at last some measure of success!

[jerry5]

My son came home from school yesterday and he had actually got changed and done some PE! When he was in his reception year he took part in the end of year school games which was a great surprise to us then, though this was due in no small part to the one to one support of his TA at the time. Since then he has done no PE as he hates getting changed and doesnt like the noise and hubub of all the other kids as well as not quite understanding some of the rules. Recently his support teachers have been trying to encourage him to do some as he seems to have shown fleeting interest in it. I duly went out and purchased some more kit for him and now he has done some; albeit just him and one of his classroom assistants rather than with the rest of his class. All too often he seems interested in taking part with things, whether it be joining his cousins on a trampoline or his friends on local kids playareas or even going to a cinema to see a film he would like but he always sort of hovers around the outskirts as if he would like to take part but is too frightened to actually join in. He seemed to enjoy it too so even better. Well done to his support teacher:smile:Who knows, he may even take a small part in the Christmas play or something this year...

[Sammysnake]

That's fantastic news Jerry, you must be over-the-moon! Let's hope your boy and his support teacher can build on this now. Is there another room he could get changed in to make it quieter for him or maybe get changed in the classroom after the others have headed off to start the lesson and come back a little early to get changed before they return? That way he might find it easier to join in at least part of each lesson and then gradually work up to doing the whole thing. Pre-teaching might help too - his support teacher letting him know what to expect from the lesson through visuals or by having a go 1-1 with him so he knows the rules and what is expected of him before he does the lesson. It might build his confidence. Good luck :-)

[kittykat123123]

Congratulations, that's great! One of my favourite past times at school was getting out of PE, but when I couldn't I did find it a lot easier taking part when I changed in the bathroom cubicles out of the way and a big part of my enjoyment was going to the gym / swimming outside of school with my family as it gave me more confidence in my (somewhat poor) athletic abilities.

[jerry5]

thanks sammy/kittykat,
Unfortunately there is nowhere seperate where he can get changed, though of course they could stagger it so that the rest of the class get changed then he gets changed a bit later when they are done.Even then though it would be a case of having to ease him into doing it with his fellow classmates as opposed to just doing it on his own with his TA. As with so many things we have to try and give him plenty of warnings about what is going on and what he will be doing and build up routines so he feels secure. Its just so nice to see him doing something like this-and even nicer to see that he enjoys it! as always, little steps, but very pleasing. Tonight weve got the speach therapist coming around so were hoping to get a few positives out of that in as much that ,as well as helping him with his diction ,there may be byproducts of de-sensitising his mouth a bit to help him try new foods to aid his diet as well as getting him a referral to a dentist who specializes in dealing with children on the autistic/AS spectrum. Like most of us he hates the dentist but we're a bit concerned with how his new adult teeth are coming through and he simply refuses to open his mouth for our dentist or else just freaks out as soon as he gets in the room. So fingers crossed!

[kittykat123123]

Good luck. I think the main thing again is to make sure the dentist explains exactly what he is going to do and try to keep the gag reflex to a minimum. When I had to go to a dental surgery to have teeth fillings put in they gave me a drug to sleep through it, and I can't remember a thing!

[jerry5]

Hi kittykat,
If only we could get some of that drug for him when he wont go to sleep at night!! Apparantly we cant move on this unless his/our current dentist refers him but this shouldnt be too much of a problem. The lady who came round was very good, she sort of wore 2 hats, one as a speach therapist one diagnostic. Her own son has AS so she can relate to the questions /issues we have. Good news is that she said we were pretty much doing what we should be. Like she said there are no quick-fix solutions but to remember that just because certain stratergies only worked for a short period that is not to say that you should not revisit them again later. She seemed to think that his diction problems were not that serious and would probably rectify themselves in the course of time as some aspie traits are simply a slower development on some things. The food sensitivity issue she said was very common and hard to get over. The stuff he will eat is of the same sort of colour and bland tastes with no strong flavours at all. She said there was a book called "wont eat cant eat" that may help and to get him to trace patterns on his face over the upper and lower jaw to help de-sensitize. When I said that he would eat -for him-bizarre things if we were on holiday for example (parma ham when we were in a restaurant once and one of those sausage/bacon/egg/sauce breakfast sandwiches) but that he would never entertain eating such a thing again, she said this too was quite common. Apparantly as a lot of aspies compartmentalize most things, they do the same with food. The food he ate on holiday is in the "holiday" box and he cant transfer it into his "food"box. Similarly, when he went on a trampoline at my brothers house that was in that "box" and when he sees another one elsewhere he cant make the link, cant think, oh yeh, thats a trampoline like the one at my uncles house and I enjoyed that, it felt good/safe so he gets anxious and whilst he's drawn to it he wont summon up the courage to get on it. One of the things she suggested was to make a visual scrapbook (photos./wrappers) of things he's eaten so that he can look back and try and "recover" the link-yes, I did eat that before and it was OK. Something to try anyhow. I'd be interested on your thoughts on any of this-or,indeed, anyone elses ?

[kittykat123123]

That's very interesting, you could also get him to write down in his own words next to the items on paper what he thought about them, like a diary type thing? I'm doing a little video diary at the moment which helps me to remember eye contact stuff and also what things I'm trying. I haven't heard of this before however as I do not have this problem, recently have been a lot more spontaneous. The only thing I could think of would be the familiarity thing, where you only want to repeat something with all the conditions the same?

[jerry5]

thanks Kittykat,
good idea to add his own thoughts to the items in his scrapbook, we'll do that. I ordered the "cant eat wont eat" book off Amazon as the reviews were quite good and his diet is a bit of a concern to us. Have you-or anyone else on here-read it?

[Robdemanc]

Hi - I am glad your son had a good day at school. I remember school and hated anything that involved the whole class like PE games. But i used to do it anyway. I didn't mind getting changed in front of people but I did hate the noise and the general informal nature of PE. One thing that really got to me was the fact that my older brother was a good sportsman and so the teachers assumed I was going to be the same. Because I wasn't as good as he, the teachers always told my mother that I didn't make much effort at things. My mother used to tut at me. It is a shame that AS was not well known by schools in the 1980's.

[jerry5]

Rob,
Its a shame that AS is still not that well known about in schools now!