff could not cope with the violence.

When I was told that my second son had passive high functioning autism, I thought where is the outrageous behaviour I had to cope with at work! These day's the spectrum for autism has many other added words like passive or hyperactive, I now know most of the people I worked with were hyperactive and needed medication. My son is different as all people with autism every individual is different.

Things I had to work on

• Speech, once communication can be established a child is less frustrated and the parent!
• Speak in only small sentences.
• Diet, so many people have allergies these days! A gluten and casein free diet has produced dramatic changed for many people. Others may only be egg or soy or many things, it is worth the effort to find out what a child had an allergy to.
• Stopping, changing or improving behaviours, not accepting outrageous behaviour. Showing a child exactly the behaviour that is needed and reward them for their success.
• Teaching new skills in small parts and explicitly.
• Understanding that some children learn implicitly by just seeing or hearing while other need repeated explicit instruction (sometimes with physical help until they master the skill).
• Accept that sometimes when a new skill is learnt another skill may be lost for a while (the old one step forward two steps back).
• Keeping life as normal as possible while seeing specialist.
• Deciding what to spend money on to help our child.
• Hope that we are doing the write thing.
• Not to hope and pray that my son will wake up in the morning and be 'normal' (I used to feel this way when he was younger, I don't want him to change anymore).
• Have faith in my ability that I can do what is needed.
• Teach emotions of the face, quiz on what people may be feeling.
• Be an expert on the art of distraction, avoid a temper tantrum if possible.
• Not allow my child to physically beat me up.
• How not to loose my child when walking to the park.
• How not to give up.
• How to spread myself around for all the family.
• To keep researching autism.
• Hugs hurt my son when he was younger , now at 12 he just doesn't like them but kisses are OK. Affection is important Mum's need it.

My booklets are still being sold on ebay.

Gluten & casein free diet and autism

If you have a child on the autistic spectrum what have you found to be most helpful ? I found the most important thing to be diet- a mix of Sue Dengates failsafe food and gluten and casein free food. Then watching that the child is not constipated as this can be a serious problem. Explicit instruction on every level and easy to understand homework from specialists, especially speech and physio. Looking at the positive side of autism and just loving the child.

Autism

Why so many children have autism today is still a mystery. The spectrum can include such wide differences from hyperactive to passive. When I worked in disability I only saw violent, hyperactive and self harming people, so when my son was diagnosed as having passive high functioning autistic features I was a bit miffed to say the least. He was not like all the other people with autism I had worked with in direct care or middle management but then no two people with autism are the same. I have self published booklets on eBay with information on diet, speech activities, behaviour etc all under $10.00 (Australian). The cost of disability is frightening many people buy my booklets as they are not too expensive and the feedback is positive. As parents we only want practical information that can bring long term benefits. I take a very long time to write my booklets and have several near completion. Love to hear from other people working with their child. Julie