advice plleeeeassseee!!!

[cattubb]

Hi all,

 

Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR.

 

I just wanted to find out if anyone else has the same thing as me with their child. My son is 4 (5 this month) and has AS. He has always made a lot of noises, mostly yapping, barking, roaring, howling and screeching. Over the last couple of weeks it has got noticably worse. I guess the upheaval and stress of xmas has got to him as he usually makes a lot of noise when hes stressed out, although sometimes he will just roar or bark out of the blue for no apparant reason.

 

Its really beginning to get us down as its upsetting to see him like that but also its really stressful when he is constantly making these noises and nothing we do or say can stop him.

 

He is also constantly moving his body (unless hes engrossed in something hes interested in in which case he'll sit still for ages) which again is really stressing me out. Its particularly annoying (i feel guilty saying that but i'm being honest) when i'm trying to wind down my daughter (2) towards bedtime and he is constantly moving himself, the furniture, leaping around over the furniture and making the noises as well and theres just nothing i can do to stop him.

 

I know this might sound trivial but over time its really getting me down. I'm beginning to worry that theres something else wrong with him apart from his AS so i thought i'd ask if other people's children display similar behaviour???

 

Thanks

 

cattubb

[Clare63]

Hi Cattubb,

 

Sorry to hear things are getting you down, and there is certainly nothing wrong with admitting how annoying it gets, if you can't say it on this forum there are not many other places you can let off steam and be totally honest.

 

I am afraid I don't have any advice on your current situation, but 'am sure someone will along who does, just wanted you to know I can empathise with guilty feelings and that you are not alone.

 

<'> <'> <'>

 

Clare x x x

[darky]

I can sympathise. I have 2 very screechy children in the house at the moment! With both mine, I can tell exactly when there is high anxiety. With my daughter she mouths and chews everything, and we have noticed, the more anxious/excited she is, the more intense the mouthing. The OT said that the mouth is one of the most sensitive parts of the body, with loads of nerve endings, that to mouth, self soothes.

 

I am waiting for some advice on the screeching, whooping, clapping, whistling, lip smacking. I know both the children feel the need to do this, but I do understand how incredibly hard it is to live with it. I don't like sudden loud noise myself, so when one of the children lets out a sudden whoop or scream/screech, it goes right through me. It can be very loud here sometimes with 2 of them at it!

 

I think you need to get referred to an OT who specialises in sensory processing. Our OT showed us a chart, and when a child is screeching like that, they are very highly sensory stimilated. I am still right at the beginning of this, but the OT showed me a chart with sensory behaviours like screeching, and next to it it said either bitter taste or sour, can't remember which. The idea being, when they are screechy give them something either bitter or sour, but don't quote me on it, because I have not officially been given a sensory diet yet.

[baddad]

Hi cattubb/all -

 

may be completely unconnected, and these could just be 'stims' or stress related (especially as he's so young), but vocal 'tics' like this can be related to tourettes, which can be a co-morbid of ASD's...

As I say, probably nothing to do with it, but worth keeping in mind and chatting to the consultant about at some point.

 

L&P

 

BD

[spats]

Hello my son is a similar age to your son. He will be 5 in May

 

My son sings frequently throughout the day, if he is not singing then he is shaking things or banging things together. He also has vocal clicking. He obviously get a lot of pleasure from auditory inputs.

 

What has been a help to me is that I have zoned the house into quiet and 'loud' areas. If he feels the need to have a good sing song session etc then he knows that he has to go to a noisy area to do so. It is not perfect system by any means, but it does make me feel like I have some control. Fortunately he has embraced this quite well to the point of telling people to quieten down as they are in a quiet room.

 

I hope you find a strategy that will work for both of you!

 

K.

[JsMum]

J usually gets very vocal after stressful enviroments, so school, supermarkets, cinemas, large playhouses, ect.. and he usually does it when he is the most happiest, but has a nervous energy and impuslive behaviour, I feel that for J if I tell him he is actually surprised he is even been noisy, and he is totally oblivious to many of his vocal noises, he said to me he even has shouted out in assembly a few times, and also in class but his friends have come to accept it.

 

J has a lot of physcial and noisy things available to him after spending anxoius time and he has nervous energy to burn, he has a piano, that has ear phones, a mini trampoline in the living area, and an outdoor trampoline in the garden as well as his chill shed, where if he likes can sing to the cows come home, so having places and times where he can be noisy, helps eliviate the erge, once he knows he cant do it then it just increases the likely hood he will do it any way but worse.

 

There may be also an eliment that he craves for the attention when your attending to the needs of your youngest child and having something that is just for him that is calming? I am thinking of things that wont interfere with your daughters evening routine and also supervision for your son, I was thinking maybe a sand tray, with a few items in it, or some kind of fiddle game.

 

I love the idea of quiet and noisy zones, that is very practicle and be adapted any where you go.

 

If you can video his behaviour and share it with your consultant.

 

JsMum

[cattubb]

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions.

 

I'm definately going to try the quiet room/noisy room thing and i'm also going to film him in action as i'm planning to get in touch with our CAMHS team next week to discuss this anyway and you can guarantee he won't do it in front of them.

 

To be totally honest i was beginning to worry he might have tourettes but although he does have a lot of constant body movement he does'nt have any facial tics, does anyone know much about it? The only reason i was concerned about tourettes is that all the shreiking, barking etc does seem to be involountary.

 

I may be barking up the wrong tree here (no pun intended!) but we feel totally in the dark as we don't know and have never met anyone else with AS so we really don't know what the behaviour of other AS children is like.

 

Thanks again for the ideas!!

 

cattubb.

[Stella63]

Hi Cattub,

 

It is unusual for Tourettes to be dxed so young as mostly the tics don't develop until a child is 6 or 7 and normally starts with facial tics and/or small motor tics such as shoulder shrugging or arm jerking. My son was dxed nearly 2 years ago and he has only recently started with any vocal tics. What I would suggest is keeping a record of all the movements and descriptions of the vocal tics. A lot of children do have tics which stay for a while and then go but for Tourettes to be dxed they have to wax and wane over a period of time but always be replaced with new ones. If you have the information it may be useful in a year or so if they are still present - a lot of doctors have little or no knowledge of Tourettes and it can be difficult to get a referral. I had to get the whole network team, ie child psych, school doctor, CAHMS etc to write to my doctor to get a referral to St Georges Hospital in Tooting and luckily he was dxes by Mary Robertson who is the world expert!!

 

Hope this helps but pm me if you want any more info.

 

Stella xx