Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

I remember one time when I was in the Navy, I gave some haircuts to some guys. What happened was that we were out at sea for around 3 months, unexpectedly, and when we were getting ready to pull into Japan the Skipper decided that no one could leave the boat without a regulation haircut. There was some hair clippers on board but not a soul knew how to use them. I told the guys in my watch section that I would cut there hair for them but I wasn't responsible for the results. The only experience I had was cutting hair on show cows and that is a little different than humans. I butchered a bunch of the guys but got there hair cut so it fell within regulations. I couldn't get anybody to do mine so I chopped on it myself until it would pass inspection, it helped that I was in charge of inspections for my watch. It wasn't pretty and most of them got it fixed by the base Barbers while we were in port, but they were able to leave the boat. I swore I would never cut hair again.

Well, you know how life sneaks up and trips you up sometimes. The boy, who is autitic for those who don't know, just hates getting his haircut. We gave up a long time ago having it cut by a professional since he fought so hard. My Darling Wife tried to cut his hair, with me holding him, but was real uncomfortable with this and then one day she nicked his ear and itr bled and she won't even go near his hair now. That left it up to me to cut his hair with her holding him. We've been doing this for quite a while now and he does not like it and does fight us fairly considerably when we do it.

This afternoon I sat down to let My Darling Wife cut my hair, yes she still does mine, I don't bleed as bad, and the boy came over and watched with interest and started playing with his hair. When I was done I asked him if he wanted his hair cut and he indicated he did in his own way. I started by asking him to sit down but he would have none of that so I started cutting his hair with him standing up. He let me give him a full haircut with nobody holding him just like a big boy. It was so great. I won't say he didn't give me any trouble but he did so good from the days of kicking and fighting that it wasn't even funny. It's hard to describe to you how this made me feel. Joyous, relived, ecstatic, proud are some of the words. The boy is getting big enough that he can be hard to fight so the willingness he showed for having this done was wonderful.

I still won't claim I can cut hair but I am getting pretty good at it anymore. I challenge any non-professional, and most professionals, to do any better on the wiggly, jumpy, moving target I work with. He's getting better though which I am so happy about. Maybe we are making progress with him. Maybe we are doing right. I can only hope. The boy got a treat of ice cream and home made hot fudge sauce for dessert for his good job. He was thrilled.

It's great to have something you can be proud of. Robin Trower

Pumpkin party set for children

Scottish Rite Childhood Language Disorders Clinic is celebrating the seventh annual Pumpkins for Kids 2006 throughout October.

The fundraiser was established to help support therapy programs for children with speech and language impairments and to promote community awareness of speech and language disorders in children.

This year's Pumpkins for Kids Celebration will begin with a Pumpkin Patch Party from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday outside the Language Clinic, at 514 14th St. W. Children of all abilities are invited to take part in activities, including painting pumpkins.

Information on speech and language development in children and tours of the Language Clinic will be offered. The public is welcome.

Pledges will be taken for donations to the Language Clinic throughout October. Everyone who makes a pledge will receive a pumpkin painted by a child who attends therapy at the clinic.

The Scottish Rite is where my boy receives his speech therapy and is a very worthy cause. They help all children, regardless of finances, that need help learning how to communicate with the world. Whether it's teaching sign language or polishing off a small speech impediment they work on it. Anybody in the Billings area able to help, I urge you to. I donate what I can and urge all to. It's definitely a worthy cause.

Try to help others. Consult their weaknesses, relieve their maladies; strive to raise them up, and by so doing you will most effectually raise yourself up also. Joseph B. Lightfoot

We have a new one this fall around the house. Around this area in the fall the wasps all flock to the house and will fly in whenever you open the door. My boy has discovered these wasps. He finds them and insists on trying to catch them with his fingers. We react as quick as we can to get him away from them and to kill them but he does occasionally catch them with his fingers and study them. He seems very proud of the fact that he has the dexterity to catch them.

We jokingly call him The Wasp Whisperer for his antics with these things. Don't get me wrong, we are worried but what do you do. He doesn't grasp that they may hurt them so we do what we can to protect him.

This evening though, the wasp's got him back. One followed me in this afternoon and was flying around the house. The Wasp Whisperer did not see him and all of a sudden it landed on his ear. What did he do? What would you do if you felt something ticklish on your ear and did not know what it was? That's right, he flicked it off. The wasp took exception to this and stung him on his ear as it took off.

The boy had no idea what bit him but was he ever upset. He wanted somebody to pay attention to him and his hurt, but wouldn't let anybody look at it. Finally it quit hurting enough he let us look. A little red mark that is going down all the time. It's looking fine now.

We chased the wasp down and destroyed it but it sure managed to get The Wasp Whisperer back. The big question is will he have learned anything from this. Only time will tell. I hope so, playing with wasps seems like a dangerous hobby for the boy.

The best revenge in the world is success. Suge Knight

At the end of last school year my boy's speech therapist moved on and left us with no one to help him. His Occupational therapist helped pick up the slack but then she moved on during the summer and left us high and dry. We are still in contact with the OT but having a therapist would be nice.

We got good news this week. The speech clinic got a new part time speech therapist and my boy was high enough on the priority list to get him in with her. Whether she will be able to handle my boy is another question. The old speech therapist had been working with kids at the clinic for over 20 years and my boy drove her to tears. She had a hard time dealing with him. He can be a trail, that's for sure.

The initial session with the new therapist went well. My boy dug himself a hole though. He was showing off to the new lady all the things he could do. Now she won't be fooled into thinking he can't do things. He showed way to much and if she will just push him a little he could make real progress. The timing is really good because he is being very verbal right now. He goes in stages and he is really in an up stage right now.

The one thing that I can never figure out is the one reaction we seem to get from every therapist we take the boy to. The first couple of sessions all they can do is sit there and comment on how well behaved, well dressed and clean he is. They reach over and touch his hair and say "He is so clean." We work very hard with him to keep him clean and well dressed. I just can't imagine what these therapists run into to prompt such fawning admiration over how he is dressed and kept. It takes all types I guess.

I'm just glad the Eugene F. Herman Speech and Language Disorder Clinic in Billings finally found someone to fill the position. It's really a big help.

We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. Ronald Reagan

Autism risk linked to older fathers: study

Children fathered by men at age 40 and older have a higher risk of developing autism, possibly because of mutations or other genetic changes, researchers reported on Monday.

The study "provides the first convincing evidence that advanced paternal age is a risk factor for autism spectrum disorder," said the authors from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.

Israel during the 1980s. All males and three-fourths of the females born in the time period involved were checked by Israeli draft officials at age 17 and any psychiatric disorders were recorded.

"Offspring of men 40 years or older were 5.75 times more likely to have (autism disorders) compared with offspring of men younger than 30 years," said the study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Advancing maternal age showed no association," it added.

As if I don't feel bad enough all ready about my Boy's autism, they have to throw this at me. Just make me feel more guilty about it. Damn.

Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannnot endure it.... Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life. George Bernard Shaw

On the left of this picture you see my boy out for his morning walk climbing the hills and rocks for fun. I know it's hard to see but there is a fox on the right hand side of the picture watching him. There is a den of fox on the hill and they are so used to him, they aren't very scared anymore. Best viewed large to see the fox. Taken 6/23/2006.

Autism surrounded by misunderstanding-experts

People with autism are more intelligent and able to function better than previously believed, but mistrust of doctors, biased tests and the Internet have bred myths about the condition, experts said on Sunday.

At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers presented reports showing that even autistics who do not speak can have above-average intelligence. They also offered additional studies disputing claims that vaccines can cause autism.

"The current figures are that 75 percent of autistic people are mentally retarded, with the mute the most ... impaired," said Dr. Laurent Mottron, an autism researcher at Montreal's Hopital Riviere des Prairies.

But Mottron believes the wrong intelligence tests are used to assess autistic children. Many are tested using the Wechsler scale, a common IQ test that includes questions about words and concepts learned in school.

The Raven's Progressive Matrices test measures abstract reasoning and consistently gives autistic children higher scores, Mottron said.

The average boost in score is 30 points, Mottron said, enough to put someone previously considered mentally retarded into the normal range and the average to gifted status.

My boy is more than enough proof to me of this. He might not be able to speak but he is as smart as a whip, in his own way. Don't get me wrong his speech is coming along but he is no where near as dumb as people think he is just because he doesn't speak. He does things that would surprise a person and his sense of humor is flat wicked at times. The sense of humor is really odd in an autistic but he definitely has it.

I guess the moral of the story is don't judge a book by its cover. There is a lot more hiding underneath than you know.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Martin Luther King, Jr.