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

Like most children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Matthew has some trouble reading facial expressions. It is something we have been working on in his Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) program and he has gotten much better at recognizing emotions. Some studies have shown that ASD children focus on the mouth instead of the eyes when looking at people and this may be why they do not develop the ability to discern visual cues for emotions. This impairment has significant impact in their ability to read social settings and to determine meaning from ambiguous sentences, or to understand sarcasm later in life. We have spent a significant amount of time helping Matthew understand and recognize the four basic emotional facial expressions; Anger, Happiness, Sadness, and Surprise.

Recently I found a wonderful tool to help with exactly this type of emotion recognition program; it is a felt story board. The story board is called “If You’re Happy and You Know it” and it contains a felt story board with five distinctly emotional faces. They are one happy child, one sad child, one mad child, one surprised child and one sleeping child.

Taren, of TeachableMoments, hand makes each flannel board story. She has been making them for over 10 years and had started using them when she was teaching preschools classes. She noticed that children, even those with attention problems, were more drawn to the story boards and it was perfect for those children that could not sit through a whole story. It is also wonderfully interactive for the children and some of her other story boards could easily be used for teaching children sequencing along with focusing their attention.

Taren has made the “If You’re Happy and You Know It” flannel board story available as a gift to one of my readers for Autism Awareness Month. It will come with the five faces and a light blue felt background with grommets to allow it to be hung on a wall.

Mandatory Entry: All you need to do to enter is go to TeachableMoments and take a look around. Come back to Matthews Puzzle and leave a comment telling me which other board story you would like and why. Please remember to leave a valid email address, your blog address or some way to contact you if you win!

For extra chances to win simply do any or all of the following, just remember to leave a comment for each one you do, but you must fulfill the Mandatory Entry first.

• Tweet about this contest
• Blog about the contest and add a link to Matthews Puzzle and the Sponsor
• Add Matthews Puzzle’s Button to your site OR to your blog roll
• Follow Matthews Puzzle publicly using the button in the left-hand sidebar.

Contest Ends May 1^st at 11:59 PM EDT. If the prize is not claimed within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen. I will email the prize winner and also post winners names here on this post. Winner will be chosen at Random – I will use Random.com to select the winner. Contest is open to US residents only.

Dokedo has just given me a new Promo Code for 10% off from May 6 – June 1, 2009. When you buy Dokedo Putty use the code: matthewspuzzle for 10% off.

And Go check out the winners for this giveaway on my winners page.

Matthew has hypotonia, which is low muscle tone. That means, at least for us, that he couldn’t hold his head up when he was a baby, he couldn’t nurse and he couldn’t sit up. We had to do lots of physical and occupational therapy with him and we learned along the way that he has very little pressure or grip in his hands. To help facilitate hand strength we were encouraged to use play clay. But the popular brand of play clay is made from wheat, and as we all know, wheat is a no-no when on the GFCF diet. And although Matthew was never a Pica child he did inevitable get play clay under his nails, which then ended up in his mouth. So we needed to find a different clay to work with. Our occupation therapist often brought a play putty that came in different tensile strengths. Matthew would have to push and pull, roll and cut this putty to try to get strength to his hands, but it also helped with his sensory processing issues. It provided proprioceptive input to his system.

Recently I found a new play putty that is available to regular consumers. It is called Dokedo Play Putty. Dokedo comes in many different colors and is offered scented and unscented. Dokedo is Non-toxic, produced in the US (I like this very much!), and is 100% gluten, casein and latex free. It is believed that our sense of smell has the most influence on our mood, behavior and memory, making Dokedo play putty ideal for stress relief, play, mood enhancement, increase concentration, and just a general sense of well being. Dokedo comes in lots of great scents such as banana boat, gumball burst, hello marshmellow and unscented putties that are just beautifully colored. Dokedo is great for everyone, even pregnant ladies that might be feeling a little stressed and overwhelmed. It can be used in meditation, for those with brain injuries, behavioral issues, ADD/ADHD, Autism, Aspergers, and Anxiety Disorders – so really, who wouldn’t want to play with this stuff?

Want it now? Dokedo is offering 10% off promotion code now until April 30th: april09autism.

Well one of my readers will be lucky enough to win some Dokedo putty. Mandatory Entry:All you need to do to enter is go to Dokedo and take a look around. Come back to Matthews Puzzle and leave a comment telling me which play putty you would choose. Please remember to leave a valid email address, your blog address or some way to contact you if you win!

For extra chances to win simply do any or all of the following, just remember to leave a comment for each one you do, but you must fulfill the Mandatory Entry first.

• Tweet about this contest
• Blog about the contest and add a link to Matthews Puzzle and the Sponsor
• Add Matthews Puzzle’s Button to your site OR to your blog roll
• Follow Matthews Puzzle publicly using the button in the lefthand sidebar.

Contest Ends May 1^st at 11:59 PM EDT. If the prize is not claimed within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen. I will email the prize winner and also post winners names here on this post. Winner will be chosen at Random – I will use Random.com to select the winner. Contest is open to US residents only.

I Want to mention that all Autism Awareness Month Giveaways are open until May 1st, so please enter to win any and all that you would like.

Long before we knew Matthew had any serious problems, my husband and I had decided to send him to a Music Together class. He loved it. I took him once a week to the class where we listened to music and he could interact with the other children and get up and “play” with the music. He was to learn how to audiate the music and lyrics in his head. We played the songs at home and in the car. He loved it and responded so well that we kept him in the class for at least eight cycles. I truly believe that his appreciation of music is one of the reasons Matthew learned to speak and why he continues to respond to music of all sorts. Music has a way of touching our souls unlike any other medium. We are connected to music and often we fiercely defend our choice in music preference. It is primal. It is Godly.

I was lucky enough to find The Neotypicals. They are Angela and Christopher Skillern, and they are the parents of a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Like many of us with children on the ASD, Angie and Chris struggled to bring their child back into the world. They successfully recovered their son and decided they wanted to give back to a community that they knew all too well. Angie decided she needed to put her experiences into song and Chris took up the challenge. Together they produced their first CD, Tales from the Spectrum. It contains ten original songs about what it means to be a family dealing with Autism and biomedical approaches. I personally love the lyrics to His Wings. It reminds me so much of Matthew and where he was just a few years ago. My Biggest Hero reflects exactly how I feel about Matthew and the fact that he has to work harder than most children I know. How he perseveres and how he gains ground. He really is amazing. But I also want to mention the song I See You, because although Matthew is our child that has an ASD, Nico must live with it too. Nico is “normal” and he doesn’t require all the extras that Matthew does. But it doesn’t make him any less special, and like other siblings of ASD kids, Nico needs to know that “I See You”.

I am really excited about today’s giveaway. Chris and Angie of the Neotypicals have offered a copy of their CD to one of my readers.

Mandatory Entry: Take a minute to go check out the Neotypicals, back here and leave a comment telling me what song speaks to you most. Please remember to leave a valid email address, your blog address or some way to contact you if you win.

Extra Entries: You can earn extra chances to win just by doing any or all of the following. Leave a comment for each of the things you do, but you MUST fulfill the Mandatory Entry first.

• Add Matthews Puzzle to your Twitter and Tweet the contest. Leave your Tweet Link!
• Blog about the contest – add a link to Matthews Puzzle and the Sponsor
• Add Matthews Puzzle button to your site OR add Matthews Puzzle to your blog roll.
• Follow Matthews Puzzle publicly – see Follow button in left sidebar.
• Go to Generation Rescue, read a bit about Autism and then come back here and tell me something you learned.
• Go to Age of Autism, read an article and come back here and tell me something you learned.

Contest Ends May 1st at 11:59 PM EDT. If the prize is not claimed within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen. I will email the prize winner and also post winners names here on this post. Winner will be chosen at Random – I will use Random.com to select the winner. Contest is open to US residents only.

Before Matthew was formally diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) he was given the diagnosis of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Many kids on the ASD also have SPD. Matthew’s issues seemed to be mostly auditory, proprioceptive, and vestibular in nature with some visual processing issues thrown in also. I was given a daily “sensory diet” which consisted of different physical activities he needed to do to help his body learn to understand and process all the incoming stimuli he was experiencing. One thing that many kids with SPDs and ASDs like is deep pressure such as bear hugs, log rolls and being “sandwiched” between pillows. This type of input helps their bodies to regulate and organize themselves and then the children can focus and be more calm and productive. But bear hugs aren’t always practical so a great option would be a weighted lap pad.

BeachtimeQuilts has wonderful lap pads that are 15″ x 20″ and weigh 2 lbs. The outer fabric can be cotton, flannel or fleece and the inner pad is filled with hypo allergenic polypropolene beads. Velcro makes it easy to remove the cover for washing. These pads would be great to use in any school, home or therapy setting. I can see parents taking them on vacation, to restaurants and movies. Teachers may want to use them in class when it may be more difficult to pull a child out for some deep pressure work. Therapists may want to show the child how to use the lap pad to help them calm down and take control of a situation. I even had one mom tell me she would like one for herself.

Carol at BeachtimeQuilts has offered one of my readers the chance to win their very own BeachtimeQuilts Lap Pad.

Mandatory Entry: Take a minute to go check out the lap pad and other items at BeachtimeQuilts, then come back here and leave a comment telling me why you would like one of these fabulous lap pads. Please remember to leave a valid email address, your blog address or some way to contact you if you win.

Extra Entries: You can earn extra chances to win just by doing any or all of the following. Leave a comment for each of the things you do, but you MUST fulfill the Mandatory Entry first.

· Add Matthews Puzzle to your Twitter and Tweet the contest. Leave your Tweet Link!

· Blog about the contest – add a link to Matthews Puzzle and the Sponsor

· Add Matthews Puzzle button to your site OR add Matthews Puzzle to your blog roll.

· Follow Matthews Puzzle publicly – see Follow button in left sidebar.

· Go to Generation Rescue, read a bit about Autism and then come back here and tell me something you learned.

· Go to Age of Autism, read an article and come back here and tell me something you learned.

Contest Ends May 1^st at 11:59 PM EDT. If the prize is not claimed within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen. I will email the prize winner and also post winners names here on this post. Winner will be chosen at Random – I will use Random.com to select the winner. Contest is open to US residents only.