RE: Kids w/ Classic Autism, PDD-NOS & Speech Delays

Post Reply New Topic

I should say, on a positive note, that the Texas state legislature has fairly recently enacted laws requiring private insurance companies to provide ABA coverage for kids up to age 10. This is good, however, speech coverage and occupational therapy need to be addressed, too.

The biggest problems, in my opinion, are too few slots in the school early interevention programs for children under three, and the programs are of poor quality. Also, the special ed programs run through the schools starting at age 3 are generally of poor quality and not enough speech therapy and occupational therapy is provided at school--two thirty minute speech sessions a week for a nonverbal child and good luck getting any speech services if your child has milder impediments. To get occupational therapy, the child pretty much has to be severely physically disabled, not just have fine motor skills issues.

Effective strategies for teaching autistic students academics--such as TEACCH (see website under "therapy")--are generally not used. Severe reading comprehension problems go unaddressed, too.

The amount of intervention required for just my older son with classic autism pretty much requires one parent to be at home, either working with him or taking him to a bunch of therapy appointments. At my son's school, the majority of the women, including those with kids with severe disabilities, work outside the home and are unavailable to take a child to a bunch of appointments. (Not blaming the women, just saying that more requirements on private insurance companies won't help most of the kids affected.)

Another FREE ipad/iphone app from Toca Boca, today only: "Toca Store". Not my favorite app by them but for free it's worth downloading.

http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/l ... artphones/

I saw this article about a technology for windows smart phones with cameras that is coming out soon. I thought that it was totally cool and wanted to share.

I don't want to jinx myself but my son has suddenly started doing #2 in the potty (he would only do #1 before) and he's consistently telling me when he needs to go and has been going days at a time without any "accidents". I think the shame of having to be laid down (and held down and scolded because he loves squirming which is not at all funny when it's poop) for so many diaper changes finally got to him.

Well I still think he's doing great with the potty but we did have something of an "oops" last night.... After my son had peed in the potty he darted out of the bathroom without his pants on and after several failed verbal attempts to get him to try to put his pants back on I decided I was too tired to chase him down and just let him run around for a bit and forgot about it (it was very late at night), I wasn't too worried about poo because he'd already done that in the potty a few hours prior. A little while later he turned up next to me this time without his shirt too and tapped me on the arm "Potty?", he said. "OK, let's go!" I said and he was doing a happy nekkid autie dance down the hall on his way to the potty when I noticed he was pooing while he was skipping merrily to the bathroom (multitasking). I yelled "OH NO, HURRY UP!" (meaning stop fooling around and run to the bathroom NOW) and thoroughly scared his father who was in the the other room and had no idea why I was yelling. He came running out because he thought I was talking to him meanwhile I'm simultaneously trying to rush my son into the bathroom and trying to stop my partner from stepping in a fresh turd.... Fun times.

No idea where he got it from but my son's newest thing is to pretend he's falling into the potty and say "Help, I can't swim!".

My son has gone Ipad mad. We take it with us, because it helps to calm him to. A few days ago he dropped it on the fireplace hearth and managed to hit right on the data connector port which is the only gap in the protective cover, the iPad is solid aluminium there and it bent the case across the gap but with the aid of judicious application of a butter knife it works fine. The fireplace hearth is cracked where it landed