Swimming, football, soccer, and fits
Liam has continued to do quite well at school. Thursday his class was supposed to go to the school bus garage, but for some reason did not. We couldn’t get too much else out of him about school that day. Thursday afternoon he had his Adaptive Aquatics class. He continues to do very well in it. We received a “report card” on Liam’s progress. There were 3 goals he had set earlier in the year. At this time he had met and exceeded them! This was great to see. When you looked at the comments earlier in the year it made you wonder if he would ever learn to swim. He has really come a long way. The only thing Liam still was a bit weak on was back floating for an extended period, but that will come. Reports like this helps reinforce what Jill and I are doing. Jill is the one who found out about this class and wondered how he would do. We took a “we’ll see” approach and it has really paid off. We are very fortunate to have had such a wonderful therapist teach Liam. She really has connected with Liam and his progress shows. Thank you Miss Karen!
Friday morning Liam had his horse back riding class. He was all excited about going and seeing his horse Opie. Jill said this class went much better than the first time. Liam was all into his riding this time. He really had a great time and told me all about it when I got home from work.
Liam’s Friday stayed busy as Jill’s dad and I took Seamus and Liam to see the Olmsted Falls vs. Berea football game. I wasn’t sure how Liam would do given the crowd and noise level at this game. Liam was great! He luckily had room to move between a couple rows of seats we sat in. Liam was moving all over from one place to another to sit. About 6 minutes into the first quarter Liam said he was done and wanted to go home. I gave him his orange juice to drink and that distracted him for a little bit. Midway through the 2nd quarter Liam had to use the bathroom, so away we went. We came back just before half time. Once half time started Seamus and his friend Eli wanted to get some candy. So, away we go again from the top of the stands down through the crowd. They all got some candy. Before we went back to our seats I decided to make them all use the bathroom. Good thinking. We watched the Bulldogs beat up Berea. All the boys had a great time. Liam’s teacher was there and he kept asking where she was. To distract him I kept telling him to keep looking. While he was quite active in the seats he was really very good. We left midway through the 4th quarter as it was already well past their bedtime. I will gladly take Liam to another football game.
Saturday morning was raining so Seamus’ soccer game got rescheduled to Monday night. Liam’s game was still on at noon. By then the rain had stopped and it was just an occasional drizzle. It worked out that I got to see how Liam would do. Overall he did ok considering his autism. I’ve used the analogy of what it is like for Liam when people talk to him. The analogy is put yourself on the 50 yard line of a pro football stadium with 80,000 people cheering at the same time. This is how it sounds to Liam all the time. Now here he is on a soccer field with an additional crowd cheering and yelling different things. I could see Liam easily distracted by all the crowd noise as he was playing. Liam would be running around with the rest of the kids, but as he was doing this, he would look in the direction of whatever got his attention. The result was he wasn’t playing the game so much, just running around with the rest of the kids. Liam would occasionally kick the ball, but his legs were quite limp when he would kick the ball. Based on what Jill and her parents saw last week, they said Liam did much better. I really believe by season’s end Liam will do much better. I see his playing soccer as a way to teach Liam how to focus on the task at hand. I think if we can get Liam to pay attention to what he is doing on the field, it will help him to pay attention to whatever other task he may do.
Saturday afternoon Liam was tired from soccer so he took a long nap. This worked well as I got to watch college football while he and his brother napped! Jill worked Saturday night so it was me and he boys! Seamus had a couple friends come over so all the boys played outside for a while and were running all over the place. Liam and his brothers went to bed at their now normal time of 8:30-9pm.
Sunday we went to a going away party for my Aunt Marge and Uncle Tom. The boys were all excited because they got to see their cousins and play. Liam was pretty good except for the fact that he was all over their dvd collection. Liam repeatedly wanted to watch a movie but couldn’t as everyone was watching the Browns game. Liam had little fits about it to Jill and I. Liam was easily be distracted by the other kids around. The boys all went to bed after we got home.
Now each of these days don’t sound too bad. Each of these days Liam would have his repeated fits. He has been screeching / screaming a lot more lately. The screeching he does is one of those sounds you hear that just gets on your nerves right away. Kind of like nails going down a chalkboard. Liam did not have any serious meltdowns these days, but it just the repeated fits that get to you. Thanks to a reader of this blog we have gotten a lot of information about a gluten free diet. Based on her testimonial and others we have read, Jill and I are going to try implementing this. We will see how it goes. Hopefully we too will have the same success.
Friday morning Liam had his horse back riding class. He was all excited about going and seeing his horse Opie. Jill said this class went much better than the first time. Liam was all into his riding this time. He really had a great time and told me all about it when I got home from work.
Liam’s Friday stayed busy as Jill’s dad and I took Seamus and Liam to see the Olmsted Falls vs. Berea football game. I wasn’t sure how Liam would do given the crowd and noise level at this game. Liam was great! He luckily had room to move between a couple rows of seats we sat in. Liam was moving all over from one place to another to sit. About 6 minutes into the first quarter Liam said he was done and wanted to go home. I gave him his orange juice to drink and that distracted him for a little bit. Midway through the 2nd quarter Liam had to use the bathroom, so away we went. We came back just before half time. Once half time started Seamus and his friend Eli wanted to get some candy. So, away we go again from the top of the stands down through the crowd. They all got some candy. Before we went back to our seats I decided to make them all use the bathroom. Good thinking. We watched the Bulldogs beat up Berea. All the boys had a great time. Liam’s teacher was there and he kept asking where she was. To distract him I kept telling him to keep looking. While he was quite active in the seats he was really very good. We left midway through the 4th quarter as it was already well past their bedtime. I will gladly take Liam to another football game.
Saturday morning was raining so Seamus’ soccer game got rescheduled to Monday night. Liam’s game was still on at noon. By then the rain had stopped and it was just an occasional drizzle. It worked out that I got to see how Liam would do. Overall he did ok considering his autism. I’ve used the analogy of what it is like for Liam when people talk to him. The analogy is put yourself on the 50 yard line of a pro football stadium with 80,000 people cheering at the same time. This is how it sounds to Liam all the time. Now here he is on a soccer field with an additional crowd cheering and yelling different things. I could see Liam easily distracted by all the crowd noise as he was playing. Liam would be running around with the rest of the kids, but as he was doing this, he would look in the direction of whatever got his attention. The result was he wasn’t playing the game so much, just running around with the rest of the kids. Liam would occasionally kick the ball, but his legs were quite limp when he would kick the ball. Based on what Jill and her parents saw last week, they said Liam did much better. I really believe by season’s end Liam will do much better. I see his playing soccer as a way to teach Liam how to focus on the task at hand. I think if we can get Liam to pay attention to what he is doing on the field, it will help him to pay attention to whatever other task he may do.
Saturday afternoon Liam was tired from soccer so he took a long nap. This worked well as I got to watch college football while he and his brother napped! Jill worked Saturday night so it was me and he boys! Seamus had a couple friends come over so all the boys played outside for a while and were running all over the place. Liam and his brothers went to bed at their now normal time of 8:30-9pm.
Sunday we went to a going away party for my Aunt Marge and Uncle Tom. The boys were all excited because they got to see their cousins and play. Liam was pretty good except for the fact that he was all over their dvd collection. Liam repeatedly wanted to watch a movie but couldn’t as everyone was watching the Browns game. Liam had little fits about it to Jill and I. Liam was easily be distracted by the other kids around. The boys all went to bed after we got home.
Now each of these days don’t sound too bad. Each of these days Liam would have his repeated fits. He has been screeching / screaming a lot more lately. The screeching he does is one of those sounds you hear that just gets on your nerves right away. Kind of like nails going down a chalkboard. Liam did not have any serious meltdowns these days, but it just the repeated fits that get to you. Thanks to a reader of this blog we have gotten a lot of information about a gluten free diet. Based on her testimonial and others we have read, Jill and I are going to try implementing this. We will see how it goes. Hopefully we too will have the same success.
posted by Jim McIlwee at
9:05 PM
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