"It's OK!!"

Children in the autism spectrum are often overwhelmed by a variety of situations. Bright lights, loud noises, crowds of people, certain textures, etc can provide much distress for them. You may hear of this being referred to as "sensory integration dysfunction."

(To get a little "technical" for a moment), the site: http://www.sensoryint.com/faq.html provides a good explanation of what sensory integration is:

>>The senses work together. Each sense works with the others to form a composite picture of who we are physically, where we are, and what is going on around us. Sensory integration is the critical function of the brain that is responsible for producing this composite picture. It is the organization of sensory information for on-going use. For most of us, effective sensory integration occurs automatically, unconsciously, without effort. <<

But because sensory integration does NOT always come automatically for the autistic individual, their environment can become very overpowering. As hard as it is for most people, (myself included), to comprehend, it can be literally PAINFUL to them. Couple that with an autistic person's desire for sameness and routine...you can imagine how diffult certain situations can become.

While Jacob's issues with SID are fairly minimal as compared to other autistic children, there are some situations that have been a bit more challenging.

When he was much younger, he would cry out "Ahhhh DOOOO DOOOO DOOO DOOO" frantically over and over again when distressed or scared. In my efforts to calm and assure him, I would cuddle and stroke his back and say, "It's OK Jacob. It'll be alright."

As he's grown older, he still has his fears and still may become overwhelmed at times, but he is getting so much better at calming and reassuring himself. "DOOO DOOO DOOO" has now been replaced with a "It's Ok!! It's Ok!!", which he will repeat several times until he has convinced himself of it!

Grandma and Grandpa have taken Jacob to Cabela's on a couple of occasions. There is a big stuffed moose that used to send him into an absolute tailspin! He would start on his mantra, try to climb out of the shopping cart and would be very difficult for them to control. A few weeks ago Grandma and Grandpa had made another trip there with him and they were particularly cautious when passing by Mr. Moose.

Much to the amazement of Grandpa and Grandma, the first pass by Mr. Moose produced zero response from Jacob. "WOW!" my Mom later commented to me, "He's finally gotten over that moose!"

As they were leaving and approached the moose a second time, Jacob very nonchalantly stated, "It's OK." (Translate: "OH YEAH!! I'm supposed to be afraid of that moose! Nahhhh....it's ok!")