List Of Anxiety Symptoms In Autism

"Sam I Am"... A story of hope

Seven years and roughly 8 months ago, I was given one of the biggest blessings I will ever have in my lifetime. Samuel Tully Jordan was born, weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs. He was named for my father's best friend, a man I greatly admired, Sam Johnson. Sam passed away due to Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma during my pregnancy. My brand new little Sam was my easiest delivery out of my three children. The only unusual thing that happened during my pregnancy was preterm labor at 34 weeks. My OBGYN slapped me in the hospital, and put me on a magnesium drip for three days to stop the contractions. They stopped - only for me to be induced at 39 weeks because he was such a big baby. I often look back at this scenario and wonder if that is what happened to essentially cause my son to be "different".

I believe in the studies that show a genetic predisposition to Autism. And I believe in a trigger - that elusive something that switches off the light in their eyes. I don't know what Sam's trigger was and I will likely never know. I, like most parents of children with Autism, have spent an inordinate amount of time and expended a tremendous amount of energy and emotion trying to determine what that trigger was.

Sam was a sweet, calm, happy baby. I distinctly remember thinking and saying that God gave me such a good baby because he was my third and I was so thankful! His first symptom? Flapping his hands when he watched Blues Clues. His second? Lining up VHS tapes down the hallway. (Crawling, mind you.) To which my response was to relocate the tapes to an out of reach location because the behavior struck me as very odd. He was making eye contact, responded to his name, and didn't have that spacey, vacant look in his eyes that your "typical" child with Autism has. Sam's pediatrician asked me the normal developmental questions and he wasn't missing milestones. I poured over the Internet looking up symptoms and he just did not fit into the definition of Autism.

By 3 and 4 years old, he spoke in broken, fragmented sentences, and referred to himself in third person. The words you, or I, or me were unknown to him. He would say "Sam bye?" if we were leaving the house. When he wanted milk, he would go to the refrigerator and say "Momma want milk?", combining asking me for milk with stating that he wanted milk. No matter how many times I corrected him or worked with him, he had no comprehension of what I was trying to teach him.

He lined his Thomas The Tank Engine trains and Buzz Lightyears up on window sills and tables, and stared at them, flapping his hands. He drew hundreds and hundreds of tiny circles at the kitchen table. (With a pencil, mind you - his fine motor skills were impeccable.

School Anxiety: A Common Issue for Children with Autism

The start to a new school year can be riddled with anxiety for any child.  When you think of your first days at school, I am sure your memories are mixed with some years having a better start to the school year then others.

Going to a new school or having a new teacher in the same building can be cause for worry even among the most confident of kids.  But when you have a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder their concerns are usually bigger than this. Be it a fear that the teacher will not understand them and their unique way of relating to the world or a sensory sensitivity to noise and a fear of crowds in the hallway or an apprehension about the bus ride, there are many things about school that can have a negative impact on a child with Autism.

And don’t forget the social scene . Some children on the Autism spectrum do enjoy being in their own little world and need to be drawn out to be social. Many long to be socially accepted yet need to be taught the social skills necessary to develop friendships.  “Will I fit in and make a friend this year or will I be bullied?”  is often a question that looms in the minds of autistic children as they begin a new school year.