Matthew's Puzzle - Autism Recovery, Gluten Free, Green Living Mom Blog

This is a really cool thing that AMC has started offering. It is called Sensory Friendly Films and it is for families of special needs children and adults. My local Autism Society (Howard County Autism Society) contacted the local AMC theater in the hopes that they would offer a family friendly film once a month (usually a 9:00 or 10:00 AM Saturday showing) where they would raise the lights and turn down the sound so that people with sensory issues could enjoy the movie with their families. The families would be allowed to bring their own special diet snacks and children would be allowed to make noise and move around if necessary. Everyone would know what to expect because everyone in attendance would have someone with autism in their party. Our AMC theater did so well that AMC Corporate picked up the idea and is now offering the same service in markets across the county.

Here is what the Autism Society of America has to say:

AMC Entertainment (AMC) and ASA have teamed up to bring families affected by autism and other disabilities a special opportunity to enjoy their favorite films in a safe and accepting environment on a monthly basis with the “Sensory Friendly Films” program.

In order to provide a more accepting and comfortable setting for this unique audience, the movie auditoriums will have their lights brought up and the sound turned down, families will be able to bring in their own gluten-free, casein-free snacks, and no previews or advertisements will be shown before the movie. Additionally, audience members are welcome to get up and dance, walk, shout or sing – in other words, AMC’s “Silence is Golden^®” policy will not be enforced unless the safety of the audience is questioned.

Tickets are $4-6 depending on location and can be purchased on the day of the event.

I think this is a fantastic idea, and although we have not tried the Sensory Friendly Films ourselves we do have friends in the Autism Community who have. They love it and I think Matthew is finally getting to the point where he may enjoy these types of outings. Check out AMC and see if there is a Sensory Friendly Film near you.

Everyone knows I’m a biomedical girl. I’m obsessed. We saw such a drastic change in Matthew after starting the GFCF diet that, to me, it is the only way to go. And after we started seeing our DAN! doctor I became firmly entrenched in my belief that we were on the right track. Nothing seemed to work the way biomedical worked. I was hooked.

But I’m also practical and I look at as much of the evidence as I can. (And so does Larry, he is very logical.) I was well aware that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) only supports one therapy for autism and that is Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). I was also aware that ABA has a great track record for recovering autistic children. ABA can tout about a 49% recovery rate if the child gets intensive therapy (about 40+ hours a week) for a period of time (that time range is written in years, so this is a major commitment.) There aren’t a lot of other protocols out there that can boast that kind of success rate. So my husband and I decided to look into it for Matthew.

ABA is a difficult protocol to start. You need to find an ABA consultant that will evaluate your child, will look over IEP goals, and will work to develop an individualized program designed for your child to help them meet life and academic goals. We use a local company called Pieces of the Puzzle. Next you must find your own therapists. Originally I thought I could be Matthew’s therapist, but I soon found out that the time commitment and the emotional strain was too much for me. It was also good for Matthew to be exposed to other people in authority positions because that is what he will be dealing with as he moves on to elementary school.

Finding ABA therapists is, to me, one of the more difficult tasks. Typically you can not find trained therapists so you need to find applicants that are willing to be trained in ABA. We were looking for two to three therapists to cover a 15 hour a week therapy program. Our program was to be done after his half day of school and on his one day a week that he was off from school. I contacted the local Autism Society, the local colleges and even the public school system. Once we received a few resumes, I began to do interviews and found two women that we felt could work with Matthew. Then our ABA consultant trained the therapists in ABA procedures. After a few faulty starts, we lost one therapist and had to hire again, then we lost another one that just wasn’t working out, etc., we ended up with two women that have been fantastic with Matthew.

Matthew has been doing so well in his program that our consultant has had to find new programs for him to work on. She can’t believe the progress he is making in such a short time. We firmly believe in giving Matthew the strongest, broadest foundation upon which to build his academic future, so we are front loading him with a lot of kindergarten studies. Our belief is that if he is already prepared in kindergarten academics then he will not be overwhelmed and fearful, but instead he can put his energies towards social interactions where he still needs help. This way we will guarantee success in his studies which will boost his confidence and help him maintain a positive attitude towards school.

I’m not much of a sports person, and sports analogies are not my forte, but in this case I think it makes a lot of sense. You would never play just an offensive football game. You may score a lot of points but you could still lose the game if the other team has a better offensive line. You have to play defense too. I look at biomedical as the offense for our Team Matthew. Biomedical is healing Matthew and making the progress, scoring the goals! But ABA (and OT, PT, Speech, Special Ed Pre-school) is our defensive line. It is shoring up an gaps and making him stronger. It is teaching him those things that he should have been able to do naturally if he had not been developmentally delayed.

Lastly, I want everyone to know that Matthew’s ABA program is very natural. It is not the stereotypical, old school ABA program where the child sits across a table from the therapist and everything is done with reinforcers. Maybe if Matthew were lower functioning we would need that, but since he is high fuctioning we use a more natural teaching method, but its success is so great because it is a one-on-one method. I love our ABA and our therapists (and consultant). Together with the biomedical approach we are seeing major results. I firmly believe Matthew will be recovered by the time he enters the first grade.

I love pizza. I think I’m actually addicted to it. Recently a small pizza place has opened near our house and I have fallen in love with their pizzas. They are superb. But this addiction can only be indulged after the boys have gone to bed because of their dietary restrictions. Sometimes I feel so horrible hiding food from them, and I have tried to make GFCF pizza here at home. They seem to enjoy it but it really isn’t that wonderful.

Today, while we were shopping at our local mall, Larry asked what we would do for lunch. Unfortunately I knew we didn’t have a lot of options at home and Matthew began to ask if we could eat lunch at the mall. Larry and I discussed our choices – Chick-fil-a, or well, Chick-fil-a. As we were trying to decide if we were going to stay at the mall or pick up chicken on the way home, Larry mentions how he would like to try the gluten free pizza at Unos Pizzeria. I figued the boys would love to try that and there was an Unos right in the parking lot so we decided to try it.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Unos had a rather large gluten free menu with lots of options, but we were there for pizza! We ordered the gluten free pepperoni pizza with NO cheese. Needless to say it was a hit with our boys. Matthew ate 3.5 slices alone!

When we got home I gave him his afternoon medicines and I added a TriEnz digestive enzyme just to make sure he could handle any possible infraction, but I don’t think we had anything to worry about. I checked the nutritional information and we should have been fine. There is always a chance of cross contamination at a restaurant, so make your judgments based on your child, but now we have a new option for dining out!

Today I want to tell you about something very serious and something that many parents of special needs children everywhere go through. And that is depression. I suffer from a form of depression. When I was younger I went through a very tough period where I was sexually harassed at work, and without going into details, the company I worked for did not support me, but instead supported the man doing the harassing. There were other stressors going on at the same time, things like trying to get my masters degree and my then boyfriend breaking up with me, all of which contributed to me feeling horrible about myself and my self-worth. I spiraled down into a deep depression of self-hatred. But thank God I decided that was not how I wanted to live and I went to my primary care physician and started taking anti-depressants. They helped immensely and I got better. I was well enough to no longer need the medicines.

Fast forward 10 or so years to today. I have once again found I need the help of anti-depressants. I have been struggling for years with Matthew’s autism and what it may or may not mean for his (and our) future. One day I found myself getting so mad at Matthew for fighting with me over his medicines that I began yelling at him. As I yelled at him I realized that I was overreacting to what was going on, and that I did not want him to grow up and recall me as the mother that always screamed at him and was unhappy with him. Right then and there I decided to take the anti-depressants again. My doctor once again prescribed me a pill and within days I was feeling better. I am also seeing a therapist to help me deal with my depression and my anxiety over autism (and any other issues I have).

One very interesting thing I have found in studying autism is that there is a higher percentage of autistic children born to people who have suffered depression in the past. And if you have suffered depression in the past it is very easy to have a relapse when you are struggling daily with autism and all its trappings. If you are feeling too much stress, finding that you no longer enjoy activities that used to give you pleasure, are afraid all the time, cry for no reason, feel blue for weeks on end, have anger issues, or feel desperate PLEASE see your doctor. The only way you can save your child is if you save yourself too. A very wise stewardess once said, “place the oxygen mask over your face first before helping dependents with theirs”. You need your oxygen, because without it you have no chance of helping the others in your life.

Recently I was at a biomedical meeting and I was told by one of the other moms that I looked fabulous; completely different from the last time I had seen her. She said I look animated and refreshed. We began to talk about the fact that I had realized I needed help and had gotten it. It sparked other moms at the meeting to discuss the fact that they see therapists to help them cope, and some take meds such as I do. It even prompted one mom to realize that maybe she needs to find a counselor to help her over this very rough spot in life.

Remember that we are doing this for our children, we need to be there (completely there) to enjoy them and rejoice with them. Don’t lose yourself to this disorder.