Sharing my knowledge.

I was reading a fellow bloggers post about her child's intense tantrums and it got me thinking about my own experience with tantrums.

At Andrew's 3 year physical we got the dreaded, "I think you should have him tested. He's not where he should be for his age." No parent wants to hear those words. Our kids our perfect. What could be wrong.  Well even his teachers at his school told us that Andrew was not where he should be socially, cognitively, and with his behavior.

I always kinda knew in the pit of my stomach that something was up, but as a parent you don't want to accept it. But I did. We got Andrew tested and he was diagnosed Autistic Spectrum. He has some characteristics of Autism, but is high functioning; he can speak, walk, talk, etc. But some things need a lot of work like his language, his social skills, and his behaviors.

Andrew always had a hard time with transitions and being flexible. Looking back, his vocabulary when he was 2 and 3 was very limited. His social skills were zero and his behavior was awful.

Fast forward two years. We have started behavioral therapy this year through the Regional Center.  This program is an intense 30 hour week deal where consultants come to our house and work with Andrew one on one. They are using a program called DTT which repeats different drills over and over until Andrew masters them. He's learning how to transition, and be more flexible and he's learning how to be social with his peers.  Also, they are teaching him relaxation techniques for when he's angry and let me tell you this kids gets angry. There have been many times chairs have gone flying, toys are thrown, and it's just chaos. So he's learning other ways to express his anger than being aggressive.

It's been 5 months since we've started DTT and he has improved SO much it's amazing!! It's like having a totally different kid.

We also get parenting training once a week. I swear, everyone should have a parent trainer -- it's a godsend. I've learned that I'm too reactive when putting the kids in time outs. Before when they would misbehave I would stomp over, tell them not to do whatever it is they're doing and put them in time out. Andrew would literally laugh at me. So now I'm non-reactive. All the rules are laid out before hand and if they break a rule, I calmly walk over and tell them in a calm voice "time out."  I prime Andrew for every little thing!! Always tell him "Andrew 5 minutes then we're leaving" or "5 more minutes to play" I even prime Adam too. Andrew has a tough time with transitions so this helps a lot.

We have also started sticker charts and reward charts to help with improving behaviors as well. This is an awesome tool that helps improve the behavior and also helps the kids gain self confidence. I'm always getting new tips and advice from the parent trainer. I will post them as they come in.  I like to share the knowledge that I gain from having two kids.

Parenting is hard, but rewarding in the end. With the right tools, we can all survive parenthood.

Happy Wednesday