General Music Chat

Jesus, y'all can turn any thread into an argument.



gtZip... good luck! I'm hoping the best fo you and your kid.

Welcome Dizzizz to BandMix. so, how are you enjoying your first day here?

gtZip....best of luck w your situation. not to make light or blow off your's or anyone else's situation but like many i do believe autism is highly over "diagnosed". and in a three yr old...it is very likely the jury is still out.

have you gotten a second opinion and/or had your child tested/diagnosed elsewhere?

Theres been a few different opinions by different pediatricians. As much opinion as they could offer or ascertain based on their knowledge level.

There is only ONE official Dr. in the whole region that evaluates and makes official diagnoses.

And yes the forthcoming genetic test is for Fragile X. (Which I might name my band if I start a new one)

It's not that bad. High functioning autism can lead to being a savant or with the proper support and therapies they can wind up being normal members of society.

My daughter, Naomi was diagnosed in first grade and from then spent the rest of her elementary school in special ed. The public school system in my neighborhood is awesome and the Orange County Consortium keeps close tabs of making sure the school is taking care of them. We do an IEP every year and each year she has met her goals. My daughter was autistic even before she got her vaccinations, so I can't blame them. She didn't like to be touched much when she was a baby and screamed most of the first 8 weeks of her life due to being over stimulated.

She just started Middle School and is in 6th grade. We do her IEP next month.

The win of this is she spent all of her school years in a small classroom of not more than 12 - 13 kids. She got plenty of one on one attention, speech therapy, psychological counseling in addition to schooling. The kids in her classroom were pretty much like a family, so it helped her learn quite a bit. Of course, she is not at the level of reading and critical thinking of other kids her age. We've had to work with her not to take things literally and about humor - about what makes things funny. Proper manners and social behaviors, but they come with age. What's interesting is on her test scores, she scored very high in Science.

Other than that, Naomi has a good business sense and at 8 years old this kid was the neighborhood entrepreneur. If she wanted money, she would make things and go door to door and sell them. We do fairs and she hustles the other booth owners to work for them so she can earn stuff she wants to buy from them. I didn't teach her that, she learned that on her own, but she does get it from me.

She has a very unique way of looking at the world and the interesting thing about autism is she has no inner voice, so she tends to say exactly what she's thinking to the point where Cisco and I have been in a few very interesting scenarios.

There's no text book definition of autism. Every one of them is different. But they can learn pretty much like any other kid, even some of the severe cases. I didn't know what to expect either when she was diagnosed, but now, I love my daughter so much for the interesting person that she is. She wants to be an artist when she grows up and design video games. I've put her in art class and the teacher liked her so much and told us we should put her in the adult classes when she turns 12. She even has Naomi teaching the class sometimes.

Good luck, I think you don't have much to worry about. Just make sure you're very open and straight with them. I know some of them can have a hard time assimilating from teens to adults, especially when they have a hard time being social. But if you find them a good group of kids to hang with and who are somewhat protective of them, that would be a good thing.

Chaeya

Huh? A new mental condition? Highly doubtful. We just have better science now. Sorry.

You really believe we could make significant medical advances such as inventing microscopes, identifying bacteria, fungus, various illnesses and discover ways to treat them; see different mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, yet were too stupid to see the huge differences that ASD has from all of them, including mental retardation?

I know I put you in a position where you would feel the need to defend yourself, but do this topic a favor and show some capacity to admit you just repeated something you heard and consider the possibility that you are wrong. ASD is the last thing on the planet that needs more misinformation repeated, especially to newcomers like GT.

Until the 80's, the definition of autistic disorders was not as broadly inclusive as it has since become. Many with Aspergers syndrome, who did not exhibit the more severe symptoms of autisim's interruption of language development, were misdiagnosed as ADD or ADHD.
I am one of them.

Sorry gtZip...I think this is great news!!

First off...your child is THREE, the perfect age to begin to get help and that also shows me that you are a caring parent and got out there and advocated for your child.

Now fighting with the school begins, just get your child every single program they offer....My experience is that a combination of OT, PT and Speech, all helps during this precious time of brain development.

I think the testing is a fricken waste of time. Who cares where it came from, just use your time to deal with it. If you have another child, they will have it...how much?? They can't tell you whether they do the test or not. It is just a great way to freak out your kid and overthink something you can't do anything about, just focus your time on getting the right school, therapies and education for your child.

My son was diagnosed at three. They told me he would never talk or ride a bike. My child talks, is a gold medal winner in Special Olympics and took five years of soccer with high functioning kids and he is a boyscout and rides a bike and is in sixth grade and plays the keyboard, clainet and drums.

I advocate for him every day and he went to the Neurologist this Tuesday and he stood up and put his hands on my son's shoulders and told him he brings him great joy and hope and he told me I could take lots of the credit....

You can see it as a stopping block, or a disappointment, or the yellow brick road to his future.

Mine is genetic, I am Ashkenazi Jew and I'm a carrier of Autism and Leukemia.....no one had to tell me, my son died of Leukemia and I have two children with Autism....does knowing it is genetic make a difference...NO....

They are the MOST brilliant kids I have ever known, they have social and sensory issues, get them to focus on his issues now, take all the help they offer and keep making sure they are doing it and write up a kick ass IEP dude, you got a diagnosis.. that is the hard part, now you got proof for everything you are about to say and fight for....

I think you should be pretty happy and ready to take on the world, you kid is off to a great start......and I'm totally proud of you to be at this point at Three...awesome!!!

Tammy

Best wishes to you gT. I'm sure you'll step up to whatever challenges you and your son face - people are extremely adaptive - life is very unpredictable but we manage to navigate the waters nonetheless.

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Awesome information, thanks for sharing your experiences on this topic. I find it wildly unfortunate a seemingly majority of people equate the advance of science with the advance in intelligence - that is to say, 100 years ago, people were ignorant, but today we're "advanced" and getting smarter.

Put any modern scientist in the middle of the desert with only his eyes, hands and mind at his disposal and ask him to make a calendar by observing the stars, or build a pyramid without heavy moving equipment, or design a city with a working irrigation system - it should be obvious that science does not advance intelligence - intelligence advances science.

Psychology and human nature have been very well understood since the dawn of man, and evident in the earliest of writings, which is the foundation of war-strategies and politics. I would find it extremely hard to believe that classifying oddities in human behavior is a recent advance. Treatment I would believe, but not classification.

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Awesome information, thanks for sharing your experiences on this topic. I find it wildly unfortunate a seemingly majority of people equate the advance of science with the advance in intelligence - that is to say, 100 years ago, people were ignorant, but today we're "advanced" and getting smarter.

Put any modern scientist in the middle of the desert with only his eyes, hands and mind at his disposal and ask him to make a calendar by observing the stars, or build a pyramid without heavy moving equipment, or design a city with a working irrigation system - it should be obvious that science does not advance intelligence - intelligence advances science.

Psychology and human nature have been very well understood since the dawn of man, and evident in the earliest of writings, which is the foundation of war-strategies and politics. I would find it extremely hard to believe that classifying oddities in human behavior is a recent advance. Treatment I would believe, but not classification.

James, (er.. "Jams")
Thanks for summing that up nicely.

Of all the crazy discussions and debates we have here, this is one that I've struggled with the most on a personal level. Such a plain and simple application of intellect and deductive logic is tragically needed in our world today. The old axiom about leading a horse to water applies to this thread.

I may need to talk to you or Bob, at some point in the not too distant future.