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

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Just an update. December was an interesting month because my son started saying "I'll kill you" (or "I want to kill you" or "you want to kill me?") every time he got angry and he can get angry and scream over just about anything. I don't know where he got it from, he doesn't really know what it means but it's still disturbing. It could have been TV or YouTube, it doesn't take long for him to navigate away from good videos to garbage so I'm putting most of the blame on the latter and have finally successfully banned him from using it. I never wanted him on it in the first place but his Dad would always let him because it's one of the few things that gives us a break from him. He still tries to access it any chance he gets but I have it blocked on my PC and deleted on his ipad and parental controls in place on the Wii which he has started playing now that he can't go on YouTube anymore. Sometimes he still says it but we've redirected it a bit, now he usually says "I won't kill you" instead. He got a Batman shirt for Christmas and doesn't want to wear anything else. He gets combative when I try to change his clothes.

On the positive side though he's been doing good imaginative play with Star Wars/Super Hero toys and will eat apple peels now.

Congratulations on your boys picking up conversational speech. It must be such a relief for you.

Most of us here have younger children still emerging from their speech delays. My daughter is still at a cross roads and she's 7.

On the dating front I wish you the best of luck

Thanks for your post. Agree with you, my daughter seems to learn much more just listening to our normal speech. I think Temple Grandin also recommended rote learning of regular speech/sentence structure rather than using esoteric methods

My son just turned 4 and is in a special needs school. His major challenges are communication but we have seen improvements since he started school in September. I am not sure if it's him just maturing of the speech therapy. He is sensory seeking a does mostly visual stims (blinking, etc). He is socially awkward but does have a desire to be social. With all his "quirks" we were not able to get a diagnosis of autism, just a confirmation that he has some "traits". I was able beg and cry to get him OT, ST, PT and Play Therapy each 2 times a week, paid for by the school district. The director of the school things he will be ready for mainstream school for Kindergarten but I want to keep him in a special education school. I have no concrete reason for this by the way, I am just afraid that mainstream school will be too much for him with bigger kids, hallways, less attention, etc. Plus, I don't currently have a diagnosis I can use to help him get anything extra in terms of his own para. I would love to hear why you think that mainstreaming him is a good route. Also, do you think I could get a para without anything major happening to justify getting one?

Thanks

I'll respond to your points. Firstly why did I choose a mainstream primary school for my daughter?

In kindergardten she was prone to template her behavior on children with behavioral issues. Although this is perhaps not discussed very often, children at that tender age absorb the behavior of their peers. If you place your toddler in a special-needs preschool he will be observing children head banging, screaming and lashing out at teachers. They are already predisposed to behavioral issues so putting them in a environment where other children are behaving erratically is only telling them that this is how other children behave. I have a read a blog from one WP member where he described how even at the age of 12 he felt like banging his head simply because he wanted to fit in with his classmates. I realise this is a contraversial reason but my wife and I thought it would be best for our daughter at such an impressionable age.

I can comment about Australia re: getting a para/aide at school. Currently in order to qualify for assisitance your child needs to be diagnosed with "severe" social and/or cognitive delays. This is an issue for parents of children who demonstrate mild forms of autism who seem to miss out on services. One strategy is to get a psychologist or paediatrician to give your son an assessment when he is having a really really bad day. Many of the health practioners are sympathetic to parents needs and will give such an assessment in order the parent's can access government support.

On this issue of bullying, I guess this is inivetable if your son has no aide to keep an eye on him. One thing to keep in mind is that bullying also occurs in special schools, particularly in special needs highschools. In general children who are lower functioning are the targets of bullying from higher functioning kids even when aides are present. Secondly special needs teachers are notorious for bullying children in their classrooms, largely because they know there is nobody watching who can give a clear description of the events. The latter is a real concern for me, I have met parents of older special needs children who suffered physical abuse from both fellow students and teachers in special needs schools because of their children's behavior and cognitive limitations. This was a significant factor in choosing a government mainstream school.

Thanks for explaining to me another side of the argument. These were things I hadn't thought about before. My son has significant communication problems. He is able to ask for what he needs and answer questions when given a choice. However, talking to strangers comes out in total jargon. The other day we were at the doctors office and a little girl, about 6 or 7 had a handheld video game. He went up to her to say something to her (which I was so happy about) but then all that came out of his mouth was total jargon. They were words, totally scrambled that you could make no sense of it. He was also animated, in a very happy way, and his voice was a little too loud. I was hovering around but decided not to intervene because I wanted to see him in action. We still have a year and a half to see how far he gets in this school, but I am nervous about him trying to talk to strangers and making no sense. At school, he is able to speak with his teachers and therapists but his level of communication is dependent on how well he knows you. Though, this is not always a rule since he has shocked me and asked total strangers well thought out questions. But I guess the difference is, they were adults.

This was interesting to read for me. My son is on a waiting list for evaluation and his symptoms are pretty mild. But this is something I recognize a lot.
For the first two years of his life his grandma thought he was deaf, but I knew he wasn't. Then from 3-5 or so he spoke very oddly, very ritualistic and it seemed like he only understood what I said or his dad said. When strangers spoke to him, I would have to repeat what they said for him to understand it. Like a translation, but without changing languages.
It's much better now but he speaks less good than other kids and seems to have a "speech disorder".

Hi everyone, haven't posted in a while but figured I'd chime in on the "special needs school" issue.

I am (now!) in the US and my son attends public preschool. He is in the "substantially separated classroom" so doesn't interact with the other NT kids much if at all.

If we wanted him to go to a special needs school we'd have to prove that the current school was not meeting his needs and that he was not progressing. It would be a huge battle as the school district would be required to pay the $50k + yearly tuition.

That, plus I am not sure, once someone enters a special needs school how hard it would be to get out, and attend say public high school later on.

In Australia special schools cater mainly for children with significant functional impairment that may include speech. I spoke with the headmaster of an Autism school and he told me the goal of the school is to prepare children with "potential" for mainstream school. Alternatively children with severe impairment are taught to prepare for indpendent living (in many cases this will be impractical so they are taught to learn as many skills as they are capable of learning).

In this respect if you have a child with reasonable cognitive skills, and access to a aide, then it makes more sense to put them in a mainstream school. I do acknowledge that mainstream school environments are not always ideal for developing social skills and modifying sensory issues but I am working on the basis my child will develop coping mechanisms to deal with sensory issues and pick up social skills in her own time. Having the aide is also a buffer against bullying but of course its not foolproof protection.

Actually this is a very good sign. My daughter refuses to engage in conversation unless we ask her. It sounds like he is ready to learn social skills and conversational language. It's a really good opportunity to put him in intensive speech therapy.

Is the autism school paid for by your school district or are you on your own?

Theres a few located in Melbourne and they are government run so therefore paid for by the state government. We also have two schools in Melbourne that cater for children with high function and IQ but have a diagnosis of ADHD, ASD or other. These two schools are private and are would be considered expensive compared to the government run Autism schools.

I looked around and one of the colleges in the area has a speech program that runs 12 weeks in the spring and fall and 6 weeks in the summer. It's for 45 mins and roughly $50+ a session. I am going to try and start the process tomorrow. The nice thing is, I can see what happens via cc monitor.

That's very cheap! speech therapy in Australia is around $120 - $180 an hour!! !

I am so excited. I got the last spot! It's $588 for twelve 45 min sessions. I will take him there one day a week (I chose Sat since he will be well rested then). They said it is a grad student who will work with him, with a ST supervising. I don't mind the grad students, they are usually eager to prove them selves and most are in it to help the kids.

I've booked mine into a psych grad program as well (to start this year) but still waiting to hear back?