Frustrated

Post Reply New Topic

I have a 13 year old son dg. with PDD and mild mental retardation who last year was picked on by students and teachers wouldn't believe him so as a result he hated school, after many attempts to get him help I had to take him out of school to homeschool him. Every counselor wanted to treat him as a normal kid who needed more discipline and not as a disabled kid. With him we have exhausted all sources of help.
I also have a 20 month old who is looking like he has autism, unlike my oldest he has speech delays, in fact is still not talking. Will say fan when he sees the fan but that is all, won't even attempt to speak. He also doesn't want to eat anything other than sliced cheese or cheese puffs. The doctor just put him on Pediasure. He rocks most of the day and his tantrums are getting worse. He gets angry at very small things then his body will flail about and sometimes ends up hitting his head against something and the hardest part he gets more angry if we try to hold him to clam him down.
The worst part is in this area he is getting very little help. The ped. referred us to Early Intervention, he gets 1 hour of ST every other week and 45 min. OT a month. We have since set up outside ST twice a week but in this area we were told the waiting list for an OT is 1 year and just get diag. with Autism only one person does that and the waiting list is 6-8 months.
He is not hardly eating and not talking and yet I don't know what to do. I'm originally from Missouri but moved to Alabama 10 years ago but this really seems horrible to me. Can anyone suggest anything that I could do? I'd love to move but we don't have the money for that right now and I'm unsure of where would be a better place to live and get them the help they need.

To start with, I think an autism assessment for your younger child could be very helpful. They may have services for younger children even if they don't have many for older children. Even if the wait seems long, I find that about average for many areas.
Second, I would see what resources there are in your community. There might be a parents' support group, a facebook page, etc. You could start by calling the government departments responsible for family services, disabilities, special education etc. and asking them not only about services they can provide but also parents' support groups or centres where you can get support and information from other parents. School districts and recreational groups might have this information as well. Also, there is usually a well-developed network for children with Down's Syndrome or mental retardation that could give you information.
J.

I agree that what is being offered for your younger one does not sound adequate, but I have no idea how to resolve it; it wasn't something we had to go through. I just wanted to let you know I feel for you, and hope you can get the help you need.

The problem is not just ignorance, its workload. It's far easier to punish a kid then to try to understand why they tried to do whatever act that got them into trouble in the first place. This goes for parents, but it also applys to educators as well. My school always wanted to treat me as a trouble maker, because it was easier then admiting that i was differnt and they would have to spend the energy and time to teach me differntly.

Of course if you question the educators you'll either be told that they dont have the resouces, or they will try to blame you, like you had a choice in any of this. They love to say its the familys fault, when in my expierence any family that actually is talking to them cares enough and works hard enough to not be at fault.

My suggestion is find out what kind of music your child likes. Play that when its study time. It will most likely help his concentration. He's most likely not eating because he only likes one or two things to eat. It's pretty common for most autistic kids to only want to eat one thing. I think temple granden ate nothing but yogurt. Also don't put to much stock in the mental retardation unless you see physical brain abnormalitys on a catscan. Doctors can easily misclasify low functioning autism with mild retardation. The difference is that some low functioning kids can grow up to be high functioning. I dont mean to try to give you any type of false hope, but they thought i was dumb as a rock. Most of my friends consider me a genuis or atleast genuis level intellengence (i say that with all humility), the fact that i can't spell, and have a hard time communicating with others makes me look dumb some times.