YouTube recommendations and an update
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| Tue, 02-05-2008 - 12:24pm |
HI guys!
I've been lurking without much time to post lately.
Sam (AS, ADHD, 8) is doing really well academically this year. I can't believe we considered keeping him back last year! Math is a piece of cake. He's really caught on to multiplication and seems to be enjoying it. Lang. Arts is going ok, reading fluency is getting better. I really thing the mainstream classroom with pullout works better for him academically than the Integrated class with dually cert. teacher and aide! The extended school day works as long as afterschool isn't too busy. They have an enrichment learning period. Sam got his first choice this semester (Pirates!) He loves it.
Because he's not in the sheltered setting of the Int. class, he is exposed to more typical boy behavior than he is used to. I'm not sure if the teasing he's experiencing requires me to go into mama bear mode yet, but I'm definately mentioning it to his teacher at our conference next week. It's the same boys. Some name calling, trouble at recess...etc. Sam also has *always* fixated on the kids on the playground with the absolute worst behavior. He wants to be in the thick of it but isn't able to navigate those kind of situations with socially appropriate behavior, he ends up in trouble. He has labelled these kids as "evil" and though I know they aren't the kindest boys around, I'm not sure their behavior reaches that level. He's fixated on them, so I'm not sure how much is really going on and how much is Sam overblowing the situaiton and misinterpretting.
There are quiet kids in his class that he simply doesn't think to hang around with. And it does sound like he sometimes does get along with these rabblerousers. He still is enjoying karate and sees his best friend he's known since Kindy. I'm going to see if his teacher can move his seat to sit with one of the quieter kids to foster another friendship. The local Autism Resource non profit is starting social skills classes and I have my fingers crossed that they will have a good match for Sam. The Fun Group we attend there is put together very well and the staff is extremely qualified to help Sam with all those nuanced grey areas he's been having so much trouble with lately.
Sam has expressed feeling very different lately. With all the talk we do about what *he* can do to make a situation turn out differently, I'm afraid that he's starting to feel down about himself, like he's always doing something wrong. We're having a hard time explaining that while nothing is *wrong* with him, he does need to do some extra work that other kids may not in order to function. He does know about the dx; we've talked about brain wiring and so forth, how some things many be hard for him but not impossible.
We just got high speed internet access (woohoo!) so a whole new world has been opened to us. Do any of you know of any YouTube videos that would appropriate for him to view that might make him feel better about himself, so he knows he's not alone, or weird.....etc. I think he would enjoy watching more than reading.



Hi Chrystee,
I highly recommend http://youtube.com/watch?v=3zW2rxObQAg for Sam as he is both ASD and ADHD. I also have socialization issues with my PDD-NOS DS (5.5yo in kindy). He does not read social cues well, and a lot of the times he misreads telling me that so-and-so are bullies etc (where in fact they wanted to just play-fight with my DS). Social scenes only get more and more complex as kids ages. I feel helpless at times. I am glad you came out of the lurking mode though.
-- Innie
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T4tFCFpH8Vw
I like this one. It is part of a documentary made by a 16yo with autism about people with autism. The kid who created it definitely has that "cool teen" vibe to him. He does a nice job and it shows lots of people on the spectrum particularly more verbal type folks (AS) but also the otehr end as well in a very positive light.
Renee