Tag: autism

Thoughts in preparation for next meeting with the KKI psychiatrist

There are a few administrative notes. The information in Vee’s chart regarding her sensory issues isn’t accurate. All 5 senses including sight are impacted. She experiences light sensitivity and we have an optometrist appointment this week to work on getting her sunglasses that fit, feel comfortable and can help with the light sensitivity.

We have also gone shopping for clothes in brick and mortar stores where she can physically feel the fabric and try on clothes before buying and we went shopping in a brick and mortar store for shampoo, conditioner, hand soap and body soap so she can smell them before buying.

Top priorities are sleep and her stomach. We’ll continue to give her Miralax daily, possibly indefinitely, to keep the chronic constipation at bay. We might need to evaluate for acid reflux. We might need to medicate for anxiety.

The book Navigating Autism lists the numerous blockers to sleep for Autistic kids/people.

Here’s an excerpt from Navigating Autism:

Symptoms of autism, such as reduced sensitivity to the sleep-wake circadian system, perseverative thoughts or behaviors, anxiety, and environmental hypersensitivity can all make sleep problems more likely. Sensory discomforts such as being aversive to the texture of the sheets (or pajamas), hearing traffic that others don’t notice, or being bothered by a streetlight, can be particularly interfering for a child with autism.

 Other physical or psychiatric distress can also lead to sleep disturbance. A child with unrecognized pain or gastric distress is unlikely to sleep well. A hyperactive or anxious child may find it difficult to get to sleep. A depressed child who is experiencing ruminative thoughts will likely have delayed sleep onset as well.

Remembering how sleep disorders can cause a cascade of effects and how they have a bidirectional relationship with other comorbid conditions is critical to the mindset of viewing the whole child. Professionals and parents who keep this in mind will be more likely to spot signs that a child is not sleeping well and will be more apt to gather data on the possible consequences of that disturbance.

Book Review on Navigating Autism

Of all the basic information a parent needs most is to hear this: Your child is capable of loving you. If they do not show affection the way other children do, it is not personal. Parents will learn over time to recognize how their child expresses their connection to the parent.

Atypical sensory experiences are estimated to occur in as many as 90% of autistic individuals. They impact every sensory modality including taste, touch, hearing, smell, vision, proprioception, and balance.

Proprioception, or kinesthesia, is the sense that lets us perceive the location, movement, and action of parts of the body. It encompasses a complex of sensations, including perception of joint position and movement, muscle force, and effort.

Some children with autism cannot distinguish between foreground and background information. Pain and distress may just blend into a chaotic mix of sensations. Other autistic children may experience fragmented perception – the inability to take in multiple pieces of information at once. Instead, they experience the world in bits that do not fit together into recognizable patterns.

Other children may have what is called sensory agnosia. These individuals fail to recognize incoming sensory data, yet their primary sensory functions are intact, and they have no general mental impairment.

In some children, the ability to accurately recognize, process and report incoming sensory stimuli can vary dramatically from day to day. Imagine a child that has a urinary tract infection. Over the course of a week, she may one day not feel any sensation, while another day, mild duress and yet another wailing in pain. This can make it nearly impossible to get accurate medical care for conditions unrelated to autism.

 Children may also experience sensory synesthesia, which is a cross channeling of incoming data. This is when sensory input – such as a sound – gets process as or alongside another sense such as color. The child may for example, see the color red whenever they hear a certain musical tone. #autism