Meltdown Mayhem

If you have a child with any form of autism spectrum disorder, or have spent much time with one, you have likely experienced the not-so-pleasant experience of a meltdown. Summer break is wonderful for most kids but when you thrive on constant structure and routine and then it's suddenly gone, it tends to wreak havoc. This is Little Man's first real week of summer vacation. He had summer school until July 2nd that kept him in routine. We did well all the way up until today.

Despite my best intentions, I just cannot keep life as structured as he needs it. Add that to a little brother who is obsessed with touching people - and I don't mean normal pesky brother, I mean obsessed with touching people - when you can't stand to be touched, plus too much sensory overload and bad things are bound to happen. Little Man completely lost himself today and screamed, cried and was in total meltdown for the past two hours. I tried all the tricks - first sent him to time out for screaming but once he's past the point of no return that only escalates things, as it did today. Then he went to his room to cry and thrash around on his bed. He pulled past the completely physically out of control (although he did not get physically violent which is a HUGE achievement) and was just emotionally out of control.
Kept pesky brother out of the room, he asked for ear plugs and then I wrapped him tightly in his blanket as deep pressure is so calming to him. Another while crying and then bam - it was over like nothing ever happened.

To be perfectly honest, I felt a little like having a meltdown myself today. I got more information from the genetics counselor about Beans' testing and found out the part of chromosome he's missing is 7q35. She said it's close to the end of the chromosome and he's missing basically that whole band. What does this mean exactly? Well, not even the experts know yet for sure. Little Man's testing will give us a better idea of what this means, whether he has the same deletion or not. Apparently this test is so new that Beans is coming in at the very beginnings but at least it's the start of an answer to questions we've been asking for a long time.

Then the mail arrived. Little Man's report from summer school came. He still is at a mid-first grade level in reading despite having been through third grade and the summer school program. He will have to be retained - although he doesn't know this yet - it's manadatory. The hardest part about this for me is that in first grade he seemed to be doing pretty well in reading. I had a few concerns but nothing major and he passed the first grade state testing in both reading and math. Now here he is two years and much more help later and he's testing at mid-first grade level. Has he really lost skills? Was he able to compensate better in first grade and just isn't now? No one really has the answer but it breaks this mom's heart in two, seeing her boy struggle.

On the bright side, it's just about time for Beans and Little Man to head to bed which means some precious quiet time for me and a new day in the morning to look forward to.