Sal, I hope things have improved , how scary losing your roof. The pic on your 365 is scary.
well Mr H starts back at school next week and at the moment I am a defeated Mumma. I put in a request that he not be put in the class that was going to have 1 teacher 3 days and another 2 days as I know he wouldn't cope. They have obliged me with that wish and have put him in a class with 2 boys who have been involved in incidents with Mr H which resulted in Mr H requiring hospital treatment. One boy 2 yrs ago got H to lick and kiss toilets at school. Then mid year last yr both boys where at a get together parents had organised at a park when they turned on a BBQ and told H to touch it it wasn't hot, well H just does what they tell him and of course he ended up getting rushed to hospital with burns.
So I am now worried that he is being put in a bad situation as these boys know he will do what the say... I have spoken to the deputy principal and made her aware but am not overly happy with her way of dealing with the issue.
Also H has still not received any help at school what so ever, Autism SA are due out the next week to see him and set stuff up but at the moment he receives no support , no help and no understanding... I am starting to wonder if I should move him to another school, just so hard as they have always been wonderful with my other child.
im just really looking for an outlet at the moment and to gain some knowledge on what im looking for and what are obvious signs that im overlooking..
My son has Adhd and has also got signs of autism but dr will not diganose him due to his vocabulary and speech..
He told me my son has signs of High Functioning Autism but he still cant seem to wrap his head around my ds's intelligence and therefore can not be diagnosed with autism.. I just want a full diagnosis to help my ds and also take some weight off my shoulders
Some things he does just so you can tell me what you think:
He constantly is hiding under tables and chairs basically anything he can fit under.
e.g- today he had a sepcialist appt and my son spent the time under his desk (dr's desk)
He acts like he is a baby and always causes a commotion when out in public. drops onto the floor and becomes limp and babbles like a little baby and will yell out silly noises
He is ok on eye contact but will only give eye contact to people he trusts
My son also has adhd so at the same time he is hyperactive its very confusing..
I have to basically tell him 2 days in advance where we are going to try and prevent a episode but usually doesnt matter his always going to do it whether i like it or not
He hates crowds if i take him into a shopping centre he will get frustrated and revert to baby like behaviour
He is extremely sensitive to noise even if my dd cries he covers his ears and even a car door shutting.. This due to ongoing hearing probs since birth but still highly affects him
He will never eat food with out wanting to know what it is all about and smelling it and looking at it
He also gets extremely aggressive if you breach his space boundaries and can not play with anymore than 1 child before he goes off his rocket and i mean extremely violent
so much more but i dont want to go on and on,,
Im just really at a breaking point, I know his only 4 and i shouldnt look into it so much but its that out there it gets pointed out to me.. he has been expelled from pre-school abused at prechool due to his issues by a teacher, i feel like im going to lose my son and never see the real him ever again...
I really just wanna break down and cry cause i just want him to be at peace and happy.. and i know his not... even looking in his eyes i see dispear..
Tan, You need to do what is best for Mr H, and I remember reading that post. Those boys are the worst thing for him right now. If that means a change of school then it is definitely worth looking at.
Zaki, Contact someone at the NSW Association for Gifted and Talented Children (NSWAGTC). They are a wonderful group of women, some who were in the same position as you with higher functioning spectrum children. They might be able to help you with a contact for a paed that DOES accept HFASD and can get him the help BEFORE he is too old for the funding. There is a cut off and it sounds like his Dr is messing you around.
Had our Paeds appt yesterday. She is looking at Spectrum for Princess. Have a battery of blood and urine tests for her including iron, lead, thyroid, blah blah blah. That is going to be fun, but she told me to take it to Lismore Base because they have the people to help.
Also she said that due to the HG I suffered and Princess' low birth weight we will have future weight problems. It is hard because she is constantly hungry. I am going to go talk to a chemist to see if there is something we can do about that. Its just started on her too, she went from healthy weight to at risk in just a couple of weeks.
Dream of perfection shattered =(
She things Tsunami is ADHD as well, but as I said to her, he isn't hurting anyone or anything, including himself and so if he is, its only his lack of concentration so I would prefer to NOT medicate my boy just for that. So she told me to use fish oil to see if that helps, obviously mentioned diet but we have already been eliminating our nasty numbers.
With Chill, she just thinks that the stuff that is worrying the school is not entirely a "him" issue. He is in survival mode after the last school and she feels that its not really anything she can help with but will keep seeing him more sparingly as she doesn't want him to develop depression and anxiety from it. (For those that missed, he was shoved into the path of traffic and threatened with a knife at his last school - hence why we moved).
Tan, sounds like a change in school might be the way to go
Zaki, I can see some similarities between your DS and my DS1 hang in there, no advice, just hugs
HA, Massive HUGS for you too, what an overwhelming day. How old is princess and how much does she weigh?
We are still trying to settle in to the house, every bit of wind and DS1 freaks out and says "roof not come off" poor thing, he's terrified now.
I found something that helps calm him down today... it's not exactly the best thing, but it is at the same time iykwim. It's my vibration machine! He sat on it for about 2 mins and is now still calm after 30 mins! that's a record for us!
Last edited by Early Kids; February 10th, 2011 at 05:20 PM.
Firstly I'm so sorry for the selfish post. . . .I have not had a chance to read this whole thread yet.
I finally did it. I got the courage to have a good chat with DD's daycare teacher today about my suspicions that DD has a sensory disorder and her teacher did agree that DD has certain traits.
I have suspected something for a couple of years but the only thing thats held me back is the fact that DD is actually very social with other children so I kept telling myself that she is okay.
The main traits that DD displays are:
She wont look you directly in the eye
She is always on the go running around etc.
She is very very clumsy. She seems to trip over thin air and always has bruises on her legs
She is very tactile. hates cetain textures, dislikes anything woolen, hates getting creams or sunscreen put on, hates toothpaste on her toothbrush etc
She is very into routine and really strugles with change. She will have a major meltdown to the point of being inconsolable at anything that is different.
She has an awesome long term memory and is very intellegent. Boy is she intellegent.
She has been quite slow to TT and still refuses to poo in the toilet
She kind of seems to lack empathy.
I'm sure there is more that I just can't think of right now.
I have made an appointment with our local child health clinic to get the diagnosis ball rolling. Can anyone here tell me more about what the process will be? Her daycare teacher said they will probably send them forms to complete about her behaviours at daycare and may also visit the kindy to observe her.
MamaSpice - your DD sounds like my DS (he isnt much younger than your DD, a Jan 08 baby!) except my DS can look you in the eye sometimes. We're currently trying to figure out our best avenue for assessment. Our first step was to go see a child psychologist as they are the ones who can do the assessments. He is in speech therapy atm and should be in occupational therapy but unfortunately we cannot afford the private costs right now. Your DD's daycare teacher most definitely should put any observations in writing, my DS's daycare teacher is currently doing a social and behaviour observation report up for us. You've come to the right thread for advice and support, the ladies in here have been wonderful to me since we started on this rollercoaster!
Ugh. Things are not good with us. Rip's daycare teacher pulled me up last week to raise concerns over his social behaviour. He has become quite a loner at daycare now, he doesnt play or speak with any of the other kids, not even his little twin 'girlfriends' from whom he was inseparable before the christmas break. She mentioned it again this week; and that she was going to start observations and write up a report for us to give to his assessors. Even she said he isnt the same kid he was 6mths ago.
We're currently saving up for his assessments because the wait lists for public assessments is a million months long. We should have it all done by April.
Hi Freya, yes DD does sometimes look you in the eye too but mainly if she comes and tells you something. If you are trying to initiate a conversation with her though she won't do it.
i'm going to see what going the child health clinic road is like but if there are big delays I'll have to just get a referral to a specialist I think. But yes they're sooo expensive aren't they. I have to take DS to a paed on monday and it's costing $275.
DD's teacher is very switched on about sensory disorders etc. DD had a little boy in her class last year who has aspergers. Her teacher says that DD's traits aren't as severe but suspects she could defiantely be mildly affected.
The Spectrum and other cognitive disorders are so varied its amazing! Ds was informally assessed using the CARS assessment for ASD by his speechie and scored highly on it, yet Ive had a few people tell me because he is often loving and isnt completely socially inept that he couldnt be ASD. They seem to forget that ASD can vary in traits from child to child.
Sounds to me from what you described your DD could be a Sensory Seeker. My DS is a seeker, which is why he has a huge tendency to be overtly physical/aggressive and exaggerated in his everyday life. If he cant be stimulated by it he doesnt want to know about it. He touches, he tastes, he smells, he even deliberately hurts himself in order to process life. Its quite full on sometimes. If anyone looked at him they'd think I abuse him with the amount of injuries and bruises he has.
Yes that's very true, it varies so much doesn't it. DD is not very affectionate. She never has been. But she can be on the rare occasion when she wants to.
This weekend has been a weekend full of meltdowns. DD has had several, rangeing from about 20 minutes to an hour. She kicks and screams and cries and yells. I'm so surprised we havent had the cops land on our doorstep yet.
I try to be really patient and try to explain things to her and get her to settle down. And I try to distract her attention to something else. DH gets to a point where he can't take it and just yells at her (which obviously doesnt work, it makes her worse)
What do you do in these situations? I just don't know the best way I need to approach calming her down? HELP???
Mr H is going well at school, this year they actually had Autism sa go into the school before the kids started back and talk to the teachers.
He has his own desk and while it is in a group of tables he doesn't share his, he also has his own pencils etc again (we had major problems with this last yr).
So far things have been going smoothly, the school and teachers are aware of the problem with the other children and have been monitoring this. Hamish is also in a group that go to a social skill class, they are learning about real friends.
So far all I can say is the school seem to have done a huge back flip and the support is there this year, Hamish is not made to sit on the floor , he is allowed to sit at his desk but is still required to listen and participate. Floor time has always been a major problem for him, he cant sit still, doesnt like having the children to close etc.
I believe the reason for the backflip is due to an increase in children with ASD diagnosis.
MamaSpice, we found that we just needed to find the thing that works. This thing doesn't always work so we have a number of things up our sleeve. They include... crunching on ice, tight/firm cuddles, banging pegs (you know those peg things you bang down the turn it over and do it all again lol) jumping (preferably on a small trampoline), we also have a few 'tools' (weighted vest etc) I'm not sure if any of that will help you, but in my experience it's all about trial and error and finding what does work.
Disciplines... well we are still getting there, I've just done a workshop on Autism Disorders and this was covered. It's about working out what is causing the behaviour. What happens before the behaviour occurs, we are starting to track the behaviours to work out Brendan's triggers. Maybe take notes on what is happening just before the behaviour occurs (sounds, lighting, is she hungry? thirsty? etc)
Her triggers are usually quite obvious. It's usually when something is not "how she thinks it should be" eg: she dislikes the fan on when she goes to bed but it's so freaking hot we usually turn it on for a while after she's gone to sleep. Anyway, she woke up at midnight and noticed the fan was on which lead to a 1 hour meltdown. Even though we turned if off straight away. Another was, I had to strip her dora sheets off her bed cause she wet through and even though I explained why and that they'd be back on asap she lost it cause her dora sheets weren't on the bed. Stuff like that. And it's not just a normal tanty, she really struggles.
I hear ya that's exactly what we get here. DS1 has 'cars' on his bed and washing those is an absolute nightmare! He also has a security blanket... which goes EVERYWHERE, couldn't even tell you the last time it was washed We are still trying to work through those ones and it's really tough, as you know.
Welcome to the thread Mama Spice. I truly can relate. I used to wonder when the cops were going to rock up on my doorstep. I am sure some kids not liking bath time is normal, but the screaming from Princess during a bath was something else entirely. My ears would be ringing for hours afterwards. It has thankfully passed over now and bath time is not the nightmare it used to be, but she is still set off by the tiniest thing.
Tan: I am so glad to hear they have come to the part with helping Master H. Hopefully this will be an extremely positive role for his future now. Especially learning about 'real friends'. May those boys never get near your boy again =(
Hurry back, Clover!
Here, I have a problem.
Princess was moved into SPED for the last term of 2010. That was fine and we were pleased, only this year her new teachers (yeah, plural - not at the same time! UGH! Job sharing special needs kids, you have GOT to be kidding me, right???) have this policy which DH and I are having an issue with. We have to go pick Princess up from class or the quad (after all the other kids have been picked up and her teacher brings her up). She is not allowed to walk to the car herself.
This is a independence skill she has had for 2 years. She has been walking to the car without issue or drama since year 2. I understand if its a whole classroom thing, but we are very very worried that it will drag her backwards. People only have to suggest something and she runs with it and won't change it. Someone once said her aversion to white foods could be a dairy allergy, and now nothing at all ever in the world is going to convince her she is not allergic to dairy food. She isn't, but she wont believe us or the paed that she isn't.
If they make her believe she needs to be picked up from the quad, her ability to independently navigate her way around is going to be utterly destroyed.
Problem is, I don't think the school is going to change their mind on it. I am going to try but it may not happen. Being regional, we don't have any other school options either.. so here is the problem.
She coped mentally and emotionally in mainstream, she just wasn't doing it intellectually the way all the other kids do. But if I have to, should I ask them to put her back in mainstream and supplement her learning at home?
Early Kids, DD has a security thingy too, hers is one with a ducks head on a blanket. It's her "duckie" and god help us all if anything ever happens to "duckie". She is good at Kindy now she only has it at rest time and the rest of the time it stays in her bag so that's a step forward.
Honey Aspen. DD has been okay at bathtime but HATES getting her hair washed and she HATES bubbles in the bath. We had a moment last week where I put some pinetarsol in the bathwater to try to relieve her ezaema. Big mistake. She lost it at the bathwater being yellow. I had to pull the plug and start again. Oh and she very matter of factly told me to take the pinetarsol back to the shop!
What a pain that they wont let your DD walk to the car on her own when she is very capable of it. I agree with you that it could be detrimental. I hope you can get a resolution (and that the school see sense)
Honey Aspen. DD has been okay at bathtime but HATES getting her hair washed and she HATES bubbles in the bath. We had a moment last week where I put some pinetarsol in the bathwater to try to relieve her ezaema. Big mistake. She lost it at the bathwater being yellow. I had to pull the plug and start again. Oh and she very matter of factly told me to take the pinetarsol back to the shop!
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