I know it has been a long while. Taking time out to fulfil a long time goal of mine was great but it took so much time away from some of my commitments.
Now…Sensory. Being either Hyper or Hypo sensitive to noise, cold, heat, fabric…the list goes on .. is not foreign to autism. I remember for many years when Samuel would only wear a certain type of fabric or rip his clothes because of senaory issues.
One of our recent callenges is his hypo sensitivity to cold. Samuel has always been able to endure very cold temperature however it has gotten worst since the lovkdown. Samuel sleeps in very cold room…as a matter of fact, you will need a jacket to go in his room….he calls it The Artic.
The side effect of this is that even thou he probably doesn’t feel the cold like we do, his body does feel it internally. This has translated to continuous running nose….cold etc. Why do i let him sleep in the cold? Because i am not Jesus :)…i cannot watch him through the night:) I use to go to his room and turn it off and if you give it 2 minutes, you will hear movement in his room.
As we take time today, April 2nd, to discuss autism, i want you to be aware of the person that covers their ears to block out noise, the person that flaps their hands, that person that continously run their hands under water or play with sand…i want you to accept the uniqueness in all of us. When interracting with a person on the spectrum or their parent, i encorge you to show compassion in place of judgement, I encourage you to be quiet even when you are eager to speak, i encourage you to manage your expression and i hope that you will ask “Do you need help”.
I don’t see the negativity in Autism, what i see more is intollerance in some people. I hope we all educate ourself and children about autism as we move through the month of April.