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Finding interesting things everywhere.

June 2, 2014 By Heidi Allen 1 Comment

While we were in Florida, it was fun watching Jasan find his comforts in completely new surroundings and some new adventures (like chasing birds – see previous post,) but in some of his norms too. For example, my child has a love affair with straws. He has since he DISCOVERED the straw. The strength of his love has had its ebbs and flows, but the straw infatuation always remains in some capacity.

You see, a straw can be many things. It can can act as a speedometer, or possibly a tachometer. If two straws are present, then there you go! Both going at the same time. (With sound effects, of course.) They can act as windshield wipers, just something to spin (which is the perfect stimming tool,) any meter of his choice, a CDI (a course deviation indicator for those of you that don’t know what that stands for…Ha!). Let’s see, clock hands, a GPS of some sort, keeping rhythm in a song…should I keep going?

Since we frequent restaurants quite a bit, we most likely always seek out the beloved straw. It’s a comfort thing. I usually will always find a straw or two in my purse, in my car, and we have a big collection of them conveniently in a reachable large cup for him in our living space.

 

Crossing signals. He LOVES crossing signals. Sometimes we take a little stroll down the street from our home just to hang out by the signals so we can watch them change from the “red hand” to the “walking white man” (as Jasan terms it…) and all of that good stuff.

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This is the crossing signal by our house. He’s lovin’ on it.

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Sweet! They have crossing signals in Florida too! (And straws. Double awesomeness.)

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He was a little freaked out to stand on this big “photo op” chair, but he stretched himself and got up there for the obligatory photo. (He’s got that, “I’m not so sure about this Mama…” face goin’ on. Therefore, a little straw security never hurts.)

 

Now, another favorite, once it had been discovered, is the pinwheel. (I touched briefly on the pinwheel in the last post as well.) During our cloudy day shopping adventure, we found this store. OH. MY. GOODNESS. I could not get him out of there.

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All of those things behind him were spinning. And the pinwheels at the entrance, with the strategically placed fan blowing down as you walked into the store, put those babies flying in high gear!

As you wandered to the back of the store it was packed full of wind chimes. All I could think of was this video (link also on my Extras page.) This store represented the autistic person’s dream or possible nightmare (STIMULATION OVERLOAD!)

 

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The fan.

Jasan has had a HUGE interest in fans since before his first birthday. You would think he would be sick of them by now, but no way. There is still an allure to the fan that keeps on giving. As he gets older though, he likes to seek out the fan in it’s many uses beyond your traditional box fan. He has figured out that air conditioners on sides of houses or buildings include a fan. (That’s a big draw on the side of our house. I’ve been known to pull a chair around and have a seat while he does his “checking it out” thing. I have found that it is something not to be rushed.)

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Ha. Snapped this goodie the other day.

He has discovered that fans exist under the hood of the car, in any kind of motor capacity, and also in his super awesome “box” that our pilot friend, Mr. Rob made for him. (The “box” is on the left in the photo below.)

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(He often multitasks. In this photo he was creating a pattern with the video he was watching, of him in Mr. Rob’s plane, to go with the sounds and actions as he would press certain buttons on the box. Multitasking & Jasan will have to be a whole other post in itself to come…)

Getting back onto the subject of fans, it was pretty sweet when we found this gem of a restaurant to eat at while shopping that day!

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It was completely surrounded by water except for the pier that got you there. The fans that were hanging all around this cute spot caught Jasan’s eye right away! We found a table in a corner, near a fan, where we could watch the pelicans. Too cool.

Part of loving my son and his autism is recognizing what makes him feel good. Sometimes it’s the little things. A pinwheel, a couple of straws, or a box fan can put a smile on his face so fast. Sometimes that may mean taking a 5 minute break as we are walking along because he wants to stop and look at a bunch of meters.

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Or maybe “The Lobster Zone.”.

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Whatever floats his boat.

Life is good.

I’m helping add webpages (experiences) to his picture internet (that is his brilliant autistic brain.) The more webpages he has, the more knowledge he has to refer to. I am determined to build his library.

YES. I. AM.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Obsessions, Parenting Tagged With: aspergers, autism, autism awareness, children, comforts, kids, travel, vacation

Water, Waves & Chasing Birds.

May 30, 2014 By Heidi Allen 16 Comments

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Jasan has always loved water. This makes me very happy because I too, have always been a big fan of the water. The pool, the beach, all of it. The first experience Jasan had with waves was at the age of 2 when we took a quick trip to Michigan with my father. It was a 3-day stay right on Lake Michigan at this cute little cottage. Day one was spectacular… perfect temperature and calm waters. Jasan was having a blast in the water! Day two and three the waves were up and about, and he was quite frightened to go near the water. This was the first beach experience for him and he didn’t want much to do with sand toys and such.
Fast forward 2 years and our experience at the beach was much different! He found the sand to be of some interest, not necessarily to use buckets and shovels to play with, but definitely to kick in the air. Ha! (Not so funny though, when you get sand in your eyes…good thing that didn’t occur.) The waves were a huge hit! We developed a routine. I would walk in the water behind him as he held my hands. He would lead, and we inched our way deeper into the water and CRASHED into the waves with our bodies. I would pull him up a bit with his arms so that salt water would not get in his eyes as the waves came up on us. Of course I added the “WEEEEEE!!!” sound effect with each crash. (It’s a Heidi mama thing…)
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Jasan being a sensory seeker, crashing into waves makes total sense. I love how as he is becoming more aware of his surroundings he is being brave! He wasn’t afraid at all. AWESOME.
 
The pool is always fun. He LOVES the pool and always has. (Who wouldn’t love a HUGE bathtub?) My little dude will NOT wear floaties. He will not allow me to even get them near him. As much as the floaties would be much more convenient for me (they are so well made now that kids could literally be in the pool without you…) my thought process is, he will not have a false sense of safety in the pool. I need to be with him at all times, but I would want to be anyway. This way we stay connected and he learns how the water REALLY feels. I’m guessing this will speed up his learning curve when it comes time to actually swim.
The lovely Far Horizons, where we stayed in Redington Beach, has a pool for guest use, and is situated right on the beach. Pretty dreamy. This was great for us to have both (pool/ocean) literally steps from our hotel room.
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Since it had been almost a year since last when we had been swimming, it took a day for him to get really warmed up to the idea of going “under.” It was almost like he forgot that he had done it before. We had a little oops where he went under, and then it was ON. We would go under together, one at a time, hold our breath for as long as we could, float, “swim” 4 year old style…it was fabulous.
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Jasan was big on GPS during this trip. It was a continuing theme the whole time we were there. It started in the shuttle from the airport. He requested my iPhone, which he does often during car trips, to load Maps and start the GPS. Then seeing the shuttle driver with his devices, his brain went into GPS & Garmin overload. (And remember, Jasan, being in our friend’s Piper Cherokee airplane, has been obsessed with Garmin ever since he first sat in the cockpit. Garmin, in any case, is always a BIG DEAL to him. It all goes back to the airplane…definitely in his “most awesome experiences” brain file.)
While we were in the pool, I would sometimes lay on a raft. He would push me out into the deep end, and would make up his own directions as I floated away. He remembered that we were staying on Gulf Boulevard, so when I would return to the shallow end and float under the railing (a.k.a. “the bridge,”) I was returning to Gulf Boulevard. Hilarious. I loved it.
 
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Not a new concept for all kids, but it was new one for Jasan. Chasing birds. He had never seen birds of this size before, so the fact that they were just hanging out all over the place was the coolest. And why not try to touch one? Again, awesome that he wasn’t afraid. The game became to make them fly. Most of the time, he was too quick for me to get a great shot!
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So close…
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If only he could reach! He wanted me to pick him up. That made me giggle.
Unfortunately, there were a couple of cloudy days during our Florida stay. So on a day with a high chance of rain, we returned to this cute shopping area. The birds must like this spot, because they were still there.
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I was totally loving how happy this made him!
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And, anytime I get eye contact when taking a photo… BONUS!
The last evening we were in Florida, the three of us (Grammie, Jasan & me) took a walk on the beach. (Note the pinwheel: if it spins, Jasan loves it. That was the purchase he wanted to make during our cloudy weather shopping spree.)
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And then… THIS HAPPENED.
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YES!!!
I was ready to shoot this time.
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The chasing birds theme has continued even now that we are home in Illinois. It isn’t quite the same, but it makes us both smile… that’s what counts.

Filed Under: Obsessions, Sensory & Stimming Tagged With: aspergers, autism, autism awareness, beach, birds, florida, kids, pool, vacation

The Airport, Part 1.

May 25, 2014 By Heidi Allen 3 Comments

Ok… I have to admit. I have stressed about taking Jasan on a major airline flight for a LONG time. My only sibling, Todd, moved to Arizona right before Jasan’s first birthday and we have never been there to visit him. Jasan will be 5 this year! So, this airport thing was a big deal.

There are many factors that I was worried about. He was one of those babies that had ear infection after ear infection and two ear tube placement surgeries. Would his ears adjust alright? The length of time that we would have to stay seated once in the air was another concern. Waiting in lines at the airport… security, getting distracted by machines and having a meltdown if he couldn’t examine them…new sounds, lots of people, and on and on and on.

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This gift of a trip to Florida for Mother’s Day from my stepdad, Matt (aka “Grampie”) was the perfect occasion to give this all a try. Now that Jasan is a bit older, my level of concern had lessened, but they were all in the back of my mind nonetheless.

We prepared the week ahead of time by reading social stories multiple times a day written specifically about our upcoming trip and the airport routine. This was a tremendous help. A couple of days prior to leaving, we found this video which was fantastic! Jasan watched this over and over. All of these tools combined helped him know what to expect.

Here are a couple of pages from his airport story so you can get an idea of what a social story looks like.

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The other component to this was how prepared my Mom and I were with our mindset. We knew we had prepared Jasan very well for this experience by talking it through with Jasan ahead of time. We gave ourselves MORE than enough time to get to the airport and go through security so that we could feel completely relaxed, and our mental pictures and attitudes towards our adventure were POSITIVE. That was KEY. We knew that we would be able to deal with whatever may happen and that we would be a team together.

He needed to be able to take the time to explore and check things out if he wanted to. If we had been planning on rushing through the airport, we would have been destined to fail. He needed to be able to just be himself. His mind would be absorbing tons of new information. I think that to make sure that he would be storing these memories as a positive experience, it was vital to make sure he would be able to soak it all in the way HE wanted to.

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Jasan did beyond fantastic! What a fun experience! He handled transitions and all of the newness like a champ! He was fascinated by all of the computers and the metal detectors. The huge O’Hare terminal was pretty awesome in all of it’s vastness. He was such a great helper by pushing our small carry-on suitcase. It had wheels, so he wouldn’t have had it any other way.  (I was too busy making sure he wasn’t going to crash into anyone to capture a shot. Lol!) When it was time for a bit of relaxation, the carry-on suitcase then doubled as fun seat to ride on. (And an arm workout for Mama. haha.)

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Then… time to board. So exciting! Another important piece to this experience was informing the airline that Jasan was a special needs kid. We boarded first, so this way their wasn’t tons of confusion with the large masses of people getting on with us. We were able to get nice and comfy in our seats while things were still quiet. We had recently purchased a weighted blanket for Jasan; being the sensory seeker kid that he is. In times of possible stress, this could act as a calming tool for his system. Since that little sucker weighs 7 lbs, I had put it into the roller carry-on suitcase and we just grabbed it out after we found out seats. It worked out perfectly. He was all cozy and content with his special blankie, iPad, mini pillow, snacks, Mama & Grammie. Life at that moment was GREAT.

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Then of course, because I’m me, we had to do the obligatory selfie or two. (ha!)

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I crack up when we do photos together now. He is soooooo my son. My friends know my habit of the open mouth, “Ah!” whenever a photo is shot of me… Check Jasan. Totally adorable. We both “Ah!” together. <3

It was take off time! As the plane started to speed up, he requested my hand right before the plane’s wheels left the ground. Prior to that he had his speedometers going OF COURSE.

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I had just enough “stuff” to keep Jasan occupied. Our flight was at 12:30, so time of day was also on our side. He did just fine sitting in his seat and only getting up twice to go to the neat little bathroom. He was quite interested in how everything worked in there. Swallowing water through a straw as we were descending helped his ears normalize with no problems. And the super cool awesome surprise once we landed…

GETTING TO VISIT THE PILOT IN THE FLIGHT DECK!

Can you even imagine how cool this was for him? All of the gauges and switches!!! COOLNESS OVERLOAD. Along with being a photo fanatic, I took a video so Jasan could watch it over and over after the experience. We lucked out by getting a pilot who was TOTALLY into showing Jasan what was up in there. He was FANTASTIC. What a gift… more than he will ever know!

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He was talking about this all day.

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After grabbing our luggage from the baggage claim, which was also a point of interest for the little dude, we headed on over to the shuttle area and hopped in a van to take us to Redington Beach. After all the excitement, he passed on into snooze land.

I didn’t do the best of capturing it, but he fell asleep with my phone in his hand, GPS talking to us all the way. The shuttle also had a computer and Garmin GPS in clear view, so he was quite content with our ride…

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More to come!

<3

 

 

Filed Under: Obsessions, Sensory & Stimming Tagged With: airports, aspergers, autism, autism awareness, children, first flight, kids, photography, traveling

But, how does it work?

May 4, 2014 By Heidi Allen 1 Comment

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One of the things that I completely admire about Jasan is how he has to figure out how things work. He has always been this way. I am sure this is common for a huge population of boys, but I think the autistic traits in Jasan set him apart.
He saw the neighbor kids outside with their bikes a couple of weeks ago. He looked very interested, so we are giving it a try. The super excited, “oh my goodness! His first bike!!!” mom part of me just wants him to get on and ride. Practice getting those pedals moving and steering at the same time.
You know, the way a typical kid would do.

But, my new mantra, HE WILL DISCOVER AND LEARN HIS WAY.

If he walks alongside his bike most of this summer and watches the wheels go around, or wants to turn the bicycle upside down so he can move the pedals with his hands and figure out how it all works, that’s perfect in our world.
He will ride into the sunset when he is ready. ? ??

Filed Under: Obsessions, Parenting Tagged With: autism, autism awareness, riding a bike

Numbers + Clocks = So very interesting.

May 3, 2014 By Heidi Allen 3 Comments

Jasan has been drawn to numbers ever since he has been on this planet. In fact, he has quite an obsession with them. He has been known to just carry around an arithmetic flash card just because of the numbers. They make him happy. I don’t think Jasan stands alone with his attraction for numbers in the world of autism. I am 99.9% sure that many in the autistic community have a love affair with them.

Once he started noticing clocks, the hoarding began. (ha!) Every visit to a store that sold clocks of some sort, he REALLY wanted one. His room has a mighty fine collection. When you just sit there in silence the “tick tocks” are in surround sound.

I love this kid.

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Filed Under: Obsessions, Sensory & Stimming Tagged With: autism, autism awareness, clocks, mathematics

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