Aspbergers conference

I attended the 10th Annual Aspberger's Conference here in Albany last Wednesday. The all-day lecturer was Aussie, Tony Atwood. He was a wonderful speaker, very entertaining and full of really great information which I'd like to record here, both so we can remember what was said and to help raise general awareness about Aspberger's and other autism spectrum disorders (ASD's). First, here's an update on Lucy, since she's the reason for all the reading and conferences!

Lucy has progressed sooo far. She used to not be able to look us or a camera straight on and now she does. She could barely process and follow 1-step commands without breaking down, now she's taking on multi-step commands. She used to hand flap and run in circles screeching at least once a day as a way of soothing anxieties. She now only hand flaps when I brush her hair and runs in circles more like other kids do, not anxiously. She used to laugh hysterically when we would get angry bc she didn't understand that the strong emotion we were showing was anger, now she will show remorse (something we only recently started seeing and, boy, is that a welcome development!). Only a year ago she played with another child for 15 min--it was the first time she'd ever played with another child that long (she was 3 1/2). Now she's at school all day interacting with kids.

She's in bilingual preschool down the street and is doing famously. Her teacher tells us she doesn't believe the diagnosis at least weekly! (We will be taking her for a developmental checkup in November and are anxious to see what this new Dr thinks about Lucy--1 in 6 kids "out-grow" their diagnosis. But either way we're going to love her and seek to understand how to communicate love to her in a way that she'll best understand it.)

That's not to say we still don't see things that manifest autistic traits. She seeks out mostly sedentary (due to spatial sensory processing deficiencies and low core strength) and solitary activities. She has to be reminded to join the group. She can't fall asleep at night for at least 45 min usually and often longer (this is very common with kids with ASD). If plans change, it is a big deal. She obsesses about the routine for the day and will ask over and over what we're doing until she has the whole day plan in her mind. Her special interests are birthdays, Halloween, and Christmas. She talks about one of those at least daily. And, typical of a aspbergers kid, she has an astounding memory. A few days ago she told me what she got a friend for her birthday and what she (Lucy) was wearing at the party 1 1/2 years ago. How do you remember that at younger than 3 1/2??

She's really special and I am fascinated by how she thinks and sees the world. Where I felt sad when we first got her diagnosis, now I'm starting to feel lucky in a lot of ways.