Autism lockdown stories – Jasmine and Caelen.

Welcome to the second guest post in my Autism lockdown series. This is the lockdown story of Jasmine and Caelen. Caelen was due two weeks after Edward in 2013 but ending up arriving two weeks before. So both of our boys are the same age.

I’m sure you will enjoy reading this story. As you will see, their story is completely different from mine and Edward’s and Keeley and Preston’s.

Jasmine and Caelan.

I wasn’t sure just where to start, so I’ll start by saying this year has been turned upside down by everyone’s account, but one person in my home is finding the challenges of lockdown a lot harder than everyone else. My 6 year old son Caelan, he has autism. He was diagnosed in 2017 after years of assessments. 

It’s been 7 weeks since Caelans last day at school, we weren’t aware it would be his last day- his younger sister had a temperature meaning we had to self isolate the household, whilst we were self isolating the schools shut. At first he didn’t appear that bothered by the change of routine at all, infact i felt quite relieved that he appeared to not miss usual routine like I thought, but I can now say I was definitely wrong, it was short lived and I can only assume he must have thought he had bagged himself a long weekend!

Our days are feeling much longer, the nights are much more sleepless and mornings are usually before sunrise, his breakfast routine is fairly rigid and always has been, he has the same thing for breakfast every morning, in the same bowl, in the same place at the table. And our daily exercise has become somewhat of a ritual. Then every evening without fail he will watch spongebob squarepants!

Everything in between feels a bit like I’m winging it (I mean, aren’t we all?), and I tend to face challenges as they come up at the moment- where as before I’d think ahead. 

Caelan sees the world very much how it is, everything is very black and white with no grey area in between and to get him to engage with something, he must be interested in it, otherwise there really isn’t any engagement or interaction from him. This has also meant that anything that looks remotely like school work, isn’t entertained, which can be extremely frustrating, knowing he is already in a more vulnerable position than his peers to fall even further behind. Thankfully his SENCO and classroom teacher have always been at the end of an email or the phone to offer advice on what I can try.

However since the lockdown begun he’s had a really strong interest in bugs and insects, in particular wasps and bees. This means I’ve been drawling lots of hives, lots of bees and when on walks we have to find lots of bugs! But it’s working, and it’s a rather big victory as for the first time in weeks I’m getting some engagement from him that has an educational motive behind it, without total refusal or zero interaction. 

On the whole for us, an autism household in lockdown, routine is safety, it’s something that he knows is coming, it means that he has control in some aspects of his life in what no doubt is a really difficult time for him, routine can calm and soothe him, it can help keep him just above the water when I know he’s struggling to swim. 

Every anxious jump, every excited spin, every ear covering moment when he shouts or shrieks, hits me or pulls over the furniture, I can only try and imagine how frightening this all is for him.

So as you can see, every autistic child is so very different. Please comment below with what your experience has been like.