Andrew's Early Years... Part II

Andrew has displayed certain Sensory Processing issues from very early on, although we didn't know that is what it was until he was diagnosed. 

As a tiny baby..  whenever we went to any store (my main one has always been Wal-Mart) ..  he would want to nurse...  even if I had just fed him before leaving the house. Now, thinking about it, I believe it was that the lights and/or sounds made him uncomfortable and being "hidden" under the blanket I used while nursing him in public places gave him some sort of relief from that. 

Of course, his eating habits are also part of this. We still don't know if it is taste, smell, color, texture, or a combination of some or all of these that is the issue with his rigid eating habits.

He never did like to be swaddled in his blanket. He did, however, LOVE to be held! He pretty much wouldn't let us put him down. I could feed him, change him, rock him to sleep and then place him in his crib and...  he would wake up immediately -- screaming -- EVERY TIME! He slept in our bed until he was about 4 years old, because that is the only way we could get him to sleep through the night or at least stay in bed all night. He never did sleep through the night -- not really.  Although, as long as he was in our bed with us, when he did wake up, he would just sit there or lay there and play until he got ready to go back to sleep. 


He has always had very sensitive hearing. Loud noises, certain tunes from certain songs, bells, alarms, and the like have always been difficult for Andrew to tolerate.


He has always had a heightened sense of smell, as well. He still does smell everything before he puts it in his mouth; even if it is something that he has had before.


Andrew didn't start talking until he was about 3 years old..  and even then, I would later learn, it wasn't really talking..  it was rote speech. He started out mimicking words or lines he would hear off of one of his favorite Disney movies or video games. Sometimes this would "fit" to the question being asked, and sometimes it wouldn't. Most of the time, if Andrew wanted something he would come and grab your hand and take you where he wanted you. If it happened to be a drink or something in the refrigerator or pantry he would bang on it with his open hand until you opened it.  Then you would have to go through everything in there until you found what he was after. He would make a little grunting sound and nod once when you got to what it was he wanted. 


He had trouble understanding verbal commands. I would also learn later that he had some Auditory Processing Difficulties. I remember when he was about 2 years old, he came to me and grabbed my hand and led me to the fridge. He then banged on it until I opened it, and we went through several things until I got to the Apple Juice and he grunted. I asked him to go get his sippy cup (it happened to be under the kitchen table - where he had put it). He just continued to look at me and pat the juice bottle. So I pointed to his sippy cup and said again, "Andrew, go get Mommy your sippy cup."


He looked where I pointed, looked back up at me and then began to pat the juice container again. I walked him over in front of the table and pointed again at his sippy cup sitting under it and said, " Andrew, get Mommy your sippy cup there under the table, and I will pour you some juice."


He again looked where I pointed and then looked back up at me and patted the juice bottle. So I then crawled under the table, lifted his cup up and told him again to get me his cup. I put the cup back down where it was and then got out from under the table and asked him again to hand me his cup. He crawled under there, picked up his cup and handed it to me so I could pour him some juice. This was the way Andrew had to learn how to follow verbal commands, because of his Auditory Processing Difficulties. 

When he began asking for things by name, even those came out oddly. When he wanted chocolate milk, it came out "chipmunk". His bottle, was affectionately referred to as "bot". I was "ma" and his dad was "da". Keep in mind he was between 2 and 3 years old at this time. According to the literature, he should have been saying these words clearly by now. 


He has always been a very literal child too; with almost everything. He drank white milk out of the bottle just fine; but when I took his bottle away..  he would refuse to drink white milk at all. He would drink chocolate milk out of the sippy cup, but when I took the sippy cup away..  he quit drinking chocolate milk. 


Andrew was afraid of change and people that he didn't know. My Mom lived, at this time, in Kentucky with her then husband. She would come to visit a few times a year because her parents, two of her girls and all of her grand babies were here. Whenever she would try to hold Andrew, he would just scream and reach for me or his Dad. She was quite upset by this, because she didn't understand why he wouldn't let her hold him. When she would hold any of her other grand children..  they were fine with it, but Andrew screamed bloody murder and cried those big crocodile tears. I was upset by it too, I felt like she blamed me, but I had no clue either - why he reacted this way to her. It wasn't just her though. One of my Aunts came to visit one day and when she walked in the house, Andrew ran to the back of the house and hid. He wouldn't come out -- I actually can't remember if he ever came out while she was there. He was fine with me and his Dad, of course. He was also fine with Rich's parents. Richard's Mom kept Andrew during the day while we were working. He was also fine with our best friends at that time, because we spent tons of time with them and their baby daughter.  Everyone else...  it was hit and miss.


His third Christmas (he was about 27 months old at the time) we were so excited for him because Santa had left him Buzz Lightyear and Woody "dolls" and this was his FAVORITE movie at the time. We couldn't wait for him to see them. When he woke up that morning and we took him out to see the "loot" that Santa had left..  it terrified him...  he ran to the back of the house and it took us about an hour before we could coax him back out to see everything. He finally came back out -- grabbed Buzz and Woody and then ran to the back of the house again. We were dumbfounded.  It took several hours that day to get him to "look" at everything. 


I used to read to the boys every night before bed, actually, I read to them a lot those first several years. While I was reading, I would point to the words as I said them, and I tried to read with as much expression as I could muster. When Andrew was about three years old, I heard him playing in his bedroom one day...  he was talking to himself..  so I went in to investigate. HE WAS READING A BOOK! I couldn't believe it! So, I let him finish that one, and then handed him another one...  he read that one too!  I was completely floored! I called his Dad and his Granny (Rich's Mom) and told them about what had just happened..  they didn't believe me. Richard found out that night when he got home from work (I only worked part time back then). It took a little while longer for Andrew to open up to his Granny and read for her, but then she was amazed too! Andrew had taught himself to read. 


He would bring me pencils or pens sometimes (starting at around the age of 2 - 2 1/2) and want me to write the Alphabet for him as he said the letters..  so I did that with him quite often. He also loved numbers and wanted me to write the numbers and then that progressed into what we called "The Math Game", which was simple adding and subtracting. BUT..  He was getting it and he loved it! So by the time Andrew was 3 years old he had started using more words (even if it was just rote speech), he was reading and doing simple math. His Dad and I were completely amazed! I tried to get him to write the letters/numbers himself and he would refuse. He never did have an interest in coloring or writing on his own, even though I did try hard to get him to do it.


Because Andrew's birthday came late, he couldn't start Pre-K in the public school when he turned 4 years old. I KNEW that I had to prepare him a little bit for the classroom experience BEFORE we just threw him into all day school with strangers. So, I signed him up for a little 3 year old preschool class at one of the local churches here in town. It was 3 days a week from 9 a.m. -12 noon. The first few weeks, my mother-in-law reported to me that it was hard to leave him there, because he was screaming and crying uncontrollably. She took him and picked him up because I was working. After a few weeks..  he got better about being left there, he liked being around the kids, but he didn't really interact with them much and he wouldn't do the work that the teacher wanted him to do. When she asked him to color -- at first he refused, then he would draw one line across the paper and turn it in, then he would just scribble on the page and hand it to her. During group activities, his teacher would tell me that Andrew would go over to the book shelf and pick up a book and start looking at it. I explained to her that he was actually reading it and she didn't believe me...  until she witnessed it herself. She then told me that when Andrew got into public school I needed to PUSH to have him tested for his IQ, because in all her years of teaching this age group..  she had never seen a child this young that could read like that. 


Potty-training -- OMGosh...  THAT was a nightmare! Andrew FINALLY started going "pee-pee" in the potty RIGHT before he started the Church Preschool, but he still had accidents. When we started trying to potty train him at around the age of 2..  he just wasn't interested, or wasn't getting it..  I really don't know which. It was at this time that he started holding his bowels. If he had a diaper on..  he went..  no problem..  if it was a pull-up or underwear..  he held it. We even bought him a cool little potty that made race car noises when he went pee in it...  he would pee just enough to hear the racing noises and then quit and go "finish" somewhere else. Thank God we had a carpet cleaner! He FINALLY started going poo in the potty when he was about 8 years old. By this time we knew why he was holding it..  it was due to his Autism.


Andrew has always had a really great memory... I have trouble sometimes remembering the events of the day before..  but Andrew..  I don't think that there is much that he forgets! By the time he was 3 years old..  he could tell you every driver on the Nascar circuit - which no. car they drove, who sponsored it, which races each driver had won and when for the previous few years. This blew me away! He even knew the layout of each of the racetracks that they raced at every year. He would place his Nascar cars in a specific formation (of one of the track) in different areas around our house. Occasionally, he would go and swap spots of some of the cars. 


He was also obsessed with street signs...  the STOP sign was his favorite. At 2 1/2 years old, he would spell it and say it repeatedly--  S-T-O-P stop, S-T-O-P stop, he said this over and over.


This should, I hope, give you a good idea of what our life was like pre-diagnosis. We knew he was different, but that he was very smart and loved to learn. But we enjoyed watching him grow and learn everyday, and when he finally figured something out..  you could see a light go on in the way he reacted! 

Next up-- Public School Pre-K....