Families share traits of autistic children
Some relatives of people with autism also display behaviours and brain differences associated with the condition, even though they themselves do not have it. This could make it easier to spot families at risk of having an autistic child. It could also help in the quest to identify the genetic and environmental triggers for the condition, though it seems these triggers might vary from country to country.
Eric Peterson of the University of Colorado in Denver had compared an MRI study of the brains of 40 parents with autistic children to that of 40 age-matched controls. And he told the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington DC that the parents who had an autistic child shared several differences in brain structure with their offspring.
Headaches and animals
Yesterday, we took a picnic lunch and went to Healesville Animal Sanctuary. They have some new dingo pups that I wanted to see, and Andrew has been keen to see the "Birds of Prey" show for ages (we always seem to miss it, despite going out there regularly), and it's a nice day out for us. Being "Friends of the Zoo", we get in for free, so we can spend as little or as much time as we wish there, and go as often as we like.
Anyway, Zoë wasn't looking well in the morning. She had that squinty-eyed, bleak look that often accompanies a headache. I asked if her head hurt, but she never said, so we thought perhaps she was just tired (having been up very late in her excitement over the new computer, on which I was installing her software). She was very excited about "go see ahmals", so we figured she must feel reasonably okay.
On the way there, she was sitting with her hand over her mouth. I thought that very strange behavior. I asked her what she was doing. I realized she was about to vomit, and we pulled the car over quickly, but not quickly enough...
She ended up throwing up on her knitted jacket, but her clothes were reasonably unscathed. I was very concerned about continuing on, but she insisted "no home! see ahmals!" and I relented, although it was a bit too cool to go out without a jumper (sweater). We decided to stop at a grocery store and see if they had something suitable (they sometimes do), and we ended up with a long-sleeved shirt she could wear over her t-shirt and I was happy with that.
So, onward we went and got to the sanctuary and went to have lunch. Zoë ate about half of a ham sandwich, and then left the picnic table to get back in her stroller. She was shortly thereafter sick again. This time, she leaned over the side of the stroller and threw up on the ground, which I thought was good (she figured out that it's not good to vomit on oneself). I was quite concerned and suggested again that we go home, but she was very insistent about seeing the animals, and eventually I thought we may as well try it. If she was going to get sick again, she'd at least lean over the side, and we were outdoors, after all...
Well, she didn't get sick any more, and she was drinking water and keeping it down perfectly well. We did see the "Birds of Prey" show and she was very well-behaved through it. She noted that it was "like a movie" (i.e., sitting in a theatre) so she knew how to act. She also enjoyed the demonstration that followed, which was a local Aborinal man (not that there are a lot of local Aborigines in Victoria any more) throwing boomarangs. She kept saying, "Yay! Well done, man!" when he'd catch them as they came around.
She also requested specifially to "see snakes", so we went through the reptile house, and she was very keen to look at all of the various lizards and snakes and such. We don't always see everything when we go because it's a pretty big park, and last time we went, we didn't see the snakes and said we would the next time, which of course was this time, and Zoë remembered.
When we got home, Zoë played on the computer for just a little while and then went in her room and lay down on their little fold-out couch with a pillow and a blanket and went to sleep for a while. She came out after a few hours and had something to eat (a hot dog, which she got herself from the fridge) and then several crackers (which she also helped herself to), and then she went back to lie down for a while. She came out a little while after to use the toilet and then got on her pyjamas and went back to bed (this time in her actual bed, rather than on the couch; she seems to associate sleeping on the couch with napping, and the bed with sleeping through the night).
Today, she woke up and announced, "Zoë head hurt" and "Zoë headache", and she looked quite unwell. She didn't eat any breakfast, although we did give her pain reliever. By lunch time, she'd perked up considerably and had a good lunch, and then she helped decorate the Christmas tree (chattering away the whole time!). It's the first time we've had a tree in our home for various reasons, but the kids were really excited about it, so we did it.
Now, in the late afternoon, she seems fairly well. She looks good, she seems content and happy, and she's chattering and helping her sister at the computer and watching DVDs, so whatever it was, it appears to have passed.
I'm thinking, though, that we might take her to the doctor and discuss the headaches. Her father gets migraines, her grandfather gets them, his mother got them, and probably folks before that for who knows how many generations. I don't know if there's anything they can do for her, but maybe...
Surprise! Happy birthday, Zoë!
Today is Zoë's birthday, and she knows she's six. Last night, she helped prepare little lolly (candy) bags for the kids at pre-school, and Nanna baked some mini cupcakes with pink icing and chocolate sprinkles on them, which Zoë knew were for her to take to her party today. All last night, Zoë kept running around saying, "Surprise! Happy birthday, Zoë!" and today she said, "Party tomorrow..." and then corrected it to, "Party today!" (so she does know the difference between "today" and "tomorrow" which surprised me a bit, but she does seem to understand a great deal more than she can express).
When she got to pre-school, not only was she thrilled that it was her birthday (and she personally carried the sack full of goody bags), she was very excited to see that today was the day they were putting up the Xmas tree. When I left, she was happily putting ornaments on the tree and she paused to turn to me and say, "Bye, Mom!" (Yes, she says "mom" rather than "mum"; a good many of her words are spoken with a distinctly American accent.)
It's also Thanksgiving, a holiday not celebrated much in Australia (although many of the ten thousand or so expatriate Americans who live in Victoria certainly celebrate it to some degree), and we had a turkey roast with cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and veggies for dinner, to which Zoë's auntie and uncle came. Zoë was extremely resistant to eating, probably on account of having loaded up with lollies and other junk in the afternoon.  It took quite a battle to persuade her to eat something (she eventually gave in and had some buttered bread). I was very firm that she was not going to get birthday cake if she didn't have anything for dinner, and we made it clear to her. We thought we were actually going to have to forego the cake, in fact, that's how stubborn she was! But, as I said, she did give in and eat something, so we got the cake and lit the candles.
She did pretty well on the presents, too! She got Madagascar, Shark Tale (they came in a bundle), a toy ironing board and iron, one of those floor mats with a little city on it, with streets and such to drive toy cars on, a very pretty pink skirt outfit, and, believe it or not, a computer given to her by her Uncle Greg, who is apparently vying for the "World's Greatest Uncle" award (it's an older computer, actually, and it's not just for Zoë; Uncle Greg builds computers for a living and has lots of spare parts and trade-ins and such, so this one is certainly recycled). We need to pick up a PS2 keyboard (the only spare one around here hasn't got the right connector) and a PS2 optical mouse (okay, it doesn't have to be optical, but I think that's the best thing for little kids, easier to use, etc.), which Andrew will do tomorrow in one of the many computer shops in the city.
Right now, she and Miranda are sitting on the new mat watching Shark Tale. Presumably, she's going to go to bed a very happy little girl.
Zoë go see doctor
Zoë had an appointment with her pediatrician today. She was very excited about going to the doctor for whatever reason, and was cheerful and happy to get into the office, allow herself to get weighed (she was a bit fiddly with the scale, trying to figure out how it worked) and measured, etc.
When the doctor was asking her about some of the animal pictures on the wall, Zoë happily told her what the animals were (some she had to guess, such as "dolphin" when it was a fish, but they were all very reasonable guesses), and made good eye contact. She couldn't show which of two blocks was bigger, but I didn't think she'd be able to do that (she hasn't gotten the concept of "bigger" and "smaller" yet, at least, not when asked verbally; she does seem to get it in a particular computer program she likes to play).
Overall, the doctor was very pleased with Zo&eum;'s progress, as we are. I must say, I'm really looking forward to Zoë starting school in a few months. She's certainly ready for it (at least, she's ready for the special school she's going to be attending), and I believe it's going to do her a world of good. If she's made this much progress just from fortnightly speech therapy, three days of preschool a week, and one early intervention session, just imagein what five days a week of autism-specific curriculum is going to accomplish...
Stubborn, stubborn child
I'm absolutely furious with Zoë at the moment. She's in her room right now, yelling in outrage and, I hope, a bit of shame or at least regret.
For the umpteenth time, Zoë completely emptied an entire bottle of cleaning product. Most of the ones we buy do have a childproof cap, but not all of them. She has previous dumped out bottles of shampoo, conditioner, handwash, laundry detergent, fabric softener, and toilet bowl cleaner. One by one, we managed to extinguish those behaviors, normally by catching her "in the act" (do if after the fact and she doesn't always get what the problem is/was).
Today I caught her emptying (well, I caught her just after having emptied) an entire bottle of Toilet Duck toilet cleaner, something for which she has been scolded on several occasions. No, there's nowhere we can put it that she can't find it. Trust me, I've tried. The only place to hide things from Zoë is downstairs in the garage or possibly on the moon, but neither are a very good place to keep toilet bowl cleaner, and we don't have an appropriate cabinet in which to hide such things (not to the best of my thinking; perhaps there is a place somewhere, but I can't think where it might be).
Anyway, an entire brand new bottle of toilet bowl cleaner has now disappeared, well, down the toilet. The entire room in there reeks of the stuff. And the worst part is that my toilet bowl isn't any cleaner than it was previously, really. If I'd gotten a clean toilet bowl out of the deal, it would at least have been worth that much...
I have, in fact, calmed down in the course of writing this (as evidenced by the humor above). I'm still pretty annoyed with her, and it's still troublesome that she can't seem to work out that "no emptying bottles of cleaning stuff" applies to ALL cleaning stuff, not just the specific ones for which she's been caught (typical autistic inability to generalize there, I think). But, well, this time I caught her, made my displeasure very clear, and sent her to her room to think about it (and to give me the chance to calm down, more than anything else). I hope (fingers crossed, everyone) that she will stop it now, as generally it only takes one time of catching her in the act for her to figure out that this behavior is not acceptable.
[EDIT] Zoë came out of her room a few minutes ago, came straight to me, and said, "Give me a hug." I pulled her onto my lap and we had a big cuddle. I did ask her, "What did you do?" but she responded, "No," which I took to mean she didn't want to talk about it. I told her that she was not to touch the cleaner any more and that so long as she left these things alone, she wouldn't get into trouble. She didn't respond, but I'm sure she heard me. And yes, while having a cuddle I told her that I love her (because I do, no matter how annoyed I may be).
That's so cute
Yesterday, I was working on a digital painting of a cartoony sort of figure, a female one. As I was working, Zoë came up beside me to see what I was doing and I heard her say, "Wow, that's so cute! It's a girl!"
Now, I hadn't even known she knew the phrase, "That's so cute" but she did, and she got it excatly right, including the tone of voice. I was very surprised, and certainly pleased.
Today we went on a little outing to the Healesville Sanctuary, which is sort of part zoo and part animal sanctuary and part conservation center. We go there pretty regularly, so it's a place Zoë's familiar with. When we got there, we all put on sunscreen and Zoë wanted some put on her knee. She was wearing a pair of beloved but falling-apart jeans that have a very fashionable (and unintentional) hole in the knee, so she wanted sunscreen put there. I'm still kind of amazed by that, as I didn't know she really understood the purpose of sunscreen, but it seems she gets it. Any part exposed to the sun needs sunscreen on it, including the bit of her knee visible through the hole in her jeans!
We had a look at the flying foxes (large fruit bats), and Zoë said, more than once, "Hey, bat, what you doing upside down?"
Later, when we saw some ducks and I raised my camera to take a shot, Zoë called out, "Smile, duck!"
When we went into a particular bird enclosure, I reminded Zoë that she was not to go past the barriers, and that the last time she did that, she got in trouble and wasn't allowed to get an ice cream. She said, "No ice cream. Not today. No go," or words to that effect, and I took it to mean that she did remember that, and was saying that she did want ice cream and would therefore not go where she wasn't allowed to go (and she didn't).
There were a few things we didn't see (we never try to see everything in any one visit), and Zoë announced, 'No snakes today" and "No frogs today" when we told her we weren't going that direction.
All in all, she was pretty well behaved and pleasant today. I was very pleased with her behavior and certainly with her talking. Oh, yes, and one other thing she said, that I liked. We saw several fields full of sheep on the way there and on the way back. At one point, Zoë said, "Look, sheeps!" Now, we always say "sheep", of course, but Zoë spontaneously made "sheep" into a plural. She couldn't possibly have been copying other speech because no one else says "sheeps". So her mind really, genuinely is starting to process language in a meaningful, organic kind of way.
Oh, and she did get an ice cream today. Good girls do, you see.
Chips
We're having chicken and chips for lunch. I don't like the kids to eat a lot of potato or other snack chips, but now and then it's all right. Today I decided it would be okay to have a few chips with the healthy roast chicken we were eating.
Zoë, true to form, ate all the chips and asked for more, not even touching the chicken. I told her she had to eat some chicken and then I'd let her have more chips. She ate the skin from her piece of chicken and said, "Chips?" I said, "No, eat another bite of chicken. Chicken first, then chips."
This didn't go down well. She's such a stubborn little kid, and she just doesn't get it sometimes. If she had taken just one bite of chicken, she would have gotten more chips, but no.
"No chicken. You want chips!"
We went round and round for a while and eventually I put the chips away and locked the cupboard (not that she can't get past that lock, but she understands the meaning of me locking the cupboard).
She never did eat any more chicken. And she never got more chips.
Good day
Zoë was restless last night. It was hot, and she's never at her best in the heat, a trait she clearly got from her father (I'm the opposite, and hate the cold). She got up several times on flimsy excuses (go potty, need a drink, need a bandaid, etc.). I finally got her to go to sleep by turning off the light at the wall switch (so she couldn't turn it back on), and letting her sleep on the little foam couch that happened to be in their room (normally it's in the family room).
I was expecting her to be grumpy today, because it's an early day for preschool (she has to be there at 8:30), but she was fine. She was disappointed that there were no Cheerios for breakfast, but she had Weet Bix and didn't complain about it too much. She got dressed and got her sunscreen on without complaint, put her own sandals on, accepted a hair combing (although she did say "Ow!" repeatedly, mostly for effect), and was, apparently, perfectly pleasant at preschool all day.
She came home with a hat she made (it's got a wide brim and flowers on it) and in an apparently excellent mood. We'll have to see how well she does later in the day as far as her overall mood (it's going to get hotter, ugh), but she surprised me today already. Perhaps she'll surprise me more.
My Son Has Autism
My Son Has Autism is a wonderfully written blog by, well, a woman whose son is autistic. She's a charming writer, and a lot of the things she writes about her son remind me of Zoë.
I tend not to write here about her in ways that I could. About how charming she can be, about how everyone who gets to know her comes to love her, about how loving she is, about what a remarkable little person she is. She's good at many things (getting the lock off the kitchen cabinet, for example; the lock is supposed to be childproof), and she's very, very clever in many areas.
She's limited in many areas, as well, that's certainly a fact, but she has her strengths as well as her weakeneses. She can be a right royal pain in the neck, but so can her gifted, neurotypical younger sister, so what's new in the "annoying child" department, anyway?
I just wanted to take the opportunity to write a little bit more about Zoë as a person, and not just about her progress and development. Because, after all, she is a person, with feelings and thoughts and ideas and creativity and a personality all her own. I got in the habit of writing about her progress because that's mostly what I have to provide as far as "updates" but perhaps it's time I started to write more about Zoë as the whole person she is.
The blog I linked at the beginning of this entry has inspired me.
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