Sunday, July 4, 2010

Fireworks

We took the kids to the park for fireworks last night. Joseph had seen fireworks before, last year we saw the fireworks in Port Clinton and they were much closer, bigger, louder and brighter. I'm aware that ASD comes with sensory problems frequently, but we're still "feeling" that out.

Last night, he was only a little squirmy before the fireworks began. But once they started, he was screaming and frantically trying to escape his mother's grasp. Once she wrapped him in a blanket, he seemed to calm down some. By the end of the show, he was clapping. We don't know if he was upset because he wanted to try to get closer to the fireworks, because he wanted to run off and frolic on the grass, or if the display was overloading his senses. Typically, (if I understand it correctly) he seems to be trying to stimulate his senses, compensating for a lack of stimulation by biting his arms or banging his head softly on walls and bookshelves. I don't know if people with ASD experience both lack of and over-stimulation at different times though. If only he could talk, he could tell us what he wanted. But that day will come.

Joseph, before the fireworks started.

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