Sunny day!

After a whole week of heavy clouds, rain and a threatening flood, The sun came out today. The kid isn't one to enjoy it however. It's getting to be a mini vacation including two weekends to make it 9 days straight without school. It's a very welcomed respite to gasoline expenses.

The kid is stuck with household chores. When he sweeps, all our things get scattered. When he does the dishes, someone has to repeat it. At least there are no more complaints, just silent protests. I'll take it as an improvement.

One year

Yes, it's that long already. It's monsoon season again. The floods are threatening.

So what happened during the lull? The lull was there because the dad was too irate to post. The kid graduated from high school but wasn't ready for college. Too grumpy because of raging teenager hormones and no concentration due to nervous breakdown. The Psych suggested Work Skills from SPED. The kid had to be brought five days a week one and half hours by car to the nearest facility that offered such course. The sched took five hours a day. Trip times two plus school, all in all it was eight hours away from home and work. The mom went MWF while the dad took TTh. Saturday classes were dropped as the kid was exhausted with the daily trip. The teachers advised against it too as he was receiving enough behavioral modification already during the five days in SPED school. That started three months ago. Somehow we're still hanging on. Whew!

Cost of it all = 2 years of college tuition

Improvements showed slowly at first then steadily picking up as of late. This is already his third month in SPED. Both dad and mom decided to reward him with a surprise. The kid was brought to a live concert to one of his very favorite singers. Sang the whole time, knew all the songs by heart. Smiled the whole 3 hours trip going home. Another first in a year.

So how? Classes started at 9 and ended at 2. At first we woke him at 6 and have him in the car by 7. Delays always happen but surprisingly the car manages to get there by 9-ish. When the kid gets back home in the afternoon, he rests for half an hour then hits the treadmill. We lowered his exercise time to 30 minutes considering he's exhausted enough with school and the commute. Somehow it didn't work. Teacher always had problems with him not finishing tasks and lack of concentration plus he gets agitated easily.

The kid watched CD's and DVD's during the trip to and from school and it was beginning to consume him. The dad and mom decided to cut it. He can watch them at home in the afternoon. It was not enough though. Grasping for drastic measures, exercise was moved to 5AM. Poor kid was forced to wake at 5. After an extended visit to the toilet, he hits the treadmill at 5:30. Just for 30 minutes, more than enough to make him sweat like a faucet. Nothing was mentioned to the teacher for a week. Teacher noticed the improvement so was eventually informed of the switch in schedules. Teacher was very greatful.

Psych noticed the vast improvement on the kid during the last visit. Face was bright, answers came quick, sang heartily in front of her and lots of stories of classmates and schoolmates in school including his crushes. Zoloft, once a day for 10 months already has been ordered halved. The kid is doing fine and taking everything astride. Recovery under way. Finally!

Wake up time

Rise and shine is at 6:00AM. It was already quarter to seven. The kid was still under his sheets in bed. I gave him a little tap and said "Wake up. Time to wake up." He answered sleepy, "I already woke up last 6:30."

"Get up now then. School starts at 7:45." I shot back. He gets up, goes straight to the toilet. I went to the other bathroom to do my own thing and left him with his mom. AFter I was done, I found him in our bedroom fast asleep. His mom had to rush him through breakfast and changing clothes. When it was time to go she asked, "Did you brush your teeth?" "Yes." "How?" "With Swish!" "That's not brushing. That's just gargling. Brush your teeth first. Here, let me help you," says his mom. "No! I can do it alone."

Note to self: Add gargling and brushing in the schedule with the word "Supervised".

So far, so good...

Schedule is working. If there is anything doubtful, the schedule prevails.

Friday was uneventful. Saturday, the big day with the Psych turned out well. Issues about compulsive behavior was discussed and the doctor warned we may need to increase dosage. After the one-on-one session, behavioral modification was suggested instead. Whew! That was close.

My son agreed to the doctors suggestion to take showers for 30 minutes only. Luckily, that's what we alloted in his schedule too. As for his compulsive behavior, we'll just have to remind him about it now and then.

Back to school after the Christmas break. Hopefully the whole routine will put sense back to him. Three more months 'till summer break. I hope he gets better by then. His new target is to rejoin Summer Camp. I threatened not to let him go if he can't take good care of himself like in the past.

My meltdown

So I'm not a perfect dad. My outrage over my son's attempt to take the braces off his teeth has poured over. Just the other day, he successfully took one off. Last night, I caught him finally digging into another. He's 17. He wants to look good. He's not helping. We still have to get a dental appointment and he's deadset in making me spend another thousand dollars for a new set.

At least he woke up at once after a single verbal cue. That hasn't happened in months. It's either the schedule's working or he's scared. I don't know.

When nothing seems to work, schedule it.

Second post already... Yipee!

Taking a shower results to getting more smelly. Then, he gets out wet so he has to change all his clothes again to avoid getting sick. My original solution was to supervise showers. It worked for the past four weeks but now, the kid has been locking me out of the bathroom for the past few days. Worse, he's commandeering the bathroom for 3 hours just for a shower!

Before the meltdown, we have taken him off a rigid schedule. He handled it well for a year or so. I guess it's back to getting organized again so I sat him down in front of the computer and we drew up a new daily schedule from waking up to bedtime. We included everything from toilet time to sweeping the floor time and school hours to fun hours. He insisted on specific schedules for singing, dancing, playing the guitar, facebooking (didn't know it's a verb already) and DJ'ing (thank goodness for headphones).

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. Psych appointment will be on Saturday. Yikes!

I've got to start somewhere...

Verdant forest. Clear mind. Pure heart. Autism. I am the father of a 17-year old boy diagnosed with ASD, high-functioning but not far from a hapless baby. We are currently in his second meltdown (the first was two years ago) and he has been placed under medication. Up until six months ago, hopes were high. He successfully completed a grueling 4-hour college entrance exam with hundreds of total strangers at the nearby university. A few days later, tragedy struck that forced us to evacuate our home and stay temporarily elsewhere. The new environment and drastic change of schedule threw him back into the Dark Ages. Medication has at least helped him relax and he is now able to sleep soundly. confidence is slowly building up which brings in new problems. 17 years old isn't exactly angelic. Hormones are peaking and he's definitely full of it. He's lying through his teeth blatantly, always making non-sensical excuses and worse of all has developed complete resistance to every parenting move we've done. This blog would probably serve as a journal but more of an escape for future reference in a third person point-of-view. I'm hoping this would help me more than anyone else out there going through the same grinds that parents with autistic children can only understand. Thank you.