My Cute Little Bird

The first sign we had seen was when Adrian was around 6 months, he would take this little elephant toy, and would sway his finger back and forth against the tail.  It seemed odd, but it didn't last too long and so his father and I figured it was just him exploring or just a phase he was going through.

 

...Nope...

Around the time Adrian was walking we noticed that he flapped his hands when he got excited.  We just thought it was some cute thing he does and didn't think much about the behavior.  I saw my baby as my cute little bird.  Later we came to understand that what he was doing was called Stimming.

Adrian's stimming started with him flapping his hands.  He did this, at first, when he got excited and then he continued to do it when he started running or when he got mad or frustrated.  We started noticing that the behavior was getting worse and were advice to start working on the issue.  So we did. 

Whenever he would start stimming we would take his hands and slowly put them to his sides.  After doing this for awhile, the flapping stopped, but he began stimming off the curls of his hair.  For the longest time Adrian had beautiful long curls.  He would place his hands to his forehead and flap his hands around the curls.  This stimming action was the hardest to break him out of.  Everytime he would do it, he would arch his back foreward and did it more aggressively than with just flapping his hands.  So again, whenever he would stim, we would take his hands and put them to his sides.  This time, however, we would try to divert his attention and try to find him an interest in something else. 

Currently Adrian takes objects like strings, belts, plastic snakes, slinkies, anything really that is string like and uses those to stim off of.  Like the times before it began aggressively and was the only thing he wanted to do.  We were a lot more aggressive about the stimming and we got him to stop for a while, but it seemed that when he stopped stimming, the more angry he was.  He was always upset and seemed miserable.  He would try to sneak stim, but look around, stop himself and sometimes even cry a little bit.  It broke my heart. 

It got to the point that we allow him to stim once in a while just to help him control his nerves.  It is something I came to realize that he needed to do and to break him off of it slowly, not trying to force him to break it off cold turkey.  I see it almost like a drug.  I know that when I first quit smoking it was one of the hardest things I had to do because my body craved it.  I try to think of stimming as something like that and I have to think about how hard it would be for someone, especially for a child who is currently only 5.  Taking the stimming slow with Adrian has been good for him.  I know some people might think that a prson should be aggressive, but it is different for each child and each child stims differently.  Adrian stims off of string like objects, some kids stim off of buttons or spinning wheels. 

I just happened to notice that us breaking Adrian off the stimming slowly is not making him miserable.

Do we have a mix up?

So... through our journey we discovered something called Apraxia.  There are different forms of it, just like Autism, but it has came to our attention because it is believed that Adrian might have Apraxia.  Though he does show signs of Autism, he shows more signs of Apraxia and his behaviors aren't that of a "typical" Autistic child.

 

It isn't for sure that Adrian is Apraxic and not Autistic, but needless to say either way the journey has and will be a long one.  Roughly about 75% of children are misdiagnosed with Autism, when in reality, they have some form of Apraxia. 

 

Autism and Apraxia have many, many similar symptoms.  The biggest difference with Apraxia and Autism is that Apraxic children tend to not be as shut off as Autistic children are, but Apraxic children typically have more speech development problems.

 

I have compiled a list under the tap "Autism vs. Apraxia" on the top of my blog.  It doesn't have all the signs listed, but it is a good start for comparing.  Depending on the age, it will be incrediably difficult to determine whether or not it is Apraxia or Autism, sometimes a child can even have both!  But being aware of the possibilty can help you to get services you need and therapies that you can do at home or go to.

 

For myself, having the knowledge of Apraxia and seeing my son's difficulty with speech and how it relates to a child with Apraxia rather than Autism has been a huge help in his therapy.