Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Veterans Day

Today's veterans day. It's a day we celebrate the men and women who served and are still serving this country. Even though I'm not a U.S citizen, I still appreciate the sacrifice they have made in order to keep this country safe. We thank you.

4 Comments:

Melissa said...

Azlina, thank you for visiting my blog. Thank you for your interest in autism. Autism is called autism spectrum disorder. It is called a spectrum because so many children are affected at so many different levels. Some children commonly called classicaly autistic suffer from being mostly non-verbal and extremes in all ways of coping. The other side of the spectrum is Asperger's. My children have asperger's. Even with Asperger's the kids affected by this will show differences in how it effects the way they react to the enviroment. My daughter has social issues, does not understand jokes and sattire takes everything very literally. She also has sensory issues. Her issues are much better now because she has been in years of occupational therapy. She use to be so severe that she could not handle certain clothes and smells, she would meltdown(tantrom) when we went into a supermarket because there were too many people and too many different lights and colors for her to process. She also has major delays in her motor skills and has taken her a long time to be able to write like other kids her age. I will repost a previous post I did on what is asperger's soon and that will give you a lot of information. My daughter has seizures as well and this is very common with kids on the spectrum they say 40% suffer from seizures. Kids with asperger's usually are very smart and have no cognitive delays like some of the kids that are less functioning. My daughter however, has multiple learning disablities so eveb though she is very smart she learns different. My son is a rule keeper and is also very affected by lights and sounds. He also can not handle a lot of social situations. He will cry and meltdown as well. When he was real little you could turn on the water from the sink and he would scream. Now he is much better with the occupational and speech therapy he has been getting. We monitor him with a neurologist to check for a seizure disorder that may come up later and will retest him with a neuropsychologist again before he starts kindergarton to check for any learning issues or ADHD( attention disorder) that might be there later. As the kids mom, I put a schedule into place and this made the kids life predictable. predictable lives lead to less stress which leads to less meltdowns. We use earplugs in loud enviroments and sunglasses in bright lights. I also am aware of the kids limits and try to make sure we keep them. They are doing the best they ever have and I am so blessed that they are of the higher functioning asperger's on the autism spectrum, because I have friends with children who are faced with so much more than we are. Thank you so much for your question. You can google the website OASIS or the site TEAAM.org and get lots of good info on autism.
I like your blog, nice post and sound like our preschoolers are close in age! Enjoy being in America!

Melissa said...

Forgot to answer your question...no not all kids are on the diet. Some kids with ADHD are also on the diet. it is something that is not approved by the FDA and is only experimental, although there has been many studies confirming to postives. My children were more attentive and were more able to handle sensory issues. It is a mom's choice to do this.

Azlina Abu Bakar said...

Melissa,

Thank you for all you information. My cousin's son has been diagnosed with Asperger's and my son has been diagnosed with HFA too. He's a really sweet child. I'm kinda lucky because he doesn't have any issues about clothes, transitional situation, motor skills, bright lights and a busy room. Most of the time he throws a tantrum is because he didn't get the toy he wanted at target or wherever we are. My son is speech delayed and sometimes likes to run back and forth. I also think he doesn't understand emotions yet. He does laugh at funny and silly things. He was diagnosed at the age of 3. He gets speech therapy and is going to start with occupational therapy soon. My husband and I decided to put him in 2 preschools. One is for special needs and the other is a regular preschool so that he can get use to a regular school later on in life. I was just wondering about the diet because my doctor didn't say anything thing about changing his diet. She did recommend for us to take VSL3. It's a probiotic. So I was just wondering if I should my son a diet. He eats pretty well. Loves varieties. Likes his fries and stuff like that but also enjoys asian food too.
Anyway, thanks again for writing back with all that information. Hope we can stay in touch.

Melissa said...

yes we have to stay in touch ...us mom's have to stick together and share all we know to help each other out any way we can. I am lucky that my son's teacher is a mom of an autistic child so she knows how to teach and deal with him the very best. Sounds like you are blessed and are doing all the best things for him. great to talk to you and get to know you more. Thanks a bunch.