concerned 11yr old son

[yazoo]

Hi,

Im new to this site and concerned about my son who is autistic and attends an autism school . Looking about over the years my son has always been in and out of phases and different behaviours which is usally the way with autism in that these phases come and go. But worried that over the past few months and recently his mood now very up and down, one minute you can play or say something to him then 10 minutes later he starts shouting and wants to be left alone which is happening every day. Just a lists of things that are happening:-

Not having a stable mood in a day
Eating less, yesterday 1 meal in a day which is not him and no snacks at all
Is mostly in his bedroom
Can have a rage without any specific triggers nothing will calm him and they can lasts from 1hr - 3hrs
Activities in the house that he enjoyed before, watching tv, ds games, helping out in the kitchen has all stopped
Fears that come and go and he is scared but you cannot see it just to reassure him its ok
irritable and agitated mood in himself without placing any demands on him
asking him to get pyjamas or shoes causes upsets and shouting
Not tolerating people at all and wants them out the house
wants all my attention and he seems quite happy for awhile but changes quickly.

Also at school got really upset when another boy pulled his chair out and accidentally brushed my sons arm that caused a major upset and a rage.

We have an appointment this week with child psychiatrist im thinking it could be bipolar disorder.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Donna

[charliegirl]

Welcome Donna!

I don't know anything about autism. A few things came to mind though.

I'm going to "talk out loud" here and just give my impressions. I don't see bipolar necessarily. What I do see is puberty rearing its ugly head. All our kids hit that and having a disability doesn't make it not happen. It just makes them very unpredictable and because their disability causes them to behave differently anyway, its hard to tell which is which sometimes.

I also see possible anxiety. Is he experiencing anything in his life that could be causing that? I know he is middle school age and usually school work gets that much harder for all kids.

I'll be watching to see what others have to say here. Please let us know what the psych says also.

I found this and it might be what you are looking for in terms of whether his behavior fits rapid cycle bipolar which is most common in children.

groups.msn.com/theautismhomepage/bipolardisorder.msnw

www.autismtoday.com/articles/MANIC_DEPRESSION_AND_AUTISM%20.htm

[yazoo]

Hi Charliegirl,

Thanks for replying. Early puberty as well down below for Jadm. so it probably could all be in the mix! He does have high anxiety and with not being able to communicate that to me this could be the behaviours. I prepare him for any changes in the day with his schedule. Its really difficult to take him out as well as just saying to him 'Jadm where going this way or anything like this can trigger an outbursts which may lead to a rage i used to be able to reason with him but not now so i just stay local at the moment because i couldnt manage outside on my own with a rage. School also say this could be stress and getting older. He just seems to be very down. Just waiting for apptment on Thursday and will let u all know.

Thanks again

Donna

[charliegirl]

I didn't realize you had replied and added a link in my post.

[charliegirl]

I sent you a pm with info from my daughter who works with autistic kids. If you don't know how to check them let me know and I'll explain.

[yazoo]

Could you explain! thanks

[charliegirl]

Scroll to the very top of this page and off center to the right you will see a line that says Yazoo, you have 2 messages. If you click on the number, it will take you to your mailbox.

[jj]

Hi Yazoo,

Welcome to the site.

I know that autistic kids often have sensory problems, as I'm sure you know, and the other kid in school brushing his arm could have triggered that response. They often want things "just so" and if that is changed can get very upset. (Not sure if you meant that kid pulled his own chair out or your sons chair out.) It also could be just the noise the chair made as it was being pulled out that bothered him. So the incident in school sounds fairly typical of autism.

However, I think it is good you are wanting to be sure the DX is correct. The mood swings would have me concerned too. I always say if Mom thinks something isn't right then it probably isn't.

Even if the psych says no to bipolar it may not be a bad idea to keep a mood chart noting things like: How he slept, ate, what triggered a outburst if anything, is his mood happy, sad etc...

Here is a link to a mood chart you can print out but you may want to add other things as well or just make your own. And I think it is important for your son to select the mood he is in as well as you noting your perspective on things

I wish I could be of more help. I'll be interested to hear what the psych says. Again, welcome to the site.

[countrygirl]

Jul 7, 2008 4:29:26 GMT -5 yazoo said:

Hi,

Im new to this site and concerned about my son who is autistic and attends an autism school . Looking about over the years my son has always been in and out of phases and different behaviours which is usally the way with autism in that these phases come and go. But worried that over the past few months and recently his mood now very up and down, one minute you can play or say something to him then 10 minutes later he starts shouting and wants to be left alone which is happening every day. Just a lists of things that are happening:-

Not having a stable mood in a day
Eating less, yesterday 1 meal in a day which is not him and no snacks at all
Is mostly in his bedroom
Can have a rage without any specific triggers nothing will calm him and they can lasts from 1hr - 3hrs
Activities in the house that he enjoyed before, watching tv, ds games, helping out in the kitchen has all stopped
Fears that come and go and he is scared but you cannot see it just to reassure him its ok
irritable and agitated mood in himself without placing any demands on him
asking him to get pyjamas or shoes causes upsets and shouting
Not tolerating people at all and wants them out the house
wants all my attention and he seems quite happy for awhile but changes quickly.

Also at school got really upset when another boy pulled his chair out and accidentally brushed my sons arm that caused a major upset and a rage.

We have an appointment this week with child psychiatrist im thinking it could be bipolar disorder.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Donna

Hi Donna,

Just read this and wanted to add my 2 cents. Your son's behavior is a form of communication, rage and goes hand in hand with fear/anxiety/misinterperations of social cues and not understanding what is expected, all of which is a part of Autism.

You know that something is going on and you may or may not ever be able to pin point the source, but meanwhile, it would be helpful to him if you kept things pretty routine and calm. Write things down for him if he is a reader, find pictures for him if he is not. Making things very clear and precise will help relieve the stress and anxiety.

Nothing seems to be triggering these outburst? Is your son able to draw pictures? If he can, ask him to draw what he is feeling AFTER is has calmed down. Perhaps he can put into pictures what he can not put into words. Hopefully he will be able to give you clues to this mystery so you will be able to know what to do next.

The incident at school is classic AU behavior - Misreading social cues and reacting to what he thought was happening and not to what actually happened. He misread the other child's actions and felt threatened. Acceptable responses can be taught through social stories and bubble talk pictures later when he is not upset.

While it is certainly possible that he could have both autism and bipolar disorder, I think that his behavior still falls well within the autism spectrum disorder with which he has already been dx'd.

I know having a child with AU is challenging and at times draining. I hope this helps support you. Let us know how the psych visit goes.

[charliegirl]

I know I PM'd this message from my daughter to you already but I started thinking that its something other parents of autistic children might benefit from. I'm going to post it. Between this and CountryGirl's replies, I think they covered a lot of ground.
**********

Nothing that she described is all that uncommon for kids with autism, except maybe the duration of the fits, that's what's concerns me. I sent a copy of her post to the teacher I work with and asked for her opinion. I am not sure how often she checks it, but I'll let you know when I hear back from her.

Puberty is probably a contributor. Does he spend longer periods of time in the bathroom? I know I was going through that with my student. When things start happening down there, they don't have any idea what it is, and it can be painful if "it" lasts a long time and they don't know what to do about it. That is something she could check.

As far as him having a fit when she tells him they're going somewhere, especially something not designated on his schedule.... one suggestion that I have is to tell him what they're going to be doing, and IMMEDIATELY follow it up with a choice, with NO pause in between for arguments, You need to distract him from what you just told him (that you didn't give a choice on) with something that he can control. For example, "We're going to go to the store. Are you going to wear your sneakers or your shoes?" Or, "We're going to the store. Are you going to sit in the front or the back?" ..... "Are you going to bring your jacket or leave it at home?" And if necessary, keep throwing him options until he's fully distracted from the fact that you told him what he was going to do. This pretty much always worked with my student. It usually didn't matter how trivial the choice I gave him was, as long as he was given control over part of the situation, he was distracted from the part that he wasn't in control over.

Another option is to change the way you do his schedule. Some children won't tolerate any change, and if that's the case, it won't work. But what I did, was instead of lining up his schedule with a bunch of activities, I left what we were doing at the moment in the first "box," or spot, and let him choose the next activity, as long as the order didn't matter to me. If the order did matter and we had something important to do, I gave him a choice of two things we could do next, one that we had to do, and one that I KNEW he wouldn't choose. You should always have a preferred activity (game, snack, free time, etc) on the board AFTER the activity you want him to do so that he can see exactly what he's working for. If he transitions with no problems and does a good job, he earns that treat! But if it doesn't go so well, remind him that you can very easily take that treat off of the schedule.... This is probably very confusing. If you want to give her my email address, go ahead. I don't mind. I'll let you know when I hear from the teacher. Good luck.