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  1. #11
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    I haven't been around for a while, so I'm not sure if you've covered this already, but have you already had the ADOS test?

    My son is 3 and has autism. His main perseverative behavior when he was younger was lining up cars/watching the wheels of cars or trains as he rolled them. Maybe hitting a button over & over every once in a while on an electronic toy.

    What was right for our family was not to completely limit that type of behavior, but to put limits on it. The main way we did this when he was younger was by restricting access to the toys that caused him to perseverate. He had (and still has) a MILLION cars, trains, etc. In the early days, we put a lot of these away. We also got rid of almost every electronic beeping/plastic toy we had. We replaced with many open ended toys that served us well in efforts to expand his play skills (mostly wooden stuff - grocery store, train table, dollhouse, musical instruments, and then other things like a small trampoline).

    We did early intervention, floortime, basic biomed (GFCF diet & a few basic vitamins). After about 4-5 months of that we added 5 hours a week in a small group VB (ABA) class. Then about 5 months after that we added public inclusive pre-k (half IEP kids half neurotypical kids).

    This is the part I'm trying to get to.

    Recently we brought all the cars back out - like a huge, ginormous completely excessive container full of 'em. I have noticed that he is playing appropriately with them now - putting them on plastic garage playsets, driving them around, saying vroom, driving them into each other and saying "ouch" (tonight!) He does still do some eye tracking with trains but he *also* plays appropriately with them.

    There is treatment and hope for perseverative behavior and other issues.

    I do still limit DS' books for the most part to books he will actually let us read - big lists of ABC all through the book keep him talking to himself and not so much listening to us. It's not like I take away everything that is fun to him all the time. I just aim for a lot of balance in his toys and books.

    With our local EI, I had to ask specifically for the ADOS test. I had to push for it a bit. Due to their limited resources, they didn't have the sense of "urgency" that I did.

    Best to you & your family,
    Laura
    AP Mama to DS 11.07

  2. #12
    lmh2402's Avatar
    lmh2402 is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    thank you, laura

    i have no idea what an ados test is. so i am fairly certain we haven't had one

    but i'm off to google now

    again, thank you
    mama to my awesome sporty boy (4/09) , precocious little girl (7/12) , and loving doggies (10/05 & 1/14)

  3. #13
    Gena's Avatar
    Gena is offline Emerald level (3000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by lmh2402 View Post
    gena, thanks for sharing this. you have no idea how much better it made me feel! when we moved in sept i signed us up for a gym class at the ymca. hoping we could meet some other moms and kids.

    however. instead of doing the "gym stuff," that all the other kids were doing. like running and yelling and throwing balls. my son was pushing people off the foam mat b/c they were covering up the letters and numbers.

    and while others were jumping on the trampoline, he was reading the letters on the warning sign.
    Well, mine still does stuff like that. Once a month the local inflatables place has a "Sensory Bounce Night" for kids with special needs. We go almost every month. DS loves the inflatables, but even they cannot overcome his intense need to read everything. Here he is, having just come off the obstacle course, reading the caution notice on the mat even though he already knows it by heart.



    Once he finished, he was back onto the obstacle course, then read the caution notice again, then back on the obstacle course, etc.

    Regarding the ADOS test, your EI may or may not be able to do it. In my state, EI personnel do not have the qualifications to conduct the ADOS test. Our Developmental Ped wrote a referal for the child psychologist at Children's Hospital and she did the ADOS on DS.
    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

  4. #14
    mytwosons is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    Sorry, I'm late to the post.

    DS used to get fixated on things. We used a version of floortime with him as well as biomed and a slew of other therapies.

    With your son, how about using the alphabet to work on interactions with you. I think it was Greenespan's floortime book that talked about working on back and forth exchanges with children. For example, rolling a ball back and forth between you and the child. The goal is to increase the number of exchanges. This carries over into speech as well. You could take turns writing the letters. (e.g. he writes "A", you write "B"). Or, sit down next to him and also start writing out the entire alphabet. Act like it's great fun and see if you can engage him at all. Once you engage, you stretch out the engagement each time.

    I didn't learn about it until after my son was almost recovered, but the Sonrise program sounded very interesting and floortime based.

  5. #15
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    **Already posted a potion of this yesterday in another post but thought it would go here as well**

    I went to see Kate McGinnity recently (Walk AWhile In My Autism author). She is a speaker on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Challenging Behaviors. It was very good.

    She talked about how repetitive behavior is something that they need/crave. Great video showing how "normal" people deal with stress (tapping pencil, playing with their thumbs etc) and how they are seen as socially acceptable but the autistic person's is different but look at Bill Gates and his rocking motions in meetings and how successful he has become. Very good video.

    If he is craving these repetative games/books he needs it. Yes it is frustrating to do the same thing over and over and over. I do it all of the time but I am finding that the behavior is lessening over time. It is hard for us to understand why they need the same info over and over but she mentioned something about it not being real to them and they need contact reinforcement so that they can believe it is real.

  6. #16
    VClute is offline Platinum level (1000+ posts)
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    Man, does this sound like my kid! DS has had several fascinations over the years. (He was dx'd at 2 1/2, and he just turned 6.) First, it was fans. Then wind chimes. And if we drove down the road and DIDN'T see any wind chimes, GOD HELP US ALL! If we passed a store with fans inside, we HAD to go in and look at the fans for a while. A trip to Lowe's (the fan aisle at Lowes, actually) became a REAL TREAT for DS.

    DS's latest interest is numbers and he writes them in black with multiples of ten in red. So GOD HELP US ALL if the black or red crayons or markers go missing. He's also WAY into school buses and discussing what number they are. It's EXHAUSTING sometimes.

    But I've learned to have a sense of humor about it all, and, as a previous poster mentioned, use this interest as a way to help DS learn OTHER things. Want to get that red crayon back? Then write me a sentence. Want to have more paper for writing? Ask me for some, using a full sentence, addressing me and giving me good eye contact. (That's a kind of advanced barter, but it gives you an idea!)

    I think the thing that can help is to STOP comparing your kid to other kids, or to your idea of what your kid was supposed to be. I'm still mourning the little boy I thought I'd be raising, but giving up the idea of that boy has helped me to enjoy the one I have, quirks and all.
    Amy in NC
    mom to Dixon, 2/14/2005
    and Abigail, 4/7/2007

  7. #17
    VClute is offline Platinum level (1000+ posts)
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    And one more thing: IME, early intervention case managers are USELESS. I mean, actually WORSE than useless sometimes. For the educated and at all engaged parent, EI case managers are a) dingbats and b) wastes of time and other resources. I can't tell you how many times the "team" was all assembled and ready to get to work, if not for waiting for the CM to arrive. I could not WAIT until DS was 3 and we could shake the CM loose!

    Speech therapy is great for more than just enunciation.
    Amy in NC
    mom to Dixon, 2/14/2005
    and Abigail, 4/7/2007

  8. #18
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    karstmama is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    aw, that's too bad - we *loved* our before-3 case manager.

    i'm feeling pretty positive right now, since jameson's iep meeting monday & classroom placement. but, yes, he's totally focused on door-window-roof from a blue's clues & has been for weeks.
    mama to j karst, former 25 weeker, 12/06

  9. #19
    n2ou is offline Silver level (200+ posts)
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    Default Boardmaker

    Do you have access to anyone with Mayer-Johnson Boardmaker? I work with children in special needs preschool. We don't interrupt their perseverating unless it interrupts the class/safety of others etc.

    I have a little board that has a #3, #2, #1 and then the pic for "all finished". Something about the countdown, the tactile part of ripping the velcro number off the board and the visual of finished, helps some of my children to pop out of the perseverating loop.

    I also do something similar with my fingers in their hand. I start with 3 fingers and "high-five" their hand, then two fingers, then one. After the last one I ASL sign "finished" - it is then time to move on.

    Hth

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