Nonverbal children and illness

I work with autistic children and two of them are nonverbal. One is 14 and 1 is 5. I can tell you that it does get easier as he gets older but Im sure that is a small ray of hope right now. I've learned to watch their facial expressions. The way you and I experience pain was a learned behavior. Your son more than likely hasn't learned that. But the body still reacts the same when its hurt. His eyes will get glassy or he will squeeze them shut. Now of course that only helps if he is in serious pain. The little things are harder to detect, like a sore throat or tummy ache. But chances are he isn't bothered by those things ghe way you and I would be. He probably realizes something isn't right but as far as on the pain scale goes, it just doesn't register with him. I know you are doing a wonderful job and just trust your instincts. Momma always knows best, even if you don't think you do at the time.

I have a four year old son that has spina bifida and hydrocephalus. He is able to speak now but what I am saying is he was late to speak compared with other children of his age. The first day he went to playgroup for mainstream children he talked. It was like a volcano erupting the way all the words fell out of his mouth. He was three years old and before that time speech therapists hadn't got anywhere with helping him. I used Makaton signing with him before he knew how to speak. I also used picture cards to show him the sequence of what would be happening. From six months of age my disabled son went to a playgroup for children with special needs. One dad told me when he learned Makaton he was able to have a full conversation with his son for the first time ever. His child doesn't yet have a diagnosis but I think that child is a autistic possibly. I used to know my disabled son had a headache the way his kept touching is head when he was two years old. Due to the hydrocephalus he has a shunt in his head. Taking the temperate and looking at the urine because it can get dark or cloudy. My disabled son is prone to urine infections, coughs and vomiting. When he gets a couch it can turn into a chest infection. Maybe you could get a doll and say want hurts? Good luck.

I have two children with Autism - my 8yr old was non-verbal until 4 and my 4yr old is low verbal and has Apraxia so he is most likely never going to be fully verbal. He also suffers from seizures. "It makes a lot of everyday things difficult; it's hard to know what he wants and he gets upset at not being able to express himself." I know it is frustrating for the both of you. One thing I did to start is I took pictures of what he needed to tell me (favorite foods for the kitchen, bathroom needs for the bathroom, favorite items and activities, ect) and cut them out and put them on poster board and hung it up on the wall. If I couldn't get what he was trying to tell me, then I would ask him to show me. You may have to take him to the boards to start with and say something like "do you want the pizza or the milk" while pointing to the picture. He'll catch on to the system after a few runs. I may ease some of the frustrations. I use real pictures because some of the drawn ones don't make sense to children like ours. But a lot of our kids tend to do best with picture cues. Also work some basic sign language so he can tell you things to help meet a need. My son knows things like more, all done, eat, drink, toilet, change... The more ways he can make you understand the better he will feel and the more communication you will see. [i] What's disturbing me the most right now though is how difficult it is to determine his symptoms when he's ill. ... Those types of things are things that a lot of parents take for granted being able to have their kid tell them, but it's very difficult when your child just can't express it.[/i] My son doesn't feel pain the way other kids do. He broke his arm in a fall and I took him into the ER. I could tell something was wrong because he was acting in a way that made it clear but he wasn't yelling, crying or fussing so the ER dr. thought I was full of it. It took the x-ray tech calling her before she believed me. He had a fracture that required a splint for 8 weeks. So I get what you mean. I hate when he is in pain and I can't fix it. Or when the doctors look in his ears and tell me "didn't you know he had an infection?" - No, he hasn't complained. I would suggest two things.... 1. give him a full body picture (like the ones I talked about above) and teach him how it matches his own (eyes, for eye). Then when you know he's caught on, ask him things about that... is it fun when I tickle your toes *point to toes* does it hurt here? 2. Give him pictures of different feelings and teach him what they mean. Do this when you are in Play mood "Look at mommy make a sad face. Can you make a sad face or show mommy which of these are sad?"

I'm sorry to hear about your son's condition. I have seen several health related programs on TV, what you can do according to some experts in the field is learn sign language with your son. For each emotion or behaviour you should have one particular sign that represents it. I'mm not an expert, it's best to enroll him to a school for special children that way you can interact with other parents having the same issues.