I am so sorry for my absence! My mother is in town and I haven’t really been on the computer much. But, here’s an update and then I hope to get back to my regular posting. Zack is doing absolutely amazing! His withdrawl symptoms are GONE (knock on wood) and other than his normal screeching when I tell him no about something, he is behaving pretty well too. I’m really happy with him! His language development is on the up and up. We went from a few spontaneous words last week to SO MANY, I’m not able to track how many he uses now! We bought him a tent that we put up in the playroom yesterday because I was told that he might need a private little place to escape to. As soon as he saw it, he grins and says “what’s that?” Words like that just keep popping out of his mouth.
But, I’m having issues with his school again. Zack’s busdriver told me yesterday that his preschool teacher waited until he was strapped down into the bus seat yesterday afternoon and then took a toy from his hand and said “this has to stay here” and walked off the bus. Do you KNOW how much damage that can do to a 3-year-old with autism who has object attachment issues. This is the kind of stuff she just does! The day before that, she called me to pick him up from school because he was throwing a tantrum about the SAME TOY and wouldn’t get on the bus. I told her not to give in and I’d be there in 10 minutes. I’m teaching him to GIVE A TOY UP, not just rip it out of his hands. But when I arrived, she brought him into the office and he was holding the toy she’d been talking about. She says “I give up” and basically walked away. I told her no, she doesn’t and I made him into giving the toy back and then rewarded him with skittles. She looked irritated just being around my son. I hate that he’s not in a class for children with autism… he’s in a special needs preschool and his teacher knows NOTHING about autism.
So, it looks like I have some complaining to do on my son’s behalf.
Day 7. Another day… another word! His English vocabulary has gone from zero initiated words to 3 this week! Zack grabbed a forkful of his quinoa spaghetti and brought it to my husband and said “bite.” This is incredible.
Day 6. Zack’s mood has done a total 180 today. He’s been an angel child! I cannot believe this is the same kid as yesterday! He’s really been great.
I know I already posted today, but I had to share something new. Zack has these little plastic jungle animals that he carries everywhere in his bucket of the day. He has buckets and zip-up lunchbags to carry his object-attachment belongings because there are so many that he has to have ALL AT ONCE and Heaven help us if any drop. His objects don’t change but the bucket he keeps them in does.
