Autism Sensory Box review

Today I received the Autism Sensory Box it is a monthly subscription box full of fun activities toys and sensory products for autistic children. You can get the standard box for $29.99 a month or a deluxe box for $49.99 a month. I got the deluxe box so lets take a look at what was in it.

1. Zoom Ball

This is a fun game for two people which encourages social interaction. I found this for sale for $10.00

2. Sensory Football

This textured ball has a soothing and calming effect when played with. I found this ball for sale for $2.00

3. Lamaze musical inchworm

This provides sensory stimulation with a variety of textures and sounds. I found this for sale for $17.00

4. Slinky

Just old fashioned fun you can get these for $1.00 each

5. Light up spinning ball wand

with it's lights and movement this can be a great tool for coping with sensory issues you can get these for $4.00 each.

6. Splash balls sports balls

Great for encouraging social play through water wars or for sensory play you can find these for around $1.00 per pack.

7. Light up wand

With multiple settings for the lights provides great sensory input. These are sold for $3.00 each.

8. Finger lights

another fun light up item you can find these for $1.00 per pack.

9. Autism key chain

Cute way to raise awareness for autism. I found this selling for $2.00.

10. Puffer pig

Wonderful feel textured stress ball friend great for decompressing. these sell for $1.00 each.

11. Clown fish swimming bath toy

 pull the fish in his mouth and watch him go helps having a swimming friend to make bath time just a little easier. I found these for $1.00 each.

12. Light up sensory ball

It's textured, it lights up, and it even squeaks these run $1.00 each.

At this point we are already up to a value of $44.00 and there are still 4 more items to go. These last 4 items I was not able to find for sale and I will leave it to you to decided what their value may be worth.

13. sensory inchworm key chain

This has to be my favorite item in the box not only do I think it is adorable but the texture and squishy feel is great for helping me to calm and decompress.

14. Texture Pillow

Just the right size for a child's hands this little pillow was so soft with just the slightest texture to it I loved the feel.

15. Spring Magnet craft kit

Fun little craft to encourage following directions and working together I did this with my youngest and had a lot of fun he is a bit of a perfectionist so did get frustrated when it didn't go on perfect immediately which gave us a great opportunity to use our coping skills. This is our finished product.

16.  Color your own mini drawstring bag

My 2 youngest boys (7 and 9 years old) colored this together with minimal problems was great for practicing cooperation and social interaction skills. This is their finished product.

they each had their own colored and followed each others patterns.

All in all there was a lot of great stuff in this box I truly like it. I think it is great for autistic children and even for young non autistic children for me it was worth the cost and I would recommend checking out. Get your own Autism Sensory Box here

Watch the unboxing on youtube

Boxychan Mystery Box Review

Today I received the Boxychan Star trek theme mystery box. Boxychan has multiple themed mystery boxes you can get for $25 each. If you would like to get your own Boxychan you can do so here.

This is all the great Star Trek stuff we received.

1. Star Trek The Next Generation Comic book vol. 3. I found this for sale on ebay for around $3.00 

2. Hamilton Collection Star Trek collectible plate the original episodes series The Tholian Web. I found this for sale online for around $20.00

3. Spock warp collection fully articulated figure. I found this for sale online for around $25.00

4. Star Trek Emblem t-shirt. I found this same shirt selling for $20.00

With all this stuff in it the total value for this box was around $68.00. That's $43.00 more than the cost so in my opinion this is a great value and I recommend checking Boxychan out. I know I plan on getting a few more themed boxes from them.  If you would like to watch my video review on youtube you can find it here.

Overcoming “Stranger Danger”: One autistic persons struggle to meet new people.

“Stranger Danger” we all learn this when we are young. That you should never talk to strangers because they could be bad and hurt you or even kill you. Now this is all true and a good thing to teach children. Although for me being autistic and instinctual having “stranger danger” drilled into me when I was young caused a lot of challenges. This meant even when I was with my parents or other trusted adult who could keep me safe I still could not talk to strangers. Even children my own age where strangers and therefore off limits. You can see how this made it challenging to make friends. By the time I was a teenager I still could not bring myself to talk to strangers. When I even thought about it I would have a panic attack and if someone tried to make me say hi to a stranger it caused a meltdown. I still had no friends which caused severe depression. I knew it had to change I had to do something but what? This is what I came up with.

·         Step 1: set a long term goal. Mine was to be able to talk to new people and make friends. Now this long term goal is not something that will happen overnight. Keep in mind this will take time.

·         Step 2: set a short term goal. This is should be something that you believe you can do with in a weeks’ time. Mine was I will smile at a stranger and acknowledge them at least 1 time a day. Easy right not so much for me. Here I was the girl who always looked down and acted like I was alone in the world.

·         Step 3: start a journal. This can be written, audio, or a video log whatever works best for you. You will need to document your progress every day. Your first entry should be your long term goal, your short term goal, and a time limit to accomplish your short term goal. I gave myself one week for mine.

At this point you need to document everything to do with your goal. Did you do your short term goal today? If not did you try? What happened?  How did you handle it? Weather you succeeded or failed document it. Tell how you felt or feel about how it went encourage yourself to keep trying. Remind yourself it will take time and it’s ok if you don’t get it immediately. Congratulate yourself when you do get it. Give yourself a reward when you meet your short term goal. Once you have meet your short term goal set a new one with a new dead line. My second one was to say hello to at least one new person a week. This was harder so I gave myself two weeks to do it. Just remember document everything no matter how small. So that down the road as the goals get harder you can look back and see how much you’ve already done to encourage you to keep going.  If you don’t meet a goal in the time you set don’t give up set a simpler goal. It’s ok to take a step back when you need to just so long as you don’t stop. I’ve been working on my long term goal for years and I still struggle with it. Sometimes I have to go back and redo some of my short term goals but I never give up. I now have friends although not many but good ones. So it can and will happen just be patient, take your time, and don’t give up.

Trying New Foods with Autism: Why we are picky eaters.

I hear people all the time asking How can I get my ASD child to try new foods? There is no one thing that will work each one is different. You have to find something that will make them truly want to do it. Let me explain why trying something new is so hard for us. First people with autism are instinct driver and our instincts tell us anything new is dangerous and could potentially kill us. This means where you may think I am simply trying a new food the worst that could happen is I won’t like it. We may understand this logically but our instincts kick in and suddenly the worst that can happen is a horrible, violent, painful death. No matter how much we are told or how well we understand that this is unlikely to happen our instinctual side tend to overpower our logical side and we are truly terrified for our lives. Now not everyone with ASD has this problem with food I do but for others it may be this extreme when they go to a new place, or do things in a different order. Basically anything new or different can cause this reaction. I’m using food because that is the hardest for me. For years I could not explain this. I didn't understand that I was actually physically afraid. I just knew something inside me wouldn't let me do it and made it hard. Sometimes I could fight it and try a new food sometimes I couldn't but I always ended up in tears when I tried. Most times when I did get a bite down within seconds I would declare I didn't like it. I've since learned that one small bite cannot tell me if I like it or not. After the first bite if I don’t have an immediate violent reaction then my body calms slightly and realizes that it will not kill me. I have to wait a few minutes for this to happen and know that I can at least tolerate said food. Once I have relaxed some then I can try a second small bite. Although this is not as hard as the first it is still a challenge and takes an effort to do. This second bite is when I deal with the sensory issues. Do I like the taste? Are there so many flavors that I go into overload? Can I handle the texture or will it cause me to meltdown? Although not as scary as the first bite there are still a lot of questions and fear in the second one. This is the final step to finding out if I like it or can at least handle it. Sometimes taking the first bite is so hard that I don’t have the energy to try that second bite so I have to wait until I’m able to try again this can take a few days. I’m now 38 years old and have tried many new foods in my life and no matter how much I know logically my instincts still kick in and it is still a hard sometimes painful process for me to try a new food. I want to have a healthier diet so I don’t give up. It can be a long slow process and I know some days the fear will win but other days I will. So I just keep at it and celebrate every step I make in the right direction. 

Returning Christmas gifts from a charity

I saw a post on Facebook today that upset me. Someone posted a picture of shopping carts full of toys at Walmart. The story behind them is that they saw them and asked an employee if someone had bought all those toys. The employee says no then proceeds to tell them that they were returned gifts from charities that the parents returned them to get a gift card that they used to buy beer and cigarettes with. The person ends the post by telling people to be aware when giving toy to charity that this is happening. Here are my problems with this post. First when you return something to Walmart do you tell the clerk the whole back story of the item? I know I don’t I just simply say I need to return this. So how would they know these were gifts from a charity? Sounds like they just assumed to me. Second once you have finished the return and have your gift card do you ever go back to customer service and show them what you bought? I don’t, so how would they know what people used the gift cards on sounds like another assumption. Now there very well may be people who do this but to say they all do is just stereo typing and usually not true. My final problem with this post is that it seems to be discouraging people from giving and this makes me sad because for some families the gifts they get from charities is all they get. My family is one of those families and yes I have returned some things we received let me explain why and what I did with my gift card. My oldest son received a very nice coat for his gift. While normally this would be great my son is autistic and the material the coat was made from was one that he can’t wear due to sensory issues. So rather than give him a gift he can’t use and have it collecting dust in his closet I returned it. With the gift card I got for it I managed to get him 1) a set of ear buds the brand he likes and has been asking for, 2) a soft sensory friendly massage pillow that he has also been asking for, and 3) some food for our home since we are running seriously low. NO beer or cigarettes at all. For the same price as one gift we couldn’t use I got 2 he would love and food to keep all of us from going hungry. Here is another one I did, my youngest got 2 presents one was perfect he would love unfortunately the other was a set of sports ball it included a basketball, football, and soccer ball. Normally this would be a great present for a little boy but my son is in a wheel chair so this would just remind him of what he can’t do. So rather than have him be depressed for Christmas I returned it and instead got him a Lego set which is one of his favorite things and he will love. So you see sometimes there is a good legitimate reason why gifts from charities are being returned. Not all of them are returned just to get beer and cigarettes. Most, that I know of at least, do the same thing I did return things their children can’t or won’t use and get things they will. So when you see someone returning gifts don’t judge them or jump to conclusions. Things are not always what you think.

The challenge of not knowing

Raising a disabled child can be challenging, but when you don't have a diagnosis and no idea as to what it might be it makes it even more challenging. My youngest son will be turning 7 this year he started life with the odds stacked against him. Weighing in at only 3lbs 7oz the doctors said he wouldn't survive 48hrs. He surprised them and beat those odds. Over the years we have been told he wouldn't make it another month, or week, or even another day 4 different times. He has proven them all wrong, but it has been apparent that he had some problems. He has been tested for multiple things to date he has been diagnosed with ADHD, autism, and CP. Unfortunately there is still something else going on and we don't know what. For the past 6 months we have watched his legs slowly deteriorate from a clumsy child who can still run, ride a bike, and all the normal stuff to a child who spends half his day in a wheelchair. The doctors have been testing for everything they can think of and so far all the tests have come back normal. They can see that this is happening but have no idea why. He is currently in occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy, but rather than helping it seems to be making him worse. With out knowing what is causing the problem we don't know if we should continue the therapies or not everything is just a big question and it's seems like no one can find the answer. The only thing I know for sure is that my son Caleb is a fighter and will continue to overcome and surprise us and he will do it all with a smile.

10 things I'm thankful for

This week is Thanksgiving so I decided to make a list of things I am thankful for this year. On Thanksgiving I am going to have my children list 5 things they are thankful for I will share their lists on my Facebook page.

1. My Children, The strongest people I know. They have faced every challenge life has thrown at us and stayed happy and smiling through it all.
2. My Friends, who are there when I need a shoulder to cry on.
3. My Father, who my kids and I can look up to and turn to for advice.
4. My Sister, who always has encouraging words when I need them most.
5. God, who has provided a way when there seemed to be none and given us hope, strength, and courage to face our challenges.
6. My Home, having been homeless before having a roof over our heads means a lot to us.
7. My Car, that has been threatening to break down for good but somehow manages to keep going.
8. The Kindness Of Strangers, who have helped us in our time of need by giving us food and clothing when we had no way to get it our selves.
9. The Salvation Army, who is giving us help for the holidays so my children can have at least one gift to open for Christmas.
10. Being able to spend the holidays with my children and father all together, even if we do  end up only having sandwiches.