Do Tell! Sensory Integration at Christmas

Resurrecting a recurrent feature today because sharing stories is a healing balm.

C.S. Lewis wrote, "We read to know we're not alone." I need to tell my story and I'd love to hear yours. Here's a question I bet you can answer with at least one example. Be practical, be personal, be painful, be my guest...

Do you have a Christmas tradition that accomplishes sensory integration?

Every year we buck the Norman Rockwell tradition and pile into one of our Priuses bound for our nearest Home Depot to pick out the freshest, tallest, cheapest evergreen tree we can possibly find. Inevitably rubbing shoulders with a few friends in the serpentine line, it is a seasonal sensory treat, even if it's not as picturesque as winter in Chagrin Falls or New York City.

Reid makes a beeline for the corner of the nearest corral, crouches down low and crawls into the crevice created beneath a pile of bound and bagged pines. That is sensory integration at its best; a squeeze machine and aromatherapy all rolled into one. He breathes frasier fir in sensurround. The needles surely prickle or scrape his face and hands; a little sap on the fingertips is free for the taking. The distinctive sounds of backing forklifts, buzzing chainsaws, and busy consumers ring in his ears until a familiar alarm goes off across the lot: "Reid, say 'here I am!"

"Here I am."

"Aha."

"Mom, I was hiding."

"I know you like to do that. Doesn't it smell so good?"

We load our tree into the hatchback along with armfuls of free boughs and breathe deeply the whole way home. All this--a rich, sensory diet--for way less than the going rate of an occupational therapist. I'll take it!

Do Tell....got stims?

Our beloved home program case manager, Danielle, taught me many things. She listened to the ponderings of my heart for many hours, "played guys" (Playmobil and Winnie the Pooh) with Reid several mornings a week, and trained more tutors than I can recount. Our front door was a turnstile of professionals and paraprofessionals who all delivered: early intervention.

Very early in my education, Danielle shared from her researchers' point of view that if all of us could be plotted somewhere along the autism spectrum (which ranges from normal to severely autistic), then we must all have at least one defining tendency or trait or ritual or stim. If we were honest. Once she confided hers, I was quickly able to identify mine. Over time this enables my empathy with others.

Danielle had a thing for counting the joints on door hinges in her mind as a diversion during meetings or in homes or whenever. I have the anxious, oddly pleasurable habit of running my fingers through my hair and pulling out individual strands like farm girls in Ohio used to do with blades of grass before whistling through them in their thumbs.

I will also confess to a word game of my own creation that I've played with myself since school days. Seeing signage or titles, I get sucked into sorting the words into symmetrical patterns of vowels and consonants. The invisible, consuming game continues until the entire word or phrase comes out even like a division equation. It's akin to diagramming a sentence only by individual letter rather than parts of speech. Hyperlexic much? Danielle's response when I described it was, "Yeah, that's one!"

Reid watches Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks logo trailers backwards and forwards as if memorizing them in his head. He stops and starts the DVD action in order to get a still shot in his brain of each frame. Then in bed or in the car, he rocks his head back and forth which seems to aids in the playback of those memorized scenes. If anyone knows of a paying job for which this skill is useful, please do tell. Here's an all time favorite. Oh the thrill of watching that white glowy trail encircle the castle!

After reading A Slant of Sun by Beth Kephart in those same early years, my mom went out and bought a dozen copies for the extended family. Then she commented, "as I read about her son's fixations, I have to admit I do that too. It made me realize how much I am like Reid." Bear in mind we are a family by adoption so this is more than evidence of the genetic predisposition.

If you care to take this a bit more seriously, here is an online Autism Quotient test which indicates traits that constitute the autism diagnosis and also gives some idea of where you might fall along the spectrum.

Elvis Sightings gives an excellent explanation of the repetitive movements associated with autism. It may be "unproductive, obsessive, obstructive, annoying, consuming" but I know and you know that it is also"pleasurable, centering, meditative, regulating, communing."

Go ahead, do tell us in a comment one of yours...

Introducing....Do Tell!

Sharing our stories can be a healing balm.

Jesus taught in stories. He also listened to people's stories even though he knew how they ended.

C.S. Lewis wrote, "We read to know we're not alone," which reminds me of my impetus to start this blog. I need to tell my story and I need to hear yours.

So, every Friday I am going to post a question that I reckon each of my readers can answer with at least one story. Be practical, be personal, be painful, be my guest by clicking "comments" and leaving a reply. I hope you'll begin to think, TGIF, I can tell someone!

I spoke on a panel last week for Ability Awareness Week at a local elementary school. It was awe inspiring to hear the other panelists and encourage the eager little faces to be tolerant friends to those with differences.

Another panelist was a school principal with ADHD who told her story of talking in class as a youngster, being docked points and eventually denied cupcakes on her own birthday. A mean, uninformed teacher had inadvertently fueled her life's ambition as well as given her ammunition to inspire students and teachers alike some 30 years later with a parable they'll never forget.

As the kids cleared out, those of us who didn't have a class to get to burst spontaneously into storytelling from our own childhoods and those of our kids. Almost refusing to clear the multi-purpose room, we were inspired, uplifted, encouraged and bonded by the resonance of our experiences, realities, failures, and solutions. We need this! And as I like to tease, "I don't get out much!" So, sit back, stay home, anytime of the day or night, and tell me this:

What autistic tendency are you most thankful for?