Lynn,

We are in Hall county, Georgia, so you should easily be able to get something in your IEP like that!

I can't believe things could be that different within our own state (or at least they shouldn'tbe).

BTW - I love Savannah!

Michelle

I talked to her teacher, and she agreed that she needs a time out sometimes. But one of the reasons is I was having a hard time is b/c my Lauryn does not get any services.. She was getting speech but that ended last year. her doctor visits are all done by me. I stopped trusting the school after they tried to give her an ADHD dx'ed. tried to "strong arm" by telling me if I did not put her on meds the were going to call DFCS on me. Well that just made me mad. So I told the school they could not give her speech anymore and that made them angry. Long story short she got her AS dx'ed. and as long as I was tking her to a doctor, DFCS said the school cannot do nothing to me.. Alot of the doctors in Savannah call my school the "country Mafia" so they are like any school in this state.
I moved her from New York 11 years ago.

hi guys my name is candy and i have a 3yr old named hope who is autistic. i knew something was wrong when she was 9 months old and wouldnt do a thing.all she would do was cry and scream. i bought her to the doctors and she was into threapy and has been there ever since. hope isnt my olny child i have a 6 year old with ADHD and a 2 year old as well. hope is very violent and has a terrible temper. she is still in diapers though i am trying to get her out of them. man that is a hard thing to do. she will be startingschool this august and she will be in the special ed class. i think that is were she needs to be. she cant handle alot of people and if around a large group she has a seizure so we put her in that class do to it small size.

she can talk, she is very smart, and she remembers thing like a elephant. she has trouble putting things together in her mind though and there are times when she is have a bad day she dame near drives me crazy.she does give eye contact and affection i have had alot of people tell me that she wasnt autistic for that reason but i and the doctors think she is. she knows no danger, she will open the door for a stranger, walk across the street without looking, touch a hot stove, wonder straight into the ditch, and these are just a few things that have happened in our life.

i love hope with all my heart she shows me the innocents in life even if it is all mixed up into one big ball of stuff i know it is still there.

thanks candy

p.s. hope will be 4 in sept. 2006

HI Candy and welcome to the forums. Thanks for sharing about your daughter Hope. I know about touching the hot stove and one of the reasons why I have a hard time cooking with my son Matthew that likes to stim on the boiling water and steam from cooking.

Although it was my son Nicholas who actually burnt his hand on a hot plate a few summers ago at camp. He avoids the stove still to this day.

thanks for the warm welcome. we moms have to always be on our toes. thanks candy

Hi Everyone:

If I can contribute any pediatric input on autism, or divorce issues with kids, please let me know. I hope to also see you in the Pediatrics Forum.

I don't have autistic children but take care of many. And, I am not divorced but see the impact on the struggles you all describe on kids every day at work. So, while I can't offer personal experience, I can offer objective tips. Sometimes that can help.

Best,

it is interesting how many of us are divorced that have kids on the ASD.

So many Dads ( and a few Moms, too.) just cannot handle the Dx of their child being autistic. i know my ex denied it for years. He finally came around, but it took some fairly "in your face" data to make him see the light.

I've read that the death of a child can either break a marriage or make nit stronger. I would imagine the same things applies here. in the death of a child there is a chance of mourning and recovery. But with soem autistic children we are always left wondering "when is it going to get better?"

please don't misunderstand me, I would much rather have my son the way he is, than taken from me by death. But it just seems like we will finally get a break in his behavior pattern, and then soemthing else goes screwball- and we have to start all over again. my son is too intelligent to spend the rest of his life living under our thumbs - but I wonder if he will ever be able to make it on his own. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Hi Michelle:

I think you just touched on the biggest frustration and mystery with autistic kids - one step forward, 2 steps back seems to be the pattern for many. And, the stress a marriage is under when grappling with the issues of autism.

The families I've seem with autistic children have found support groups very useful to help give ideas they may not have thought of and just to connect with other families that are going through the same thing.

Just some thoughts - perhaps don't look too far down the road. Sometimes when we do that we miss things we can do today.

my name is tamisha crouch. I have a 5 year old son with autism that is very vocal/not so verbal. He is trying to talk. i understand him, but others don't. He is use to his routine. I was wondering if your kids had any problems if they were "out of their routine" for more than 3 or 5 days, if they ever got sick or anything. I recently went in for gallbladder surgery. only in overnight. but his grandmother wanted to keep him for 4 days. He gets sick there, and comes home his happy monkey self. white blood cell count was raised, but went back to normal the next day. Is it psychological? or just wierd? <img src="/images/graemlins/angel.gif" alt="" />

Well, here I am new and wandering all over. I am an adult with Asperger's syndrome. It was awful growing up and trying to be a trapezoid with all those round holes. Preferred to hide in my little world at school-discovered writing as a useful tool in communicating with all the normals out there. Still find it easier to communicate that. I now have a TBI(traumatic brain injury), but never mind why or how, and live on an adequate income. Hints for all you parents, we know you love us, but that love can be sooo painful-we want to show you we love you too-we just don't know how. Touch, verbal skills-scary stuff like that brrr...teach us that other ways are ok. Share cloth, bells, sparkly things, shells, etc. ways to communicate without intimacy-that way we both can I love you without the pain.
katie