How are things going now OP? Hope you have been having lots of calm days.

I have used and really like, Teaching Theory of Mind and Big Picture Thinking. I would also suggest working on executive functioning skills. Unstuck and On Target is great for the flexible thinking problems many with ASD face. I used it alongside Zones of Regulation which targets emotional regulation. I also have found Learning the ROPES for Improved Exeuctive Functiong to have very helpful ideas to implement for the planning and organization aspects of executive functioning. You may want to post on the learning challenges board to get some suggestions from the wise ladies who post there.

Sorry that things have been rough! Hopefully it will be calmer for you till your appointment. That wait between realizing things are not going right and getting some guidance is very tough. Since you have a parent intake session first, she/he will probably give you a good idea of how to approach your son about the appointment. Lots of hugs!

Only have a minute as I have a meeting with ds's learning advisor this afternoon. The book was recommended to me by a friend. I had passed it by on the shelf many times, but since this friend and I are very similar in our approach with our boys I thought I better take a second look. I actually haven't watched any of her videos just have read the first part of the book and the first three essentials. I will have to watch them this evening. I guess I just love how she is really honoring each child's thinking process. I think essential one movement with attention is what I have strived to do with ds and what really has brought the most change. It sounds so simple to do and in many ways it is, but it also involves me staying mindful of how I am interacting with ds at all times to make sure I am promoting his own attention to his development rather then making things automatic and thereby reinforcing those patterns that need rewiring. More later....

I am fine with it being open to all ages. Ds is 9 and has had lots of therapy as well, but since her stuff is all about brain plasticity I don't think it should matter. I think in many ways I do many of the things she is suggesting, but know I could definately improve and be more intentional about how I set things up for ds. Look forward to hearing what you think of the first couple of chapters!

I just started reading this book and am really enjoying her ideas. Anyone interested in having a discussion about each of the nine essentials, and how you are putting them in place for your child?

Thanks laughing cat! I was posting from my phone, as I am right now, and clearly did something wrong. I really found that changing to using the clock instead of a timer very helpful. I see that Jill Kuzma just did a couple of blog posts about introducing time management to kids. A little more then what the OP was asking for, but thought some others may find it helpful. I would link them, but clearly that isn't a good idea!

For ds I have seen a connection between his problem solving and his emotional regulation. A child with poor problem solving is going to stay stuck in a frustrated state, they are unable to shift focus and dont have that flexibility pillar of EF skills to do so. Children with good problem solving abilities are able to look at a situation and identify the problem, the cause, come up with many solutions and weigh those options. That child's flexibility goes hand in hand with good emotional regulation. That isn't to say it is the only piece of the puzzle to a child's emotional regulation. As problem solving are indeed higher order thinking skills, it is often something that children with learning challenges are facing. I like raising a thinking child and rasing a thinking preteen because she takes all of the really quite complex skills of problem solving and breaks it down nicely.

I really both zones of regulation and mind up. Another good read is the whole brain child. I think there are lots of helpful strategies in that book. For us we generally dealt with more a gamut of emotions then angry outbursts but zones and mind up really helped for ds. Zones provides such a reliable framework for kids having trouble with emotional regulation. Also, just to approach it from another direction, how is he at overall problem solving? When children have difficulty with the higher order language and thinking skills of problem solving, you are bound to have outbursts. I like the ideas from raising a thinking preteen and also used lots of materials from linguisystems to develop ds's problem solving abilities.

Sara Ward of Cognitive Connections has excellent ideas for teaching sweep of time. There are a few powerpoints of her presentations online. I use to have them bookmarked, but can't seem to find them, hopefully a search will bring them up for you. Here is blog that talks about some of Sara Ward's time ideas http://abbypediatric...apsed-time.html I made my own tracnets that the posts talks about and have found it very useful. I am quite surprised at how well ds is doing with estimating time these days. It took us about a year of daily practice though.... I always pick two things for the day that we use with the tracnets. One of the first things i did was keep a big chart listing a whole bunch of our different routines on it and have ds do time estimates on each of them. Then over a course of a week we kept track of the actual time it took him to do those things. I had him logged the time he started and the time he ended so it was lots of telling time practice as well.

This blog by an SLP has good info and executive function treatment ideas. http://www.therapyandlearningservices.com/-blog.html Sara Ward of Cognitive Connections has excellent ideas for teaching sweep of time. Much better to make sure children have a good sense of sweep of time before you can go further with teaching how to manage time. I have read a few of her PowerPoint presentations that I found online. I don't have the links here on the iPad, I will try and post them later. You can also try searching on Pintest for executive functioning. Here is another blog that talks about some of Sara Ward's time ideas http://abbypediatricot.blogspot.ca/2013/03/teaching-elapsed-time.html One strategy that was a helpful here was keeping a big chart listing a whole bunch of our different routines on it and have ds do time estimates on each of them. Then over a course of a week we kept track of the actual time it took him to do those things.

Mostly just wanted to add some hugs. Feeding challenges are so hard to deal with and just compound anything else going on. Not fun! Is it possible to get her referred to a feeding clinic? It really sounds like she could benefit from having a few specialists come together and workout a plan for her. I know they can be hard to get into though. I dont think my son's texture and feeding troubles really compare to what you are going through, but thought i would mention the SOS feeding approach. It use some of the ideas that are discussed above but also involves some other ideas. It was life changing for my son. He went from eating approximately 15 food choices, to eating most things I put in front of him. We went through an OT for that. I also found the Just Take a Bite book mentioned earlier very helpful.

When starting the program the first goal is just to build up his emotional literacy. So learning what the zones are and starting to recognize when he is in the zones. The tools for transitioning come later. And your right that they use a sensory component with those tools to bring him back. Right now I would just be focused on getting him to be aware what zone he is in and that it isn't permanent, they change all the time. That awareness does a lot to change and move towards better regulation. So right now it is lots of identifying both of himself, and doing as Lecka suggests, identifying characters in books and tv. Also constantly pointing out how looks like you were in the ______________ zone but doing _________________ seemed to help put you back in the green zone. You can have a chart that he checks in with several times a days as to where he his in his zones. For us building ds's awareness of his own emotions probably had the biggest impact. Ds use to really get stuck in the fact that he was upset, and overwhelmed by that upset so he would stay stuck that way. When he was around your little guys age, prior to zones coming out, we used a strategy our psych gave us that really helped ds. We would draw a large sad or angry face depending on what we were dealing with and say right now you are a really big sad, but those feelings will shrink as feelings always do and soon you will be just a little sad, to which we would draw a smaller sad face with less tears etc, and then finally those feeling will shrink again and you will be all calm and we would draw a happy face. I know it seems rather simplistic, but the difference for ds was huge. It seemed strange the first couple of times and I did it. I thought it would never do any good, but it had a big impact on the length of severity of his meltdowns. The best thing was I could use it anywhere we were, I even remember using the back of a grocery receipt when we were out in the mall one day.

Just marking. Will be back later this afternoon with some thoughts.

S: Black bean and butternut squash enchiladas M: Rigatoni with a butternut squash sauce and a spinach salad T&W: Turkey burritos should make enough for leftovers the next night when we need to be out of the house by 5. T: Veggie korma with lime cilantro cauliflower rice F: probably some sort of soup using up the bits of leftover veggies in the fridge S: Homemade pizza S: Roasted chicken with ???? Breakfast is generally cottage cheese oat pancakes or I have an egg white omelette and steel cut oats with chia, flax, and some berries or applesauce mixed in. Lunch will be a combination of leftovers and some asparagus soup for days I don't have enough leftovers for all of us. Hope everyone has a great week with lots of yummy meals!

If she has been diagnosised with and MERLD then yes that certainly would cause problems with narrations. I would want to retest her with a SLP who specializes in language processing. The tests the SLP can give after they turn 6 become much more involved on the language processing side of things and can give you some more ideas as to what is going on. How does she do at sentence level for recalling and restating? Can she do that okay? I am not sure where she is exactly with her comprehension, but we had lots of success applying the strategies from the hyperlexia kit level 2 from linguisystems. Level 1 is just at word level and would be too basic for her, level two is short story level where you apply about 8 comprehension strategies for each story. It really helped me find out where ds was running into trouble and what strategies worked to give him the scaffolding he needed. Don't get hung up on the fact that it is labeled for children with autism. You will find lots of great language resources that will suit your needs that are targeted for autism, but really it is all language processing doesn't matter how you slice it.

An idea that you may find easy to work into your day for the memory piece is to play a game alongside doing a sit down activity. Our SLP use to always have ds answer a question or two and then take a turn at a game. Part of it was to break up the hard work he was doing, but it also worked on his memory and ability to shift focus. She would ask him whose turn it was, what happened on the last turn, etc. A great game for that is dont rock the boat can ask what piece was put on, where it was placed. For the following instructions piece I found the best thing was barrier games. Here is a link I case you haven't heard of them. http://www.playingwithwords365.com/2011/11/barrier-games-great-for-language-enrichment/

I forgot to add, your photograph idea made me think about making sure to have him tell you all the steps he does in his daily routine like brushing his teeth, washing hands, making a snack etc. You could also take pictures of those and make your own sequencing cards for stuff like that.

Your right that the input will all pay off! Using the first, next, last type language is helping him build and arrange an orgainized file cabinet for his language and all of that wonderful input. Having that reliable way to try and arrange his thoughts and access his language are what will help that output catch up.

Oh I had wanted to add that I do think your idea of reading books and giving him something to use to retell the story is the best way. When ds was younger I use to read a story book and have him think about props we could use to act it out with and then we would gather them up and act out the story. I still remember the first book we did that with, one of ds's favorites The Gruffalo.

I agree that it is a very age appropriate language skill. There are a couple of sequencing apps. I think speech with milo has a sequencing one. I am sure we have another, but ds has the iPad right now.... I had a couple thoughts about promoting sequencing. First off after he tells you a sequence with pictures, do you have him retell the story sequence to you without the aid of the pictures? If not I would have him do so. Also, I am sure you are already doing this but make sure you consistently model starting each picture sentence with the appropriate first, next, then, finally. If he is still doing good with telling the three and four part sequences I would look for some of the 6 step ones and try using just the first and last pictures with him and see if you can get him to fill in the steps without the pictures. We used a Evan Moor sequencing book like the one listed that was helpful. Also super duper has a fun deck on sequencing that goes with the hear builder CDs. You don't need the CD just the fun deck. Would probably be more engaging for him then the linguisystems cards. I do like the looks of that no glamour junior though, targets lots of language goals.

That's great! Sounds like a much better fit for you and your son. Just love when things workout like that.

Have you checked out the new Jamie Oliver cookbook? It is called Save with Jamie. Has great recipes for leftovers based on a big sunday meal with either pork, lamb, chicken and beef. I got it for Christmas so haven't tried many yet, but I am really enjoying the ones we have used.

Without all the information I can see why the trainer would say she doesn't think weights at his age are a good idea. My understanding from our pt is that a large amount of weight training for young kids is more about helping the child learn to recruit those muscles when need. I think the trainer has limited dealings with children and probably thinks your goal is different if you don't disclose the info. Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to tell the trainer as I would want the trainer to be able to use their knowledge and skills to provide and design the most effective program for my child and I think being informed of his dx is important for that. It could be I feel that way as the gym/facility I workout at had an adapted weights program as well as regular equipment and therefore the trainers were much more knowledgeable about SN. It is a unique facility though. Do these trainers just have training certifications and not kinesiology degree? Huge difference between the two! I would never go with someone who doesn't have a kinesiology degree.

Feeding issues are so hard to deal with. We were lucky that an OT using the SOS approach to feeding dramatically changed ds's feeding issues. I know you didn't want any advice, I mention it for anyone else reading that may find the information useful. It really was a huge difference for my ds. He went from eating about 10-15 items total (which really was more like 6 foods since many of his foods were really just different kinds of crackers) to eating most things I put in front of him. One product that was a big help nutritionally was ultra care for kids. It is a protein powder for kids that has vitamins in it and is made to be hypoallergenic. It is expensive though and I don't really know if it would be nutritionally helpful for an older child ds was 3-5 when we used it. Might be something to check into though. Hopefully you can find a workable solution for all of you.