Re: Digest Number 1524

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In a message dated 12/13/2006 7:35:28 AM Pacific Standard Time,

CFAlliance writes:

5. Re: She just doesn't get it (life story & rant - long!)

Posted by: " Marcia " mmorrison@... mmorrison100

Date: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:28 am ((PST))

I was tired often. I'm

trying to remember what my house looked like at that time, and

honestly I just don't remember. My son, then about 6 years old, was

funny and wonderful and high energy and a real handful, many

" challenge authority " issues over food, clothes, well, just about

anything. He was both wonderful and difficult for both his dad and me

for the next 10 years. Shortly *after* he got out of high school

(didn't manage to graduate, too many behavioral problems), he was

diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, which is related to autism. A

diagnosis 10 years earlier would have made that 10 years, if not

easier, then at least more understandable. Not to say childrearing

didn't have some happy times, but a lot of it was a pitched battle.

Marcia--I can really relate to your housekeeping challenges. I have 2

children, 1 who's 24 and the younger one is 18. I always had the same

difficulties

with her that you did with your son. She was MIS-diagnosed with Attachment

Disorder (which never made total sense since she and I had bonded when she was

a baby, and she wasn't adopted or neglected, but A.S. wasn't recognized in

the States til 1995; it was 1994) at 6; then at 10 a special brain scan showed

she has A.D.D., but there were still problems. At 12 we put her in an

adolescent unit at a hospital for a few days, where the diagnosis of Asperger's

Syndrome was finally made. Only THEN was she qualified to be in Special Ed. in

school, also has been a (state of CA) Regional Center client, and also received

counseling services from Children's County Mental Health. Before all this we

were paying out-of-pocket for all the counseling, psychiatrist, meds, etc.

I'd always felt that she would have been that much farther ahead if she had

the right diagnosis, but at least if the school had let her into Special Ed. in

3rd grade. Well, at least by the time she was a senior she really turned

herself around and started caring about her future; she graduated at 18 with a

diploma and now is in junior college. And the Reg. Center services are now

really kicking in--because she's a client, she's AUTOMATICALLY qualified for

Dept. of Rehabilitation services, who's vendor is now working with her to get

her a permanent part-time (cause of college) job in a field she likes. Thanks

for sharing--Sherrie