A great friend of mine whose son also has an anxiety disorder was telling me about how she uses an ipod for a calming tool. Daz and I found a MP3 player (same thing, different name! LOL) in Harvey Norman for $15. So we bought it to see if it would work. $15 - meh, not bad. If it didn't, then I would get it. No big deal.
We took EJ to the shops - THE most stressful place for him. We sat him in the trolley, headphones on while he listened to familiar music. I went to Target AND did a food shop in woolies. And I did not hear a PEEP out of EJ. Usually he is screaming the place down in 10 minutes. He didn't care that we went from shop to shop. He didn't care that he was in the trolley (which is a huge thing for him) and he didn't care what went on around him. He couldn't hear the hollow echoey sounds. All he could hear was his music. He was a very happy boy.
Yesterday in church, we bought them along. He usually starts twitching, and ticking and hyperventilating in church. I spend more time in the "Time in" spot, trying to calm him down than in the actual service. I am pleased to say the music worked a treat. The echoey sounds of the speaker were drowned out by his tunes and he sat mostly very quietly and I only had to take him out once. He wasn't hyperventilating or twitching at all.
Normally those two outings in a weekend would have absolutely sealed his fate as a nightmare for the next three days. He would be whingy, screamy, more prone to meltdowns, not compliant. This morning he's as happy as can be.
AND added to those two outings, we took him to the drive-ins to watch Ice Age 3. We all snuggled into the back of the terrecan under quilts and watched away. It was so awesome to not having him screaming that he wanted to go home. He sat so quietly the whole time.
To most this may not seem like much, but to me, being able to take this boy out of the house and into places he can't cope with - in one weekend - it's a miracle!
So thankyou Donna for the awesome idea! I don't know what I would do without you and your help. You are an ideas woman!
2 comments:
That is AWESOME Skip!! I'm so thrilled you have had such great progress (and as an aside, if you are going to cough up the real thing, I vote for the iPod touch - the video feature is great for entertaining littlies - saved our bacon when Bear had to have a CT!).
So chuffed for you!
I am so pleased you've found a solution for EJ - it sure must have been stressful before.
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