We took a week-long trip to San Francisco and Sonoma, California for a combo vacation/wedding. What a great time! I can honestly say I have probably never needed a vacation so badly. I was worried about the cross country plane ride, but the kids did pretty well. Actually, Charlie did great. . . Addison was another story. That girl does not want to sit still and is not content unless she is getting into something or voicing her opinion. Thankfully, though, she fell asleep for at least half of the trip.
We did a whirlwind tour of San Francisco, Muir Woods and Sausalito. Then we headed to Sonoma for 3 nights for my cousin's wedding. Charlie was the ring bearer. I must admit I had quite a bit of anxiety about this, worrying that he would not want to walk down the aisle. I finally got over it when I realized that he's only 3 years old, and you never know what you're going to get from any 3 year old child involved in a wedding. Charlie was "spacey" during the rehearsal and had to have some help from daddy in walking down the aisle. But, about 1/4 of the way down, he saw me in the front row and walked on his own the rest of the way. I was so proud of my little boy! He seemed to have a great time the rest of the night, even dancing a little bit at the reception. He LOVES his music!
I had a reminder that in every situation, there is always a little humor and laughter. After performing his ring-bearer duties, the father of the bride escorted his daughter down the aisle and gave her away. Just as the father of the bride stepped away and handed off the bride to my cousin, Charlie said, very clearly "walk away!" I just about fell out of my seat laughing. Obviously, this was another example of delayed echolalia and Charlie had heard this phrase at some other time before. But the fact that he chose to repeat it right at that exact time had me in stitches. Thankfully most of those around us did not really catch what he said. When we told everyone afterward, it provided all of us with a good laugh. Life is always in adventure in the world of autism!
Charlie was extremely hyper during most of our trip. I'm not sure if it was the excitement of being on vacation and being in a new place, or the addition of some new supplements. Or maybe a little bit of both. We added DMG to his list of supplements about 10 days ago. DMG can increase hyperactivity so I am keeping my eye on this. We will add some folinic acid in about a week to hopefully combat this. Charlie did have some very good days while in California, especially with regard to language. In one day he said "want apple" and "want cookie." He also counted to five repeatedly and echoed other people's words frequently. He also protested a couple of times when we attempted to either dress him or put him on the potty with either a "no!" or a "not yet!" These are all very positive signs. We have noticed that the day after he receives his MB-12 shots, we tend to see increased language.
I am working hard on learning more and more about ABA. Adam and I are really trying to do more ABA with Charlie at home and throughout his day. I am also working on collecting my own ABA teaching materials so I can implement more therapy at home. This, in an of itself, is proving to be a full-time job. I watched Charlie for an hour in ABA therapy this morning. He is still working with puzzles and shape sorters a lot. Some of the shapes he seems to have down, then the next time around, he is trying to put the triangle in the circle spot, the square in the triangle spot, etc. I feel that much of this is based on his attention span. When he really pays attention, he gets it right. When he really could care less, he tends to put the piece anywhere in hopes of just getting it done. The therapist did say that in the last hour, she put a puzzle down in front of him and he put every piece in quicker than she could have done it. I know he's got it in him.
I read an article on the Huffington Post yesterday. It was quite scary. Apparently, new numbers are coming out as a result of some federally funded studies. Autism continues to be on the rise, with an estimate of 1% of all U.S. children diagnosed with an ASD. To put this in perspective, the CDC's estimates in the early 90's were 1 in 150 children suffered from ASD (with males being four times more likely to have autism). If these new numbers are to be believed, the rate has jumped to 1 in 100 in just over 10 years. Even more scary, a poll of parents puts these numbers even higher -- at a shocking 1 in 63 girls suffering from ASD and 1 in 38 boys (or 2.6% of all males being diagnosed with some form of ASD). If this doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should. These numbers are exponentially higher than just 10 years ago, which were, in turn, exponentially higher than 10 years before that.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. . . research showed that an increasing number of children shed their diagnosis. And, even those who don't lose their diagnosis can make significant gains. This is the news that keeps me going. I know it is possible, and I know we can get there.
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