Saturday 16 August 2014

Hope For Future Learning

If you think your autistic child will never be able to do or get past a certain thing, you may be in for a surprise.

Micah has always been terrified of bugs of all types- flying or crawling.  When we first went out in the spring time, there would be lots of screaming.  I don't like bugs either.  I can touch a ladybug and I can squish mosquitoes no problem but not other types.  Until I had Micah, my husband's job was to kill all the bugs.  Once Micah came along, I had to be the brave one so that she wouldn't be afraid!

Her fears were extreme.  We had to call an exterminator one night at our old house because we had wasps coming in through a spot near the sump pump out spout.  We knew there would be no sleep with the odd wasp flying around so, it had to be taken care of right away. 

Until the past few months, if Micah spotted a spider in a room, especially her bedroom, she would avoid that room for a while.  Having a spider in the bedroom was a really big deal.  We could squash it and then do spider patrol to search the entire room.  When she ended up with PTSD, her fears and avoidance got worse. A spider in the room meant Micah was spending the night in the tv room on the couch.  It was very frustrating and most of the time I was understanding and I have definitely gotten better at it.  I'm not perfect though and can still get angry.

The whole point of this post is that Micah is suddenly able to do things she couldn't before.  She has been volunteering at the barn where we ride.  She can easily lift the heavy feed sacks now.  She also killed a spider on her own, in a stall!  Nobody was around so she did it.

About a week later she killed a small black bug on her bed (not a bed bug!).  I had to come and do the clean up but the main thing is she killed it herself!  She also killed another bug another day but I can't remember where.

It has taken many years to get to this point so don't give up hope if your autistic family member/friend is not able to do something.  It may be that they just can't do it yet!

P.S.  We don't just go around killing bugs, but if they are in the house or car etc, then they get squashed!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.