New year, New hopes

The past week Liam has actually seemed to settle down a little. He is still quite full of energy, has moments of anxiety, and stammers. His speech continues to be an issue. We aren’t sure exactly why. Some may be age appropriate, but at times his speech indiscernible. We have also had him on his increased Risperdal. That seems to have little effect, but there is a slight difference. One thing we think may have helped him settle down is being away from school. Since early November when a disruptive child was added to Liam’s class he has not wanted to attend school. Jill has had struggles getting him to go. This other child was physical with other kids and regularly disruptive in class. I posted previously on this matter and just before Christmas break Jill left one of the administrators a message to talk about the situation. The day before Liam was to go back to school he started showing signs of anxiety and kept repeating he didn’t want to go. He went reluctantly Tuesday. Jill got a phone call Monday informing her this disruptive student was being removed from the class. I believe the school received several complaints on this student. Tuesday after school I intentionally asked Liam about his day in school. He told me this other child was not there anymore and he seemed happy. I asked him if he was glad and Liam said “yeah, he was mean to me”. The next 2 days Liam was no problem getting off to school. What we believe was going on was Liam’s anxiety over this child was part of the reason why he was difficult to go to school, and so difficult afterward. We will see how he does in the next few weeks.

Liam has been quite active playing with all the toys from Santa. One toy he got that he really likes is a V-tech game system. These games are educational for children. We bought him a Toy Story game specifically. He really likes it, but one thing we notice is he doesn’t really grasp the concept of what he has to do. Jill and I have spent time with him explaining what to do and just does not seem to get it. He really like one thing in particular in the Toy Story game. Woody shoots at numbers or letters and will occasionally turn around and wink at you. Liam just loves that. He almost just seems to focus on that in the game. A few of the other games Liam will just randomly move the joystick around. Our direction seems meaningless to him. The controllers are nice and big for children. Liam seems to struggle with holding it in one hand and using the joystick with the other. In comparison, Aidan has a Thomas the Train game he loves. Aidan has played several different games on this and easily knows his way between games, how to play them, and easily manages to handle the controller.

Thursday we met with Liam’s neurologist. This was first time I met her and I was thoroughly pleased to meet her. In talking with her I was quite impressed with her memory. She remembered a conversation we had about a year ago quite vividly. I was impressed considering the number of conversations she probably has every day with so many different patients. We brought her up to speed on how Liam has been lately. The only changes we are making are with some of Liam’s medication dosages. He will still stay on Risperdal and Prozac for now. One thing we are doing is testing Liam for diabetes. We are having tested to make sure the Risperdal is not causing it. Another symptom may be the frequent urinating Liam does. He goes often and in small amounts. Jill has also noticed his teeth are not as shiny white as they should be. One reason for this may be the Risperdal or the fact that he does not like to have his teeth brushed. That is always a struggle to do. We’ll see how these changes go.

Liam has started a couple new things lately that have been a bit amusing. One thing he has really taken to is the TV guide. He continued to give us the TV guide to read and tell him what shows are on at what time on his favorite channels. We do this several times a day. He has at least stopped the 6am routine waking us up to see what is on. Liam has also started taking his hands and rubbing the whiskers on my face. It is usually at night when he is sitting on my lap and going to sleep. He will take one of his hands and just run it across my whiskers gently. It is funny, but it seems to give him sort of stimulus. I don’t mind when he does it though. Dis

Here we start a new year. 2005 is behind us now. While it was a constant challenge and struggle throughout the year, I believe Liam has made a lot of progress. He still has a long way to go. Persistence and hard work is the only way to helping Liam. Liam himself is a real hard worker and I know he will do his best.

We begin 2006 with high hopes, new goals, and a renewed spirit to help Liam. Jill and I continue our work with Greater Cleveland Autism Society. We hope to really develop this organization into an asset to the Cleveland area. If you are interested in joining, meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month. Anyone can attend, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, friends, or anyone that is just interested in learning more.