Meltdown Schedule Explained

Tomorrow (technically today as I'm writing at midnight) is Ava's first day of school!  She's in for 1/2 days this week, two days off, and then full time on next Wed.  I'm scared.  Nervous.  Excited!  And I can tell she is too.

I've been tracking our schedule, and with it Ava's meltdowns.  She has a lot of them.  The good news is, Daddy & I have gotten better at helping prevent them.  This doesn't mean she's spoiled and always gets her way.  She has Autism.  Sometimes she just doesn't get it.  Sometimes we do change our minds & it looks like we're giving in.  All the time, with every kid, you have to pick your battles.  We fought a BIG one today.

Ava had a meltdown that lasted an hour.  I'm not exaggerating.  Sixty +/- minutes!  Over walking the dog.  You see, we were headed for a walk in the mountains.  Both of the big girls wanted to hold the dog's leash.  So we played rock-paper-scissors to decide who would walk the dog up the hill, and who would walk her back down the hill.  Ava lost.  We're working hard with her therapist on making a plan & sticking to it.  This was one I wanted to change, but I held firm.  Poor Daddy & Omp (our special name for Grandpa) were left behind.  It was heartbreaking - pounding on the window, screaming so loud we could hear her 3 cabins away, drooling because she was so upset.  I can't imagine how exhausted she was from it.  A meltdown takes a lot of energy - both emotional & physical.

Here's our chart of the last week.  Sunday was the meltdown.  All meltdowns are in black, but you can see how short most of them are.  Last year, when we first started therapy, they could easily be 2 hours long.  And they were 30 minutes at a minimum!  THAT is improvement.  Even if our outside world doesn't see it - we do.

Its all color coded.  Purple is sleeping; Green is active play, household chores, being outside, running around;   Blue is quiet play, reading books, quiet imaginary games; Red is anything tv, computer, ipod related (not counting using the ipod for music).  And of course Black is the meltdown.

See the two days where I can't remember what happened?  They were either really good.  Or really bad.  I honestly couldn't remember.  I now fill my chart out several times a day.  We used to always see meltdowns during transitions - sometimes they occur because of a transition.  Other times we need a transition to get Ava OUT of a meltdown.

Wish us luck & say a prayer.  We're going to need it!  It will be interesting to see how our chart changes with school starting up.

More Schedules

Tonight was day 2 of "get ready to go back to school"  It was a rough one.  It was a rough day.  Its been a rough month.  But we're hanging in there.

Here's what I made for Ava to remember what to do at bed time.

Night time Routine

Its cute - its worth clicking on the link.  This is the same routine we had last year, but now its written down with pictures so she can remember.  I asked if she wanted velcro cards to remove what she'd done, but she said no.  So this is what we have.

Then I ordered a Medicine timer from Amazon.  I'll be able to record 6 sayings and add a timer - starting with "you have 5 minutes before bed."  Its supposed to go off every 5 minutes until you hit the alarm button.  We'll see if this works!

We've been using our seat belt cover quite a bit.  Its a great thing to have, but its distressing to see Ava meltdown when we're driving.  She knows how to unbuckle, so I have to be extra careful to remove anything in her reach that she can use as a tool.  Today, I didn't lock the belt tight enough around her & she wiggled out.  Luckily, I was stopped in a quiet neighborhood at a stop sign.  Unluckily, it was 102 degrees outside and we didn't want to hang out there all afternoon waiting for her to calm down.

Which brings me to this...our Calm Down Box.  I saw the idea on Pinterest (come follow me!) and Emma helped me make it right away.  Ava even got into making it, since its to be her box that's even better!  We used an old pencil box and added a straw, wedding bubbles, Halloween/birthday party PlayDough, a few crayons & a tiny note pad, a small squishy stuffed animal, a whistle, gum, life savers, BandAids, and a lip balm.  (The photo isn't ours, but its similar)

Hope these ideas help us!  The Calm Down Box didn't help today, but you have to use it BEFORE the meltdown starts.  We were too late.  Maybe next time I can catch it before it goes too far.

Oh, one last thing.  I'm going to start tracking meltdowns again.  We know they happen when there's a transition, but there may be more patterns happening that I'm not noticing.  Here's the file we use: Scheldule  I color in the boxes with a crayon/marker/colored pencil, and I keep it color coded by major activities (active play, calm play, school, sleep, electronics).  I color meltdowns in with a thick black sharpie.   She'll see her Neuro Dr in about a month, so this will be good info for the dr.

Play therapy

Ava & I now spend 4 days a week at Children's Village.  I'm so glad its here in town!  What would we do if  we had to drive to Seattle?  Yikes!

Children's Village Blog

I've joined the "Holland" group - its support for moms of Special Needs children.  I never thought I'd be one of these moms.  http://childrensvillage.memfound.org/holland  Its still a bit hard to get used to sometimes.  Ava looks so typical.  You'd never know she might have Autism.

Here are a few pictures of what goes on in Occupational Therapy.

This is a great little board on a lazy susan.  It just spins round & round.

The sensory bin was filled with scented cotton puffs.

The only bad part about OT is leaving.  Transitions are hard for Ava, but this is super fun...I don't want to leave either.  I can't blame her.  Tomorrow, we'll practice leaving - before we even get started.  Wish us luck...and PRAY!  We'll need all the help we can get.