today

[Guest guest]

Ellen,

From about 15 months of age until about age 4, didn't say any

words. He would babble to himself but no intentional communication via

spoken word. AT age 4 he began to be able to imitate sounds. At age 5

we started the picture exchange communication system with him and he

took right to it. However it is limited. We would make him say the

words for what he was asking for when he handed us a picture. We faded

the pictures after awhile when he was able to say the words. The thing

about at this point that has continued until today is that he

speaks primarily in one or two word sentences and these are confined to

food or activities that he wants.....no commenting, no ability to say

how he is feeling, etc. We added sign language to his repertoire a

couple years ago hoping that it might help him to speak in longer

sentences and expand the number of things he can speak about, but it had

little effect. He does use sign some while he is talking, but still he

is quite limited. We just put together a manual communication board at

school for him to start using so we'll see what effect this has.

is a very visual person. If you can figure out how to teach him

visually, he will learn fast. But when it comes to spoken language,

there is some block in his brain that is causing him great difficulty in

expanding beyond where he is. With this communication system we are

just starting with him, it has the advantage of being visual and it will

help him to prompt himself, so we'll see.

was in a one on one classroom setting from kindergarten through

5th grade. It was just him and his personal aide for the most part, and

their program was directed by me through our ABA consultant. I finally

gave up on that as it wasn't producing the kind of results we wanted and

he is now in a special ed class with 8 other kids. Many are quite a bit

lower functioning than him, some are higher functioning in terms of

language and social skills, but not necessarily academics. I think it

is a good classroom for him to be in for the most part because he likes

being with other kids, and he likes the variety of things they do in

that class.

He has a lot of OCD issues and many routines that need to be followed.

He definitely has an idea of how everything should go in his head, and

if reality does not match up, he gets upset. I am interested in the

Cymbalta you mentioned. What is that? I have been trying a combination

of inositol P6 and GABA for the past two months in high doses to see if

it has an impact on OCD, but I haven't noticed anything really.

goes to sleep easily but wakes up anywhere from 1:00-3:00am. It

used to be very disruptive. Finally out of desperation a few months ago

I took him into the guest room and laid down with him and he went back

to sleep. Guess what.....we are still doing that every night! You say

you'll never do these things but then you do so that everyone can get a

good night's sleep. I am sure it is part habit now on his part, but

last night my husband was out of town so I just let sleep with me

and I noticed that he has a very restless part of the night around

2:30. They say that is when your liver is detoxing or going through

some change, and that it can wake you up. At any rate, I am VERY

interested in whether anyone else has any good remedies for keeping

children asleep once they are asleep.

Lynda