I use the vega, taste is fine but it is a bit gritty. I mix it in a smoothie with mangoes for ds, not sure he would drink it straight mixed with water. Also I think all those protien mixes tend to degrade quickly after you mix them so it might not pack much punch if it is mixed up and then sits for a while. What about cottage cheese oat pancakes? Just blend a 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cottage cheese and 1/4 cup egg whites and a splash of vanilla. I usually use my immersion blender and just blend the oats up first and then add everything else and blend again. I know they don't sound great but they are quite tasty. You could make them on the small side and spread a thin layer of jam between two of them, or even some peanut butter if nuts are allowed. Most other stuff I can think of involves nuts...

I think that was my favourite thing about the book. It is all of these little shifts in thinking that can lead to such profound changes. We have done something similar to your kettle bell idea for essential one. We take turns building obstacle courses. We use the same few pieces of equipment but we each have to come up with different ways to use them then the last person and we need to direct the other person how to go through the obstacle course.

OCD is far greater then a compulsion to wash hands. That is just a common one people associate with the condition. The way you describe his pinching and picking at his skin is very in keeping with OCD. You say he had had some episodes of scratching at the OT. Had she not suggested anything or expressed concern that this maybe something other then sensory? I would find it very puzzling and somewhat concerning if she hasn't. Does she have SIPT training? What you are describing really does appear to go beyond sensory issues and requires some further assessments.

Like Marie mentioned I would start with your doctor. You may want to see if she can refer you to someone who is more experienced in dx girls with ASD. Teasing out a dx expecially with high functioning children can be complex and is even more so with girls. I haven't read it, but I have heard good things about the book Aspergirls.

This probably won't be the case for you, but since I have the industrial strength version of a easily distracted child, I had to resort to photocopying readers with the pictures covered up. He would just obsess on why a post it note was there and try to lift it up. I only needed to do a couple that way as I was using it more to gauge his comprehension.

I am so sorry you were treated that way, by someone who should be a professional! Also sorry to hear you have family that is being less then helpful. I would venture to guess they would be the same people who would most likely dismiss a dx if it had been given. Do you have a local autism association? Ours here is quite good and they often help families navigate getting a dx and maintain a good list of professionals for you to follow up with. Might be something to explore. Mostly just wanted to send some hugs. It is hard to get up the courage to start exploring a dx and then to feel unheard is so frustrating. I hope your psych-ed leads to some answers.

That sounds perfect! I remember when I first started talking to ds when he was around 5 about how we need to be flexible, I gave him one of those silly bands to wear to remind him. I actually started wearing one myself to remind me as well!

Oh I guess I should mention that for the longest time dh used to take ds with him to the hairdresser to watch him get his haircut and get him familiar with the environment. Ds's aversion to getting his head touched was just so strong that I really didn't feel we would be doing him or us any favors by making him do it. I just slowly worked at him allowing me to brush his hair without complaint, then with him allowing me to cut it and finally with him watching when dh went to the hairdresser and finally trying it out for himself. We did take him the first time with the full expectation that he may flip out and we would have to walk away with half or less of his hair actually cut, but he sat like an angel for the hairdresser and even tried to make small talk that was cracking dh and I up. So all that to say, sometime I find it is best to step back and make sure you are raising the challenge to the "just right" level for him, iykwim. Often what seems like the next logical step actually has lots of intermediary steps and it is more successful for your child and yourself to break it down and work on the one of those intermediary steps as your next goal instead of bypassing them and trying to just get to the end goal. That is what always works here anyway. It also gives me the added peace of mind that I know that both ds and myself are working towards getting there and not just ignoring the whole situation. I am not sure I am making sense. I spent all weekend with my lovely inlaws and my mil being the wonderful cook that she is made every single one of our favorites and I think I am in some sort of food coma....

Haircuts were very tough here. Ds only started allowing someone other then me to cut his hair this past year or so. Sensory wise he had a terrible time allowing anyone behind him to touch his head. I dont think even now he would be okay with clippers, he barely tolerates combing it! I always had to cut it myself. Fortunately, he has amazing curls that look best a bit on the shaggy side and that were pretty forgiving to my sad haircutting skills. His hair is a constant conversation starter when we are out. So many strangers comes up to tell him how much they love his curls, so it has the advantage of being great social skills practice for him, lol. For me it wasn't something I was willing to battle him with and turning into a power struggle. I am glad we kept gently pursuing it over the years that it took to get there. So my vote is to leave it.

Have you looked at some of the guides at litwits? http://www.litwitsworkshops.com/ They used to have more titles available, but looks like they are currently revising them.

That is wonderful! Pats on the back to both of you!

I was also going to suggest the right start place value cards. They are very helpful for ds.

I think this is the other one on time concepts from great ideas I was thinking of: http://www.greatideasforteaching.com/Portals/0/bookPDFs/CP026.pdf I love how great ideas finally has some sample pages! I have always been happy with everything I have bought from them, but it was always more of a stab in the dark about what I was getting, lol. You know it may also be a good idea to probe some of the language around math and time in his play. Just picking a specific concept to target like more/less before/after etc. I am sure he is probably great with all of them. For us, I found while it appeared ds understood these concepts his understanding was some what limited to certain contexts. Probing through his play let me see where he had some glitches with certain language and helped us to deepen his understanding of those concepts. So you know instructing him to do things like "before we put on the pirates put all the weapons on the ship". Trying to bombard him with the concept several times over a play session so you see how he is with those ideas.

From some of your other posts, I wonder if you think he is running into language troubles surrounding math concepts. There is a couple of resources at great ideas for teaching that maybe helpful. Was thinking of this one for the whole idea of time passing and getting a better connection/understanding of that: http://www.greatideasforteaching.com/SearchOurCatalog/ProductDetails/tabid/75/c/new-products/p/understanding-and-explaining-time-in-sequential-stories2/SearchValue/Math/Default.aspx There is also one on great ideas by Marilyn Toomey for the language of math, I can't exactly remember it, but I do know our SLP used some of the sheets with ds.

So glad to hear he did well!

Hope you are on the mend quickly! How fun about culinary school!

Has anyone used this site? Looks interesting, would love to hear any feedback if you have used it. Thanks.

I am just working on transition ds9 to regular lined paper right now. So far pretty good. We have just been doing spelling words and not his writing assignments. I try to make every writing assignment different. Some things he does standing at the whiteboard some he does on blank paper with no lines and some on a small whiteboard that is interlined. My ds's problem with writing are more with trying to motor plan the handwriting and keeping track of what he wants to write at the same time. So as long as he tells me the sentence he plans to write first and I help hold on to the thought for him he can manage the writing okay.

We had a week with lots of subtle but noticeable changes! I decided to pull out WWE this week after we had set it aside at the beginning of the year. I just randomly selected a week about 1/3 of the way through and ds gave me a perfect narration and did such a great job with the questions. The big success was actually getting him to get rid of probably 1/2 of his toys in the playroom and organize what was left. I had to do lots to help, but I just love seeing how proud he is of what he accomplished in there. This is a significant step forward for him for lots of reasons. He tends to have attachment issues to toys especially those that reflect his special interest in frogs and dinosaurs. We have done other clean outs, but I have never made much head way with the frogs and dinosaurs. This time we really cut them down lots. He also made very sensible decisions about what to put where and why. Best of all he is being so careful about putting everything back to where it belongs - not sure that will last, but I will take what I can get!

Oh, I remembered another one to add to the list. morphology jr. We have both the jr and standard version. I like the jr one better for our purposes. One of the things I like is how it sort of involves some flexible thinking in a way.

That is a good list. I didn't know they had an app version! Will have to get that for ds. Do you think your dd has trouble with numbers vs words because she is able to get a good picture in her head of the items versus numbers? We like qbitz as well. I must have loaned it out because I didn't come across it yesterday in the clean out. I will have to track it down. Pajaggle is sort of similar and is a good one for visual skills.

Hope he is feeling better soon! Also hope you are able to get some answers soon as well.

I found it at our local toy store. Here is a link to it on amazon. It is a good one and has been much loved in our house. http://www.amazon.com/Whoowasit-Award-Winning-Board-Game-Electronics/dp/B004UKNJCM

So ds and I have been busy clearing out the playroom the last couple of days and I was just struck by how many games have played such a great role in his development. I am sure that is the same for many of us here! I know there has been some great lists in the past of games people have used and thought it may be time to compile a new list. What are the favourites in your house? Here are a few of our past and present big winners: Tribbit Pajaggle Whoo Was It - kinda like clue but with talking animals. I find this to be a fun way to work on ds's working memory. You have to gather food from the various rooms and then feed it to the animals. I ask ds various questions about where we found certain items or who wants what etc. Don't Make Me Laugh jr - great for working on ds's non verbal language skills Backseat drawing jr Pass the bomb jr Fibber Simon flash cubes The sandwich stacking game by Melissa and Doug - so great for following instructions. I loved how I could change it to make it add more complexity when we were working on following three step instructions. I recall we liked all of the Get up and Go games by Melissa and Doug, but the sandwich one was particularly useful here. We had several of the I Can Do That games which were wonderful when ds was younger. Castle logix Distraction Cool circuits I must admit I often tweak games to work on our goals so I don't always play them as intended...

It may have been me! In fact, we just finished a big clear out of our playroom and I pulled it out to play with ds today. I was just going to start a thread about some of the great games we have used over the years with ds. Many of which ds has outgrown - exactly who told him he was allowed to grow up so quickly!!!!! The creator of the game is an early intervention worker at a clinic ds received services from. The success she had with the children she used it with was remarkable. It really does target working memory as well as expressive language. Also is great for following multi step directions. Great way to target lots of goals at once.