Work in progress

Story of a boy who has lost most of his communication skills just before age 6, not only his ability to speak but his desire to communicate. His interest for his surroundings, including his favourite books, activities (drawing) totally stopped and he acquired novel sensory issues (sound hypersensitivities, need for constant spinning and covering himself in a blanket). He also became hyper active, needing to move back a forth constantly in a room. He had lost all his ability to focus, and could not even sit for 5 seconds at the table to eat his dinner. He loved climbing, and disappeared onto other people's roof quite a few times, even on a 2 story farm house in France! This regression coincided with his uptake in primary school and occurred within the space of 2-4 weeks.


More on the presentation at time of regression and in the following year here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3vfB7K7oRY&feature=channel_page

More discussion on autism diagnosis here:
http://skymaker69.blogspot.com/2009/05/autism-what-hell-is-that-about.html

I still do not know what exactly caused these changes, but have explored as a scientist many possibilities, which have essentially been ruled out, thought the gut issues have always been for him a main clinical feature. Having no support from the education sector, I had no choice as a parent to stop my work and home educate him. I started with son-rise; whilst this helped me to become comfortable with these behaviours and difficulties and to see positives in these dramatic changes, the programme was essentially insufficient and in the first year, Lloyd had not made any significant progress. He still could not sit at the table to do even a simple (4 pieces) puzzles, as seen here in the video, whilst before his regression, he was very able to do even very complicated puzzles. It is only through biomedical intervention that he began to make progress, together with much more informed, specific and clear educational strategies (under the direction of Growing Minds). This was continued for the following 3 ½ years, essentially ran by myself alone, as after trying to run a son-rise programme with a team of 13 volunteers for 1 year, I realised that it was much easier to actually do it myself. The clips of these videos are made one year into the Growing Minds programme. After this Lloyd was able to join a small language Unit in mainstream setting with support. His progression there unfortunately has not been optimal.
Knowing a great deal more about autism now, I can see that Lloyd was on the spectrum before his regression, very mild Asperger sides, essentially undiagnosed at age 5 by so-called autism professionals, and with only communication difficulties (about 1 year dealy in expressive language at ag 5) being attributed to his bilingual education.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• autism
• Biomedical
• autistic
• aspergers
• pddnos
• pdd
• Lorene Amet

[abriln3]

my son has apsergers and he is 5. he seems to be getting worse and when he gets tired he becomes non verbal, asking for a drink by pointing to his mouth. but usually he is very verbal, great vocabulary but several sensory issues and takes things literally and he has seizures (small but effect him) and he's become aggressive and very indecisive, very loud,... do you think my son could be regressing? just wanted your opinion please.

[Skymaker69]

@abriln3 Hi there- sorry for late reply- I would suggest that you really look at what causes his fluctuations- very often this can be normalised- the risks of further regression are real and yes my son did continue to regress after this initial insult at age 6. He was only recently diagnosed with Lyme, which could explain many of his developmental features and difficulties. Good luck- never give up.

[Kumari58787]

I have read about this kind of autism before, It's never really interested me too much but I might learn more about it (although my books don't say much about it)

I am autistic too(Aspergers) and would like to work with children that have autism or other conditions.

[Skymaker69]

@Kumari58787 Well thanks for your interest- Every child is worth attention and care and every child has a unique story. Good luck in your endeavor.

[leoleponge]

I think he likes beer, not berries. lol. He's a sweet little affectionate boy. Amazing progress from the time he was on the swing with noticible abdominal pains to his home schooling sessions.

Do you think his progress came from biomedical intervention or from maturity? My son use to carry on the same way until we took him off dairy products.

[Skymaker69]

My son had been on GF/CF diet since age 4 about- before a diagnosis, he was then AS but I didnt know. This did not prevent regression that occurred 2 years later. I attribute the initial progression to more biomedical intervention. The timing and speed of progress undoubted suggests of a link. However, at the same time, I received much better training to teach him and combine it with play, the progression was yet faster. Our dependency on both types of intervention has remained to this day.

[lamplitbridge]

At the begining the boy fell over in the chair; I have autism too, and I rock on chairs just like that boy did.

[BariikaShanii]

Hes getting harder 2 engage n hes soo hyperactive, complete opposite 2 Jaden, This videos left me with quite a lot of questions about him...

[BariikaShanii]

OMG, so many things u say about ur son av just hit home 4 me.. I hadn't had a chance 2 see this video, its amazing, ur so good with him n he's gorgeous.. My 3 yr old Jaden is Autistic n Im new 2 it all n trying 2 learn as much as possible n sharing what Im learning along the way.. Dylan whos nearly 2 dont stop spinning things n hides himself under a blanket, i've spoke 2 mums whos lil 1s spins things but ur the 1st mum i've seen whos lil boy does the hiding under the blanket thing..

[gutierrezbagg]

Wow, what a great mother you are, you work so well with your son to help him to progress. Kudos to you!

[melissaahmed]

he is beautiful- you are wonderful mother