Do people with autism get tired more easily? I feel that Asswipe is always using the excuse that Abbie is tired. She does ABA therapy and it’s tired her out, so he cancels OT because it’s too much for her. Of course that could just be because he doesn’t feel like taking her. Many people get up at 6:30 and do a full day of school or work and Abbie used to as well. At her age she should be fitter than she is, but all she does is a few chores at home and have the occasional walk then she lies around on the couch. What a sad existence she has. And don’t even get me started on the food they serve her. I occasionally see vlogs from other families who have autistic children or teens and they all seem pretty energetic.
I've got one kid who walks instead of runs for 18+ hours a day. They don't get tired. They don't sleep without clonidine at bedtime. They can do various physical and/or mental activities all day and never exhaust themselves. They do, however, get overwhelmed by demands outside their scope of interest. This child is elementary-aged but doing math at an 11th grade (age 16-17 for non-US folks) level or watching recordings of college level physics lectures for fun, yet they will look at a messy room and literally have
no idea where to start or how to straighten it up. Their only possible solution is to shut down completely. They will sit in the middle of the messy floor and stim with a plastic bag or a torn piece of paper for ages.
My other kid has more obvious limits. They have breaks built in to their school day plus they can go to the resource room as needed. This kid gets overwhelmed by everything - either overwhelmed by sensory input or overwhelmed at the effort to participate in a therapy or get through music class at school or whatever. They have trouble with demands, they have trouble with people, they have trouble learning new info, just basic stuff that you or I take for granted each day is a whole mental and physical workout for them. Every day after school they put their shoes on the shoe rack, hang their coat & backpack up, and immediately disappear under a blanket under the dining room table for at least one hour.
I said all that to illustrate that I think in Abbie's case it's less that she's actually
tired and more than she's overwhelmed and just completely shutting down.
At JSA the teachers and therapists would know how to recognize her signs of getting overwhelmed. They would have a structured day with actual therapeutic breaks built in, access to sensory tools, comfort items, things like that. They would work appropriately with Abbie at her level with her sensory needs in mind.
Asa expects Abbie to operate like a typical teen. He says the autism buzzwords but he doesn't actually implement anything in Abbie's day to day life. As we've discussed here a lot lately, he has one specific way things must be done and he will physically puppet her to do a task his way.
Just take a second to put yourself in her shoes. Even as a typical adult, or as an autistic adult with lower support needs than Abbie's, imagine how gross and horrified and squicked you would feel with a large man who smells like old coffee and sweat and mintberry vape juice pressed up against your full body from behind shoving you this way and that while clutching your hands making you do some stupid fishing game that you don't want to do. Really imagine how you'd feel.
Now imagine you deal with that repeatedly throughout the day, then ABA people come over to your house to have you do more stuff, then you get puppeteered after they leave to do some other pointless tasks for the camera, then off you go to OT for more activities. All the while you have no comfort, no way to communicate, no way to choose something else.
Wouldn't you shut down? Hide under a blanket and pretend the world doesn't exist? Just try to sleep in hopes no one bothers you for a little bit?
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Oh and I think they aren’t far from either dropping OT or know they are being dropped as patients.
Oh yeah, OT isn't long for their world. Just like he laid the groundwork for the teacher leaving, he's laying the groundwork for OT ending services, and for them not getting services from a different provider.
That sucks. She really needs intensive OT.
also i would pay good money to watch assa try and climb in and out of his truck like the toddler man he is hahaha
She is a liar.
to get a deal on auto shipments and she has zero responses. Justifying the purchase of a luxury vehicle saying it is for Abbie's comfort may not be sitting well with those who are scrimping on food and other essentials.
