Cap'nSacto
Member
- Location
- Sacramento, Calif
I'll call her Breeze. She's 7, very pretty, has a very sparkly personality. She's also quite tall for her age, and extremely thin for 2 reasons; she doesn't have an appetite and she is in constant motion. Mostly rocking. The rocking is almost violent while she sits, not so bad when she does it standing up...she stands with one foot in front of the other and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. Occasionally she'll also sort of turn her wrists out and wiggle her fingers. She's very attached to a green fuzzy blanket. Even wants to take it into the bathroom with her, which I discourage. She's ok with that if I hang it on the door or over the chair outside the bathroom. She doesn't cry or yell for it, ever, she just says she needs it.
She is very engaging when you have her attention, she talks and all, and has an amazing wit and sense of humor for a 7yr old, but if you don't take the time to engage her she'll turn on her radio and sit and rock with her blanket, "Princess Greenie"...wraps a corner of it around her finger and smells it. She has a back-up "greenie" for when her "Princess" is being laundered, and she can tell them apart immediately though they look identical to everyone else.
She's in 1st grade with the rest of the kids her age, and gets average grades. Struggles with spelling, and even when she knows the correct spelling of a word, she'll spell it "her way", except during a test at school. She loves life, enjoys it thoroughly, is always smiling, always joyful. And she is quite openly friendly, everywhere she goes, people are attracted to her like moths to a flame.
Up until about 2 weeks ago, I babysat Breeze and her 9yr old brother when Mom and Dad had to work on the same night; 2 or 3 nights/wk. The past couple weeks, their oldest brother's girlfriend has been sitting. She's 19 or 20. A nice girl. Loves the kids. But she was yelling at Breeze about the rocking. I saw her do that and lost it. Talked to Mom and Dad about it and they told the girl to stop yelling, and Breeze said she did stop yelling but still tells her, "sharply" (Breeze's word), Breeze! No Rocking!
It's driving me nuts. Mom and Dad talked to the girl about it and she said she knows a kid with autism and the parents were told to discourage the rocking, but what does a 19/20yr old know about it?Maybe she knows a kid with autism, maybe she's full of it. Mom and Dad have an appointment with a pediatrician in a couple weeks. Meantime, I'm going to ask to babysit. As long as Breeze has something to do, play with her dolls, paint, etc., the rocking is kept to a minimum. I just think that if it's something she needs to do, maybe we shouldn't keep telling her not to.
Do any of you have any experience with a mildly autistic child? I'm going to do some online research, but personal experience would be more meaningful. I'm also wondering if autism is progressive. I'll look that up, too. Breeze is such a charming, wonderful little person, I'm concerned this young babysitter is going to "wreck" her.
(might not get back to this til tomorrow..i.e.: later today. Thank you!)
She is very engaging when you have her attention, she talks and all, and has an amazing wit and sense of humor for a 7yr old, but if you don't take the time to engage her she'll turn on her radio and sit and rock with her blanket, "Princess Greenie"...wraps a corner of it around her finger and smells it. She has a back-up "greenie" for when her "Princess" is being laundered, and she can tell them apart immediately though they look identical to everyone else.
She's in 1st grade with the rest of the kids her age, and gets average grades. Struggles with spelling, and even when she knows the correct spelling of a word, she'll spell it "her way", except during a test at school. She loves life, enjoys it thoroughly, is always smiling, always joyful. And she is quite openly friendly, everywhere she goes, people are attracted to her like moths to a flame.
Up until about 2 weeks ago, I babysat Breeze and her 9yr old brother when Mom and Dad had to work on the same night; 2 or 3 nights/wk. The past couple weeks, their oldest brother's girlfriend has been sitting. She's 19 or 20. A nice girl. Loves the kids. But she was yelling at Breeze about the rocking. I saw her do that and lost it. Talked to Mom and Dad about it and they told the girl to stop yelling, and Breeze said she did stop yelling but still tells her, "sharply" (Breeze's word), Breeze! No Rocking!
It's driving me nuts. Mom and Dad talked to the girl about it and she said she knows a kid with autism and the parents were told to discourage the rocking, but what does a 19/20yr old know about it?Maybe she knows a kid with autism, maybe she's full of it. Mom and Dad have an appointment with a pediatrician in a couple weeks. Meantime, I'm going to ask to babysit. As long as Breeze has something to do, play with her dolls, paint, etc., the rocking is kept to a minimum. I just think that if it's something she needs to do, maybe we shouldn't keep telling her not to.
Do any of you have any experience with a mildly autistic child? I'm going to do some online research, but personal experience would be more meaningful. I'm also wondering if autism is progressive. I'll look that up, too. Breeze is such a charming, wonderful little person, I'm concerned this young babysitter is going to "wreck" her.
(might not get back to this til tomorrow..i.e.: later today. Thank you!)