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Joined: Jul 2005
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My 4 yr old lil girl is really rowdy, she always has been since the day she came out of me. I tried to contribute some of it to growing up. Although her biological father not my husband. Had many many problems with learning disabilitys and such from what I know of. And That is not much since I only knew him about a total of 12 hours. Never to se or hear from him again except when he did my daughters DNA test. Yet he had ADHD , Dixlexia, learning disabilitys with mathmatics, and reading, and writting .
So When my daughter Grace hit Headstart this year and I was working as a Lead Teacher at a Daycare Center. I continued getting disturbing reports from the teachers from her preschool, along with some of her behaviors at the daycare center were far out of control. Home was esscalating but had not gotten to a degree of extreme yet. Still she would do this thing where she continued to sit on the couch, watch t.v. and rock vilolently back and forth as if she were in a rocking chair but shes not. She did it ever since she was tiny I would probley say old enough to sit up on the couch by herself. Yet the couch was not the only place, she would do it on the bus or try to buckled in or not, try and do it in her carseat in the car regardless if how tight she is strapped in, and she would do it in bed when laying on her stomach. Very quickly not stopping until she got tired enough to fall asleep or she was too hot. Also chewing on her fingers she only does it when shes bored, like when shes in the car or when watching something on t.v. that doesn't interest her. Now we have moved on to her shirts. Still the thing I find very funny is she is a cuddle bug, She would spend all day with her head in my lap, sitting in my lap, hugging you, giving you a kiss, telling you she loves you, following right behind you . Then you look behind you and she is busy with her own thing again until she notices. That is something that is not hers and she really should not be playing with it. Honestly shes not a bad kid just extreamly extra , super busy for being four years old. I mean what 4 yr old girl usually likes playing with gardner snakes , fish, and , worms? She told me they were her best friends when we went fishing on 4th of july weekend I caught her playing with the leeches she was giggling soo loud I look back here is my daughter with one sticking to her hand already. And the only thing she could say because of all of her giggles was " He Tickles Me Mommy , I Like Him " When it comes to keeping her in one area. I would give that about 7 mins if she is really , really interested and that is if your lucky. Otherwise uninterested shes out of there in 30-45 seconds .

After I took her to a Clinic of Specialist I walked out of there asking myself. Did they really go to college ? Because there saying my daughter has Symptoms of Autism which I would not Allow them to put her on any type of medication thus far. I told them that I want to treat this with meathods of behavior rehabilitation. Not medication, due to the fact I am Epileptic and was on medication since I was 5 yrs old. If she does not absolutley need to be, Which I can't Say I even agree with the Doctors. To me She has every symptom of having ADD if not ADHD. Especially since she has a history of it in her biological father side of the family . I have tried since Febuary 2005 when she was Diagnosed to learn more about the Autistic Spectrum. I do believe it exists for many children, I also believe some phycologist,sociologist, and children development specialist get a bit carried away with it when diagnosing it . Scaring parents like me I know my daughter has a slower time learning the other children but I don't believe it is due to autistic behavior. <img src="/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Sorry I kinda got a bit carried away with this it is the first time I have been able to really vent and let it out since shes been diagnosed. Well I mean since I have come to this realization. Which happened about this past June Thanks for listening even if noone reads it .
It Sure feels Better

Montebride [color:"purple"] [/color] [b][/b] <img src="/images/graemlins/wall.gif" alt="" />

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My son was diagnosed with high functioning Autism/PDD-NOS at the age of 3. He, too, would rock back and forth in various places--sometimes violently. He even broke on of our rocker/recliners. (This behavior has long ceased, thankfully.)

Unfortunately, this behavior is indeed a part of Autistic behavior. Rocking, hand flapping, chewing on fingers, spinning, etc. are forms of "self stimulation" which are indications of the Autism spectrum. The Autism spectrum is quite wide, and not every child is withdrawn and uncommunicative, especially on the high end. My son has a wonderful personality, very sunny and happy, and gives hugs and affection freely.

I would never let my son be put on drugs, neither would I let him have "behavior modification" (ABA) so he can look and act like the rest of the robots (mainstream society) in the world.

It's been an arduous journey, but through love, lots of patience, and homeschooling, he's made remarkable strides. Even the psychologist that evaluated him recently was amazed. My son has begin to read (he'll be 7 in September), has been able to count over 100 for well over a year now, can count to 10 in Spanish and knows many Spanish words, knew all the planets of the solar system (and their characteristics) for almost 2 years now, knows some of the bones in the body, etc.

My point is that children on the Autism spectrum can be reached by other means besides drugs and behavior mod--the first lines of defense when society and "experts" don't know what to do with those who are different (and often turn out to be genuises.) Feed your daughter's strengths, offer her much love and patience (which I'm sure you do), and follow your heart.

Best of luck to you from one Mom to another,

Joined: Jun 2005
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Gecko
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Hi. I'm not sure whether you are going to like my answer or not... My son, he'll be 14 in Sept.,has Asperger's syndrome, or High-functioning Autism. It was about age 3 or 4 when we and teachers started noticing things were "off", but as parents my (then)husband and I wanted to chalk everything up to "he's developing at his own rate." His speech was delayed, but when he started- whoa! So we didn't worry, he began with sentences, it was like he was just soaking it all up and then spoke when he had all the appropriate information gathered.

Like your daughter he was a very loving child, and friendly, he knew no strangers. An elderly gentleman in Wal-mart goes, "You sure are cute. Why don't you go home with me and play?" (or something like that, he was teasing, Michael was in my buggy and I was rught there.) Michael just about leaped out of my buggy trying to get into the other man's. Scared the other guy half to death. Most kids that age (he was about 2) wouldn't go near a stranger, Michael didn't KNOW a stranger. So like I said- very loving, kisses, hugs, wanted to read stories, sit in my lap...until he threw a tantrum.

They were horrible rages, he would screak, kick, punch, pull my hair, claw me. I had to physically restrain him bysitting indian style and wrapping my legs over top of his and my arms around his body. Nothing could calm him down. He would scream when someone flushed a toilet or started the vaccuum cleaner.

He did the rocking thing, he also paced everywhere, and chewed either the ends of his sleeves or the collar of his shirt. For 5 years all of his shirts looked like they had beel sleeves on them.

Everything was horribly exacerbated when his dad and i divorced. We went through several counselors here in GA. At first he was diagnosed w/ depression/ ADHD/ ODD/ OCD and put on prozac (horrible) then ritalin (not quite as bad) eventually he was diagnosed with the Asperger's and put on Adderall XR and Risperdal adn he's made steady progress since he was about 10. He is doing great now. We had a little trouble with meds adjustment this past year due to growth spurts and adolescence, but got it sorted out fairly easily.

I have often wondered what it might have been like, though, if i had listened to the teachers when he was very little. Of course it might not have made a difference considering we didn't get the correct daignosis until he was 10.


Michelle Taylor
Why me? What did I do to deserve this?
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Zebra
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"High functioning autism" isn't really an official word. In fact, the jury is out whether Asperger's is the same as high-functioning autism. My son doesn't have the symptoms of Asperger's, yet, he's "high functioning" on the PDD-NOS scale. According to the Autism Society of America:

Quote:
One of the major differences between Asperger's Disorder and autism is that, by definition, there is no speech delay in Asperger's. In fact, children with Asperger's Disorder frequently have good language skills; they simply use language in different ways. Speech patterns may be unusual, lacking inflection or having a rhythmic nature. Speech may be formal and too loud or high pitched. Children with Asperger's Disorder may not understand the subtleties of language, such as irony and humor, or may not understand the give and take nature of a conversation.

Another distinction between Asperger's Disorder and autism concerns cognitive ability. While some individuals with Autism experience mental retardation, by definition a person with Asperger's Disorder cannot possess a "clinically significant" cognitive delay. This does not imply that all individuals with autism have mental retardation. Some do and some do not, but a person with Asperger's Disorder possesses average to above average intelligence.


http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Aspergers

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Gecko
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Hmmmmm, at the time he was diagnosed, 4 yrs ago, I was told, and given literature, that said Asperger's/ High functioning Autism so that's what I've been going by. He definitely doesn't have any learning disabilities now, the child has scored high enough on all placement tests to enter college eve tho he's only going into the 8th grade! But he did have a delay in speech. But like I said, the wierd thing was when he started speaking he didn't build from the ground up with "baby words" then onesy twosey words, then phrases, then sentences, he STARTED speaking in full sentences. I have always thought (because this seems very much in his nature) that he was gathering all the information in order to speak like everyone else did, and then spoke when he was ready! I know that sounds crazy, but it is the only explanation I can think of. He has the "pedantic" speech of Asperger children, but he has ticks and the (searching for the word here) rituals or schedule (that's not the right word, but i can't think of it) that seems so needed by autistic children (I'm thinking "Rain man" here)

Honestly, at this point, he is coping very well, he has friends that not only understand him, but that help and encourage him (do you know how rare that is in 13-14 year old boys?!?) He participates in sports - kayaking & wrestling, and has shown and interest in track, he's 1st chair sax in band. And other than the fact that I'm his mother and I Make him miserbale and his life would be better with his dad (who lives in MS and has him for holidays, summer, playtime, and he can play video games all day long) he is a happy, adjusted kid - that's going through puberty! <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />


Michelle Taylor
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I think I may be able to help with this one because we had similar questions . I am mother to 3 PDD-NOS kids and here is what the doctor told me ADD/ADHD symptoms can be attached to a child with an autism spectrum disorder as a component of the Autism Spectrum Diagnosis which means you can see similar symptoms but that doesn't make it ADD/ADHD this is because of the way the brain is effected, there is also the possibility that your daughter has both conditions I have a PDD-NOS daughter who is also ADHD and I have a PDD-NOS son who has similar symptoms to ADD/ADHD but its a component of the PDD-NOS. The way they determine if its a component or a secondary condition is by the way it presents and the degree to which the child is effected.

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Re the Drugs from what we are being told there are no drugs that will treat Autism Spectrum Disorder , the only meds I can think they are referring to is ADHD medication. I would not allow drugs until they can explain to you in great detail if the ADD/ADHD is a component of the Autism Spectrum Diagnosis or a separate one. because if its a component we are told medication will not work.

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Welcome to the forum Montebride. My 9 year old was head banging at 18 months when in his crib, but not until he was 2 1/2 or so did we get the diagnosis of autism. Six months earlier he had the diagnosis of ADHD. It is a bit confusing when you get one diagnosis and then another one so not sure if both are accurate or only the latter diagnosis.

Have you looked around the ADHD section of the site? A search for ADD might bring up some articles with useful tips and links.

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Bonnie Sayers - Autism Editor

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Hello all! I'm new here.....been reading and "lurking" for a few weeks but decided to finally jump in, if that's OK! My name is Niki, and I have an adorable, happy, loving almost-4-year-old son with a smile so infectious it seems to light up the room <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />) He was diagnosed with autism in April, after a couple years of speech and occupational therapy to deal with his almost complete lack of speech and what we at first thought was just "unusual" behavior (staring at lights, obsession with taking lids off and on bottles, spinning wheels, anything round etc). At first I didn't think he could have autism, because what does the average person know.....he is very cuddly and affectionate, he seems VERY intelligent, he wasn't at all like Rain Man (duh! LOL) But the more I read up on it, the more I started to realize that was exactly the problem, so that by the time he was diagnosed, we were not at all surprised and just ready to try to deal with the problem head-on, and get him more help than a couple hours of preschool a couple times a week and limited speech therapy.

What finally convinced me to "come out of hiding" and post here was a comment made by Janet Boyer: "I would never let my son be put on drugs, neither would I let him have "behavior modification" (ABA) so he can look and act like the rest of the robots (mainstream society) in the world." While I completely believe that every child is different, and I mean EVERY child, whether NT or ASD or whatever, I have heard many negative comments directed towards ABA therapy in regards to creating "robots", and I have to admit I do not understand them at all. ABA has brought my son out of his world and into ours, and it has been a complete Godsend for us! He started doing an ABA program at home with us three months ago, and when he began, he barely spoke (only repeated words when specifically asked to, nothing spontaneous), and was almost non-responsive to all other people in general unless he wanted something himself. In three months, he knows all his colors, numbers, letters, can count to ten, can (and will!) answer basic questions like his name, address, and phone number, will follow basic instructions, and now voluntarily greets and says goodbye to people when we are out and about!! And I can assure you that he is NOT robotic in any sense of the word!
I think perhaps there are different "styles" of ABA out there, because what we do at home for about 20 hours a week is completely positive reinforcement-based, with absolutely no negatives or aversives (we are actually trained to not even use the word NO, although he doesn't respond to NO well anyway so it doesn't matter for us!) Yes, we sit at a table and do trials, though we usually have about 16 different "programs" we are working on all at once so I am not asking him to do the same task over and over, he'd never tolerate that, it's more doing the same group of 16 tasks over again randomly rotating them. But eventually, once he's mastered the skills at the table, we take them out into the rest of the world and he learns to do them there as well, and then they aren't as scary to him. We have noticed such a huge improvement in ALL areas with him, not just the specific things we've taught him! I am so thankful we were able to get into this program, which is offered here with the cooperation of Notre Dame University and costs us nothing but time and minimal costs for materials. There is only room for about 15 families in the program and about 100 on the waiting list, so we feel very blessed.

I guess what I'm trying to point out (sorry guys, if you let me stick around you'll find I'm very long winded! <G>) is that, while I've heard that there are some REAL bad ABA programs out there (kids being slapped for not responding, being made to go for hours without breaks, all sorts of horrors), and it may not be the best solution for every child, it is not so much the theory behind the program that is bad as the way it is applied. I just hate for people out there to immediately discount the idea without checking into it because they hear some negative comments about it, when I for one will tell anyone who wants to know what an amazing thing it has been for our family!!

Thank you all if you've gotten this far.......and please, to Janet Boyer, I hope you do not take offense at my comments! I just wanted to get out the "other side of the story" so to speak!

God bless you all
Niki

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Gecko
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Welcome to the forum and thanks for the positive story!

It just proves every child is different and so is every doctor! Just because a "treatment" doesn't work for one person doesn't mean it will be bad for someone else (although I WILL stand my ground against Chelation!) My son was HORIIBLE on Ritalin, but I know some kids that have done great on it, while others have been completely horrified to hear my son takes Riperdal.

Everyone has to weigh their own options and decide what is best for their own child - medicine is not perfect so we just have to come as close as we possibly can.


Michelle Taylor
Why me? What did I do to deserve this?
(go on, ask)
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