How to Help Our Son

Sign language! Get Signing Time dvds. They are fantastic. My 2 1/2 year old is almost fluent (she is not autistic). There is a lot of music in the Signing Time videos that's quite catchy. My daughter hated little Einstein signing stuff, but loves Signing Time. I think they have a website www.signingtime.com. (You can see my baby signing at www.youtube.com/kpmclovin if interested). She also really enjoys a website www.starfall.com, teaches phonics and reading.

B.,

Have you heard of the Family Support Network of SeNC? They have alot of good resources and probablly the best one is Teresa Mebane, a mother of 3 boys with Autism. Their web site is www.supportfamilies.org and their phone number is ###-###-####. they are in Wilmington and serve New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin and Pender counties. They are a non-profit and have no adgenda, but to help parents of children with special needs. I know this because I have a daughter with Down syndrome and 3 nephews are
on the Autism spectum and they have helped me and my family many times. They can match you to a trained support parent if you would like to have someone to talk to as well.

I hope that you will be able to use this information.

If you want him to start reading, try going with a subject he is interested in and read books about that.

Tina

I have a 3 1/2 year old son who has mild autism. He speaks but only lables things like dog, cat, apple, drink please is the only thing that he will say together occasionally I can get yellow duck out of him but he does script from movies and such and can say an entire sentance that he has heard a thousand times. It's so weird how intelleigent these kids can be but can't even help put their shoes on.
Have you tried any biomedical treatments for your son? Dietary or supplements? If you are interested in any of the things I have done to help improve my sons condition you can email me off list at ____@____.com.

J.

Hi I have a 12 year old that has Asperger's and is very High Funtioning. All I can tell you is to love him and support him and not try to fight what he is good at and pray. It does get better. Always let him know he can do anything he sets his mind to and be anything he wants to be and don't let anyone tell you other wise. Good luck with the school system and fight for you sons rights and don't back down. This is just my opinion but I really do not think prescription drugs are the answer. My son does not take any and we get by fine. Don't let yourself be pressured into giving then to him. I did it once and will never do it again. As for the speech no one but me could understand my son until he was about 3 and now he holds more intelligent conversations than most adults I know. I hope this all made sense.

Good luck and God Bless ____@____.com

As an EC teacher I really feel that kids with autism need lots of help with social skills. It will help him so much as he gets older to be comfortable socially. I teach social skills to middle school students with autism. There is a ton of literature out there about social skills and autism. Have you ever been in contact TEACHH based in Chapel Hill? That is a wonderful organization that can support you, your family, and your son with autism. Good luck.

When my charge got to be at that level we started her with a play group I headed it with a few other mothers that came. but the play group was more of a story telling group. I would read a story and then we would talk about the story. I set up crafts were the children would not only work on pictures that represented the words but we worked on the letters and words that represented the pictures. sort of like a match that word to the picture. It helped with word recognition and also allowed us to use open ended questions. at first the children just repeated the questions but after a few weeks they got a hang of answering the questions with their own response. If you are too busy for this there are usually private social skill groups set up that do similar things. My charge has now been main streamed you would think she did not have autism except she only looks you in the eye when she is not listening to you. I hope this is a help. It sounds like you are doing a great Job.

Hi B.!! I worked with Autistic children for four years before I became a stay at home army mom. I think it sounds like you are doing a great job! I would suggest you keep him going with whatever he is willing to do. The language and social skills sound like they are right on with his disorder. They have really low social skills and usually that is when some autistic children become aggressive, they don't like thier personal space being invaded. So as long as there is no problems with aggression at school I wouldn't push too much to interact, maybe just keep introducing situations to him. Such as play dates and things of that nature that are in a controlled enviornment. I do have lots of websites and literature I could share with you if you are interested. Let me know. Sounds like you are doing great mom!! Way to go!!

My husband owns a cleaning business and actually cleans for a place in Apex called Pathways. She focuses on working with Autistic children and I have heard lots of great things about her. You may want to check into that.

B.,
I have only recently (within the last 2 yrs) had perrsonal interaction with my autistic nephew. As I am new and still learning I can only offer one piece of advise: Speak with his teachers. They are probably the best judge as to how he will do. Also listen to yourself, what do you initially think? If you feel he will do well, then keep him going.
Hope that helps
S.

Hi. I have a 7 year old son with Asperger's Syndrome. Does he have an IEP? Whether or not you plan on sending him to public school you need to connect with the services offered to special needs kids through your local school system. I don't know the rules in NC, but here in Mississippi the school is required to provide services for kids like ours starting from age 3. My son went to 2 years of free preschool (called Developmental Preschool) at our local school. He also received social skills training and would have received speech and OT/PT and ABA had he needed it at the time. He is now in a mainstream 1st grade class and receives social skills training, speech, and consultative OT services.

You must have an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) to ensure he receives the services he needs.

Good luck,

S.