Saturday 20 February 2010

Scissors - a dangerous implement?!

Stephs Two Girls February 20, 2010 ASD, autism, Pathological Demand Avoidance, PDA, PDA Life, PDD-NOS

Oh dear. Today didn't start off well when I found our eldest daughter sneaking back downstairs, leaving a huge pile of hair on the stairs behind her - her own hair! For some strange reason my usually very well-behaved girl decided to act like a 2 year old today, and when we weren't looking she cut huge chunks out of her hair with a pair of scissors. Still not quite sure why, and don't think she is either - she certainly didn't really appreciate what she was doing or the effect it would have on me! Ho hum, at least it grows back... will take a while though!! All made slightly more irritating by the fact I had just taken her this week to get her hair washed and cut in a proper 'grown-ups' hair salon - and paid £21 for the privilege! Maybe that's what inspired her... or perhaps she wasn't that happy with the cut :)

Reminded me of the time I was in charge of buying stationery for a large supermarket chain, and a customer called in to complain, saying she wanted to sue us as her toddler had just cut her ponytail off with a pair of scissors we had sold in our stores. At the time of course we scoffed, and suggested (not directly to her) that she may want to not leave her child unsupervised with a pair of scissors... but now I'm a bit more sympathetic! Kids always surprise you when you least expect it..

Which leads me neatly onto the next activity today - we had to go and get the swine flu jab for both our girls. Wasn't so apprehensive about Tamsin as she is old enough to understand, but I did think it would probably go only one way with Sasha - meaning a struggle and lots of noise. However, when it came to it, both girls were fantastic, not a squeak out of either of them and I was very proud of them both. Their arms are aching a bit tonight, but now I'm very glad we got it done, despite dithering over whether to or not since Christmas.

The next bit of the day was much more enjoyable, as Uncle Matt and Uncle O came to play. Both the girls love them very much, and they had a whale of a time with lots of laughter. Looking forward to the wedding in 2 weeks time, hope they're well behaved for that....

I am wondering, given the past week of good behaviour, if people think I make things up about Sasha - in fact I sometimes wonder if I'm imagining things myself! Makes me feel a bit alone to be honest - no-one else really sees her for as much time and as constantly as I do, and her behaviour is obviously different towards different people, especially if she thinks I'm not around. What am I doing wrong, or is it just that all children know how to play their mums?! However the books I've read on the subject do suggest that improvements come in spurts rather than consistently, and this is probably how it is for now.

Sasha has quite a few good phrases now, even if the language isn't all that clear - including 'there he/she/it is' and '1-2-3-wake-up' if we're pretending to sleep. 'home sweet home' is my favourite phrase of hers though, I love to hear that. I did laugh a lot when I went to collect her from nursery on Friday and they said she had resolutely refused any tea, pushing it away (something she has eaten happily several times before!) but instead had sat there singing 'twinkle,twinkle,chocolate bar' (instead of little star, obviously). She does that at home also, generally at the top of her voice, and that's another thing that always makes me smile. When home last weekend she happily sang 'happy birthday' to her nana, and even quietly went and got the bag of presents to give to her of her own accord! The fact she wanted to open them may have had something to do with it though....

I need to go and do some more reading now, in preparation for our next meeting with the paediatrician (lunchtime on Thurs). I have in my mind something about PDD and how that might be Sasha - here I'm copying directly from the NAS website...

A dad once observed that his son didn't have autism but PDD-NOS: Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. "I just wish he had something I could pronounce," he added wryly, "something someone has heard of. " Such exasperation is understandable given the somewhat cumbersome and commonly misunderstood acronym, PDD-NOS, which describes a specific pervasive developmental disorder.

A child may be diagnosed with PDD-NOS if he or she shows some behavioural features of autistic disorder but does not meet the full criteria. All of the listed PDD are part of a spectrum of overlapping conditions. To illustrate this, a child may begin with a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, develop more autistic features with age, and be re-diagnosed with autism or another pervasive development disorder; conversely, a child with autism may improve and be re-diagnosed with PDD-NOS.

As Sasha does seem to recognise and show emotion, and can interact very well with people she doesn't know all that well (when it suits her), I'm wondering if this is how she may be diagnosed. My worry at this stage is still that Sasha is not 'bad' enough to get help which she may well need desperately when starting school, and I'll do everything I can to make sure that start will be as smooth for her as it was for Tamsin.

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