Autism FAQ

Some common questions and concerns:

I have tried to list some questions and concerns here. If you have more specific questions, please email me at help@autismsd.com. I will try my best to answer those questions.

1. What are the types of autism spectrum disorder(ASD) is considered very rare?
2. What is pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified?
3. What exactly is sensory integration disorder?
4. What is hyperlexia syndrome?

4 comments

  1. I have an adult autistic daughter with a Thyroid condition but now she is resistive to any blood work Do you have any suggestions how to solve this important problem

  2. I have a high functioning autistic son who still poops and pees his pants. I have to buy a lot of underwear. I tried to get him to wear depends but he refuses. He also likes to smear his feces. Is there anything i can do to help him? Also can autistic kids have mood swings, get violent, and want to hurt themself. He is such a mess right now and dont know what to do. Therapy does not seem to help because he justs sleeps through his appointments.

    1. “Autistic children have all kinds of fears and/or cannot stand or prefer one sensation over another. It took my son until he was four and half to catch on to why he needed to use the toilet. Unless she experiences meltdowns while trying to get him to use the toilet, she should be taking him to the bathroom every half hour until he goes in the toilet. Then reward him with something he loves–a treat or something he really loves playing with. Another approach for asd kids is to get them to sit on the toilet and watch a video or play a game on a tablet. He will enjoy extra time on the tablet and should relax his bowels and bladder enough to go. Ten minutes each time unless he goes, then reward him with more time on the tablet.

      As for feces smearing, every kid, even neurotypical ones, go through this. It is a textural thing–they enjoy the pastiness, stickiness, or smoothness of the feces. What worked for both my children as well as my neurotypical (normal non-asd) nieces was giving them more experiences with paint and play doh. Since the kids were seeking tactile experiences that matched up with paint and play doh, they left the feces behind and enjoyed the safer, healthier and more creative experiences.

      All kids get mood swings. Kids with autism have more extreme mood swings because they are not able to appropriately express themselves or find a healthy outlet for how they feel. Sometimes they may not even have words to match to their feelings, which only frustrates them more and causes an escalation in behavior and aggression against themselves for not being able to communicate to and with you how they feel. If they are verbal, you can give them the words to express themselves, like this–
      ” I can see you are frustrated and maybe you feel angry too. Is there something I can help you do, say, etc.?”
      If they are non-verbal, provide them with a chart of emoticons and the words for the emotions next to them. Ask the non-verbal child to point to the face that he or she feels best matches how he/she is feeling right now. Reiterate verbally, using the word and emoticon the child chose, how he/she is feeling. Then ask how you can help.

      To me, it sounds like the boy needs a stricter and more predictable routine with built in rewards systems to reinforce positive behaviors and the means to communicate negative but acceptable feelings. There may be other things in his environment that are bothering him, which could be anything from how his socks feel to a temperature change from one room to the next by a single degree. If he is verbal, it is easier to talk about whatever is bugging him before it escalates and he melts down. The only way to discover the problem is to look at every little detail in his life and try to process it in the way that HE does. For a parent, this is a long and complicated process, unless you happen to stumble on the offending detail right away.

      Therapy is good, but until the boy has the words to match to his feelings and you both know what sets him off, therapy isn’t going to be of much help. Make good use of all the help and suggestions you can get from his IEP team too. They can help you figure out and spot triggers that maybe you haven’t thought of before.”, Sarah S.

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