Something that drives us autism parents CRAZY is when parents of nuerotypical children say "oh yeah my child does that." It drives us so nuts that is was worthy of my post 50 things you should not say to autism parents.
One of the things I hear that a lot about is Skylynn's spinning. People will ask what things signaled to us that she had autism and one of them was her incessant spinning. To that people always say "yeah, my kid spins too." But what they don't understand is autism spinning is spinning at an ENTIRELY different level than just fun kid spinning.
What makes the spinning so different is that for kids with autism, and other sensory processing disorders, spinning is a tool - it's a way to get additional sensory input. For many kids, like Skylynn, additional sensory input is needed just to feel ok. We bought Skylynn a spinning chair from Ikea that has hugely reduced how often she has major meltdowns.
Well this morning, as we were eating breakfast, Skylynn started spinning - and spinning - and spinning - and spinning. See last night she didn't take her insomnia medication so she was up for 4 hours in the middle of the night. So then she felt funny this morning. So since she felt off apparently she needed additional sensory input - to the tune of 10+ minutes of spinning. After she'd been spinning for somewhere around 10 minutes, and I had tried to stop her twice to get her to eat her breakfast, I decided to video tape it.
So this is what autism spinning looks like, except add 10 minutes to it. See - its different!
Felicity is crying in the background because Nate is putting clothes on her. If you watch until the end you can hear Skylynn talk a bit. :)
Yup that is JUST like my Kiana - it can go on and on and on...she will fall down, get back up and continue...makes me dizzy watching her.
ReplyDeleteThat is dedication! And then in the end she has gotten enough input, and she sits and says "thank you". That was cute.
ReplyDeleteI've had so many friends and family make those comments. I think in their mind they are trying to make you feel better, not realizing that it does not. Now that my son is 7, I think they are starting to see the difference now in their kids and mine. I really don't get the comments as much as I used to. She is such a little darling girl.
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