Thanks for the explanation It is hard waiting for the diagnosis (I totally get the needing to know) but I also thing that a bit of extra time could help. It's amazing the difference 6 months can make to some behavioral traits. Some things were less dominant in Mason but then as he was more vocal they were able to chat to him and be more thorough. ie not call it as being a slower to mature issue IYKWIM as that is what they thought the problem was when he was 3-4. For that reason we actually let it go and see if that was indeed the case before having the full CARS testing done.
Christy Xander has low muscle tone also - which I thought meant he didn't get enough exercise (which is not the case :-) but it means their muscles don't work in unison (ie one stretch while the other contracts) high muscle tone is where they both contract at the same time resulting in tight muscles and spasicity (such a horrible word) low muscle tone means they both relax so they often hyper extend and have an off gait and have difficulty coordinating movement. Xanders OT works on this a lot and I'm proud to say we can down cathc a ball! Not 100% but getting better every day.
Kidsarelife - Xander had a prelim diag of PDD until we got some more info. welcome and look forward to chatting
Maz - I never even considered the full moon! wow
We have Xanders speech assessment on Wed, we have waited nearly a year and now... I don't know if it's even worth it? His speech is much better now then it was but maybe they can help with the conversation part of his speech as well??? ideas
He has had a yucky couple of days back at school lots of bullying going on - gosh I hate sending him to school sometimes! Even though I'm a teacher and I know you can't be everywhere I still keep thinking - where were the teachers! His afterschool care is the worst, they just don't know how to deal with the bigger kids???
On the upside I'm am going to Sue Larky's seminar this coming Tuesday on Teaching strategies and behaviour support, really looking forward to it
oh I had a big moment today.... My plane home was cancelled & I told Matilda I would be picking her up from montessori. I was standing in line to find out what they were doing and I burst into tears. All I could think about was how upset she would get.... and how frustrated she gets at the thought of change. I felt so bad for letting her down. I was supposed to be home at 1.30pm, plenty of time to pick her up at 3.30, but the new flight got me in at 3.30 and I would have had to take a taxi and I may not have gotten there by the time I had too. So I was sad. One of the clerks said "are you okay?" and I said "no, I'm not. My child may have a form of Autism and I told her I would pick her up, and now I can't!!! (I didn't want to explain that it probably wasn't Autism, but I didn't want to have that conversation then) and she said "Run... to the next terminal, the flight leaves in 20 minutes!!" So I ran and got onto another flight!
oh oney - I hope that your tears were gone when you picked Matilda up today. Big hugs babe...and see I know as horrbile as it seem's...we do have little perks of having a child tahts is special
Im gonna have alot of trouble with WIlhelm next week. he normally goes to scholl monday to thrusday with fridays off btu next week his aid is having the monday off and working the friday and she asked if we could change his day off. WELL he over heard us talking and he cracked up big time.
'Monday is NOT my day off - friday is mummy'
'But you can stay home with me on monday and go on friday instead'
'NO! i dont want to....no school friday'
So it looks like tears for me next week ...and just when my migraine from him the week before had gone and ive jsut gotten him to eat again after 2 weeks of not. Dame it!
could you cope with him being home 2 days? So missing school on Friday as well as Monday? I know its hard, but maybe easier for his brain to handle?
You know Maz, it was like I could say "something is wrong with my daughter" and the doors opened... where if I hadn't said anything, I would have missed it. And the end of the world would have happened. It was hard enough being away overnight.
I could handle him home but we want to try and get him use to full time school cause he'll be in year 1 next year and thats a big goal for us. I just hate upsetting him and him being hurt by the change.
Andyes I agree....drop the - autisum word and people give yo a look of pity and help you. I found it very hard to say in the early years but once I noticed it helped Wilhelm then I dropped it when needed.
eg when I had Vyolett - Wilhelm would come to the hospital to see us and could only stay 1/2 an hour cause I had to share a room. He was a mess for a month afterwards and **** it made things so hard for me at home.
When I had Mateauz I told them that I had a child with autisum and that he didnt handle me sharing and that I couldnt BF my daughter were I wanted to BF Mateauz...bang single..PRIVATE room straight away. In the end...one very happy Wilhelm until we were transferred to Royal Childrens for that 3 weeks.
Went to an awesome seminar run by Sue Larky and it was great. Got heaps of books and fidgets for Xander and my kids at school including a CD with symbols to use on our timetable. Can't wait to play and Xanders school are interested in buying some stuff too like a learn to play CD where you print out pictures to teach them how to play step by step. All very exciting.
Christy hope everything was OK with your flight. I too started dropping the autism word as DS was being diagnoised. As he was dx PDD at first I would say he had a form of autism particularly when I was getting dirty looks from old ladies at the supermarket while i was holding DS down while he screamed and punched me :-) It does help and in stressful situations I wish DS had a shirt which say "I have autism"
we are off to his speech pathology assessment tomorrow although his speech has improved out of sight since last year when we made the appointment I figured it was still worth going just to add to the profile. he is a bit anxious about it as we have an excusion in the morning as well but the figets are coming in handy tonight. He is sitting on his vibrating cushion with a squishy ball at the moment :-)
Maz - hope your week settles down, what about some social stories for the next couple of days to help him adjust??? Hey did I miss an announcement? Are you pg???
No not pg....i just have a little something in the making thats all and I class it as one of my babies
Wilhelm has an excursion down to the river today to the schools memorial gardern...he is not going to like going....we kept getting told its boring.
Social stories have never worked on Wilhelm little bugger is to smart but I just keep telling him its cool and that he might see a crocodile or dinosaur and he warms to the idea.
I get jealous that pic's and symbols have worked for others. We tried it with Wilhelm and it just doesnt work with him. I do do a little bit of sign language and thats about it.
Its funny..i remember when Nikolaus was in prep and we were having parent/teacher interviews...Wilhelm was 4 and on the wall it had written community something and infront of the teachers he read it out and said the meaning (I have never taught Wilhelm to read) they both sat their gob smacked. times like that Im glad that he has this 'super power'. His techer this year has given up giving him a home reader cause he just doesnt find reading challenging adn drawing...****. I'll have to find one later and put it up in the gallery for you to all look at.
Now on their 'special' things....I just want to let you all know that I try and make everything a positive...eg Wilhelms reading is a 'super power' and he loves it when I say that to him. when he's in one of his moods I try and make it positive and makes jokes (he's quiet the commedian). I cant be negetive...depression is hard enough without having the added bonus of a SN kid on top. Ive gotta look at the happy things in life..at least I have him...he makes life alot more interesting...its like having 3 adults in the house rather then just Jed and I.
Maz - bummer on the social stories and images not working :-( Hope the excursion went OK. I can't believe how many excusions Xander goes on???? He has been on at least 3-4 this year and now they are going to gymnastics every Wednesday just to throw our routine out even more.
Speech path went well. She is going to give us some resources to work on social speech and he'll do two appointments with her to work on this. Something I hadn't noticed is how much better his speech is at the moment the stutter/repeating sentences thing has really eased off, not sure if it's the diet, OT or just ???
Loz - great seeing you today. Your son is just beautiful!!! That laugh is gorgeous. he and Xander had heaps of fun playing together. I hope you got some answers from gillian.
Excursion went well..thank god! I think cause there was al ot of reading involved and Wilhelm loves reading. He told me the books that were read and then proceeded to 'read' them to me.
Sarah - I find that WIlhelm goes through stages in everything. HIs speech was one thing that went in leaps and stages. I notice that when he's really inadequate that he repeats movie scenes. We have slowly gotten the block down that he has about movies since I ask him everyday what he did at school. Its only taken almost a year lol.
Id love to know how you guys do it with diet's? I have so much trouble getting Wilhelm to eat anything healthy. I often give him Incremin which is a Iron based suppliment for kids that dont eat. I find I usually give it to him when he's having areally bad stage and it helps to calm him down.
hmmm I posted something earlier... must have been eaten by the gremlins.
Diets: Our results with the diet thing, at 2.5 yrs old Matilda's speech stopped developing. 4 weeks after stopping milk (8 weeks after going chemical free) it started developing again. She still hasn't caught up, but she is getting better! I can totally say it was dairy related. Scary.... but so true.
Maz, Matilda eats at the best of times, when the wind is blowing the right direction and with just the right amount of chocolate is involved . Seriously, its pulling teeth most of the time. I bought these jelly bear things that are concentrated veges that I give her periodically as well. We are 50% gluten free now... cutting down on it, but thats hard too!!
Matilda loves pasta and noodles, so I use rice pasta and noodles. She hasn't noticed the difference, but we do!! Blerk! She loves sausages... so we have heaps of sausages and mashed potatoes... done with rice milk. She likes bolognaise so the rice pasta goes to work. I also make a soup, for the bad days. She has issues sometimes with textured food so I make a pureed ham, potato and leek soup (which I throw cauliflower and broccoli in to hide!) and always have some of that in the freezer for the days she hasn't eaten anything. At Montessori, she has to have the same lunch EVERY time. That is why we aren't gluten free.... or totally chemical free anymore. The lunch is rice snacks, fruit strap (one of those ultra healthy ones with 100% fruit), and a vegemite sandwich, cut in 2 squares and 3 triangles if its not cut right, she won't eat it. Morning tea is fruit, and apparently Matilda will only eat apple or watermelon... *groan*
At home, its heaps worse.... breakfast is only maybe a slice of toast with honey, if I'm luck 1/4 cup of plain rice bubbles... and anything sugary she could get her hands on, or thats it. Dinner is my best bet for getting food into her if I hit the right time and its not too late. But she did go 2 months without eating dinner as well.
I told my Pead about the chocolate freak I have here and he said its because chocolate contains Iron and its what he's craving. Apartently its quiet comon in A kids to crave chocolate like this.
Wilhelm is a white food eater....noodles, spagetti, potatoe,cheese, cauliflower,bread, milk, eggs...and Brocolli oh and carrots on the odd occasion...He hates sauces and if I put something new on his plate and it touches something he normally eats he tells me he cant casue it has germs. He use to love sausages but has gone off them now...he'll eat fish like there's no tomorrow and chicken every now and then, aslong as its the 'turkey drumstick'
You said you use Rice milk? Is there a difference in taste at all? I might get my hands on som e and try it with Wilhlem.
Im very jealous that you can atleast get some fruit in.....Wilhelm has never had fruit and he would gag on it and it drives me insane trying. Little bugger is a bean pole to.
The only fruit I can get in is Red Delicious Apples, Mango and watermelon, but they each have to be cut a certain way. Montessori cuts up the fruit parents bring in and Matilda will eat only Apple and Watermelon there . The fruit strap is a weird one, I buy it in the healthy isle at Woolies and it has apple and apricot mashed together, thats it. She loves it, so I give her one a day to get her fruit intake because you can bet if I cut an apple special for her, she won't eat it. I got sick of wasting money and now only buy fruit specially for Montessori and the rest of the family.
I meant to post this the other day but had to go do something half way through and forgot to come back to it.
Sarah in regards to the speech pathologist yes they can help them learn how to talk to other people, though now you've been I'm sure you already know that Mason does work sheets with stories and then questions related to it.
I uploaded a pic of Mason to the gallery that his aide took. He wrote on the whiteboard with no help or prompting. https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...hp?photo=10016 He's been doing really well academically with school and I thought I'd share some of the good things for those of you going through the process of assessment ATM and are worried about what the future will be like for your kids!
Maz, montessori is an alternate schooling system. Most of them out there are ages 3-6, but there are schools that go up to yr 12. Instead of grades though, they have age groups.
For Matilda, Montessori is great. It is a quiet environment, not a lot of talking or interacting within the class room. They have Montessori time which is 10-11.30 and then 2-3pm. So until 10, they play in the playground, then at 9.30 its songs and story, show n' tell. 10am is morning tea and then montessori time. Montessori is based around working on 1 sense at a time. Generally organic materials, so no plastic toys, wooden toys (blocks that go according to size, shape, texture), one activity is a glass half filled with marbles and another empty glass and a spoon, they change the marbles from one glass to another. Its good because its quiet.
oh Christy - we have a place here called Verny road that allows SN kids to go to BUT its not just for spectrum (sounds like rectum doesnt it lol) kids..its for all disabilities. It was quiet depressing seeing all these beautiful kids in that place. they always had a smile for you. I could have taken them all home.
We had the school fete today.
Bad move!! WIlhelm's day off from school for starter's. I have a so not in the best of ways...taking all 4 kids by myself......anyway nikolaus wants to go to the haunted house...here we go..I think. Wilhelm wants to go to so they both line up. im proud that WIlhelm wanted to do it...stood there for 10 mins waiting, holding his ears the hole time, he's in there for not even 30 seconds and he comes out SCREAMING and crying holding his ears, sits on my lap rocking back and forth.
Stupid woman next to me laughs and says ah he got a fright...
...maz's response hmm you would to if you had Autisum
she stood up and left.
In saying how tramatic it was for him, I am proud of him becuase it was so out of his comfort zone to stand there with a big group of kids waiting in line and then to go in there.
While driving to Hungry Jacks he told me 5 times that he had a nightmare at school in the libray.
I just hope he's alright tonight (no doubt I'll have a wet bed)
oh Maz - Hope Wilhelm has settled down for you! I always wait with baited breath when Xander wants to do something like that - it usually ends in tears but at least he is trying something new. It's like when we go to the movies, that boy is soooo determined to go to the movies no matter how uncomfortbale he finds it, which is good I guess as it shows with the right motivation he can overcome difficulties. Last time we went we took: his vibrating pillow, his weighted blanket, milk (we are normally on soy but I find dairy numbs him and we use it on bad days) and he was quite comfortable. So many times we have had to leave half way through - PS did you know that if you leave within the first 15-20 min you get your money back? I always let the ticket person know we have Aspergers and we might be back out again, they are very understanding.
Diet - we are failsafe like Christy (check out fed up dot come dot au) but haven't done the full elimination diet we have got rid of as much preservatives, colours, flavours and natural chemicals as possible and Xander and Ari are both on soy (vanilla flavoured soygood) Xander loves it and ari has half cows/half soy on the rare occasions she has a sippy of milk. Believe it or not Xander eats better failsafe then regular as the food is quite bland. Mainly potatoes, leek, sweede, cabbage, pears, peeled red del apples, kettle chips, arnotts biscuits, magic cordial (sugar syrup with citric acid). And then we buy fresh meat and sausages from the butcher. We make our own mini pies which xander likes as I process everything together, mince, cabbage, rice, leek, sweede, brussle sprouts and becuase it is all processed down there are no lumps. We have problems with suaces and food that is mixed (stir fry, spagetti bolog, casseroles are a no go) but he will eat just about everything in the failsafe cook book. We are having trouble with finding a muslei bar receipe as he doesn't like things that are crunchy. Xander got to the point where he was soo skinny I thought he had dislocated his shoulder but it was just his shoulder blade sticking out! Xander is a slow eater and he forgets to eat quite often, rarely asks for food or drink so we have to offer food all the time so he will put on weight.
Raven - beautiful! Don't you love those little milestones! I remember the first time Xander drew a person with a face, arms and legs! Or used more than one colour without prompting!
It is hard waiting for the diagnosis (I totally get the needing to know) but I also thing that a bit of extra time could help. It's amazing the difference 6 months can make to some behavioral traits. Some things were less dominant in Mason but then as he was more vocal they were able to chat to him and be more thorough. ie not call it as being a slower to mature issue IYKWIM as that is what they thought the problem was when he was 3-4. For that reason we actually let it go and see if that was indeed the case before having the full CARS testing done.
Xander has low muscle tone also - which I thought meant he didn't get enough exercise (which is not the case :-) but it means their muscles don't work in unison (ie one stretch while the other contracts) high muscle tone is where they both contract at the same time resulting in tight muscles and spasicity (such a horrible word) low muscle tone means they both relax so they often hyper extend and have an off gait and have difficulty coordinating movement. Xanders OT works on this a lot and I'm proud to say we can down cathc a ball! Not 100% but getting better every day.
...and just when my migraine from him the week before had gone and ive jsut gotten him to eat again after 2 weeks of not. Dame it!
could you cope with him being home 2 days? So missing school on Friday as well as Monday? I know its hard, but maybe easier for his brain to handle? 
. Seriously, its pulling teeth most of the time. I bought these jelly bear things that are concentrated veges that I give her periodically as well. We are 50% gluten free now... cutting down on it, but thats hard too!!
so not in the best of ways...taking all 4 kids by myself......anyway nikolaus wants to go to the haunted house...here we go..I think. Wilhelm wants to go to so they both line up. im proud that WIlhelm wanted to do it...stood there for 10 mins waiting, holding his ears the hole time, he's in there for not even 30 seconds and he comes out SCREAMING and crying holding his ears, sits on my lap rocking back and forth. 
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