Homeschool space with ASD

[Guest]

I'm sorry kbutton. Hope things get sorted out soon :grouphug:

[PeterPan]

Psych may go DCD on him, Kbutton. And it's normal to feel dissected during evals. It's how you get honest and deep about what's going on. Then you'll put him back together and have a whole child, honest.

 

Don't quibble over the ADHD label. It's idiotically vague and imprecise anyway.

 

Any family history for this?

[kbutton]

I won't quibble. I just want to be sure that we catch everything. I think ADHD directly or by virtue of the other stuff sapping his brain space won't matter a lot one way or another unless it makes a difference for meds in some way. We have put that option on the table with pediatrician but are waiting to see what comes out of all this. 

 

I think what burns me up most is that the speech evaluation two years ago had issues, and we were refused therapy. And no one would test for CAPD because of age. I can't imagine what it would've been like for him to have had amplification for two years. He has always come across as sweet, nutty, absent-minded, and ditzy. It's just sad that he's a day late and a dollar short because the therapy people wouldn't help us. I am also curious why he didn't have more issues with coordination when he was little. He was a little behind the family curve (very early walkers, etc.), but well within normal limits. There are some things he can do and did early and very well that just don't jive with this, but I know people have peaks and valleys in ability.

 

Well, DH's family is a bunch of fruits and nuts. Really. Not a typical one in the bunch, and it goes at least a couple of generations back on one side in spite of it not being a large family at all. ADHD would be the tip of the iceberg there. My family has hit and miss clusters of things, but we have an enormous extended family, so I would expect to see a lot of stuff (My mom's family has had yearly reunions for decades, and two years ago, they had over 90 people, and that was a tiny fraction of her cousins and their descendants. And that's just one side, all descendants of her dad's immediate family.). I would not have guessed DCD, but I do have my own coordination issues that are not terrible--it's always been hit and miss, but I can either do something pretty easily or I totally can't do it. Not much in between. There are a couple of us like that in a family of pretty coordinated people. One of my grandmothers just about defines the ADHD label, and she is a slow processor as well. I asked my mom about my grandmother's siblings and ADHD (now that she knows more with this stuff coming up), and she said they are all likely either ADHD or OCD (she's not much younger than some of them, so she's got more of a sibling perspective than a niece perspective). That side of the family would not be the place to find DCD though--they are all athletic until the orthopedic issues crop up. I would not say that my immediate family (brother and parents) have all that much going on, but if you shake the tree, stuff definitely falls out. I know one of my cousin's kids on the other side has some issues with handwriting and coordination. 

 

It's kind of funny, but everyone always asks about parents and maybe grandparents for these things, and I've noticed in our family, we have a lot of people that resemble a certain branch of the family more than their actual parents. This kiddo, in particular, even in his body type, his hair texture, his facial shape, his chin, his dentition, takes after my maternal grandmother's family, particularly on my great-grandfather's side. Some of my mom's aunts and uncles and cousins got those traits, but my son is the only one that seems to have them in our line until you go back a ways. My mom and her siblings take after her dad's side more in a lot of ways, including looks. Just interesting. Must be recessive traits or something!  There is only person in my dad's very large family that has even the slightest bit of body type in common with my son (other than height). It's very odd. He most definitely has my grandmother's chin, cheeks, and build. He did get my grandfather's (and mother's) terrible eye sight, lol, but I think that's all he got from that grandfather's family. 

[PeterPan]

The neuropsych will look at family history, birth events (oxygen deprivation, preterm, anything unusual), etc.

[PeterPan]

Christine Reeve just put a great article on Advanced Work Systems onto her blog.  I thought it continued nicely some of what we were talking about here.  So the magazine holders with the colored tabs is an independent work system for ds7, but this article  http://www.autismclassroomresources.com/workbasket-wednesday-advanced-structured-work-systems/ addresses what you do when the student is ready for something more advanced.  She talks about that issue of choosing what goes in them, what it means to be independent, dealing with older kids, etc. too.

[samba]

Thanks for sharing, OhE.  I just started following this thread looking for ideas for structuring ds14's school time in a way that builds his independence.  Our school year is going well (as far as academics moving in the right direction...we are both loving Rewards!) except for ds' COMPLETE dependence on me to keep the work/skills/day moving forward and for those days when he seems to have forgotten how to do everything he's ever learned.  Sigh.  If I leave his side for a minute, even on a good day, he either bolts and resists coming back to the task or he rushes through whatever we were doing and does it completely incorrectly.

 

My MO so far this year has been to be glued to his side, get in/get out with the 3 R's and call it done.  But that will not benefit him long-term  There are skills he still really, really needs to practice, if only to build his independence, and I was at a loss on how to go about it.  You and so many others here have given me a lot to chew on.  And those Reeve's links...great stuff!

 

Ds has a whole different schedule this year with even more out-of-the-house activities going on and I'm starting to see ways to use these moments to build skills (get swim bag ready, change into art clothes, pack snacks, etc) as well as some easy academic stuff just to foster his confidence and independence.

 

Lecka, thanks for mentioning Kazdan.  His books are on the way.

 

Thanks, everyone. :)

 

BTW, if anyone has a direct link to Ronit Bird's Dots app, I'd be grateful if you shared.  I simply can't find it and I'd love to see if ds could benefit from it.

[PeterPan]

Hi Samba!  The RB Dots is an ebook, not an app.  I can find it if I go to iTunes and search for Ronit Bird.  See if this link works.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/exploring-numbers-through/id616671392?mt=13  I think a couple of her shorter books are free now, so you can see how they're structured.

 

Oh dear, unfortunately I understand the bolting!  Here's Christine's website page with her articles on organizing your classroom http://www.autismclassroomresources.com/organizing-classrooms-resources/ She has co-authored a book on classroom organization.  It took me a while to figure out how to apply it to my own space, because obviously we're in a home, not a big classroom with professional tools like barrier walls.  You might read the articles and see if you can translate the *concepts* to what you have in your house.  

 

Yes, I have to be very in front of him with the schedule.  Once he's lost in his own world and ideas, there's no getting him back.  The visual schedules help with that.  I guess whether it's visual or words or a planner or whatever the *type* is, it seems to help with getting into his brain this is the plan, this is what we're doing.  The choice aspect seems to help ds.  I try to make it seem like he's choosing his whole day plan, even though in reality some of them are required things and not choices at all. Even then, he can at least choose the order or choose to pull a leisure card and do something else for an hour (or two, depending on how zoned he is), meaning he still has control and choice. He does not use it *independently* at this time.  I think some kids get to that point and a "check your schedule" step can become part of your routine if you want.

 

Ok, I added a few more pictures to the Flickr album so you could see some of our pages for doing tasks.  On that laundry, that's formative, mercy. It takes him FOREVER and I think he might have issues with sorting.  I usually go in and help him but try to get him to use the paper to know where things go, how we can break a big task into steps, etc.  Usually they say to make the pages with pictures of the dc doing them or the actual thing. I've done this with some of his, like say a morning routine where I took pictures of him doing each step.  Where I used images of items, I tried to google and get the actual item (like what his swim trunks look like or his carseat or whatever).  It's not hard to use your  phone, take pics, upload them, and drag them into your word program and turn them into something.  I usually do something snazzy like adding frames and shadows and things, but that's all in the Pages program on mac, just quick and right there, not multiple places or anything.  Once you do it, you'll get used to it.  The arrows, same gig, are shape files that you can drag on and adjust.  I'm assuming PCs have something similar.  I then print the pages and pop them in page protectors.  Then I hang them in the place where he'll be for the task.  Just real low key, with a page protector and some tape, kwim?  

 

 

[Lecka]

I looked at that link, it is really good!