I thought my dd was doing better since we started a swim class. Still waiting for the special ed class to start. Anyway, she was showing signs of improvement with her social skills and ability to engage and then suddenly in the middle of the swim class she just, and this is just the best way I can describe it, disengaged right in the pool, stopped looking at the teacher and started looking down and talking to herself. It totally freaked the swim teacher out and she was looking at my dd going, "Are you alright, are you alright?". It was if some switch had been thrown and my dd was now in "internal mode". She came out of it somewhat and finished the class.
I guess I can't just expect this to go away all by itself over night, but it's really hard to see these sudden changes.
Catherine:
We go through the same thing with our dd...she joined soccer and T-ball this year. One game, she's totally there and interacting, the next, you would swear she never played the game in her life...it does get frustrating, but hang in there...the social interaction is one of the best things we can do for our kids, and I remind myself of that every time dd has one of these episodes...My ds is doing great at home, he appears close to NT most of the time.
But in school with a lot of stimulation and having to track and follow
someones demands he does the same thing your dd did in swim class.
His teacher says he zones out about 80% of the time. In some ways I think
it is a good skill to have -zoning yourself out when it gets to be too
much.Better than not being able to zone out and go into meltdowns.
For my ds it will be a process of slowly increasing tolerance and
'scheduling' zone-out in appropriate intervals.
[QUOTE=Elle22]Btw, your little one is SO cute & although the pic is small, she looks a lot like
my dd.[/QUOTE]
Thanks Elle22, your daughter is cute too. My daughter has fish too and just LOVES them. We used to take her to the pet store or an aquarium and she would have so much fun just looking at all the fish. We went back to the Long Beach Aquarium a couple of weeks ago and this time she was freaked out by a bunch of things, went crazy when I tried to pet the stingrays and the crustation exhibits frightened her too. Not sure if that's just part of being three years old or an ASD thing.
I must agree, zoning out is probably something of a survival trait, compared to meltdowns, too.
Roller coaster FOR sure. Our dd can change from one minute to the next.Catherine, those are the times I really hate -- it can be such a roller coaster. Hopefully those times will be fewer and farther between.
What happened right before -- could something have triggered her withdrawal, like too much input?
I think the class was getting a little demanding for her. I think that was one of the worst cases I've seen of her just switching off like that. I hope it gets better soon.She will. Mostly.
Heck Tuhina was asymptomatic till Kindergarten and all that listening and following directions got to her! It happens. It is an ascending spiral -- kinda like a chambered nautilus looks. And I still expect great things ...
One of the Dr. scared me and told me it can get worse at any time, but I don't think that's going to happen.
It really is a roller coaster ride though, I had no idea.