Re: New here and need help..

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Sounds like you're where I have been. My son is 6. Trust your

instincts and don't take no for an answer. We were told Max was too

young to diagnose, he was just speech delayed, he was hard of hearing,

and last year we were told by the school that they wouldn't evaluate

him. This year is different - he has a better teacher & principal

(totally different city, school system, everything) and his teacher

has had a couple of ASD kids before. She just had one boy last year. I

KNOW he's in a better place now and will get the help he deserves & needs.

I've suspected something different about him since he was a little

baby. It isn't normal for a toddler to LOSE words. He didn't say

" baby " till he was 3 - his sister was already 18 mos.

Anyway, keep pushing, keep trying. It might take awhile, but you have

to just keep at it.

Make a list of his behaviors and quirks and show them to a

neurologist, a developmental ped, a speech pathologist, whoever it

takes to be heard. Do it with everyone.

Look for Early Intervention schools in your area and talk to them.

Look for charities that help young kids in need. For us, we have Any

Baby Can, Village of Hope, and Center for Health Care Services. See if

there is something like that in your area.

Take heart - all of us have been there and some of us, like me, are

still muddling through it.

~

>

> Hello. I just joined this group today and I am hoping to get some

> advice on how to help my son. He is 25 months old now and I actually

> suspected Autism when he was 7 months old. He had always been a

> little slow with major milestones but at 7 months he became obsessed

> with spinning things and just wanted to lie on his back all day and

> spin wheels on toy cars. I would just have to keep re-directing this

> behavior and finally after 18 months of this he will push his cars on

> the floor and make car noises but only if I tell him too -LOL. He has

> had so many quirks, behaviors, food allergies, etc. that I won't even

> list them because I want to keep this as short as possible. My

> problem is that I have done all the right things in trying to get him

> some help but he is in this grey area of high functioning autism

> where he does not qualify for diagnosis or services. He is social

> with adults and affectionate with mom and dad and can speak very

> well. We take him to a DAN doctor and have him on a special diet and

> supplements. He has been screened for autism with a developmental ped

> and she said no. His ped says wait and see. He was dropped by an OT

> because she said there was nothing more she could do with him.

> Currently his behaviors are still stimming on wheels, occasional hand

> flapping and toe walking, sideways glances, he can count to 13, sing

> the alphabet song and label many things but he doesn't know how to

> tell you his name, he has sensory issues especially with food (he

> won't touch it), he doesn't play appropriately and doesn't use

> imaginary play, he doesn't point. I took him to Mother's Day Out

> today for the first time and they said he sat in the corner the whole

> time flipping pages on a book except when in organized activities.

> This broke my heart. I believe that he may have Asperger's. There has

> got to be something I can do for him at home to foster social

> interaction and appropriate behavior but I just don't know what it

> is. He is too high functioning for floor time or ABA. Does anyone

> have any advice for me? When can Asperger's usually be diagnosed? I

> really want to help him while he is young and moldable.

>

[Guest guest]

First of all, nobody is 'too advanced' for ABA. My own ds is gifted and HFA.

We did ABA with him for 3 years and he improved greatly. All ABA means is that

you break the activity down into steps and teach each step. And sometimes, this

is an ideal way for kids to learn. Good teachers use these basic ideas to teach

NT kids all the time.

Second, you are hopefully here in the USA? If so, you need to contact your

local health department and ask about a birth to 3 program in your area.

Different areas do different things - some places have elaborate and wonderful

programs in place while others have a once a month visit that doesn't really do

much to help. You should check and see how your area works as you might find

you have a wonderful program to tap into.

Third, find a speech therapist to work on socialization skills, pragmatic

language. You can work on play skills or if he gets into a pre-k program, he

can have that as goals in his IEP. At age 3, he should be able to access your

public school pre-k program for kids with disabilities. They base it on

socialization, language (including pragmatic) and I think the play skills,

inability to say his name, etc. will all qualify him for services there where

they will work on his specific needs.

It's great that you taught him how to play appropriately with the car. You can

expand his list of activities and teach him to play with other things as well.

I wouldn't stop at the car - keep encouraging more typical play skills. ABA

works on answering social questions as well such as " What is your name? How old

are you? etc. " It is sometimes interesting to look up " developmental

milestones " on the net and then go over what is typical for that age and compare

it to what your ds can do. That's what you should be teaching him to do or

finding professionals to teach him.

Roxanna

( ) New here and need help..

Hello. I just joined this group today and I am hoping to get some

advice on how to help my son. He is 25 months old now and I actually

suspected Autism when he was 7 months old. He had always been a

little slow with major milestones but at 7 months he became obsessed

with spinning things and just wanted to lie on his back all day and

spin wheels on toy cars. I would just have to keep re-directing this

behavior and finally after 18 months of this he will push his cars on

the floor and make car noises but only if I tell him too -LOL. He has

had so many quirks, behaviors, food allergies, etc. that I won't even

list them because I want to keep this as short as possible. My

problem is that I have done all the right things in trying to get him

some help but he is in this grey area of high functioning autism

where he does not qualify for diagnosis or services. He is social

with adults and affectionate with mom and dad and can speak very

well. We take him to a DAN doctor and have him on a special diet and

supplements. He has been screened for autism with a developmental ped

and she said no. His ped says wait and see. He was dropped by an OT

because she said there was nothing more she could do with him.

Currently his behaviors are still stimming on wheels, occasional hand

flapping and toe walking, sideways glances, he can count to 13, sing

the alphabet song and label many things but he doesn't know how to

tell you his name, he has sensory issues especially with food (he

won't touch it), he doesn't play appropriately and doesn't use

imaginary play, he doesn't point. I took him to Mother's Day Out

today for the first time and they said he sat in the corner the whole

time flipping pages on a book except when in organized activities.

This broke my heart. I believe that he may have Asperger's. There has

got to be something I can do for him at home to foster social

interaction and appropriate behavior but I just don't know what it

is. He is too high functioning for floor time or ABA. Does anyone

have any advice for me? When can Asperger's usually be diagnosed? I

really want to help him while he is young and moldable.

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[Guest guest]

Thanks for the response. My son was actually evaluated by our early

intervention program which in Missouri is called First Steps. He

passed everything on the developmental check list and they told us

that he didn't qualify for services at the time. We then just started

taking him to private OT. He has always passed the check lists. it's

weird because he can do everything that a 2 year old should do when

asked but he just doesn't want to. For instance if someone was

evaluating him and they asked him to draw something with a crayon he

could do that. But then at home you give him a set of crayons and

paper and he just wants to sit there and stim on the crayons by

picking them up and dropping them over and over. If a thereapist asks

him to stack four blocks he can stack four blocks. Then at home he

just stims on the blocks by picking them up and dropping them over

and over. I do show him how to play appropriately with these things

daily but it doesn't change the behavior when he plays on his own or

is in a setting such as the church nursery or MDO. I have taught him

how to say " My name is Noah " for M & M's but he will only do it if I

tell him to " say my name is Noah " . If I or a stranger says " what is

your name? " he just gives a blank stare or walks away. I guess I just

figured he was too HF for ABA because I have the Maurice

training guide and when i look through it it seems like he knows a

lot of the stuff on the checklists but I guess you are right in that

I could just continue to work on my own form of ABA for the stuff

that he is struggling with. Is there some kind of at home teaching

guide for verbal HFA kids out there? I guess I could pay for private

speech therapy to help with the social responses. It would just be so

nice if he qualified for

services.

>

> First of all, nobody is 'too advanced' for ABA. My own ds is

gifted and HFA. We did ABA with him for 3 years and he improved

greatly. All ABA means is that you break the activity down into

steps and teach each step. And sometimes, this is an ideal way for

kids to learn. Good teachers use these basic ideas to teach NT kids

all the time.

>

> Second, you are hopefully here in the USA? If so, you need to

contact your local health department and ask about a birth to 3

program in your area. Different areas do different things - some

places have elaborate and wonderful programs in place while others

have a once a month visit that doesn't really do much to help. You

should check and see how your area works as you might find you have a

wonderful program to tap into.

>

> Third, find a speech therapist to work on socialization skills,

pragmatic language. You can work on play skills or if he gets into a

pre-k program, he can have that as goals in his IEP. At age 3, he

should be able to access your public school pre-k program for kids

with disabilities. They base it on socialization, language

(including pragmatic) and I think the play skills, inability to say

his name, etc. will all qualify him for services there where they

will work on his specific needs.

>

> It's great that you taught him how to play appropriately with the

car. You can expand his list of activities and teach him to play

with other things as well. I wouldn't stop at the car - keep

encouraging more typical play skills. ABA works on answering social

questions as well such as " What is your name? How old are you?

etc. " It is sometimes interesting to look up " developmental

milestones " on the net and then go over what is typical for that age

and compare it to what your ds can do. That's what you should be

teaching him to do or finding professionals to teach him.

>

> Roxanna

> ( ) New here and need help..

>

>

> Hello. I just joined this group today and I am hoping to get some

> advice on how to help my son. He is 25 months old now and I

actually

> suspected Autism when he was 7 months old. He had always been a

> little slow with major milestones but at 7 months he became

obsessed

> with spinning things and just wanted to lie on his back all day

and

> spin wheels on toy cars. I would just have to keep re-directing

this

> behavior and finally after 18 months of this he will push his

cars on

> the floor and make car noises but only if I tell him too -LOL. He

has

> had so many quirks, behaviors, food allergies, etc. that I won't

even

> list them because I want to keep this as short as possible. My

> problem is that I have done all the right things in trying to get

him

> some help but he is in this grey area of high functioning autism

> where he does not qualify for diagnosis or services. He is social

> with adults and affectionate with mom and dad and can speak very

> well. We take him to a DAN doctor and have him on a special diet

and

> supplements. He has been screened for autism with a developmental

ped

> and she said no. His ped says wait and see. He was dropped by an

OT

> because she said there was nothing more she could do with him.

> Currently his behaviors are still stimming on wheels, occasional

hand

> flapping and toe walking, sideways glances, he can count to 13,

sing

> the alphabet song and label many things but he doesn't know how

to

> tell you his name, he has sensory issues especially with food (he

> won't touch it), he doesn't play appropriately and doesn't use

> imaginary play, he doesn't point. I took him to Mother's Day Out

> today for the first time and they said he sat in the corner the

whole

> time flipping pages on a book except when in organized

activities.

> This broke my heart. I believe that he may have Asperger's. There

has

> got to be something I can do for him at home to foster social

> interaction and appropriate behavior but I just don't know what

it

> is. He is too high functioning for floor time or ABA. Does anyone

> have any advice for me? When can Asperger's usually be diagnosed?

I

> really want to help him while he is young and moldable.

>

>

>

>

>

>

> --------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

>

>

> No virus found in this incoming message.

> Checked by AVG Free Edition.

> Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.1/440 - Release Date:

9/6/2006

>

>

>