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

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Thanks, I will check it out.

When I saw him reading the first thing I did was grab the video camera...I should put some of these videos online one of these days.

This is a short clip of my son when he was 2 and a half.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0DtF_ZaSgA[/youtube]
Obviously its not much but it was appropriate, then he lost speech from there till three and a half there was none.

This vid is his highest functioning on record (lucky I videoed it) also around two and a half years old, theres a fair bit evident in there, imitation, talking and pointing, focus on others, that all went by the wayside that we are now getting back through hard work.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwsSSTaPII[/youtube]
"Two mites" because we used to make him Marmite on toast and say "Two Marmites on toast" he also says "And budda" meaning "and two pieces of peanut butter on toast".

You were lucky to get those videos! My son had some language between 12-18 months but I took mostly still photos, so I don't have any proof of it.

Do any of you know about a relationship between sleep disturbance and brain development? For the past few days my son has been going to sleep really late (11PM-midnight) and waking up in the middle of the night screaming. The Mrs brought it up at the day care center and was told that this type of thing happens when a kid's brain is developing fast and he is absorbing lots of stuff. Remember he just suddenly started reading out of the blue.

A similar thing happened about a year ago...around his second birthday he was stimming non stop - lots of spinning toys, staring at fans, staring at water...these have all resolved (though I do catch him spinning wheels on a toy car every once in a while.)

I don't know, my son has never had good sleep patterns. I always worried the opposite thinking his brain wouldn't develop well if he didn't get enough sleep, which is partly why I never want to wake him up when he oversleeps even though he stays up ALL NIGHT LONG. He often wakes up screaming too, a sudden gut wrenching cry that if I didn't know better would make me think he was sick or hurt ... but in reality it's just his over-tired way of saying he wants to go outside and play (in the middle of the night) or he wants something particular to watch on TV.

Then again when my mind is busy I have trouble sleeping so it could be that your son is just trying to process everything he's learning.

Both of my kids have chronic insomnia and are on Clonidine at night to help with anxiety and sleep. A lot of the moms here in Austin use herbal, over the counter sleep meds containing melatonin. At least half the kids on the spectrum have sleep issues, probably related to anxiety.

With both of my kids, it also helped to have a TV with a VCR in their rooms (pre-medication) so that they could watch a children's video before bedtime. I think that it would help relieve stress and perhaps get obsessive thoughts or whatever out of their heads. (My mother with undiagnosed bi-polar has issues with racing thoughts and has to watch TV before bed to "help her brain calm down." Otherwise, she has severe insomnia.)

Also, my older son with classic autism must sleep with the light on due to fear of the dark. I think that having the overhead light on helps prevent nightmares for him, too. (A night light is not enough for him, and if he wakes up and the overhead light is off, he freaks out.)

Hope this helps.

I don't have nothing like this, Stefano didn't even point and I had to teach him... it makes me think that autism is not due to lack of communication areas in brain. That areas are there, there's something that activates that areas missing. Forgive me, it's also a thought I had to share...

I have been thinking this as well...might be something to do with neuron clipping...sorry but I really don't have the time to look this subject up now.

My older son with classic autism had an IQ test, among others. On the IQ test, he performed very differently on different sections. The lowest section was an "information retrieval section," upon which he scored a 70. On short-term memory he got an 86, and "general knowledge" was in the 80s, too.

100 was average and his overall IQ was 98. He has been worked on heavily in every area, and he performed over 100 on most sections, with 127 on one section of the test.

The tester told me at the time that variance in performance on different sections of the IQ test was expected in students with autism, and many students had low information retrieval scores. (My son's variance was perhaps a bit extreme, though, due to the large amount and type of tutoring, speech, and reading work).

I personally think that the IQ issue and my son's anxiety issues are the root source of his learning issues--impacting his ability to learn speech and everything else.

On a positive note, the first time that he was given a cognitive test, he did poorly across the board, not just in certain areas. His memory is better than it used to be, but it is still poor. I think that extensive work with him on his speech and reading and tutoring him on general knowledge has helped him shine in several areas, bring up his overall IQ score, and make his memory a little better.

Can my 7-year-old with classic autism generally function? Yes, between meds and behavioral training and a huge amount of speech work, he can "pass" when he is briefly around someone who doesn't know much about kids or special education or autism. However, he has a very, very hard time learning new information, like our home address, his phone numbers, the addition and subtraction tables, people's names, how to tell time, etc. He can do math problems fine--once the initial facts and concepts have been placed in his head via intense repetition and visual aids. It is like this for just about everything, in fact.

My son's IQ test in in the test results upload on my speech channel. Unfortunately, it is blurry, and you have to enlarge iit to "full screen" to see anything.

Today my son said "hello" when I came home! No eye contact and he said it about 10 times, but he did say it!

That is great!

My second grader with classic autism cannot tell me what he does at school each day (he sort of lives in the present). However, I've been told that he's doing great with math (place value type stuff currently, which we had worked on this summer using visual aids and video). He is also doing a good job of writing in his journal (something which had also received a lot of attention at home). He has trouble "retelling" a story once it is over, but otherwise he is apparently doing okay regarding language arts.

My kids have been keeping me busy right now--trying to work on my older son's reading comprehension currently and my younger son's OCD and potty training.

My older son is completely bored with workbooks and the other reading comprehension materials I have readily available, so I am making him stuff that he will like--at least for a while. He eventually gets bored with everything. (Unfortunately, I cannot put these homemade materials on my YouTube site because I'm using Disney characters in order to grab his interest and because I'm connecting the materials to videos and DVDs that he has).

My older son reads great, considering that he has classic autism. However, keeping up with the demands of a regualr second grade class is always a struggle for him.

My younger son with the OCD is peeing in the potty just fine, but today he said that he likes pooping in his diaper. Based on the fact that he holds it until I'm distracted or in the bathroom myself, I believe this to be true. He does not want to poop in the potty. I'm working with my older son's ABA therapist (who has switched from my older son to my younger son), and I'm sure that we'll get it figured out.

I'm also trying to help out a friend who is homeschooling 11-year-old twins with classic autism by lending her educational materials. (I have so much stuff). I am curious to see how that goes.

Anyway, that is what is going on with me. What is going on with everyone else?

Potty training is hard. I keep hearing that they'll want to do it when the soiled diapers start to feel uncomfortable to them. This hasn't happened with my son yet...we sit him on the toilet sometimes but I'm not sure he understands what it's for.

Anyway he has been getting a bit more interactive. He said "Hi" to grandma on Skype yesterday.

One thing I wanted to ask about, there are a few other kids at my son's day care that want to be his friend. They sit next to him at lunch, follow him around, etc. But of course he is not really aware of what they are doing. I was wondering what I could do, because it would be great if he would start interacting with other kids. I thought maybe we could try to get the other kids to share my son's interest in numbers but most three-year-olds can barely count to 10, if that. (My son counts past 100, counts by 2's, 3's, etc.)

Trying to get on a regular sleep cycle. I'll spare you the details.

Same same. My wife is currently crouched on the floor feeding new PECS pics that we've made through the laminator. Later we'll cut them up and stick half a velcro dot on the back.
And the house is a tip from the food and objects my son continuously drops everywhere.

My daughter has been riding a plastic trike intended for a younger child (she turns 10 this week) up and down outside the house at speed in the dark while wearing a head torch. Attached to the back by string is a plastic truck, in which she has made a bed for her favourite teddies. Every now and again I can her her stop and talk to them. Mad I tell you!