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Smurphygt

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About Smurphygt

  • Birthday 12/15/1975

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    TN
  1. I am the original poster of this thread, and thought I should post an update. Aidan, my teen son, will be starting his 4th year of high school next week. We just moved from TX to TN last month, so we are getting to know the new community and local homeschooling groups. With this move, we have opted not to restart therapies for either of my boys. Having made significant gains, Aidan actually graduated from his OT program before we left TX. He still had issues with processing speed, but there was at least some improvement. He has also decided the medication route was not for him, though I am not opposed to trying it again. We encouraged Aidan to visit the teen center often over the past two years, and overall, he spent much of his time there. Of course any time there were changes, he wouldn't return for a while unless we pressured him. Before we left, he was elected the president of the tech club. We are looking forward to the social and enrichment activities our new area offers. As for outsourced classes, Aidan has taken a couple of writing courses online. Writing is still his biggest struggle, but I am seeing improvement in that area. It will continue to be our main focus this year. Last year, we spent a lot of time prepping for the ACT. The ACT being a time-pressure test was a huge obstacle, but Aidan overcame his difficulty and ended up with a composite score of 26. Not bad for a kid with processing and memory difficulties! Our current plan is for Aidan to stay home with us, and to ease into higher level courses with the local university. At this point, he is undecided whether he should pursue computer programming or some sort of engineer degree, but I'm happy he is still considering college. Oh, our biggest news is that Aidan is driving! I don't know about you all, but it is frightening when your kid gets behind the wheel! He does get a bit anxious, but he is a very conscientious driver. I am more concerned about my fifteen year old daughter getting her permit. She already thinks she knows how to drive better than everyone else! All in all, I have adjusted my expectations of what my children should be doing and I am in a much happier place because of it. I am sure everything will work out, even if its not necessarily how I pictured it years ago. Happy homeschooling!
  2. Our O.T. has recommended the Handwriting Without Tears app to me. My son has done well with it at his appointments.
  3. Thank you all so much for your kind words and helpful advice! I am still processing everything that's been shared and trying to determine our most immediate goals. I may have unintentionally given a wrong impression of our therapist though. She is very gentle in her approach, but also firm. She is quite supportive of homeschooling, much more so than our previous therapists, and was the first to say that placing my son in a regular school environment would be the worst thing for him at this point in time. I was, however, taken aback by her response when I told her I was fine with my kids sticking around for a bit after they turn 18. I do not think one disagreement should cause us to seek out another therapist.
  4. Yes, the results sound very similar. My son's working memory was listed as average and in the 27th percentile, while his processing speed was listed at the 13th percentile. The doctor spent about 30 minutes going over all of the results with us, but I'd like to know more about how to use the results to alter our school day and my expectations. My son feels "shaky" and nervous when he takes the Adderal and insists he can feel the effects throughout the day and into the evening. In addition to the side effects, the current dose doesn't seem to be helping him to focus much at all. We also have the sleep issues, so my son has started taking melatonin at night. That one does seem to help. Our doctor recently mentioned Straterra to us because he says it will address the anxiety, but he had told me the side effects were generally more serious so he wasn't ready to consider it just yet. I will discuss it with him more at our next appointment. That is fantastic! We do try to have a protein breakfast with limited sugar every morning. My son loves his eggs, but he's not quite motivated enough to cook his own yet. That might be our next goal. ;) I guess my main concern with a typical school environment is that he will fall behind, especially with the writing expectations. It is an everyday struggle to get my son to write out his equations, complete sentences, heck even complete words! He's very inventive when it comes to abbreviating. I'm honestly not sure that he can keep up with the other kids. We started out with borderline CAPD, but I was unsuccessful at getting that retested. He was diagnosed at 12 with ADHD-Inattentive. Our new behavior therapist that we started seeing in Jan was the first to suggest my son was on the spectrum. She actually feels he's Aspergers, but he doesn't have any of the repetitive behaviors. Our regular therapist works closely with our psychiatrist, and I feel she must have said something to him because he also initially suggested Aspergers, but then was leaning toward the PDD-NOS diagnosis. It was a separate doctor in the same office who administered the psycho-educational testing last month, and put into writing last week that the diagnosis was PDD-NOS. Until then I was skeptical about the idea of him being on the spectrum. I know every child is different, but my son does not act the same as the kids I've met with autism or Aspergers. However, he is very rigid in his thinking, likes rules, has difficulty interpreting how a person is feeling, will talk excessively about his own interests, is shy and reserved, and generally uncomfortable in social settings. This is what I question though...is every child who has difficulty with social interactions automatically on the spectrum? Yes, your advice was very helpful! Thank you!
  5. Thank you. I had typed up a long response to your post, but before I could finish, my munchkin navigated away from the page. :glare: I tried to clarify in my mind just what I was asking before I typed, but I couldn't pin it down. My main concern is how do I balance my teen's social and academic needs to best prepare him for adulthood, and still give the other two everything they need as well? Having a clearer picture of his academic capabilities and limitations has helped a lot, but the professionals thinking he has severe social deficits has taken me by surprise. I never anticipated that he would need as much therapy as the therapist is recommending. Thanks for the reminder! We have a bottle of Nordic Naturals we've been meaning to try, but it got shoved to the back of the shelf. I honestly don't know what the goals would be at this point. Until last week, I thought ABA was reserved for younger children. I think we will seek out other opportunities beside the high school. I have avoided co-ops in the past, but will reconsider for this year. Right now I drop my two oldest off at the teen center 2-3 times a week. It did take my son a bit of adjusting, but now that he knows a few of the other kids he looks forward to going. The environment is very nurturing, and the director, though a little eccentric, is skilled at drawing the kids out of their shells and encouraging them to participate. She even wants to set up a tech club so that my son can be help out in a leadership role. Being involved at the teen center has been the most helpful for him thus far. You mentioned the "social skills group," that's one of the recommended therapies I forgot to mention in my initial post. Do you have experience with these sorts of groups? I wonder if it would be more beneficial than the ABA? It would certainly fit our schedule better. Thanks again for taking the time to share your insights and experiences. I have a lot to think about, but I feel like I have narrowed the focus a bit. :)
  6. Thank you both for your responses. Having people to chat with that understand special needs AND homeschooling is a huge help! I was attempting to follow the traditional schedule of high school classes, but feel I need to reexamine our short-term goals. I am not opposed to extending high school out a little longer, or even taking a couple of years in a CC. When I recently mentioned to our therapist that I didn't mind my teen living at home after 18 and attending a CC, she looked at me like I had two heads and advised that I was short-changing him by not expecting him to leave home and go straight into a 4 year university. Yes, my husband and I are considering other options to help him be accountable. I've been researching online classes and the local co-ops. My teen is too young for the dual-enrollment option at our local CC, so we will attempt those when he's old enough. I'm considering inviting 1-2 families to join us in our home for our science lab days. That one is tough as I don't actually know many of the local families and my schedule is already packed as it is. Inviting other families to participate would help us stick to our lab schedule though. :glare: My son also wants to participate in the base Hired! program. The teens "interview" with the program director, who in turn places the teen in a recreation facilities on base that best fits their interest. The teen works for so many hours a week, and earns job skills, experience, and a minimal amount of money. Thank you! I have seen so many kids through the years that had been damaged by their public school experiences. My oldest actually did attend an all-day public preK at age 4, and it was our experiences that year that led us to homeschooling.
  7. Hello, I'm not a regular poster here, but I lurk quite a bit. I hope you all don't mind me jumping in. My almost 15 year old son was just diagnosed this past week with PDD-NOS. Prior to this diagnosis, we thought we were only dealing with ADHD-inattentive type. We're an Army family, and have recently moved to a new base with excellent child psychiatry services. Between the behavioral therapist, psychiatrist, and the psycho-educational testing, the new diagnosis is PDD-NOS and anxiety disorder. Honestly, this has really thrown me for a loop. I sought help because my son is very bright, but struggles to focus long enough to complete his schoolwork every day. He didn't want to take meds until this year (his freshman year), and we are still in the process of finding the right dose. He's highly sensitive to the side effects of the Adderal (currently taking 10 mg in the am), and while it helps a little, it hasn't been enough to get him through the day. Before we started with the current therapist, I didn't recognize that my son had social difficulties. I knew he was quirky, but I guess I didn't recognize just how different he was from other kids. He's always been very shy and sensitive, and he would struggle to keep his composure if his feelings got hurt. He would often cry out of frustration, which led to a lot of teasing in the past two years. The teasing has caused him to be withdrawn, which is the second reason I sought help. The I.Q. testing results show that my son is bright, mostly in the high average range with a couple of superiors, but he has difficulties with his working memory and his processing speed, which was low average. The achievement test showed he's at or above grade level for reading, spelling, and writing, he excelled in the math portion, but all the fluency tests showed major difficulties, putting him at a 5th grade level. The recommendations are that he be accommodated on any timed tests, and that he receive occupational therapy to help with handwriting. He had OT previously, but tested out. In addition to the academic accommodations and the occupational therapy, the behavioral therapist would like him to start ABA therapy, take 2 classes at the local high school, and visit the teen youth center several times a week for socializing. I am wondering just how we're going to fit this all into our regular days?! Even after dropping history and Spanish this year, my son takes the entire day, often 9-5, to compete his assignments for English, Literature, Geometry, and Chemistry. I feel at most it should take him 4-5 hours. His goals are to go to college and become an engineer, but I don't see how he can be competitive at this rate. I'm honestly not comfortable with sending him to the local high school to participate in classes, but the therapist feels he needs to be responsible to somebody besides myself. She also feels I've coddled him and let him get away with subpar performance. :sad: I cannot solely focus on my teens difficulties. I have two other children; my daughter (13) seems fairly typical, but my youngest son (7) is most definitely ADHD, and he has speech, physical, and occupational therapy 4 days a week outside of the home. So many thoughts have been swirling through my head on how to best meet the needs of each of my children, and I'm currently feeling overwhelmed, sad, and pretty down about not recognizing some of this before. After 10 years of homeschooling, I'm second-guessing my decision to keep them at home, and wondering if I've done my older son a huge disservice. On the other hand, my kids are all well-adjusted, sweet, caring children who like to be with each other and their parents. The youngest is a bit wild sometimes, but isn't intentionally mean. I personally feel those qualities are lacking in so many families these days and I'm grateful ours in intact. So if you've stuck with me this long, you can see my mind is all over the place. For that I apologize. Over the past couple of days I've tried to write a more coherent post, but gave up trying. I really needed to get it all off my chest. Mostly, I'm worried, overwhelmed, and at a loss on how to handle the next year of my son's education. I would so appreciate any advice, hugs, or even a slap in the face to "snap out of it." Thanks, Stacy
  8. Hi all! I hope nobody minds a newbie jumping in. We just received our Wii disk in the mail and have really enjoyed it so far. Before we were using our HDMI cable from the computer to the tv which was a real pain because the sound didn't always work. Some of the movies/shows we've watched recently are: Jason and the Argonauts Legend of the Seeker series Terry Jones: Medieval Lives Clash of the Titans Neverending Story My kids sometimes watch Disney shows and there's a whole series called Tall Tales and Legends that we keep meaning to watch. I have several documentaries on the list, but I'd have many more if Netflix would narrow down their categories a bit so it would be easier to find what would interest us. Eleven pages of historical documentaries becomes tedious to sift through. Overall though, we've been really pleased! Stacy
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