How I Calm Down During A Meltdown by Jacob Klein

Jacob's Disclosure About Autism/Asperger's from Decoration & Design

SlideShare is a social media, content creation and sharing platform. I have been using SlideShare for over six years  and it has evoled into a site that I am proud to be a part of. Slideshare, at one time onlly hosted PowerPoint Presentation. Today they also offer for creative PDF's, emails, brochures, newsletters,movies, info graphs, etc. The PowerPoint above Jacob created when he was 12 years old. He wanted to be able o share with his new teachers each yeat about his diagnosis and the symtopms  he has as well as how he calms dow. The below PowerPoint was created by me as I am a huge proponent of accepting Autism rather than working tirelessly to fnd a cure. Those who do this, in mu opinion, only miss some great strides that their children may make.

Autism - One of my Passionate Interests from Decoration & Design

This is a letter Jacob wrote about how he calms down when he is stemming or very anxious. I truly do love having this time with him because I never know what tomorrow brngs so I am finally about to make the best out of any situation that happens my way. Those people who don't practice this will only fail themselves and be a miserable person.

How I Want To Be Treated

The way I wanted to be treated. The article I read talked about autistic people on Reddit talking about how they wanted to be treated and I agree with most of the things they have mentioned. For example, I am horrid with social interactions with new people and I’m as awkward as President Clinton when he got accused of cheating on his wife and he couldn’t lie at all about it during a press conference. To put it bluntly, I’m horrible at it and I’m completely blind to people's tone of voice and facial expressions. People, unfortunately, look at me like I grew a second head and I get embarrassed and it only gets worse from there.

I also love my privacy but people don’t listen to me sometimes. When I say I want to be left alone, I mean I want to be left alone. I am a very chill person so I can’t handle hyper children running around and screaming their heads off. I like relaxing either reading, writing, or just watching youtube. People, though, just don’t have good  common sense like some students at my school. It’s quite annoying when the person I don’t like start talking to me after I said don’t talk to me over and over again.

I’m quite blunt and I’m not subtle when I say something or ask something. It’s not my personality to be subtle and people sometimes don’t like that when subtleness and being tactful is the best solution. I would be a horrible politician and political leader of a party and country; however most politicians are snakes anyway so I don’t mind very much about that. Ah, dry humor. My favorite humor of all time. Insulting politicians aside, I’m not subtle and probably never will be.

Won't You Pledge Too?

Regards,
~ Jacob Klein
 ~ Holley Jacobs

Steam Heart of Gold

**Vitnir on Deviantart

Steam sent flying through pipes intertwining and interconnecting

Loud whistles and bells make noises as steam pumps faster in the pipes

They keep a heart made out of bronze and copper alive through it’s pain

Through its turmoil and through its happiness and it's depression

They keep a young boys life from shutting down

Keeps it from rusting and decaying through the boy's life

Though… the boy wants it to rust

He wants it to die because he is tired of the neglect

Tired of the abuse and mistreatments of friends and people he knows

He wants it to become cold and desolate

To be scraped and torn apart by scavengers

To be demolished and condemned like the days of steam punk

But soon, he realized he had been mistaken

He should live and excel and improve

Because he knew his steam heart was a heart of gold

And he would always care about others

This is Phoenix signing off.

April Again Is Here - Autism Awareness Month

We have made a video each April for Autism Awareness since 2011. We haven't done that this year. We have bigger plans but I wanted to share my three favorite videos. Jacob and I worked hard on these videos and I am proud to call him my son, my heart, and my soul. He makes me proud every day and there are many days I wonder how I got so lucky to have such a compassionate, caring son. What makes me so special? I now realize that it is not me that is special and I am supposed to help him but the exact opposite, in fact. He was given to me by God because HE is SPECIAL and he helps me on a daily basis. Watching him grow into a smart, young man has been a joy that no one can take from me nor share with me. It is something that only Jacob and I share and for that; 

I AM PROUD TO BE AN ASPIE MOM!!

Regards, 
~ Holley Jacobs

Understanding Autism Meltdowns

Chapter Four of AsperTools is an interesting chapter about meltdowns. As a mother of a child that used to have meltdowns so often and significant that I could not take Jacob out in public. People would stare and make comments either about his "behavior" and my "parenting skills". It was, quite frankly, easier to stay at home. Over the years of learning about Autism/Asperger's, I have concluded how to work with them and my son, rather than avoid everyone else on earth. I got to a point where I didn't care anymore if people stared at me; it was not going to affect my daily life nor the life of my child. He has every right to go on field trips and vacations as any other child.

Now that Jacob is 18 and about to graduate from high school, meltdowns are less frequent but are just as severe. The good news is that Jacob is able to express his side of meltdowns. I have always been observant of his meltdown symptoms but they have changed over time. This is one area that chapter four doesn't mention.

 The main gist is that "an ounce of prevention is truly worth a ton of cure".  **Source

 #Autism #Aspergers #self-soothing of #meltdowns need to be taught to youth who experience them."

The author and his daughter are absolutely delightful in their remembrance of events such as meltdowns. The chapter shows the human side of the parent whose first respond is to get angry and yell (have to admit guilty here too). Unfortunately, that is not the way meltdowns work. They are a part of my son, not a temper tantrum that needs the kind of discipline that people in public will state he needs. Instead, I had to learn not only to be very observant of Jacobs' signs but also aware of my own responses. Once a meltdown starts, it is near impossible to stop it. From that point on, you are just along for the ride. I learned that the hard way too. 

Sometimes Teens With Asperger's And Social Awkwardness Gets The Pretty Cheerleder

Youth on the high-end spectrum of Autism, formerly known as Aspergers' usually has a higher degree of social awkwardness. This social awkwardness can be doubly hard if the youth doesn't get the positive response they seek. They will then resort to one of two areas - they will retreat to their rooms that are full of solitude and not face the issue of socialization or they will feel the need to dominate a conversation. They will take control of the situation which is not great either as this does not promote "a true give-and-take relationship" **Source

This video really touched me as it portrays many aspects of signs, symptoms, and issues that youth on the Autism Spectrum scale deal with on a daily basis. The first, and most enlightening, is the surprise, gratefulness, and pure joy that the boy shows after realizing what the cake question meant. The video also shows the empathy of some great high school students. It is also great to see that "The boy with Autism can still go to prom with a popular, cute cheerleader" which fills my heart with joy, pride, and hopefulness. Next, it is obvious that the young man is very surprised as if he doesn't believe what is happening. His response is one that seems awkward in some sense but, at the same time, similar to the same way a young man asked to prom by a pretty girl would react.

I decided to write about this topic because of a situation that happened between Jacob and myself. I have been designing websites for a couple of years, teaching myself as I go along. Currently, I am working on two different platforms that I have never used before. When I take on these challenges, I like all the feedback I can get especially since I am teaching myself.

So I called Jacob in the office recently to view a few different options I had developed. First, like many Aspies, he was completely honest with me. He made some remarks that I took as productive and as critical criticism but he felt bad after he told me the truth and started acting very nervous and anxious. I could see it in his body movements, eye contact, fake smile, repetition of the same sentences,  as he paced back and forth around my office, etc. Those are just Jacobs' tell-tale signs of being socially awkward. This scenario brought up some issues that I, as Jacob's parent, needed to deal with and help him overcome the symptoms he feels about being in social situations.

Transitioning in social situations for those with #Asperger's can add another layer to social awkwardness.

Welcome To My Apocalypse by JT Machinima

Jacob's Thoughts on a Personal Theme Song

My writing prompt is:

"If you had a theme song that played every time you entered the room, who would sing it and what would it be?"

I would choose "Welcome to my apocalypse" by JT Machinima and I would choose him to sing the song because it is his song. 

The reason why I choose this song, besides it being about a video game, is that the meaning I interpreted from it. To me, even though it's set during post-apocalyptic Boston, it says to me that life is chaotic and that the world is a dark place that is filled with bad and horrible things and people.

However, even though the world can be like that, it's also filled with nice, kind people who work hard to try to survive in the world, to bring some light to it, so to speak. It also says to me that there is no black and white in the world. There's going to be grey areas and exceptions to the rules. The same applies to people as well. 

Most may be evil and good, but there going to be some who are in the grey area who do what is necessary, even if it could be considered evil. I think that defines my life and me except with it taking place during the apocalypse and in the future.

In my life, I have seen and heard of the good and evil ones in the world. My mom is a good person, in my opinion. My "dad" - the evil. But I haven't seen too many that are in the grey area like me. I have morals and I hate when people who do evil with a passion, but I also hate people who are too naive and ignorant to understand what is going on around them and be too nice to people.

I will do good things but if the decision I have to make will hurt a few people but help the majority, I would do it. It also applies that the decision could be considered to some evil or not correct, but it's the right thing to do. The right thing to do is not the easiest and sometimes, it's not the most accepted because of the way people consider it. I am one of those people. I will do what is right to save the most people, even if the right choice isn't the most accepted way or "good guy" way to do it.

People tend to say they are not always the right choice to make and will lead with more people hurt than saved. That's why I would choose that song. It's quite the thing to think about. It's quite true as well, even though some people deny it. Plus the song is really good and it's one of my favourites by JT. 

He mainly does video game raps, but I noticed he has some songs that aren't video game related. I believe what I said with a passion. People are not always completely good or evil. There are those who are in the grey area.  The song describes life as a chaotic place with bad people who hurt others, good people who try to stop evil, and there's the grey area where you are not evil but not good either. You see all of this and it gives you a question to answer that will decide on how everyone will react to you. You can be evil whether most people will not like you except the evil and sometimes the people in grey. You can be good where most people will like you except evil and some grey. Or you can be grey, where you decide to choose who you support that will help the most people. And now I leave a quote for the same series but different game:

"War. War Never Changes." 

~ Fallout 3

This is Phoenix, signing off.