To be honest, my son has not had a full-force hurricane melt-down in a long time. Probably a couple of months. Each time, the trigger is the same and I, frankly, thought we had dodged a bullet this time.
This past Saturday, I took Andrew to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum to hang out with my friend Kriss, who drove up from Cleveland for the day. We left the house around 9:00 in the morning and got home around 4:30. We were both whipped. He was, however great. He was friendly and bubbly. He asked good questions at the artisan exhibitions (i.e the pottery house) and was extremely well-behaved. I knew that Sunday would be a lost day because that's just how he is. He needs one full day to recover from a big activity, like a trip to Greenfield Village.
That meant Sunday would be a chill day. His father (will I never move out of this place) had other plans and tried to enforce some errands on the boy. Luckily, I intervened and we stayed at home, read books, looked for four-leaf clovers, and hit the ball off the tee. We got through the day with no temper tantrums.
This morning, I knew immediately that something was not right. He spent the morning rocking on the couch, in a turtle position. He told me he was too tired to go to school. I said he could stay home if he didn't mind running errands and he resoundingly rejected that notion. I promised that I would pick him up a little early, when I finished running my international errands. A promise I kept.
He was fine until he had to brush his teeth. He has a habit of squirting toothpaste all over the sink. I now make him clean it up and that has slowed down the mess. Well, his dad caught the mess tonight and kind of escalated. This led Andrew to threaten to kick his dad and to call both of us "stupid futs" (his version of fuck). He finally calmed down and now I can kind of collect my thoughts.
I had hoped to take him to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky this summer, but after today's display, I just don't know. Perhaps he's ready for the end of the school year on Wednesday and that played a contributing factor. I thought the trip would take three days: one to get there, one to go to the cave, and one to come home. Now, I don't know. I don't want us to be held hostage to the autism, but I need to be realistic. I was hoping to go in August, so he might be fully relaxed by that point. He is bright, friendly, and sweet. He needs to experience the world, to broaden that expressive vocabulary of his. I guess we'll play it by ear and see how he's doing.
2 comments:
with the right approach, i bet it could be done. it could be the overwhelm of a new place or crowds that affect him, at least partially (ive noticed this a lot in people on the AS, myself included). I've heard of an interesting way to cope with this, it is a sort of conditioning wherein you introduce them to the place and or people before they ever actually go. by showing them perhaps film of the place or photographs, you can at least in theory prepare them a bit. by knowing what they're getting into they can better prepare for it so that they're not over stimulated and then 'crash' the next day.
Hi darth,
Thanks for the advice. I do a lot of preview with him and that does help a lot. I'll have to see how I can structure a proper preview of a three day trip. .
Post a Comment