The rose and the rest of it down below was there before, but I added on the butterfly with the Autism Awareness puzzle pieces for its wings. I am very happy with the way it turned out, and even the artist said it was like it is complete now.
This week also lead me to figure out why Alex has been constantly chewing on things that are not edible. Via a question I asked to the "Always Unique, Totally Intellegent, Sometimes Mysterious" facebook page, I learned that Alex has what is called Pica, where he is either lacking in Iron or Zinc, or he chews to meet some sensory need. It is a disorder where they have a need to eat non-food items to meet these needs. You can read about it at: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/pica
So after I was given some ideas as to how to conquer this rather costly problem (Alex has eaten buttons off of remotes, his iPad's cover, numerous toys, shirts... and the list goes on), I tried the one that seemed like it would work out the best: A vibrating teether. However, he already has chewed off the plastic tip of the covering, so I think Tony and I will have to resort to buying the (rather expensive to us) chewy tubes. I am lucky that I found some on Amazon, and all they are is just plastic tubes (some in the shape of letters) that are safe to chew on. They are about $5 per tube on Amazon, where other websites have them for about $8 (which is a lot for a little plastic tube to a college student). But we have to try something. We are always worried about whether he will choke on something.
With this, we also are going to see what his doctor has to say about finding some way to test his Iron and Zinc levels to see if that is why he has just randomly started chewing on stuff again. He used to do this before, but then stopped for a period of time, and has just recently started back up again. We worry about him chewing apart his books (that is what happened last time) which we will have an even harder time replacing. It has been a very stressful aspect of Autism, let me assure you.
But let me end this week's post by writing about a happy thing. There has been a massive increase in the amount of attention Alex has wanted from both Tony and I. He used to come home and usually spend most of the evening playing and reading in his room, wanting very little to do with us. But more and more, as the weeks have gone by, he is constantly coming near us when we are on the computer or watching TV and saying, "Mom-mom?" and wanting something or just wanting attention. He tries to communicate with us in his own way, so when he has your attention he will just babble. He tries to get us to play Blue's Clues with him, and will read to us. He talks a boatload, and I will admit that there are times where I am just shaking my head asking where this came from.
He still gets frustrated when you ask him a question he doesn't know how to answer. I am hoping that this will go away, and he will find some way to let people know that he doesn't know how to answer. I read that the ages that an autistic person makes the most progress is between 6 and 10 years of age. Alex will be 6 in September, so for the next four years we are hoping that his communication is where we see the most progress.
I have to keep reminding myself that we are doing the best we can with the resources available to us. And I think that everyone needs to understand that we will always make decisions based on what is best for Alex. They may not think it is what is best for him, but we know what is best for him. It is not our own selfish agendas that we make the decisions we do. We want to give him the maximum amount of opportunities so he can excel to his full potential.
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