[MindfulBirth]

My daughter has Landau Kleffner Syndrom - an epilepsy syndrome with constant subclinical seizures. Because of that, she has some autistic-type mannerisms, including living in her own little world. She talks to herself and play acts whatever is going on in her head. She cannot pay attention and will wonder off - lost in her own thoughts- if not watched carefully. Because she is not paying attention, she falls down a lot and has enough bruises on her body to give any social worker pause. When asked questions or prodded to join the real world, has a hard time looking me in the eyes, as she really wants to get back to her own world. She is 7, by the way.<br><br>
Does your special needs child also live in their own little world? How do you deal with it? I would love to hear from mothers of both autistic and non-autistic children.

 

[confustication]

I have an eight year old with Asperger's. Yes, she lives in her own little world a lot, but she's been learning to come out of it more and more regularly as she's matured. Additionally, I learned to let her draw me in with her so that we could both better understand where she is and what she needs.<br><br>
Really though, the change over the past year or so has been AMAZING and she doesn't retreat into herself nearly s often as she once did. (This shift really coincided with pulling her out of public school and starting to home school her. In our situation, that was the key to alleviating her anxiety enough to let her step into being comfortable in her own skin.)

 

[2boyzmama]

My aspie brother is like this, still at age 17 even, although not nearly like it was when he was younger. We used to think that he had the attention span of a gnit, but then we realized that it's not that his brain was jumping from one thing to another constantly (like ADD), rather his brain was always inside itself, so he could only pull out of his head for short periods of time (if that makes sense).<br><br>
My 3 year old is hearing impaired and speech impaired, and he often just kind of "shuts off" his ears and with them the outside world, and seems to retreat inside himself to what I can only imagine is his own little silent world. He is so engrossed in it, sometimes it's hard to pull him out.<br><br>
I imagine it's like you or I being underwater, nearly oblivious to any of the sounds/activities on shore. Have you ever gone snorkeling or scuba diving? I once was snorkeling and had no clue how far I had swam or how late it had gotten until I had to surface because I heard boats nearby. I ended up swimming to shore and walking for quite a while to get to my gear! I even had a buddy with me, and we both were so engrossed in the underwater world, we had completely separated from reality.<br><br>
So anyway...there's three examples of retreats and three very different "causes" (Autism spectrum, hearing loss, and recreation).<br><br>
Have you talked to her drs? Is it possible to switch up her meds at all maybe?

 

[sbgrace]

Wow. She sounds a lot like my spectrum kiddo (though he can/will engage with us--he shares his stories in his mind). He's a challenge to homeschool. I've got no reason to think he's got seizures (sleep study was seizure activity free) but yes he lives in his own world in his mind and it's quite the creative one. He's got a metabolic condition/his autism is atypical.<br><br>
Is there no way to control the seizures in that syndrome?

 

[MindfulBirth]

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Is there no way to control the seizures in that syndrome?</div>
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It is very hard to control the subclinical seizures. We've tried many different meds and combinations of meds, including steroids and valium. Some days I'm not sure which is doing more damage, the seizures or the steroids. We asked the neuro to give us the summer without changing meds. We are trying to switch to a no-processed foods diet in hopes that it will at least help alleviate some seizures and/or symptoms. This is tough because, like many special needs kids, she is a veeeery picky eater and sometimes McDonalds is the only thing she will eat.<br><br>
Thank you all for sharing.. I would love to pull her out of school, but my husband is dead set against it. We are going to have her repeat 2nd grade next year. I'm hoping that by placing her with kids who are younger, that she will come out a little more socially - she just does not relate to her peers at all.<br><br>
She plays soccer on the city youth league. Her little sister loves it and is a good soccer player. My daughter is her team' Cheif Daisy Picker, however, and will wander off the field in the middle of the game. It makes me wonder if I should keep pushing her into social situations or just let her stay in her little world.<br><br>
Confustication - I like how you said you try to get your child to let you into her world instead of always trying to draw her out. I will try that.

 

[sbgrace]

Mindful birth <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/hug.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="hug"><br>
In my opinion (and experience) putting our kids with other kids doesn't draw them out. They are missing all the stuff before that point. Think of 12 month olds--they aren't doing what peers are doing--they are immitating their adult guides (parent/caregiver). Our kids weren't/aren't even doing that in many cases. So I think you need a different approach so she discovers she can learn from you and as she gets comfortable with that she branches out to siblings and then to one peer and on...that's how normal child development works.<br>
Floortime might help you join her world to help her learn to step into yours more. We do RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) but without insurance covering it we couldn't afford it. But a developmental approach like one of those would, I think, work better than trying to get her to learn from peers.<br>
My kid would be the daisy picker too. That's partly because, though he's come a long way (he plays w/his brother now) he's just not socially ready for that type of situation. And, outside of autism, I believe he's got a "daisy picker/dreamer" personality through and through.