He's definately coming undone
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| Fri, 09-30-2005 - 7:55pm |
Isn't there a completely depressed icon?
Since 18 months old we've been having the hitting problem with Sam (now 6.) It came to a head at about 3 yo (pre AS dx) at daycare. I switched to a home based daycare so I could get through my last semester at college and then he went to a *really* great private preK. The problems continued. We were all very unhappy and I was miserable, thought it was my fault...etc....etc. We have tried everything, even the biomedical approach starting with Feingold and ending with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet; even got him some accupressure treatments. The AS dx really helps explain why and why he's having such a hard time controlling his hurting others, but it's still killing me.
Kindy went really well; I was not expecting him to regress sooooo much in 1st grade. Today someone growled at him during carpet time and he kicked him in the mouth, made him bleed. He pulled off a classmates glasses at recess and threw them because she was being mean to someone else. I sent a note today about the line thing and his teacher gave him a laid-back partner to stand at the front of the line with him and thought he was going to have a pretty good day. He's having these pretty bad hurting incidents at least once a day and I just don't think I can take it. It kills me that he's hurting other people and nothing seems to get through to him. I haven't tried social stories or any kind of visually based method other than library books on feelings....etc. I really don't know what else there is to do to help him. He is really having a horribly hard time these past few weeks and I'm afraid to bring him to school.
I have a call in to the SpEd dept to set up a meeting earlier than the Oct IEP. There is an ASD Kindy/1st grade class that he may be able to go into. He wasn't officially elligible for services when they assigned teachers and I don't think anyone saw this coming at all. He can't even stay focused long enough to get any of his work done. He just starts scripting and stimming in his seat. I still can't believe that it took this long to get anyone to notice; I started asking for help with this 3 years ago and I feel like we've gone nowhere. I just hope a better teacher/student ratio will help him feel less stressed out. I think he's just soooo overwhelmed by the work load, class size and increased demands placed on him that he's gone over the edge.
I too could use a glass of wine or two.
Chrystee


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Thanks, I'll put that on my wish list too!
Chrystee
Chrystee,
A couple things. First, you year right now sounds a whole lot like Mike's 2nd and 3rd grade years. He only had 20 kids in K-2, but his K and 1st grade teachers were stellar and worked constantly to help his behavior and modify for him. Not so in 2nd grade and he regressed fast into a very autistic like little dude. By the end of 2nd and beginning of 3rd he was getting very aggressive. It killed me that he was hurting others too. Once, his teacher had a miscarriage soon after an altercation with Mike. She had been doing infertility and assured me 1,000 times it wasn't Mike but still, I can't help feeling it was.
He finally got better when we put him in a special class, totally removed mainstreaming, provided a ton more supports, took him off all the meds that he was on and changed his diet and added Omega's.
His psychiatrist tried to convince me that high functioning autistics aren't that aggressive. that is a load of bull. When they are stressed out, over stimulated, frustrated, etc it becomes fight or flight. They are constantly in a state of fight or flight our poor little guys. medications may help, I have heard riperadol can be great but it does have some significant side effect. I have heard it was a life saver from some. But i would really recomend a change of placement and reducing his stress.
On the reading, my non-AS child had a hard time with that. Turned out to be vision processing. Took her for a full vision evaluation (not eyesight but developmental vision). Ended up that the words where going double and jumping all over the page on her. We did exercises adn made some modifications and she is doing much better. Mike had that problem too but not as bad as Emily. Vision Therapy was recomended and is often covered by IEP's but Emily doesn't qualify for an IEP so we were stuck. I did what I could my self.
Does his eyes get tired when reading. Does he ever cover one eye or do anything liek that. Mike would hold what he was reading off to one side and move his head rather than the book.
Renee
Good pick up on the vision thing. That was my next thought of something to check out too! Great minds think alike, I guess.
I'm definately exhausting all of our options before trying meds. I'm not anit-med, but I am weary of the side effects.
Thanks for your post!
Chrys
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