Re: How old & Intro

[Guest guest]

Hi Rhonda! I also have a nine year old daughter with autism. She is on the

moderate-severe end. She also has/had the behaviors you are telling us of.

The biting and pinching has faded over time with behavior modification.

Myself and her teachers/therapists would do alot of redirection and also tell

her

no firmly every time and we also tried time outs. My daughter is very prone to

temper tantrums because she is non-verbal so I had a very rough time with

these behaviors, but they do fade over time with intervention. The digging one

I

am still fighting. I have found that pajama sleepers work great when put on

backwards for at night. This way she cannot get in there to do any digging.

During the day I put my daughter in a one piece outfit that zips or buttons up

back or a thin one piece anything under her clothing...that way when she does

go to dig she will have a hard time going in. The sleep situation was

resolved for my daughter with medication also. I know that no one wants to put

their child on medication, I also said no for a long time. When my daughter was

around four I had her put on clonidine also. She would be up all night long,

and would be babbling to herself and jumping around in her bedroom and turning

on her favorite tape of Blues Clues! It got to the point where no one could

sleep...now she is on resperidal at night. It gives her well needed rest and

the rest of the family too. I know things can get overwhelming at times...but

you will get through it just as we all are.

God Bless-

[Guest guest]

Hi!

I just wanted to let you know that my daughter was dx 3 1/2 years ago. She is

now 6 years old. We could not afford aba and there was no agency here in

Missouri that would pay for it since she was over the age of 3. They would have

paid it if her dx had been earlier. Well that's another story. They first dx her

as severe and now that she has had lot's of speech and occupational therapy they

believe she is more mild then first thought. She is in a special class with only

5 other kids dx on the spectrum as well. She has a wonderful teacher who has

taught autism for the last 10 years. She is doing well. She still has alot of

challenges, but has recently been able to tell me if her stomach hurts and

answer concrete yes and no questions. She has come very far in the last few

years with therapy. I just wanted to let you know that there is hope. I have

heard really good things about aba and wish you well in your endevors.Don't ever

give up! Oh, the sleep thing. My dd had many sleep problems. I found out from

her nuerologist that it's common with autism. She now takes clonidene at night

which works great! I know there is alot of controvercy about meds, but for my dd

it's the best thing we have done. More sleep for everyone in the family is a

good thing. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. My dh and I

have done a lot of research and have gone to many seminars! There also are many

on this board who have been very helpful to us as well. This is a great place

for support!

Sincerely

Janet

________________________________

From: Autism_in_Girls on behalf of Rhonda

Sent: Sat 12/17/2005 8:32 AM

To: Autism_in_Girls

Subject: How old & Intro

My daughter is 3 and will be 4 Jan 10. She was just dx this month

as autism.

Hello everyone,

My name is Rhonda, and my husband and I just received the

diagnosis of autism for our daughter Alana who is 3 and will be 4 in

January.

We are just beginning this journey, and I am really looking forward

to learning from the people in this group. We have just started the

application process for WI's disability determination to get on the

autism waiver waiting list. I am very distressed by the amount of

time that will lapse until Alana can get treatment. They estimate

the wait to be about 9 mos. to a year! This seems outrageous to

me. I feel like someone has the key to my daughter's condition and

is dangling it just out of my reach! I really want to get involved

politically in working for a change. In my pre-child life I was a

labor organizer in the health care field, did community outreach for

Planned Parenthood & worked for memebership associations.

I will be starting an email list for parents/professionals who want

to get connected politcially, and am looking for other like

lists/groups.

Further, my husband and I are going to try to learn how to perform

the ABA therapy so we can work with Alana until she is able to be

treated. We have selected WEAP to perform Alana's therapy, and are

looking for feedback about this decision.

Alana is a really wonderful girl. We are lucky that she has

developed language. We really thought her diagnosis would be mild

because of her language skills...but the testing has indicated she

is closer to severely autistic than mild. This was a hard thing for

me to hear. But I keep telling myself that Alana is very happy

(almost euphoric at times), will accept affection, and can speak, so

we are very fortunate. I just can't wait for the day when I ask

Alana how she is feeling and she can answer and understand me. We

are dealing with some behavior right now (biting, pinching, digging,

not sleeping), so any and all help/suggestions would be appreciated!

Best wishes for a peaceful holiday and new year,

Rhonda

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