Stickn It To Autism Hockey Tournement

Hi Everyone,

Lucie has decided to host a hockey tournament to support Autism Canada. It takes place on October 23rd. All the details are at:

www.sitahockey.yolasite.com

If you check out the site you can see our little hockey guy who I affectionately call "Winky".
If you want to play on my team, send me an email:

alexstephensmedia@hotmail.com


So, todays topic is How Luc Acts With Technology.

Since birth Luc's interest in things have changed. It was only 2 years ago when I asked my wife "what should we do for Luc's birthday, what does he like the most" Her answer was easy. "anything to do with sand or water". Luc used to love his turtle pool, and equally loved his sandbox. Now, he has no interest in the sandbox, and spends little to no time in the kiddy pool. He does love going to backyard pools and takes swim lessons once a week. He, like any other kid, has changed. This is good. It shows that he is developing, thinking, changing his interest in things. That being said, there is one thing that hasn't changed and likely never will.

Luc loves the computer. He goes to a variety of sites. Mostly pbs.org and Youtube. Putting Luc on the computer is easy for me. When I do, I don't have to entertain him, look after him, or even deal with him. It is the thing to do when I feel lazy. When I don't feel like taking him to the park or giving him 100% of my attention. It also makes me feel like a bad father.

PBS.org has a varity of games, many on the Word World tab that teaches the names of letters, and how to spell easy words. I'm sure that partly because fo this site, Luc is able to read about 80 words. Luc can read more words then he can say.

The issue is this, and this is where autism rears it's head. Luc, of late for some reason cranks the volume on everything. My computer is outfitted with a high quality speaker system and sub-woofer. Luc will crank that thing to 11 and make the house shake. When I yell down to turn it down, I always hear Luc whine back (autism for "I like it loud dad, I can't enjoy this unless it's loud my brain needs it loud - why can't you understand"). He will turn the volume down for a minute, then crank it back up.

I find this behaviour really disturbing. I should point out that many things Luc does on the computer is disturbing. He'll watch the same thing over and over again. Sometimes he watches the same 5 seconds 50 times. Usually a logo will catch his interest. The opening every MGM movie starts the same way, and Luc plays that intro again and again.

I don't know what to do. There was a point Lucie and I totally banned the computer. Luc increased his TV watching and played in the back yard a little more. As time passed, we became less strict, and let him back on-line.

Luc works hard all week, one on one with a ABA teacher. Doesn't he deserve to do what he loves on the weekend?

I don't know what to do. The problem is Luc has no imaginative play. He doesn't play with cars, action figures, balls or toys. I try and get him interested, but he even the hotwheels don't hold his attention very long. Luc doesn't really have any friends. So play dates don't happen. When people that we know that have normally developing children come over, Luc doesn't pay any attention to them, despite attempts from them to break through to him.

So the long weekend is coming and it is going to rain all weekend. My daughter will put on a tea party, and Luc will want to watch the game show network, or play on the computer. I have solved the volume problem by going deep into Windows amd setting the volume on Explorer to the first level. So when he puts the speakers to 11, the sound will be reasonable. I just wish there was something that was good for him to do that would be more social or lend to his creativtiy.

Any ideas?