Care4autism

                                             What is about literal thinking and autism?                     Ramam’s friends had come over in the October holidays. He was very excited. And his expression manifested itself in few joyous shouts and screams from him. I then asked him to show his friends a tray full of glasses filled with juice. I got back to doing my work, when one of the mother’s remarked. “He is doing what Viji asked him to do”. He was literally holding the tray high and standing in their midst.  My intention was to ask him to serve the guest. So much for literal thinking and my failure to communicate to him.                          If one actually looks at the way...

This blog has always been about Ramam. It has been about our interactions, joys and struggles with him. I now want to embark on a slightly different journey.  My blog has mostly been about personal anecdotes but this time around I would like to interlace it with my readings on the net, research a topic a little in-depth. I could have started in the New Year, but any day is a good day. If any of the readers would like to suggest a topic for discussion, I would like to take it up as the next topic.                                           Looking forward to your cooperation and encouragement.

            Off late  Ramam has began saying  many a  things that happened  in the recent past, or something he has done in his school. Sometimes he talks about something a week old, and starts talking about it out of the blue. And since his articulation is not clear , we have a difficult time getting to understand. Yesterday he was all excited about the Christmas tree he had decorated in his school. It is in his recent memory, but  I am not too sure if the event happened on the day he related it to me.                                                                               He spoke of the decorations , he wanted to build a house with blocks and put a roof top .[This was the first time he build a house and wanting to put a door , w...

                               Recently , I attended the India inclusion summit, and was accompanied by two mothers  enroute to the venue, and whose kids were in the age group 7-8 years. The conversation soon veered to  discussing kids. One mother said "I was worried my son should wake up before I leave, and I had prepared him yesterday that I would be going . I was so relieved when he woke up before I left and told him I will be back in the evening." Immediately the other mother asked her  " Does he understand the concept of Evening?" And I thought how weird, how challenging is  the problem of autism. I was for the the most a mute spectator and most of the time I tuned out. As parents we know the level of preparation that goes into every event, or change in routine. They were discussing medicines, therapies....... And one mother said ,"My son wanted a different chapati, and kept shooing...

Recently, I , my daughter and Ramam were on the bed humming some songs. Ramam turned to me and said " I don't want to sing Tamil songs". I remembered the Cadbury Bournville ad which says "You have to earn it". I was so happy and this  happiness is truly well deserved and earned. I may be boasting but then I don't care.                    This is not the longest sentence he has spoken but, the clarity of thought impressed me. It has been a very phased improvement from , No singing .... I don't want to sing..............I don't want to sing Tamil songs. What excited me was the use of the word Tamil to specify the language, put it in a sentence and express himself .                     When you are counting, how many words can your son speak, is it a phrase or a sentence how long is the sentence , every small victory gives me a huge kick. However the intention of this...

No routine transfers for govt staff with autistic kids NEW DELHI, Nov 17, 2014, DHNS: Central government employees who have autistic children will not have to face routine transfers any more. Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh on Monday took the decision to include autism in a list with the Department of Disability, after the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) examined the scope of bringing the developmental disorder under the definition of disabled. “Considering the fact that a child with autism spectrum disorder requires constant support of a caregiver and it would be imperative for government employees with such children to take of their child on a continuous basis , it has been decided to include ‘autism’ in the term ‘disabled’ in the office memorandum,” read a DoPT.                      I am not sure if this benefit is extended to the armed forces also.

Came across these two websites on FB groups. www.readworks.org. The website has lesson plans and units, reading passages, The lesson plans are again subdivided based on skill and comprehension. However the books listed are quite expensive. The lesson plans can be adapted to the books one already  has. The reading passages are free and very good. They can can be clubbed with the books mentioned. There is so much to comprehension from drawing conclusions ,sequencing, character analysis. it gives a structured approach both grade and skill wise. It is a wonderful website. I recently tried it with a book I had with me " The snail and the whale" by Julia Donaldson. Ramam enjoys this book, and I modified the lesson plan to suit this book. Soon , was comparing the physical and character attributes of the whale and the snail , generalized it with Ramam and his sister ,Isha. I would not have thought of doing all of this on my own. News for your classroom    It is new for k...

Another Diwali has come and gone. Another year gone by. Year endings make me a little jittery and introspective. Standing again on the brink of  taking a decision as to do decide whether to attempt another major round of biomedical intervention and detoxification for Ram, but this time around planning to do it on self too  to feel the "effects" so as to speak.                               So many names doing the rounds of detoxification from the milder ones as living clay, Dr. Hulda Clark, Klinghardt to the big ones as CD protocol. Then there are the simpler ones as simple as giving two  neem capsules a day  to detox. Another question  I was asked "what are you targeting  metal, parasite .....what detoxification". Amazed at all mothers who are so clear headed on their choices whether it is bio medical intervention or use of teaching techniques.           ...

I begin my day everyday with the song Ekdantay Vakratandaya by Shankar Mahadevan.( everyone has their OCD's) This is followed by my daughter's request for the Rihanna- Eminem song  The Monster. Ramam grew up on a staple diet of Pink Floyd, Dire straits, Hotel of California, Fusion music ,......... all my husband's choices. And in between I would also administer my doses of classical music.                                                                        But with my daughter growing up, she is bringing in  new sounds of music, Katty Perry, Rihanna....... And more importantly she wants to share  her music. Listen to this one , and that one. Ramam is yet to sample this brand of music. And so now, there is a major confluence of music at home. When at home, she plays hers, in the car it is Ra...

The india inclusion summit is  being organised in the month of November.  One of the highlights of the event is a charity dinner on the eve of the summit, Nov 28th at the park plaza in Bangalore. The summit includes speakers from diverse fields speaking on the topic of inclusion on one platform. Prominent  among the speakers in the past are  Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Justice Santosh Hegde, Kiran Bedi, Anita Nair, Thorkil Sonne, Devdutt Pattanaik, Malathi Holla, among others. The most awaited speaker  I would be looking forward to this year , would  be Temple Grandin. For more details you can log in to their website http://indiainclusionsummit.com

RPM ( Rapid prompting method) and Son rise  techniques presume  the same things , the competence of the child. The abiding faith in both these techniques is that the child holds a lot of promise.                        The RPM is a technique that was started by Soma Mukhopadhyay to teach her autistic son Tito .                               I started RPM with Ramam  about two- three month s back. It is very encouraging when he requests for RPM sessions which he calls TALK Time. In the initial sessions , it is imperative to boost the child's confidence and ensure he gets to give the correct answers. There is little testing involved in the initial stages.It can be used to work on academics, communication....what RPM has done is, it has  encouraged me to look at academics again. As a matter of fact , RPM has encouraged ...

          Recently on one of the FB post, a mother had raised a question on how to track behavioral changes, to establish patterns in behavior. Much  later I realized I had downloaded this app, was very consistent in recording the data and somehow along the line I stopped bothering to do so. I tried the lite version version first and then went in for the paid one.                            The best part is it is extremely  easy to enter data, provided one has the discipline to do so daily and then it is plotted as  a graph for you.The app is called Autism pro . It is very user friendly. Some of the default categories include mood, behaviour, food, health.... It is helpful when you are trying to analyse sleep patterns, or notice  any changes in behavior  with the dietary interventions.                       ...

        Though not into any diet, I am now convinced about the fact eating healthy is the way to go. Thanks to my friend Gina, I am now on innumerable forums ranging from the CD protocol to tried and tested diet formats. I am constantly bombarded with these posts, so to say at least I make an attempt to emulate some of these to the extent possible. I may not do the Parasite protocol, but yes, I did do an around of de-worming for everybody in the family. It is not anywhere close to following a protocol, but  I feel at peace having taken some effort in that direction. I may not follow the Paleo diet, but here I am attuned to the idea of making healthy breakfast, moong dal cheelas, bajra dosas, and millet kichdi, absolutely grain free. I have shot down the proposals for pizza the last 3-4 weekends.  Earlier, our ancestors did use a lot of millets. I have switched to buying TATA’s I-Shakti unpolished dals. The regular dals, I now find have an unnatural sheen....

The blog has been in need of a make over for ages . The  header  is no longer relevant. My charming  boy is now a preteen and is as tall as me. He continues to enthral us, pique us,  and even dare his father sometimes with his show of strength. For most part , he is still the silent companion but he did pull in a surprise,  when he was chosen for a music fest program , where he  is one of the singers!!!. He is a lot verbal today than he was, the phrases are there , the sentences are emerging. My eternal battle with the "wh" questions continue. Yes, he is still the same little boy shy, sensitive, loving, but somewhere along the line he is beginning to assert himself in the choice of eating out, making definite choices when shopping, doing his own laundry. ( washing, drying folding ,putting it away!). It actually gives me  a kick when he says he wants to eat momos, because that is one of his language goals . What/where  do you...