Continuum Concept , or Bring back Swaddling

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thank you for feed back; i am thinking about what you say, Midori.
i discovered as this thread went along that sensory issues are actually NOT part of AS , which I hadn't realised before, they are just co-morbid at 75%. It is the sensory difficulties, known as Sensory Processing Disorders which seem to me to be possibly the result of cot life etc in babyhood. ( allowing for some link to the AS but not nec! )
So it is definitely challenging to hear that your daughter has sensory issues despite being carried etc.
Thank you for input. Need to think! Was she genuinely carried from the start? Or just after a few weeks or a month or more , or were there problems at birth which meant that she was separated from you in the very early stages? What kind of sensory issues does she have?
Would really appreciate knowing.

I wonder what if any effect it has on babies to be put down for hours otherwise?!

If none at all, then what's the point of attachment/continuum concept parenting, for instance!

I've just remembered that when I first started thinking that I might have/be Aspergers someone suggested that I might only be extremely Introverted, ( which I got the impression might in fact be the old name for Aspergers before it got pathologised). While finding out about Introversion ( which seems to include both aspergers/AS AND sensory symptoms), I learned that the level of stimulation/activity at which the brain functions at optimum, which is what decides if you are introvert or extrovert, can actually change during life .
That is to say that an Extrovert might become an Introvert if for example exposed to prolonged stress. The level of stimulation required for their brain to function smoothly would be recalibrated to lower levels of stimulation. This would then , sooner or later, encourage them to get rest and recover, in peaceful surroundings!
An Introvert might after a period of stress find themselves unable to handle even the relatively low amounts of stimulation that they could some time before. Then their search for less stimulation might lead them to wear all black and white clothing , because colours had become too stimulating , or to wear only soft loose clothing because it would be the least noticeable on their skin, to need more time alone , less of everything in fact.
Apart from the interesting questions, for me anyway, raised by the relationship between AS, ASD, Aspergers , and Introversion , and of all these with Sensory Processing Disorders, I was suddenly wondering in that case whether Sensory P D might result also from exposure to "busy", noisy, flashing, and otherwise OVER-stimulating environments . Totally the opposite of sensory deprivation , but perhaps equally deregulating , for the reason that it goes too far in the other direction, and causes "optimum-functioning stimulation levels" to be reset lower down .

And what exactly IS Introversion if it isn't an ASD? A perfectly healthy version of it ?! Which doesn't need expensive medication or therapy or special treatment ?!

And me.

My kids were/are swaddled, cuddled, held and carried in slings. My partner and I always question how it is possible to leave a child to scream him/herself to sleep, left in a crib/playpen to muse themselves etc. It would never be an option in our house for any number of reasons and if not for my sensory issues alone I simply could not imagine the hell it would have caused for my girls with their obvious needs.

We WISH we were in a financial position to be able to home school!

My oldest daughter has AS and a great deal of sensory/motor control issues and my youngest, well, she (just coming up on her first birthday) refuses clothing, only eats certain foods, craves touch, has self stimulating behaviours that seem quite autistic in nature.

All 3 of us (AS daughter, year old with definite sensory issues and I) are touch/deep pressure cravers. My AS daughter sleeps with weighted pads and while flipping through abilitations catalogue she was jumping for joy at the mere thought of an adult sized swaddle and we are in the process of ordering a number of similar items for the whole family.

So, in our case, attachment parenting simply did not eliminate these issues, but we are often thankful for our efforts as we know it could have been absolute hell for them, if we didn't.

Actually , out of the 160 people who took the Jung-Myers Typology test for extroversion-introversion, only 1% have an extrovert score.
What IS the difference between introverts and Aspies? Is it that the titles Aspergers , AS, and ASD sell more pills and therapies than the label introvert, which has no such pathological overtones to it?

Introversion seems to involve virtually all the same things as ASD/HFAS.
(before answering please check definition of introversion , or do test currently on this page , or link here;

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

because a lot of people , me included until recently , thought it meant shy and retiring. This is not necessarily the case! )

The thing that strikes me is that Introversion DOES seem to include the sensory difficulties which AS/ASD/Aspergers apparently don't. Dislike of/high sensitivity to exterior/environmental stimuli is part of the introvert experience. And it is true that nobody talks about introversion being caused by childhood environment!

But then neither do they talk about it as if it might need treating ! !

My daughter is very noise sensitive and craves firm pressures. She was carried in a sling until I couldn't carry her anymore when she was about 2 years old (and could walk herself!) We did not use prams at all for the children until they were well into toddler hood, they both had daytime sleeps in the sling and both slept with us and breastfed from birth. They were hospital births but neither kids were separated from us.

Thank you, Midori. And Makelifehappen too.
So sensory dep in early babyhood seems to be irrelevant. Hmm

Thank you everyone who posted to discuss this. I wonder what difference if any the continuum concept/attachment parenting actually makes then ? Perhaps the reason why these infants in South American jungle that Liedloff talks about are so well in their bodies ( etc) is because they don't eat wheat ! !

Perhaps all the carrying makes no dif to anything.

Thanks again.

Last edited by ouinon on 31 Oct 2007, 8:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

I felt need to comment: my children co-slept with me up past their first birthday. I am a firm believer in NOT allowing a child to 'cry themselves' to sleep or laying them in a crib. If they were infants, they were either in my arms, in my husband's arms, or in a sling on my chest. As they got older, I would place them on a soft blanket to explore but they were always with me. I am a firm believer in sensory stimulation to assist brain development.
That being said, explain why 3 of my 5 children are on the spectrum, one with severe autism and 2 with asperger's. I wish this problem were so simply solved but unfortunately it is not.

Well, that's what I just said right there in my last post, after reading Midoris and Makelifehappens kindly detailed posts about their experiences.
I'm going back to believing it's gluten the culprit, thru placenta in womb, and after birth .
But like I said , thank you for helping me get over the idea that sense dep in babies is responsible.