After that air show Tyler would run for cover anytime he heard an airplane. Since he lived next to a flight line you can imagine the challenge. He also couldn't stand firework shows and would block them out by closing his eyes and burying his face in his mom's shoulder. He wouldn't cover his ears...just his eyes. When he was 5 his parents decided to skip the big show and instead do some little things at home. They did go to a festival in the afternoon where someone decided to shoot the canon. The family had to leave immediately due to Tyler's anxiety level. That evening his dad pulled out the ear protection for Tyler while the family enjoyed some small, but loud exploding things. Tyler loved it.
Now Tyler is 6. His mom, wanting to beat the public crowds, went to a nearby AFB on the DOD day for the USAF Thunderbird show. This time she went armed with ear protection. The first time Tyler covered his ears due to the noise she brought them out and Tyler immediately put them on.
After a while Tyler was having a great time! When it got really loud he did tend to put his hands up too, but this may have been more of a habit than anything else. He would also take off the headset when the planes were not flying.
At one point he was so involved at watching (with some cool binoculars from our friends) that he didn't even seem to notice the noise! This picture was taken while planes were flying and he was between two speakers that caused the announcer to be jumbled noise instead on intelligible words.
Most people loved the show that day. Tyler's mom was beaming with the progress that her son has made.
7 comments:
Love it!
When we moved here, James had the same issues with the noise lvl of the worship time at AWANA. It took a whole year of easing him into the gym but by the end of the year he was not only in the gym with all the other kids, but actually singing and enjoying himself, We still can't go to parades, but we will tackle that when we feel they benefit him.
I can imagine...makes me smile just to see that look of joy on his face!
Kim,
I wish you all the luck on the new "diet",and can say I have been there. I think I told you about my son(now 8)
We have some cool headphone too(that have volume control in case you want to hear some things)
What are his other issues? Our son has a formal PDD dx from a psych now and an Autism from the school district. Our sons biggest issues are social interaction. I pray that you will be given much strength as dealing with special needs children is hard work..hang in there
Jeanie : )
Jeanie,
Tyler's official issues are things that I'm still not sure about. He does have the official diagnosis of high-functioning autism, but I disagree with it. He does have a couple of sensory integration issues, social interaction is a slight concern, and his speech is not where it should be.
It's just that a diagnosis...
I believe my son is "Fearfully and Wonderfully made"
Man can say what he wants, but God has the ultimate say so. We met with the Ped Dev. dr. today that basically caused us to NOT be able to move, and he was in shock that we cannot move to GA b/c of his words. He is going to read through the new Psych eval and re-write what he wrote originally. We really had no alternative after the hurricane in getting our son help. On EFMP for now and it's ok as God has a plan in it all : )
Who made your son's dx?
The reason why I don't like his diagnosis is based on who gave it to him and how it was given. We had an hour and a half meeting with a pediatric psychologist and came out with the diagnosis. She talked to us the whole time and didn't interact with Tyler at all. Tyler sat on a rug and played. Based on what she wrote I believe that she took some things that we said to an extreme (i.e. "likes things in order" translated into "can't handle things out of order and gets extremely upset" on the paperwork). We're trying to get in to see a developmental pediatrician but there is only one for this entire area.
The other reason that I disagree with the diagnosis is due to what I wrote in my "New Plan" post. For example, we had friends here all week last week. There were times that Tyler chose to play in his room instead of interact with the other kids. But my husband did the same thing as a child. But there were definite times that Tyler was playing with the other kids. I've been watching the neighbor boys this week and he's playing with them like it was something that he did everyday. But the fact that he will, at times, choose to be by himself was a check mark on the list of questions that she asked us.
I know that speech pathologist are not qualified to make the diagnosis, but Tyler's speech teacher also disagrees. And seeing that she works with him for an hour each week I tend to think that she has a decent grasp on him. It is also interesting to note that she was not surprised by the diagnosis either. But she still disagreed and really disagreed with the information in the paperwork that the dr used to support her diagnosis.
I can see that then. Our son has been tested a few times @ diff ages. Recently we did a comprehensive test that was a total of 4 hours and very thorough. I was so happy to see he is of average intelligence. We put off letting anyone test his IQ until now. I don't live by the dx, but love him and try to help him the best I can....
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