sexywithin

AUTISM: A Treasure Chest Without a Key
By: Amy

It has been a rough couple of weeks around here, and I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and try to write this column for all of you about what life is like parenting an Autistic child.

I've come up with a new analogy for describing what I feel many parents of a child with Autism must feel. It's as though you have a "treasure chest" in front of you, the kind you used to hear stories about as a kid, filled with all kinds of fortune. However, instead of having to go search for the chest in a treasure hunt, the chest sits right in front of you. The problem is not in finding the chest; it's finding the right key to unlock it. You have a large keychain and desperately search through all the keys hoping one will fit, but none do. That's when you realize that you have to go ask others for help in finding the key, and trust that they truly want to help. The treasure is right there, so close you can see glimpses of it at times, but the bulk of it remains locked up inside the chest.

This is how I feel about my son. There is so much potential there; you can see him processing information, but he can't speak. We haven't yet found the right key to unlock this mystery that is Autism.

Here is a small glimpse of what we go through with our son. I will state once again that every child with Autism is different, so what applies to us may not apply to your co-worker's son or daughter who has Autism, or vice versa.

Jake is what they call 'non-verbal,' a word I don't like to use because it's deceptive. When I think of 'non verbal,' I think of someone who doesn't make any sounds at all. That is the furthest thing from Jake. He is constantly vocalizing all day long, but it is more like the babble you would associate with a toddler. He does have some words he can say, and the list is growing each day, but we have not seen much consistency there yet. Can you imagine not being able to speak and being reliant on others to figure out what you needed? What would you do if you were hungry or thirsty and couldn't tell anyone? Can you imagine not being able to voice your needs, not being able to tell someone when you were scared or not feeling well? Not being able to communicate is one of the biggest obstacles we deal with.

Another major issue is that Jake has no sense of danger. This is one of the scariest things for me. Often he does not feel pain in the same way we do. He is constantly climbing on things regardless of how high they are. This is an area where we are seeing some improvement when we constantly keep on top of him. We have found with the safety issues you learn through trial and error. Our house has those special safety-proof doorknobs that you use for toddlers, only ours are wrapped with duct tape, because our son could figure out that they snapped together around the knob and was able to open them. He can't get through the duct tape. Our windows are all screwed shut from the outside of the house. The window in the kitchen has a large piece of metal encasing the levers where you would open it. All of this is because one summer Jake figured out how to climb out of the living room window onto our front porch.

We also have safety glass on several windows as he went through a month or so of aggressive behavior and broke two windows with his head. Amazingly, he didn't have a scratch on him either time, but I was a nervous wreck after that. Our refrigerator is kept locked, cabinets have safety latches on them, the stove is kept locked when not in use, steak knives are no longer kept in the drawer; they are kept in a locked pantry area. These are just a few of the modifications we've made to help keep Jacob safe. So far we've been pretty successful, with the exception of one trip to the ER for a cut on the bottom of the foot that needed stitches.

I'll leave it at that for now. Hopefully that gives you a glimpse of some of the things we go through. Next month, I will try to focus on some of the emotional issues that inevitably go along with parenting a special needs child and the impact it has on the whole family.

HELP FIND A CURE FOR AUTISM…. I am personally raising money for Autism and need your help. The recent reports released show that Autism statistics have risen from 1 in every 166 children to 1 in 150. There simply needs to be more research!

Please visit the following link to make a donation:

http://www.networkforgood.org/pca/PersonalCharityBadge.aspx?pcaid=103546

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THANK YOU!