diagnosis known: My child is Autistic

[Lucky parent]

My son has Autism and is a teen. Our public schools are not ready for these kids and has not offered a possitive experience to the mix.

[Pikantari]

I have to say that I commend the public schools where I am for helping my daughter, since 2nd grade. The actual school had not helped her, but there is a program which comes into the school a class in every few schools that my dd was placed in. She has done wonderfully, her 1st year in middle school, and still going on strong, mind you we just did these three things last weekend before school started.... would be hard on any child.

1. the kids and I moved to a new house/away fr their father
2. started a new school
3. started middle school

all structure is gone, but she is prevailing. my sweet child.

[sue tanner]

there is an awesome school for autism
in Purcellville, VA
not far from Leesburg VA

Originally Posted by pirate girl

I've been helping to raise a 12 year old girl with PDD-NOS for the last 5 years and she is as precocious and intelligent as Deerisle smile describes her son.

Have you taken him for a Neuropsychological Evaluation yet? Start Speech and occupational therapy asap. This child was diagnosed at 4 but received no treatment or therapy until she was 8. She will likely deal with some speech issues forever because they were not rehabbed when she was younger.

Good luck and god bless. It's sure not easy. Autism Speaks is a phenemonal site. Also look for a great local child psychiatrist and some local support groups. Learn all you can about Individual Education Plans (IEPS) and prepare yourself to be his strongest advocate. Don't let the schools push you around or minimize ANYTHING concerning your son.

[alex1lake]

My son was diagnosed PDD NOS, ASD through special ed program at school. He was late walking other than that nothing extremely unusual. He did have a lot of ear infections as an infant. When he was a toddler he couldn't wait in lines, would through tantrums, wouldn't talk much (we took him to a doctor thinking he might have ADD and the doc tested him for about 2 minutes and said we were imagining things).
My son was always lookng for friends, though. To this day and he is eight now he is very social, always looking for friends, talking to everyone (although he does not like big groups, he gets shy for a minute or two). His main problem is frustration, if there is anything competitive going on and he cannot do it as good as the other kids, he quits. He cannot play sports, if someone does not pass him the ball in basketball, he quits or gets upset. If he does not make the basket, he is upset. This is the hardest challenge for me right now. He also does not like being teased.
He has a couple of friends, but obviously not many other kids want to hang out with him. I do not know if any therapy can address this.

I have to agree with others that we were chosen to have "different" kids for a reason. I must say i never knew I had so much creativity in dealing with problems and patience. I do have my days though when I just cry, less and less lately as he seems to be growing out of some more frustrating problems that he had and I can reason with him more.

[mspond1]

Don't dispair. My son is 21, mildly autistic and mild MR. I read through your postings and it brought back memories. Keep plodding along and you'll be amazed at how far they can come. Whey Danny was 9, he couldn't sit through a basketball game in a gym because the sounds of the buzzers hurt his ears. By 15 he was able to enjoy basketball games. I found that sensory integration therapy helped him--we started it at 6 and continued it for 6 years. Social stories (Ms. Gray) also helped him to know how to respond appropriately. You will always have the ignorant people who stare or make comments. Fortunately they are few and far between.It gets better. You get better at anticipating your child's needs, and your child will mature somewhat.Also, try to see the humor in things. I remember when I was trying to get my son to navigate the grocery store independently. I sent him to pick out ice cream (one of his favorite foods). He did, and when he returned to the cart, he tossed it in. It landed right on top of a bag of potato chips which popped! The chips went flying all over. It was actually pretty funny in a slap-stick kind of way. He didn't intend for that to happen. The expression of shock on his face was priceless, as was hearing the big belly laugh from him that followed.Take care.

[doulamama]

My 4 year old was just diagnosed with Autism and my 3 year old is still in the evaluation process. Its totally weird because they are complete opposites. Same as a few other of you on here, they are extremely clever, smiley and affectionate. But they have pretty bad social interaction with unknown people or surroundings and have been kicked out of 2 different daycares. They are now in a Therapeudic Daycare and they are awesome there! My 4 year old is also very picky and orderly and almost "grown up" like. He picks out his and his brothers outfits for school everynight, has to always sit in the same chair, watch the same movie etc... I do have a question, has any of your children or child you know ever known the whole alphabet or counting from 1 to 10 and then just totally lost it? Like starting over on a clean slate again? That has been happening with him. My 3 year old has extremely bad behavior problems. The littlest thing will set him off, like the coat I put on him for school... or if I give him the wrong spoon... He has been pretty agressive towards me and towards himself. I give 100% props and luv to every parent/caregiver who has an autistic child. I wish every person who isnt in this situation knew how it is.