T
TeDo
Guest
difficult child 2 became a difficult child (from a total easy child) last spring when puberty set in. Now, his Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) symptoms are getting worse also and the typical teen is causing problems with how he handles the situations.
His rigidity (intolerant of ANY change) is the biggest issue. Like when they do school, he sits to the left of me and difficult child 1 sits to the right. Yesterday, difficult child 1 was sitting on "difficult child 2's chair" playing with the dog. When I said it was time to get back to work, difficult child 1 said "hey difficult child 2, lets switch places today". difficult child 2 went ballistic because that was HIS chair, has "always" been HIS chair, yada yada yada. He ended up shoving difficult child 1 onto the floor.
In our living room, we have my recliner and a sofa. difficult child 1 is seldom home so difficult child 2 usually sits at the end of the sofa closest to the TV (the sofa is across the room from the tv). When difficult child 2's gone and difficult child 1 is home, difficult child 1 sits at that end of the couch. When difficult child 2 comes home, he insists that difficult child 1 move from HIS spot on the couch. He will sit on difficult child 1 until difficult child 1 moves just to breathe (difficult child 2=6' & 180 lbs; difficult child 1 5' & 75 lbs).
We have always eaten meals at about noon and 5-5:30 and when they were younger, they had a snack after school around 3:30. difficult child 1 HAS to eat AT those times and he HAS to have a snack at 3:30 as well as at bedtime. He will have a meltdown if I try to stop those. He's not a little kid so he doesn't NEED snacks at all and the kinds of "snacks" he eats are ice cream, chips, cookies, etc. Heaven forbid I even mention he eat something even remotely healthy.
Now that we have difficult child 1 in a "good" place, difficult child 2 is going to the "bad" place. I guess it shouldn't surprise me. Even as babies they never did ANYTHING (eat, sleep, etc) at the same time no matter how hard I tried to get them on the same schedule so why should this be any different.
I don't know what to do with difficult child 2. He's never been to a psychiatrist but I might have to go that route. It's just that it's so opposite of how he's always been and I feel differently about his behavior as opposed to difficult child 1's because difficult child 1 has always been like this. difficult child 2 hasn't and I feel totally out of my element.
Any suggestions?
His rigidity (intolerant of ANY change) is the biggest issue. Like when they do school, he sits to the left of me and difficult child 1 sits to the right. Yesterday, difficult child 1 was sitting on "difficult child 2's chair" playing with the dog. When I said it was time to get back to work, difficult child 1 said "hey difficult child 2, lets switch places today". difficult child 2 went ballistic because that was HIS chair, has "always" been HIS chair, yada yada yada. He ended up shoving difficult child 1 onto the floor.
In our living room, we have my recliner and a sofa. difficult child 1 is seldom home so difficult child 2 usually sits at the end of the sofa closest to the TV (the sofa is across the room from the tv). When difficult child 2's gone and difficult child 1 is home, difficult child 1 sits at that end of the couch. When difficult child 2 comes home, he insists that difficult child 1 move from HIS spot on the couch. He will sit on difficult child 1 until difficult child 1 moves just to breathe (difficult child 2=6' & 180 lbs; difficult child 1 5' & 75 lbs).
We have always eaten meals at about noon and 5-5:30 and when they were younger, they had a snack after school around 3:30. difficult child 1 HAS to eat AT those times and he HAS to have a snack at 3:30 as well as at bedtime. He will have a meltdown if I try to stop those. He's not a little kid so he doesn't NEED snacks at all and the kinds of "snacks" he eats are ice cream, chips, cookies, etc. Heaven forbid I even mention he eat something even remotely healthy.
Now that we have difficult child 1 in a "good" place, difficult child 2 is going to the "bad" place. I guess it shouldn't surprise me. Even as babies they never did ANYTHING (eat, sleep, etc) at the same time no matter how hard I tried to get them on the same schedule so why should this be any different.
I don't know what to do with difficult child 2. He's never been to a psychiatrist but I might have to go that route. It's just that it's so opposite of how he's always been and I feel differently about his behavior as opposed to difficult child 1's because difficult child 1 has always been like this. difficult child 2 hasn't and I feel totally out of my element.
Any suggestions?