He was supposed to be taking a nap...

A common behavior in children with autism is destructive behavior. My son has been known to break the slats on the blinds in his room and tear apart the strings that hold them together (so we never close the blinds anymore), tear the pages of books to shreds, put holes into toy boxes, break toys, take his dresser apart, take the humidifier apart, take his lamp apart, break the CD player I put in his room because he likes music, and just generally pulling out everything from every shelf and drawer. This includes my kitchen drawers for which we have yet to find a locking mechanism that will fit or a gate that he is unable to climb. He has a tendency to swipe things from my kitchen drawers and cabinets and hide them under his bed or under the crib.

I have tried everything to get him to stop. I have changed the environment, I have punished him, I have made him clean up his messes, I have had him throw his favorite things that he destroyed away in the garbage, you name it. I've tried every suggestion from the professionals. And still, the behavior continues. It's just a matter of patience, time, patience, consistency, patience, and patience.

This behavior makes it impossible for me to keep up with cleaning our apartment. I used to get very frustrated and angry, and I still sometimes do, but sometimes I have to stop and appreciate the sheer scale of it all.

Today, instead of taking a nap, he tore his room apart. I became suspicious when there was a particularly loud sound coming from the room. When I went in to take a look at what was going on besides napping, I was rather stunned to see the extent of mess in my son's room. It was truly astounding. I had to get the camera so I could show my husband when he came home, and so I could share it with you all here.

Although he didn't pull the drawers out of the dresser and empty them, I still think this is pretty impressive...and I'm quite sure that given time, he would have done so. Besides his toys all pulled out from under the bed and crib (I used to have them in a toy box, but he broke the toy box), he got the mattress off the bed, disassembled the guard to keep him from rolling out of bed, took apart the humidifier (there's a green round thing on the floor, and that's the water receptacle), emptied out his hamper (there's a towel and a pair of pajamas peeking out from under the mattress), my colander that he secretly swiped from my kitchen cabinet is on the floor next to the rocking chair, my barbecue tongs are on the floor all the way on the lower right hand corner, half of the bumper is torn off the crib, and there are toys in the slats of the bed...the only one visible is his Little People airplane balanced over one of the slats.

So, he had to help me clean it...I keep thinking that maybe if he hates having to pick everything up again he won't make the mess, but no such luck yet. Then I gave him my well practiced look of death and said he wouldn't like it if I heard another sound and had to come back in.

He took a nap after that. It must have been a good look.