Update thread

[LBW]

This board has been very slow lately. I figure we've all been extremely busy with the holidays and school and our special needs kiddos. I thought it might be nice to start an update thread since we should have a bit of time to decompress over the next couple of weeks.

DS2 is "twice exceptional." He has high-functioning autism, he's gifted (FSIQ 145), has ADHD, and anxiety. He's in 4th grade now, in a behavioral disabilities class, with a full-time aide. While there are a lot of things for me to love about his current placement (they don't call me when he has a meltdown - they deal with it) there are currently more things that aren't working. He's refusing to go to some classes and do some work. He's also having far to many major meltdowns, and I'm worried that he'll hurt himself or someone else. He's also not challenged academically (and this is the source of many of the problems). I'm seriously considering homeschooling, starting in a month or two. This scares the living crap out of me.

DS3 is in 2nd grade and has ADHD. He's doing FABULOUS in school, and is doing much better, behaviorally at home. (This is a child who had reflux for the first 18 months or so of his life, didn't sleep, screamed all the time, and would punch me as he breastfed. To this day, he has a lot of issues eating, and has many sensory issues. He still hits a lot, in part b/c he needs a lot of sensory input, and in part b/c of the ADHD impulsivity.) But THANK GOODNESS he is perfectly behaved in school.

I am looking forward to a week or so to decompress and consider my options for DS2.

So, what's up with your kid(s)?

[hillview]

Ds1 has a language based learning disability and is in the 99% for reasoning and math is having a good 5th grass year. He seems very settled happy and engaged. He is in a school for kids with dyslexia and does t really have any close friends but has good neighborhood buddies. He prefers adults tbh.

Ds2 has nld/nlvd. Was having a great school year til thanksgiving and is now getting into some behavioral issues at school. He has a 504 and has a first year teacher so I am working with the school to sort it. Hoping a good vacation will get things onto a better track. That said he is loads better than he was 2 years ago!!

thanks for posting!

[melrose7]

DD1 is 10 and has autism and apraxia. She in her 2nd year at her special needs school with the same homeroom teacher-which we love and are going to miss terribly next year-and is still learning slowly but she tries and is paying attention while bad behaviors have only been once or twice a month!! Her speech therapist is the only thing we don't like about the school and she is not willing to teach her the way we know has worked for the last 6 years of in home intensive therapy. Makes me mad but we will get a new speech next year and I'm hoping she is a better fit and more willing to listen to our needs and suggestions. Since we moved to be closer to her school and not living in 2 different places we ended her ABA therapy for 6 years. That was a hard adjustment. Her therapists became family to her and us and also worked so hard on her speech I have been trying to do the same work but of course haven't kept up like I planned on. I know I need to do more but after work/school there is always other stuff to do around the house it has been moved to the back burner. We are trying to pick up a new provider in our new county but have hit many road blocks. Starting with the fact that they never transferred her paperwork from May to the new county. She talks more and understands more but still working so much on adult forms of words so I'm not the only one who understands her. I try not to get frustrated with her lack or slowness in learning, this is only her 2nd year of real education-she was just babysat at her previous school, there was no teaching going on there. I just have to remember she is learning each day, just because she can't recite it back to me doesn't mean the knowledge isn't in her head somewhere and when she's able to tell me, she will.

[hbridge]

To the original poster... I PM'ed you...

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday with lots of love (and minimal melting).

[psimpson3-5]

DS is now 3.5. He was officially diagnosed w/ASD in April. He has been attending the autistic support preschool class through our county IU. His teacher is an angel. I swear. This woman goes above and beyond. We are soooooo very lucky. We had several months of really bad hitting and pushing while at daycare. (DH & I work FT.) After months of terrible TSS workers and BSCs, we finally have a great team and DS's behavior has improved. This is a big relief! Although, our TSS just divulged that she's 3 mths pregnant, so back on the hunt for a new TSS. DS's speech improves all the time. He's saying more and more daily, much to our delight! DS gets hippotherapy, which he loves. We plan to start taking him to music classes starting in January. I'm certain he will really enjoy that.

As for me, I still struggle with DS's diagnosis and I worry about our new baby. I'm currently 6 mths pregnant. I am also very likely losing my job very soon. Our company was acquired and on 1/15, we are each receiving notification as to whether we are losing our job or not, and if so, when. It's not the worst thing as I don't think it's wise for us to pay for 2 children to attend daycare. This should be a very interesting year!

[annex]

DS is now 8, in a 2nd grade general education room, at our neighborhood school with the best teachers and staff he's had yet. They don't always understand autism, but they recognize that every kid deserves a chance to be included and strive to make those opportunities happen for him. So much better than the self-contained placements he had in preschool and K, which seemed to drive him to worse and worse behaviors despite having the staff with the most "expertise" in his disability. He's mostly keeping up academically, and very slowly learning to navigate the social world too. His peers have been remarkably kind given how loud and disruptive he can be at times. The social worker initially set up a schedule of peers he coaches, who are supposed to make sure DS has company during lunch and recess, but various classmates outside the coached group often take over or join in, so that he really doesn't need the buddy program at all. The parents I suspect are a little befuddled about his presence since he's often doing his own thing with a TA glued to his side, but have been mostly kind to me too. He still takes Intuniv which seems to help some to blunt/reduce meltdowns, but I hate med trials so much that I doubt we'll try changing it anytime soon.

[sste]

I am sorry I have been so absent from this forum and BB in general! DS age 8 plus baby DD age 1 have consumed all of my time with their combined roster of 12 plus therapy/tutoring appointments per week. Craziness. DS appears to have moderate-severe dyslexia, also 2e, and if we get in he is going to a dyslexia school next year. He had a serious and successful ear surgery last year to remove an invasive tumor and with his new prosthetic middle ear bones now has almost all of his hearing back in that ear (less than a mild loss). I am 100% disenchanted with the public education approach to specific learning disabilities. I am praying we get into this private school and generally have come to the conclusion that our family is better equipped to provide remediation to our DC's issues than a school district. Many/most of these schools are not playing to win, they are playing to do the min. so as not to get sued. Baby DD appears very similar to DS. Cognitively she is all there plus but she has the same mild apraxia delaying her speech and motor milestones and I suspect she may be dyslexic down the line. They are both a joy though and complete characters--baby DD loves to plan and execute various tricks on us, she is diabolical for someone so cute. And middle DD, my poor neglected "typical" child, is doing well. I try to do a weekly special time or tea party excursion with her so she does not get lost in the therapy shuffle of her siblings!

[JustMe]

Hi everyone. It is good to read your updates. I have been stumped about how to describe our update, but want to write something as this sub-forum is important to me. Things are very mixed here--so hard to describe, which is why I struggle on how to update. Good news is that the school finally recognizes that dd has special/learning needs and I no longer have to struggle just to have this part acknowledged/services in place, etc. Her teachers are for the most part, very kind people who she likes. Even though she goes to a middle sized public middle school, for various reasons, she has almost all the same teachers as last year. This is really helpful to her. She likes going to school everyday. The frustrating parts are that I still don't feel her learning needs are being addressed in a way that leads to her learning...I have come to accept that I don't think our school system is capable of this. There are no private options here that would be a good fit, even if I could afford them which I can't. It is very scary now that she is in her middle school years. Dealing with her special needs combined with some teenage related issues is quite confusing. I feel like I should try to end on a positive note, but just really not sure what to say.

[August Mom]

DD is dyslexic. She is in 3rd grade. This year, we switched her to a school that specializes in teaching dyslexic students. She really likes it there and she is making progress, although not the amazing progress we were hoping for and as described by some of the other parents of students there. We've decided that she will continue to go there next year.

[HIU8]

Wow, I have not been on here for some time. Big updates. DS, 11, underwent another round of neuropsych testing in the spring. We had a working diagnosis of ADHD and possible Asperger's beforehand. Diagnosis changed a bit (and it fits him better IMO). ADHD, innatentive type (with slow processing and executive function issues), mixed expressive-receptive language disorder, social (pragmatic) communication disorder, developmental coordination disorder and unspecified anxiety disorder. DS is going into 5th. He is still working 2x/week with a speech and language pathologist. Plus, he is almost exclusively keyboarding as his handwriting is really bad (OT does not feel it's going to improve much at now--He did OT for 4 years). He has been in a private that caters to kids with learning issues since K. He starts middle school there this year and it will be a big change from the hand holding they have done in the lower grades. I'm hopeful that he has matured enough to handle things.

We are moving DD, 9, from public to private this year for 4th grade (a different private than DS). She really needs a smaller environment (the classes were just to big). She will be going to a school where there are 15 kids and two teachers per class (instead of the 30 kids and one teacher she had). It was just to chaotic for her and she was not happy.