Common Behavior - Fixations

7-25-2010

I am feeling so incredibly thrilled because I just found out that 182 individuals have come to this site - all due to word of mouth. In response, all I can say is "Hip, hip, hooray!" This is fabulous, absolutely fantastic. Hopefully, I am reaching my goal - to inspire others, to say to others that your children will be successful, to share of my own experiences raising an autistic child.

Both of my sons are having a wonderful summer taking swimming lessons at a nearby pool, playing basketball with their father, attending summer camp (that would be my autistic son) and shadowing dental students (my other son who happens to be non-autistic). Yesterday however my younger son, Noah, had a temper tantrum - 20 minutes of gruelling screams, cries, shouting "No, no!", throwing his Wii control, etc. as I silently stared at him and thought to myself, "How do I handle this episode?" You may be wondering what set him off, what caused this unknowing provoked fit of anger.....................well, Noah was not getting what he wanted - to continue playing a basketball game on his Wii. The rule is, I only allow him to play an hour as to not get him so fixated on this particular inanimate object. I do want you to know however that I believe fixations can be healthy, can lead to learning and enhance a child's education. As in my case, at the age of two Noah was fixated on the character Elmo so we watched Sesame Street on television, I bought Sesame Street tapes (each episode focuses on one letter and one number) and purchased a stuffed toy Elmo. I would use the tapes and the toy to teach him all of his letters and numbers up to 20. By the time he was 2 1/2 years of age, he knew his letters (both upper case and lower case) and his numbers (up to 20). This is an example of a good fixation.

Fixations however can also be negative as in the case of his obsession with his basketball game on the Wii. I am not saying that sports games on the Wii are unhealthy. I do believe playing has developed his hand-eye coordination and he is a better player now. What I am saying though is that, if not overlooked and nurtured properly, this obssession (for autistic children) can lead to an unhealthy development in their social skills. After all, I do not want my son to only learn how to interact with a computer.

You may be wondering how did I handle this particular tantrum? I wanted to give him space to calm himself down for he was overstimulated so I asked him to go to his room, sit on his bed and relax. He did this for 15 minutes, came out of his room a completely different child. I asked him if he felt calm and he said, "Yes". We then talked about what occured and ways he could better handle his anger and manage his time (ie. after so many minutes of playing on the Wii, to then play outside, play with another toy, read, etc.). Often, I have found that changing his environment (ie. from the family room that has the Wii to his bedroom) will be adequate in preventing a tantrum from occurring and sustaining.

Please comment. Tell me what you think or if this helps. I encourage any tips or suggestions as to how we can better help our children with autism. By the way, we will be going on vacation so I will post in a week.- Tasha