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.