the visit

The kids and I drove about 12 hours to visit with some family. While there were things that happened on the trip that made it not very enjoyable at times, and very trying - obviously I'm referring to the autism related things here - there were still plenty of positive experiences. Several things really stood out as being "whoa" moments... of surprise, confusion, frustration.

My full Autie is starting to get pretty violent. But what amazes me is how he can go from sweet, to enraged child in no time at all - literally no time. I would just watch him when he was being "good" and think when is the next wave coming, or my sweet little boy is going to go feral and try to claw my eyes out. I think it was the first time I'd truly realized just how extreme the change can be. My next task is how to tackle this problem, learning techniques and all the rest.

Another thing that really stood out to me was just how aggressive he was getting. I am very much concerned for our family's future. If this can't be handled, if he continues to grow-up and continues to be violent... there will be no way for us to handle it. I've heard of such sad stories where a family had to send their autistic child to live in group homes specially for them. It's hard! I hope that never happens for us.

And it's becoming more apparent that my older one with PDD is acting more and more with what I think are Aspergers traits. I went to elementary school with a boy who had Aspergers. He reminds me so much of him. I suppose it's still hard to tell, but I got to chat with a relative who is very much involved with autism in the schools - specifically preschool and very young primary grades. Again, just something else that needs to be addressed.

I'm wondering if this is what it's going to be like... the taking notice of things here and there, and then dealing with it accordingly. The only problem is sometimes it's not always clear where to go for help, that you need help, or if there is even help for whatever the problem is. I guess I'll just keep trying to reach out, read blogs, all the rest of it.

[edit] After more learning I  realized that pdd and aspergers do basically overlap with the exception of the speech delay. I don't think Im wrong in this but what makes it so hard to pin point a "label" is that each kid is different, sometimes wildly so, and can be given the same diagnosis.