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

Post Reply New Topic

I see. We probably just got lucky, the school district in my hometown (which is considered mediocre at best) has an autism program which has been helping a lot.

He is going to the preschool for free because of his diagnosis. If he didn't have that and we just wanted him to attend regular preschool we'd have to pay.

We bought a house in a supposedly "good" school district, and will move in sometime this summer after we complete some renovations. I hope we have as good an experience with this one.

Does he have to take the bus? I might not remember the circumstances 100% correctly but it seems to me they expected us to use the bus, my son was still very much a baby last year and can be combative about getting buckled into his seat, he'll get in now without a fight if he does it on his own terms and own time which can take quite a while. I did not like the thought of a stranger wrestling my son to get him into his seat. And are you allowed to observe your son in class to see how he's really adjusting? We were allowed to make an appointment to observe classes (which we did) but not allowed to actually observe our son in a class if we signed him up, I took that as a red flag that I didn't trust the administration of the school. I also recall one of the teachers calling out the representative who was trying to get us to sign up for the school for blatantly lying to us about one of our rights. It's also supposedly a good school and I didn't get a bad vibe from the teachers I met but I didn't trust the administration and when we watched a class I didn't see any kids who behaved like my son so I still didn't know how they were really going to handle him.

Yeah there is a van that picks him up. But he likes riding in vehicles so he is cool with it. I have not asked if we can observe a class. I wouldn't have time to do it. But his ABA teacher comes to our house and I like what she is doing, it seems very effective.

Honestly I can't be picky as this is the only school where we are right now and we came to the US specifically for him to enter the US school system to recieve these services. It's definitely better than what we were getting before, which was pretty much nothing.

Just curious, was it a public or private preschool school you looked at? What are you planning to do for kindergarten?

It's public and actually seems to have quite a good reputation. We plan on sending him to kindergarten, we'll probably send him to preschool too but we're dragging our feet about it and may have missed the registration date for fall ... I think part of the problem is I'm waiting for my partner to make the decision and call, anything we do revolves around his schedule because I don't drive. And he may be even more apprehensive about it than I am.

That's a pretty big step in terms of independence, my daughter refuses to get into any vehicle except the family car with one parent driving.

We had another minor advancement recently, my son blew out his birthday candles and ate a piece of cake for the first time (totally unexpected, I drew number 4s all over it maybe the numbers won him over I dunno) and opened all of his presents himself this year. He's also asking for waffles every day and has been eating them with a fork. I gave him a hot dog too, he didn't eat it but he at least wasn't upset by the fact that it was there (one of his favorite books features a "hot dog party" so he liked that even though he couldn't bring himself to try it).

That's good. My son is still not interested in presents.

Oh, he loves all modes of transportation. We can't walk by a subway station without him trying to drag us inside.

Funny story, first time he got into a car in the US, he got in but he sat on the floor!

Big news, my son just put on a shirt all by himself for the first time! Is age four when most kids do this or is this delayed?

I think it's delayed a bit, but it's still great! Mine doesn't put on shirts yet. He's put on socks a few times but he still expects me to do it, same with his pants and everything else. It's frustrating knowing he could do it if he tried but doesn't want to.

We've been working with him on this, this was the first time he picked up a shirt on his own and put it on.

He puts on his shoes, too, but that's mostly just jamming his feet into the holes (and not necessarily on the right feet.)

For us it's elevators.

Probably delayed by a year. However mine put her first shirt around 4.5-5yrs so your son is doing well.

I'm having trouble getting my son to keep his clothes ON. He doesn't do it when we're out but at home after my son uses the potty he darts out of the bathroom and refuses to put his pants back on even if there's company over (he often uses the potty by himself). I spend a huge portion of my day trying to get him to put on pants.

You may need to experiment and see if it's the pants per say or perhaps it's an issue over the material/texture or even the colour/pattern/design.

While my daughter will not wear certain patterns or motifs on her clothes but so far she isn't too burdened with sensory issues over texture or feel of clothes.