Patience

We are smiling because we’ve reached a big milestone over here at the Harrell House! Remember when I told you milestones in our world are HUGE! Well, as of today Nolan is able to tolerate having his hair combed! You heard that right! At 7 years old this sweet kid has worked up the tolerance of 30 seconds of hair combing.

Alot of people with autism have something called sensory processing disorder. I think I’ve mentioned this before but just in case I haven’t, let me explain. Sensory processing disorder is where one or more of a person’s senses are either heightened or dulled. It’s amazing and annoying all at the same time. Nolan doesn’t like soft touches…he’s craves big squeezes. He doesn’t like certain noises but he’s the loudest kid in the room. He is a sensory seeker for the most part and loves jumping, swinging, and chewing. The difference between this and a typical kid is that Nolan doesn’t just enjoy it; he needs it. If he doesn’t get this input then his body feels out of whack which causes him to be very frustrated and agitated.

Now if only he were a sensory seeker with his hair!! He has always hated hair cuts and having his hot brushed. This is pretty common with autism. Sometimes kids can be distracted by an iPad but Nolan never has. It has actually only gotten worse as he gets older. So we’ve started working with our ABA team the past few months to work through it.

We started with just touching his head. Once he could tolerate that we started setting a timer to ten seconds and combing his hair. Once the timer went off he gets something of his choice…usually a marshmallow or Oreo! He HATES having the sides and back brushed the most. After a few months of working through it he actually requests to have it brushed and will even set the timer by himself!

We couldn’t be more proud! You can tell in this video that it’s uncomfortable but he’s working through it. Our next step will be scissors. It’s so tempting to jump right in there and cut it but I’ve learned with him to be patient and take those baby steps. He‘a taught us so much about patience, perseverance, and hard work!