To Stim or not to Stim

Autism. Asperger Syndrome.

  

    Not something I thought we'd be thinking about with Maddison. She doesn't toe-walk. She met all her milestones and has no language issues or speech problems. She doesn't stim.

Or so we thought.

    For quite a while now, I've been looking at ways to help Maddison.
She has many issues that we thought were just her. Now I believe otherwise.

MADDISON'S TRAITS

nail biter

bounces a lot, jumps a lot

runs down the house and smacks into the wall, runs back and lands on the couch. Can repeat this for half an hour if she is not asked to stop. Sometimes has to be asked several times to stop.

Tears things – we try to redirect, but often we realise AFTER she's destroyed whatever she happened to be holding at the time.

Chews her fingers, or her lip.

Squeals and makes high pitched clicks and squeaks, and tongue-rolls. Squeaks all the time when eating.

VERY fussy with food.

Can't handle change – if you say you're going somewhere and you don't/can't, MASSIVE meltdown

even if it was something as simple as getting milk on the way home.

    I was looking at a list of traits of Aspie kids, and came across something interesting - girls aren't the same as boys when it comes to Asperger syndrome.

Madd ticks every box for Asperger. Every. Box. Things like her running up and down the hallway and bashing into the wall? Stim. Sensory input required to keep her calm and happy, and release excitement or anxiety.

Her hiding and absconding - inability to verbalise her needs or how she's feeling

Bouncing - goes way beyond a normal kid's need to release energy. 

Her annoying habit of tearing up things - not just happening to annoy me, she really truly can't help herself.

    So I've started to treat Madd as though she has Aspergers. Instead of assuming that she's being naughty on purpose, I've started assuming that she doesn't always have control of her emotions and behaviour. And she's responding. 

When she was tearing a game box up, I gave her a receipt to tear up instead. When she'd finished, I asked her if she felt better, and she replied quite happily that she did. 

     I'm feeling a little guilty that for so long we've all assumed that Madd is in control of herself, and that she is just being naughty. For the past couple of years, I've wondered if there was something else going on.

So tomorrow she's off to the GP to get a referral for a psychologist, and a paediatrician. The psych will assess her for being on the autism spectrum. 

Things that I assumed were just annoying habits seem more and more like stims. I assumed that all autistic kids flapped, or toe walked. Madd doesn't. I didn't realise that a lot of her bouncing and jumping and bashing is her way of saying "I need sensory input". I'm starting to understand how to help her more now.

So that's what's going on in OUR world at the moment. 

For now, even though we don't yet have a diagnosis, will say that Madd has Aspergers. If it's not Aspergers, it's some sort of sensory issue. And I"ll admit, I'll be very surprised if she doesn't have Aspergers. 

It just fits way too neatly. AND it runs in the family. 

Time will tell.