Hymns and Gym Visit

It has been an interesting week for Samuel.  He progresses in many ways, but at other times the autism seems to be more evident than ever.  Last Sunday we visited April's parents church.  We told Samuel early in the morning that we were going to "Nana and Papas Church."  As you know from previous posts, he doesn't always handle change very well (especially if it is an unexpected change).  However, this time he seemed to be very content with visiting a different church.  He was behaving fairly well when the congregation started singing the hymns.  April was holding him as all of a sudden he began tensing up.  Several songs were sang in a fairly short period of time and after a couple he was in pure panic mode.  April covered her hands over his ears and that seemed to help some.  As soon as the singing ended, he almost seemed to take a deep breath in relief.  When the next song began, he went right back into this tense uncomfortable mood that appeared worse each time.  Finally, we ended up taking him out because he just could not take it anymore. This entire episode has left us a bit perplexed.  Samuel generally likes music and does not usually mind noise. I'm not sure if the acoustics in the church were different than he is used to or if the location we were sitting at made things sound louder to him.  Whatever it was, the poor child just couldn't take it.  April gave the analogy of scratching nails on a chalkboard to how he appeared to be feeling.  We will be keeping a close eye on seeing if this episode becomes a trend or was just an isolated incident.

April has a membership at a local gym.  The gym has a kids section where the parents can safely leave their children while they work out.  April has done this with Samuel several times over the past couple of months and for the most part he seems to do well in this environment.  Most of the time he has been by himself in the kid zone.  Yesterday when she took him other children were there also.  Samuel did not react well to other kids being in this section.  He started crying as soon as he realized that the section would not be all to himself. After a few minutes he seemed to calm down, so April continued doing her exercises while monitoring him in the kid zone.  This is when he started throwing objects around other children.  Then as a little girl was building an object out of blocks, Samuel suddenly knocked it over and laughed about it.  At this point, April realized that she had to cut her workout short and take him home.  It is extremely heartbreaking when we see him doing things that could cause harm or anger among other children.  We point out to him the errors of his ways, but it's highly unlikely that he is comprehending why this action is wrong.  I guess it's just another learning process for us as parents.

On a broader note, Saturday, April 2 was National Autism Awareness Day.  We were encouraged to wear blue in honor of this occasion.  Study's now show that 1 in 58 children in America are on the autism spectrum.  It is an extremely high number that is growing on an annual basis.  On April 23 we are participating in the Coastal NC 5K Run/Walk for Autism in Wilmington.  I am excited about this event as it will be the first activity we have participated with other autistic families.  We greatly appreciate the kind words and support that so many people have shared with us throughout this initial journey.  If you are interested in learning more or contributing to this event visit http://support.autismsociety-nc.org/site/TR?fr_id=1121&pg=entry.

Thanks for taking time out to read.  We are extremely blessed in so many ways!

Until next time,
Brian