Mall of America - Bloomington, MN

Mall of America has 520 stores, 50 restaurants and several attractions. We took Aiden to Sea Life Aquarium and the indoor theme park, Nickelodeon Universe.  The aquarium was pretty cool.  Aiden got to touch stingrays as they swam by in a shallow pool and then we walked through a clear tunnel and got to see the sharks, turtles, etc. swimming around and above us - excellent views. Afterwards we walked over to Nickelodeon Universe and Aiden got on almost every ride, several times. And of course, we ended the day at the Lego store.  Aiden really enjoyed everything about this trip and I’m pretty sure he would love to go back.

Vision Therapy

In the beginning of our autism journey I read a lot of books about treatments and therapies for autism. And one of the books that really stood out to me was about vision therapy.  I learned about the difference between vision and eyesight.  I knew that Aiden could see (eyesight) but what I didn’t know was how his brain processed what his eyes saw (vision).  Many people with autism have difficulty processing and responding to information from their senses - sensory issues.  I knew Aiden did.  And vision therapy is suppose to be able to help with these sensory issues because it “retrains” the brain. Since the visual system relates to motor, cognitive, speech, and perceptual abilities, these areas can also be affected when the visual processing is interrupted. The goals of the treatment program are to help the individual organize visual space and gain efficient visual information processing.  Sounds great! Sign him up! That’s what I thought and that’s what we did.  But like our trial with music therapy (although this was way more expensive), we were unsuccessful.  Aiden was very young, very nonverbal, and very all over the place.  He just absolutely could not keep his body still enough to focus on anything with instruction.  And this was not something that we just tried for 2 weeks then gave up.  We did this for probably close to a year and looking back now all I can say is that he just wasn’t ready, or these therapies needed dramatically more time and money than we had to give. Aiden is way better suited now to try this out but unfortunately it is very expensive and just not something we’re able to do right now.  Maybe one day.

Easter Egg Hunt - Sleepy Hollow, IL

This past year I took Aiden to the Sleepy Hollow Easter egg hunt.  I think I had heard about it through Aiden’s baseball program coordinator. I knew that they were going to have a section for special needs kids so I was excited to take him.  The reason for that section was so that our kids actually get a chance at finding some eggs.  All the eggs were scattered about the field and then the field was roped into sections by age categories and special needs.  They didn’t want all the kids to start hunting at the same time so the kids had to wait until their group was announced.  The problem with that was that they called the special needs group last or very close to it.  I realize that all kids are impatient but to try to keep some of these children with autism still was difficult and they couldn’t understand why they couldn’t look for eggs when they could see all the other kids doing it.  I think the organizers should have had the special needs kids start at the same time as the youngest age group kids. Other than that, I think it was a pretty decent Easter activity.  There were little candies inside the eggs and if you were lucky to find an egg with no candy but a ticket instead, you could go up to the table and choose a big regular size candy bar.  Aiden really liked that.  They also had the Easter bunny ride in on a fire truck to give hugs and take pictures with the kids.  It was cute but the loud siren did seem to be a little overwhelming for some of the kids.  Aiden was a little startled but then he got okay with it.