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  1. #1
    hillview's Avatar
    hillview is online now Blue Diamond level (20,000+ posts)
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    Default check in!

    If anyone is game .. thought it might be nice to have periodic check ins here. How are things going with DCs? What is the latest? Where are you in the journey?

    DS1 -- dx with NLD, we are in a MUCH better place. He is on medication which I hope is short term but it is helping with his emotional outbursts and making him more open to talking about his feelings. He has therapy once a week, OT once a week, tutoring over the summer to keep on track and we are getting a SLP eval. He is moving from private school to public school which should have more resources to support him. I've found some great resources (facebook pages and books as well as the therapist) which has helped me as a parent a TON. I feel a lot more settled with him and our plan. He will be more of a marathon with constant need for reassessing and helping. Getting to a better place on this.

    DS2 -- dx with dyslexia. tutor over the summer, OT to help with handwriting. special school for dyslexia in the fall (new school). Feel like his situation is SO mild in comparison to DS2 and that we have it covered.

    Anyone want to play?
    DS #1 Summer 05
    DS #2 Summer 07

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    Thanks! Great idea. My 6 yo DS (dx with ASD) was on risperidone, I think around the same time yours was starting? At his 6 months blood test though, we found he had really high triglycerides and decided to discontinue it (it also seemed to have lost some of its effectiveness then too.) We've been trialing guanfacine which is not working as well as the risperidone did at first, and he is having a paradoxical (sp?) reaction to the full dose - messes up his sleep big time. Sort of wondering if we are misdiagnosing his aggression/outbursts as a loss of impulse control, and really need to work harder on treating the underlying anxiety with something more like an antidepressant. His doctor seems very resistant to go that route though, and I'm not sure why.

    Even though his behavior is still a challenge at times, he is making amazing leaps in communication and is strong enough academically that we requested he move out of his self-contained placement to a mainstream placement in our neighborhood school for 1st grade. Think good thoughts for our guy. We loved the enthusiasm of his new resource room teacher to take on his case and help him be truly included, but we know the transition is going to be bumpy. He was super isolated/excluded where he was this past year though, and it was heart-breaking (and scary when he started doing things like disappearing from the playground when they didn't have enough aides to watch his class.)

    Anne

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    elliput's Avatar
    elliput is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    We've been on a bit of a wild ride here- two cross country moves in 12 months time, so two new schools and all of the assessments and new IEPs which go along with that. Whew!

    DD (9yo, ASD and ADHD dx) is doing very well considering all of the transitions and being out of school for 2 months over the winter due to our second move. We couldn't register the kids for school in our preferred district until we established residency so I kept them out instead of having to change schools twice in just a couple months. DD was a bit upset with her new resource teacher the first few weeks at school because she had to do work and follow the new rules. She has made a few new friends, and as luck would have it there are two girls her age on our street and both were in her home room class this spring.

    DS (5yo, speech and social delays) transitioned pretty well also. He was at a different school this spring than DD was at due to space availability in the county pre-K program. He will be starting K at the same school DD is at this fall, and will be receiving ST as well as OT for fine motor skills. He has made comments about not being able to control his brain(impulse control), so I'm guessing we will be looking for a new child psych in the near future.
    Erica
    DD 1/05
    DS 9/08

    Since one just does not simply walk into Mordor, I say we form a conga line and dance our way in.
    Excuse me, are you in a play​?

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    lmh2402's Avatar
    lmh2402 is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    We're in the midst of evaluation right now (sitting in waiting room as I type!) Praying for done clarity re: DS, who is 5.
    mama to my awesome sporty boy (4/09) , precocious little girl (7/12) , and loving doggies (10/05 & 1/14)

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    pastrygirl is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    Super bummed because my 8yo (ASD) did not get the teacher we were hoping for next year. He had her for first grade and she could not have been more perfect for him! She's moving to 3rd grade in the fall and I thought it was a miracle! For sure they'd place him in her class again, right? Nope. Received the bad news today.

    Summer school starts on the 8th, so he only has one full week without school next week. He'll go to the sitter's for three of those days and one day is a vacation day for my husband...but I need to plan something for Monday so that we don't all melt down from the lack of structure.

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    mikeys_mom is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    DS (9.5yo, Aspergers) had a bit of a rollercoaster year. Started off amazing. Had really high hopes for both teachers. His behaviour was generally under control, was participating in class, etc...Everything was smooth until December. After winter break, we began a downhill slide. In February we brought the shadow back in to try and troubleshoot. Then, from March through end of April, the school schedule was inconsistent. We took our kids out of school on a trip for a family event, then school was closed for 2 weeks for Passover. After the break was done, he managed to get back into a really great groove in general studies. His English teacher was so amazing. She really worked hard to implement all the techniques and in turn, earned DS's respect and thus motivated him to push himself to really do his best and keep his inappropriate and impulsive behaviours under control. He ended the school year on a really high note and got a great report card both in academics and behaviour. His Hebrew teacher tried hard but she just couldn't consistently implement the correct techniques and DS really did not respond well to her because of that. The last two weeks of school I think he spent more time in the office than in class.

    We decided a couple of months ago to go ahead with a big international move that we have been contemplating for a while. Next year will be full of changes for DS in terms of school. Aside from being in a new country, he will move from private to public school and from what they have told us so far, seems like there are lots of great resources for him. I know it won't necessarily be perfect but the fact that I don't have to constantly train the school into how to understand a child with ASD is very refreshing. He will have a special-ed teacher trained in teaching children with ASD and will be mainstreamed for as much as he can handle. The special-ed teacher works together with the classroom teacher to ensure things are going smoothly. He will also get some behaviour therapy in the afternoons. The goal is for him to be fully mainstreamed within the next 2 years. School options for DS were a big part of the reason we decided to go ahead with the move so we are really hoping we can make it work well. He is very excited about the move and the schooling options.

    We also did ABA therapy at home for 3 months. It went really well and we realized our goal. Because we are moving, we will be discharged from the program now but there is a very similar one where we are moving that we plan to work with once we settle in in the fall.
    DS - 10
    DD - 8
    Twin Girls - 6

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    sste is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    Well, I feel like we are sort of at the borderline here, with a handful of smaller but still life affecting issues. Which is to say I know there are families dealing with much greater challenges in advocating for and treating and raising their DC.

    DS made huge strides in his speech therapy for articulation. He remains mismatched -- his expressive/receptive vocabulary is well outside of elementary school, I suspect it is adult level. But he struggles with enough sounds that his school SLP thinks another two years probably. Also wonderful progress in OT and he now loves art--that is a joy to watch. He is going to continue OT next year but I think first grade will likely be the end. We are working with him on piano lessons too for that.

    Our big news is that we started CBT for anxiety/negative thinking/rigidity/perfectionism. I finally found someone and we got everything authorized through our insurance! I think very highly of his therapist AND the meetings are 100% covered! She is at a hospital based program and most of the major hospitals are networked into our insurance (we found CBT providers otherwise avoid our insurance and most others like the plague, understandably). She is putting together a combination of the "superflex" and "coping cats" programs as she thinks he is a little young for the amount of reading/writing required for coping cats and also developmentally he is very uncomfortable talking about his emotions. I am hopeful that we can do once weekly for 3-4 months and after that just see her as needed. As is often the case DS seemed more anxious when we started looking for the CBT then in the past few weeks seems to be in a better space and now we are starting therapy! But he tends to cycle in and out and I think having more coping skills in place will be good when he next hits a valley.
    ds 2007
    dd 2010
    baby dd 2014

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    Gena's Avatar
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    DS is 10 and just finished the 4th grade. His diagnoses include: Autism (with features of Hyperlexia, dyspraxia, prosopagnosia [face-blindness] and savant syndrome), ADHD, Albinism (with mild visual impairment and severe photophobia), and a chromosome anomaly. He is considered medically unique by his team of specialists.

    DS made great progress this past school year, both academically and in therapy. We have seen some new language skills and social-emotional skills. DS has been in the autism classroom, with an amazing teacher and an individualized curriculum, and joined the regular class for "specials". He participated in both the school spelling bee and the science fair. He worked hard all year and we proud of his efforts.

    Next year we will try gradual mainstreaming him for science, which is his favorite subject. DH and I have managed to keep him on the diploma track, which is an argument we have with the district every year. The argument has become more difficult for us with the implementation of the Core Curriculum and PARCC testing.

    The school district staff also consider him unique. His teachers and his therapists have many years of experience with autistic children and they keep telling us that they have never seen a child with DS's combination of strengths and challenges. He is so high functioning is some ways, and so low functioning in others. Some of his therapists find this really frustrating.

    The IEP team admitted that we are going to have to come up with some creative approaches to middle school (starts in 6th grade), so we will be having a lot of meetings and discussions about that over the next year.

    For the summer, DS is in special needs daycare, where he also gets therapies. He enjoys it, but keeps telling me he would rather be at school.
    Gena

    DS, age 11 and always amazing

    “Autistics are the ultimate square pegs, and the problem with pounding a square peg into a round hole is not that the hammering is hard work. It's that you're destroying the peg." - Paul Collins, Not Even Wrong

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