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

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Well he is now, but he was quite overtly autistic to start with, but I think they got a lot of in home ABA services provided by their state, I.e. Therapists going to the house. We get special education turning up every month or so saying, yep he's still autistic. OK they do a but more than that, but funds are limited.

Does that mean your funding is reviewed by the NZ government on a monthly basis?

No luckily. But I guess what I'm saying is while they have provided services it's not a great deal, we pay for a lot ourselves. Such is life.

We have FACHSIA funding in Australia but it's not enough to cover our costs
http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/childsuppo ... fault.aspx

Actually I shouldn't complain he has a support worker with him all the time he's at kindy, and they have a music therapist that comes to see him every week there.

My daughter had in home ABA (TEACCH method) therapy three days a week for two hours at a time. Before she turned three we had it four days a week then she had a special autism program at school (after turning 3) and the three days a week ABA, plus I took her to childrens hospital for speech and for occupational therapy once a week. Before she was diagnosed when she was going through all the speech and hearing evaluations I took her to a swimming program that was very therapeutic. They believed in slowly introducing kids to water and never pushed them. They would just move them through the water...she stayed with that up until about nine months before we moved to France...It was about two years and she never really learned to swim but she can go under water and knows how to find the side of the pool and not panic if she were to fall in. Anyway, she had a lot of therapy and it started the week after she was diagnosed with Autism which was a few months before her 3rd birthday. My son, after being diagnosed with Asperger's at age 6, got social group and he got ABA in home once a week, and OT. We also had a respite worker (free babysitter) for 18 hours a month. All of this, aside from the swim lessons were free. I just ignorantly believed that all kids diagnosed with Autism got services like we did but I found out after speaking to more parents that some kids dont receive any services at all and Its hard for me to understand. I mean, Maddy was pretty severe when she was diagnosed so the therapy she received made a huge impact.

Just another day. I came home from work today and did what I usually do, find James and ask him how his day was and talk about things he probably did, like going to kindy and having lunch and I like to monologue about that. He does listen to me and look and smile, I'm never sure at what, but I like to hang out with him.
He was in the bath so I took my dinner in there and talked to him some more.

I actually got him to try some of my Rogan Josh, miracle of miracles It was rejected but it was at least contemplated suspiciously and tried first!

Apparently today he did some 'talking' i.e. making some noises to indicate yes he would like 'some of that'.

I think your son is as fortunate to have you as you are to have him !
I like that saying "just because I dont talk does not mean I have nothing to say". Even verbal classic kids like my daughter do not have a typical conversation but we talk a lot. I think she understands me better sometimes than I do her but we have our own way of communicating and having conversations. Its funny that Im an aspie and I can not read facial expressions or body language of people but I can read my autistic daughter really well. I always hate when they say autistic children do not form strong emotional attachments because I have seen many autistic children with their parents....including my own and I think that this relationship can sometimes transcend any typical relationship. We have a deeper understanding of our kids because they are not easy and we have to work and really look at them, learn them. Also they know that we are that person, the one who understands them, who "listens" to them, and who loves them no matter what.
Im getting too emotional and "deep"....its midnight and I need sleep

My daughter hates spicy or overly sweet food. She likes pizza because she can cut it up with a knife and fork and feed us.

Since 5.5 yrs my daughter can't stop talking. The problem is getting her to direct her speech toward conversation. She does however have a wide array of request related and observational statements. I can't emphasise enough that storytime was a really a great opportunity to use a cliched children's story as a template for developing some rudimentary scenario schemas that involve conversational speech. Fictional animal characters are (at the moment) more important to her than real people. That's fine as we can use baby elephants or hippos to initiate a sense of herself and others.

Not very f'n happy my wife went to check out one of the options of a place for James to go to school, and just now while she was there the staff tied a child to his chair.

What! are you serious!!

I know someone who pulled their child from school a few weeks back because of this ....

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/27697851/detail.html
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/vo ... ic-student

It's my understanding that in the FOX report they claim the mother of the child was in the school at the time .... what they don't say is that the mother was there because she was a teacher at the school and was busy teaching a class at the time and according to my friend she was not aware of what her child was going through.

It really makes me want to home school, but I know my son would benefit from more socialization than I can provide. Thinking about sending him off terrifies me. I don't have much faith in the system.

What a terrible story. The private school is called Chase Academy. I tried to get my daughter into several private schools but they claimed they did not have the resources or staff suitable to cope with my daughter. Now that I read this I am glad. Elitist institutions have a tendency to attract elitist teachers and administrators.

She said the child was not doing what they wanted and getting unhappy so they said 'right your going in the chair' and dragged him there and strapped him in, without any other strategies being tried first. Its a special chair with restraints. I can hardly believe it. she also said they seemed pretty useless and didn't have visual schedules and were very authoritarian and rigid towards the kids.
The other place special needs unit we looked at had the nicest and most switched on people your could imagine. We can't get in that one, or even the school as the stupid enrolment zone has changed. I can tell you now though that he's not going to that other..prison camp!!