Autism

At times the stress ball helps @N1ghtW1ng, but I think I go for the pens because they are solid.

Hey @N1ghtW1ng, ultimately the decision is yours, but I think it comes down to what makes you feel comfortable. If you think that your diagnosis is causing you disadvantage compared to others, then I would strongly recommend talking to the disability advisor at your uni, and see what they say. That's what I've done, and with my placements, the supervisors have been told to be very careful about "throwing me in the deep end" (doesn't mean it won't happen, just means they will take extra care to make sure I will cope with that situation).

I want to emphasise that generally the lecturers and supervisors will not be told about your diagnosis, only its impacts on your studies. Please do not think that it is a cop-out for not doing work - at the end of the day it is about maximising your opportunity for success, so if you think that's what will help, then I say go for it! But you know yourself best and only you can make that decision.

Good luck! 🙂

In response to this post from @N1ghtW1ng in the "Uni Student Support Squad" thread:

I should probably start by reinforcing that I am not a professional in the field, however from my observations as a music therapy student who has a diagnosis of autism, it sounds like your wanting to fidget and play with your slinky is a sensory "need" rather than a "want". I know this might be distracting, so I do think @Lan-RO's suggestion of a timer is good, but if it doesn't work, then that's okay as well.

I should add that I also find dealing with sensory issues really hard as well, particularly if I need to have something done (and urgently, which is often the case). I would really like to work on strategies as well. Is there anything that anyone can suggest?

I'm sorry to hear things are feeling impossible at the moment @N1ghtW1ng

If you don't mind me asking - what "things" seem particularly difficult at the moment?

That sounds like me @N1ghtW1ng. Small things seem like mountains a lot of the time, and it leaves me feeling very very stressed. It doesn’t help that I want everything to be 100% perfect all the time - a pattern of thinking that I’m trying to break, but not succeeding very well.

I had a full on meltdown today. I guess the neighbours had some entertainment.

@N1ghtW1ng I was doing the yard yesterday, and was having trouble with the line trimmer. I finally just gave up and went into full-on scream-meltdown mode.

Today I’m feeling flat, crappy and just generally not wanting to do anything - despite the fact I have so much I need to do!

First day of Autism Acceptance Month and I thought I would share some of my stim toys and regular stims with everyone. 

I'm going to try and explain what stimming is but words aren't the best so hopefully it makes sense 😛 Stimming is behaviours that (for me) help deal with stress, anxiety and express emotions. There are a huge range of different types including visual stims, which is from my understanding watching something visually appealing. Like those glitter things or lava lamps or someone playing with slime are ones that I'm most aware of. I'm not sure about auditory stims but they definitely exist. Tapping, making noises are some examples. There's physical stims too. Most commonly associated with asd is rocking and flappy hands. They all help to deal with things and emotions and generally help. 

Stim toys are basically a range of things that help with stimming in general. The fidget spinner is a well-known example because people pretty much ruined it by completely not understanding its purpose but there's more than just those with tangles, squishies, slime, putties and more!

Here are my stim toys!

(side-note: it is stupidly difficult to try and add images to this post so I've given up on trying to add all the individual shots and have this box instead)

Ta da! We have my favourite giant slinky, a (very) large variety of stretchy animals, some squishies, a couple of spinners, a few tangles(the pansexual flag-coloured one(yellow,blue,pink) is a textured one with different feels(you can kind of see it with the pink) which is super nice and the blue one is shortened to make it fit on my wrist and not easier fall off for a bracelet :P, and there's the purple one :P) and hidden under the animals are a couple of mini slinkies. You can't see it because it's on my desk but I also have a container of putty from Kmart that I freaking love. It's basically become like the large slinky was, something that I can stretch between my hands with the added bonus of being moldable 😛

The miniature slinkies though have become my favourite (which you might be able to tell considering there are none in the box :P) and I use them when sitting in the lounge room and at uni. I do use the animals a lot too, I have some sitting in pockets of some of my pants that I wear frequently (for when I forget to bring something to fiddle with :P) which is really nice. 

Also not included is my little leopard kitty affectionately named Coo (like Roo, but with a c because they're a cat :P). He hasn't come to uni with me for awhile now but instead sits on my bedside table and blocks the light from my phone (for when it's on charge)

Most people are rather chill with my fiddle objects. I have noticed people (mainly at uni where it's more observable) stare at me. With one annoying experience where a tutor(sorta) said "a slinky" in a "why do you have that, you're not a child" sort of tone so that was a bit annoying but screw them because I do what I want 😛

My parents seem a bit... I want to say condescending but I don't think that's the right word, about it but not so much anymore. Which is nice. They don't care, but it feels like they feel something not 100% positive and/or on board with it. If that makes any actual kind of sense 😛

I really want to get some more things from this US store called Stimtastic which has a fantastic range of items. I've got my ideas on a puffer and/or hedge balls, a sparkly weighted crab(to act a bit like the little leopard Coo but probably a bit heavier and a crab! Although I can't decide between a crab and a sting ray... It'll depend what's in stock) and also a little stretchy squishy animal, probably the panda or tiger cub (but the polar bear is cute too!). It's either a moshi type or based on moshi squishy (whatever that is anyway :P) BUT those will be new additions. I also realllly want a metallic purple tangle because I love purple and the metallic ones look SOOO pretty! 

As for my other stims, I rock a lot. Most of the time I don't even realise until I've started that I'm rocking 😛 It's like your moving to the beat but there's no beat. I love it though and when I've started but stop it's like trying to stop yourself from dancing and doesn't feel very nice. I also clap my hands except I don't like the loud sound clapping makes so instead I stop my hands right before they clap 😛 Silent clapping 😛 That's for when I'm excited or happy. Because yay happy things! 😛 Oh and I shakes my hand, which is mostly in the outdoors 😛

This was pretty detailed but I don't mind. Most of these are private to only me and I am happy to share them with you because I think they're cool and I've got to go now byee! 😛

This was really good @N1ghtW1ng, thanks for sharing. So glad we have autism awareness month. Be worth promoting at uni for my colleagues.

I’ve got stuff to share as well, but it will have to wait until another time as I’m just not up to it right now. But good on you for being so open about your experience, that’s not necessarily an easy thing to do!

Hi everyone! 🙂

So I've discovered that in addition to April being Autism Acceptance Month, as @N1ghtW1ng posted yesterday, today, 2 April, is also World Autism Awareness Day. This includes a campaign where landmarks, buildings and other public displays across the world will be lit up blue. I think this is a great opportunity to educate people about autism, and the many ways in which it manifests itself in various people.

Some things that people with autism struggle with are repetitive behaviours, which may include speech patterns, use of objects and movement; social interactions, including anxiety related to being in certain social situations; sensory difficulties, which may be either a high sensitivity to a particular stimulus, or a low sensitivity; and communication difficulties, including speech, communication of emotions, facial expression and in some cases not having behaviour which suits the context of the situation. In particular, I want to emphasise that autism can look very different in different people, and the above is only a very succinct summary of some characteristics.

To give you a bit of an idea of my personal experience with autism, I have some difficulty with social interactions, and I guess just feel really awkward socially in general. However, I have noticed that social interactions with strangers are extremely anxiety-provoking for me. I am very sensitive to sound, and cannot deal with a large amount of noise at once, however I do have strategies for dealing with this, including wearing earplugs when I know I will be exposed to a great deal of noise. When I was younger, I used to have flappy hands a lot, particularly when I experienced strong emotions, particularly excitement or happiness, and it still happens sometimes, although I have made a lot of progress in communicating my emotions in a manner which more people will understand, supported by my family and various professionals.

However, there are other people with autism who struggle to communicate verbally in any way whatsoever. From my work in music therapy, particularly placements, it is NOT that non-verbal people are not trying to communicate, in fact, they are still communicating - just not using speech.

Importantly, I cannot stress enough that people with autism - no matter how 'severe' or 'where on the spectrum they lie' are treated with the same respect and dignity that you would treat other people. And that includes making your communication and social interactions age appropriate for people with autism (don't treat people with autism like children when they are adults!).

I hope that this contributed to your understanding of autism, and I look forward to seeing some more initiatives and awareness for people with autism in the future.

Thank you for this @mrmusic I think sharing the below is really powerful and creates more understanding around ASD 

Hey @mrmusic and @Erin-RO I have heaps to share, just typing it out now 🙂 

My little sister, I think she is 8, yeah she’s 8 has autism. She is non verbal, does parrot sometimes but generally doesn’t say any words. A couple of years ago she would repeat the Hungry Caterpillar over and over, which is when she started parroting. You still have to encourage her to speak though even if you know she won’t, so sometimes I say
“say please” and she will either sign if she can or repeat what exactly what I said so she will say back to me “say please”, but she usually doesn’t do that.
We are trying to teach her sign but her carers have decided to leave that for a little while. Sometimes I find having little cue cards helps, so cards with pictures that she is expressing a need or a feeling, I get her to help me find which one, it’s quite hard, but I usually pick out a few and then she tells me which one by pointing to the picture. Eg drink will have a picture of a drink, or sad will have a cartoon picture of a sad person.

The things I have learnt:

Getting down to her level, because she is so busy if she doesn't actually see your face and that you are talking to her she will just run off, so you've go down to her level. I guess it’s the same for most kids, it’s intimidating having someone stand over you, but for her she just not realise you are there.
- Giving her options like instead of asking something like, would you like a snack and then making up your mind for her, giving her like 2 choices. and I learnt how she'll say yes or no.
if i ask
"would you like biscuits or a sandwich"
if she wants the biscuits she'll look at my eyes and if she doesn't want the sandwich she'll turn her face right away from me when I suggest each thing.
- We play this game, its with toy cars and they go down a ramp, she likes to watch me do it. and i noticed that she'll look at my face and sometimes touch my cheek if she wants to do it again, if she doesn't want to play she just knocks it off the table, but anyway lol

- also some stuff around recognising when she might be heading for a meltdown and what things to do, it’s quite hard because each scenario is different, sometimes you can tell she needs someone to hold her real tight and assure her she is ok, but other times you cannot get very close to her without her biting, hitting, kicking.

We are trying out social stories too at the moment, im not sure if you know what that is, but its like using pictures to explain what we are doing and the routine so she is aware of whats happening, they use them at her school and her respite programs. So when we first meet for access sitting with her and showing her the pictures and telling her what we are doing. If the situation could possibly change or be unpredictable and it’s unavoidable we skip the social story otherwise she gets ideas in her head. Or I say something like “today we might play games” rather than “today we can play with the cars”. And being specific with times, even though I don’t think she can tell time, maybe she can, we don’t know but telling her “we will be finishing this in half an hour” then 10, 5, 2 minutes. Give her plenty of
warning which is what I didn’t do well with the first and only time I ever took her out myself, I thought I gave her a warning but I wasn’t enough, so when we went to leave the pool she got really really really upset with me it looked like I was kidnaping her.

She is also very sensitive to sounds, which is difficult to accomodate when access is busy with lots of children, I remember once my brother scared her from behind which would scare any kid but eventually they realise it was a joke or for fun, but she squealed so loud, so so loud and had a massive meltdown. So it’s also teaching my other siblings that for her those things aren’t fun, even if they are to the other kids. She also struggles with textures, usually sensory kind of touch and feel stuff works really well like at access we have a box of beads she lovesss to put her hands in but if it’s involuntary like a tag on a shirt or the top of her socks are a tad too tight she really really hates it so you just have to be careful with those things.

Overall, I treat her like any 8 year old little girl, I play games with her, I tickle her, we do colouring in together, but there are certain things you just have to be prepared to deal with and be extra patient with. She’s the best kid, so cheeky, I remember last time at access I took a grape off her plate and she gave me the meanest look, she knows how to plant her feet pretty damn hard on the ground too, i’ll say come on, it’s time to go inside, and she will just stand there shaking her head, and you grab her hand, she doesn’t move haha she’s a little bugger.
Her carers have this story about how she went to respite one day, they were having a picnic, and one of the other children in the program stepped on her hand, and she like bolted they had to chase her then when they caught up her she went full dead weight and wouldn’t get up, they even had to call her carer to come get her or when she ran up to the top of the waterslide and they had to turn it off so she wouldn’t go down it hahaha

@mrmusic@Erin-RO 

also @N1ghtW1ng I just saw your toy posts, we are trying to give my little sister similar things, just wondering where you got them from so I can pass it on?? So far the chew toys would probably work well for her because her first reaction to getting frustrated is to bite, so while we try to eliminate that it’s going to be very hard and not always possible, and i’d rather her bite a toy not a person. 

Thank you for sharing your experience and learnings @j95 and for being so in depth

Thank you @Lan-RO @N1ghtW1ng Anything I can to do help someone else I will 

That's awesome and really kind @j95