Autism & Impulse control issues
Doctors first mentioned autism when Danny was around 3. The neurologist said that Danny had autistic tendencies. Back then, autism was not a household name. In fact, Kevin & I forgot that the doctor had even mentioned it to us. After all, we had no idea what autism was. Although Danny’s seizures and the experimentation with medications was often times difficult, Danny’s challenging behaviors were 24/7. Danny was always into everything. He would take all the glasses out of the cabinet and pour all of them with milk, tea, water, or whatever he could find. He would even drink from the fish tank! As soon as you would get that cleaned up, he would already be off throwing toys in the toilet, turning the TV on ‘snow’ at full blast, or dumping chips all over the floor. It was constant. He would chew on batteries, paper, or whatever he could get his hands on. We would soon learn to lock everything. Kenny’s bedroom door stays locked or Danny gets in there and plays with videos and other items. There are double dead bolts on all outside entrances to keep Danny from leaving. We’ve locked TV’s, stereo cabinets, once Kevin tried to put a lock on our $600.00 refrigerator; unfortunately severing the main seal. Mom has fished Danny out of a lake 3 times, where he otherwise would have drowned. There were many times that one of us would come home, after only being gone for less than an hour, to find the other one ready to loose their mind. Danny would get up at night 2 to 3 times every night when he was younger. He did not begin sleeping consistently for up to 5 hours straight until he was 12 years old. Even now his sleep patterns can sometimes be hit or miss. Maturity has helped us tremendously. Taking behavior modification classes, working closely with Danny’s neurologists & psychiatrist, private OT & speech therapy, and most of all finding the Lord, has helped us find the tools to manage these challenging times with Danny.
Danny has always suffered from a limited amount of speech. He can pronounce maybe ½ of the alphabet and speaks in one, sometimes 2 word gestures. At around age 10 we learned how to bridge the gap in Danny’s communication struggles. We took a 3-week, full day parent training class at the
