I work one day a week and have a hired person who works for 7 hrs with 10 year old dd (PDD-NOS) and my 9 ds. Unfortunately, our last helper left a couple of weeks ago and dd was very attached to her because dd was controlling her. We found a new helper who is very good, but dd doesn't like her because she doesn't get her way. I'm trying to come up with ideas of things that they can choose from to do, and am trying to include part of a day as out trips. I want to increase the success because dd can be very defiant/oppositional. I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for activities to do with hired help that are more on the fun side, but don't require a lot of planning. I prefer not to leave someone with learning material that is not as enjoyable for dd or that the help will feel is out of their 'expertise' to 'teach' The one idea I have is for theme days with science challenges that take longer, or things like walk to the nearby park do a pond study, or go to the beach and learn about tidal life.

Here is a link to a good book on Developmental Coordination Disorder: http://dcd.canchild.ca/en/DCDFAQs/resources/dcdrevised.pdf I have a child with this diagnosis, but it seems to be a hard diagnosis to get. Everything I read about DCD really speaks to me about my child. People seem to give it the big brush off because they can walk, talk and don't look like they have a physical problem. Then there are the comments "lots of kids can't throw or catch a ball" Irony is that if DCD is present in about 5-6% of the population likely some of those children are undiagnosed DCD.

DH has been searching for a job for a few months. He works in Technology which is a volatile industry and this his fifth job change in a decade (some due to company closures, buyouts etc) I currently work 2 days a week and might add a third day. My work hours are roughly 8:30-3:30 (in a school) I also have a consulting business that has been sadly neglected due to lack of time; although I am ramping this up as it has a lot more flexibility in terms of work hours. Although dh makes decent money, I feel the need to have more reliable income. We are currently homeschooling 2 of our 3 children with the oldest in PS by choice. We have some funding to hire some help as one of our homeschoolers has Aspergers funding. I'm interested if people have any good suggestions for balancing household tasks between dh and I. I usually cook most of the meals and he does the dishes. Saturday he was washing dishes from the previous 4 days. We are often digging out in this manner. He likes to swim (although he hasn't been for a couple of months) but also enjoys listening to music videos, reading internet, reading books and playing a few video games. Needless to say job searching, child pickup and drop offs also take time. I'm looking for ways to help schedule household tasks so we can stay on top of it and end the digging out. I'm also planning to get the hired help to spend some of the time helping the kids keep their room tidy and do chores. They are happy to do stuff to earn some iPad or Khan Academy time.

Also dh and I are not the most organized 'planner' type of people. I feel like we need some systems or something to get on top of this. I tried flylady years ago, but couldn't deal with the email volume which just created more work.

We are a busy family with 3 kids, (1 PDD-NOS, 1 DCD/SPD). For a while we have struggled to get and stay on top of household tasks. Our house looks like a bomb blew up all the time. Loads of laundry get done but never get put away, clothes end up on the floor and back in the laundry without getting worn. This summer I put the kids in day camps to try to dig out. Unfortunately they belong to a summer swim team and with 2 pools closed this summer, the practises and commutes to pools further away has been eating 3-5 hours every afternoon, so I am using camp time to try to cook healthy food that can be eaten in the car. Our PDD-NOS child doesn't deal with lost sleep, hunger, changes in routine. She is high functioning but is a tornado. We desperately need to get our children involved in helping out around our house and getting to tasks. We have lots of important things that we never get to. Any help suggestions on how to schedule, get a handle on all this.

10 year old, DCD, SPD, strabismus, possible Aspergers 8.5 yr old, PDD-NOS (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) 7 yr old likely gifted

My 8.5 yr old was just diagnosed with PDD-NOS. 10 yr old has DCD, SPD, possibly Aspergers. and a 7 yr old. They are currently 7, 8.5 and 10 We have been through a few daunting weeks trying to get paperwork to get government funding. At the same time dh had several rounds of interviews with a company before and after work. I am exhausted Our PDD-NOS child is very high energy, needs to move, sensory seeking, gets into everything, obsessed with taking things apart, playing with water. She doesn't know how to deal with being bored, or occupy herself. We have a couple of rooms in the house that are locked, but there is no way we can keep up with her. Some key things we would like to work on is teaching her to occupy herself/do constructive things independently. Also car trips can all too frequently be downright awful. Sometimes they are fine, but there are many times where she is creating havoc, bugging her siblings. Tonight, in my very tired state I stopped the car very suddenly because I couldn't it take anymore. The poor fellow who had been travelling a bit behind me almost hit me because he didn't realize I had stopped. At any rate we need to get a lot more expected behaviour in the car and get rid of the unexpected behaviour. (We have been working on Social Thinking and the idea of expected and unexpected behaviour) Just wondering if anyone else has similar issues? And strategies that have worked to improve this? On long car trips we used a dvd player. We have a trip to a city 3 hrs away coming up and I am dreading it. Sorry if this is a bit rambly, but I'm exhausted. We are struggling to get our heads above water. We are up late, up early, our house in shambles and there are many things that we are not getting to.

What is TT3? Does your child have auditory processing issues? Maybe something like FastForWord or Earobics would help

Does anyone know about the TEACCH program? and if the training is useful for a parent to implement with their children (one PDD-NOS, one maybe Aspergers, one bright/gifted) I have heard about this program but don't know much about it. We are on the West Coast so we are not in area where there is TEACCH

I have 3 kids close in age although they are now 10, 8.5 and 7. I can relate to the living out of a hotel as we did 4 long distance moves and twice we lived out of temporary housing. Both times I found it most helpful to do a lot of trips to the park, library etc. We are hoping to move soon, although just to the other side of our city which will be more central. I would like a house that could have a separate homeschool room that could be locked. I'm thinking I would like a table, maybe a round one that we could all work at or play games and some individual desks. I'm not sure what kind of adjustable desks you are talking about but when my kids were younger we had adjustable stokke chairs (1 stokke, 2 copies) that could fit at the regular table. One of the reasons I would like a separate room for homeschooling, game playing etc is my 8 yr old with PDD-NOS is very active, on the move, gets into everything, takes apart everything and is always hungry. We could have a full time cook and a full time housekeeper and/or 1-to-1 for her and we wouldn't be able to keep up. When my kids were younger like yours I found that we didn't spend a lot of time at the table, but tended to do activities on the floor.

I have heard from several OTs that they are not allowed to diagnose SPD or DCD. However they can explain in a report summary that the findings are "consistent with" or "indicative of" or something along those lines. Then it is usually easier to get a pediatrician to diagnose.

sorry an SEA is short for Special Education Assistant. I don't have specific goals, but executive functioning would be one area that we need to work on. The Unstuck on Target looks good. Role playing would also be helpful. I usually work on math, reading, writing and things in the morning. The aide is currently coming for few hours twice a week after lunch.

I have an 8 yr old with high functioning autism and a 10 yr old Asperish and a 7 yr old. Our homelearning program has funds for an SEA. She is doing Superflex and Zany Worlds, but I need ideas for her to do with them. I would like to find some stuff that works well with the group or 2 hrs with all 3 and 1 hr with the 8 yr old. We aren't able to keep up with anything as our 8yr old is always on the go, gets into everything, takes everything apart. So I'm trying to get what little breaks I can without having to spend too much time planning for SEA.

I haven't tried yoga yet, but sometimes I wonder if she knows how to relax. Bedtime is a hellacious adventure most nights. I did hear a woman once say that people with ASD are in stress mode all the time. We have found that more activities does seem to help her. Someone once suggested we should put her in some kind of sport or movement thing every afternoon or evening. It's hard to line up and I still have to cook for everyone. Dh doesn't get home until 6:30 sometimes 7.

We have an 8 yr old who for the most part doesn't seem to know how to occupy herself. She is a 'tornado' child, has lots of energy, gets into everything, leaves a tornado mess everywhere, and has no executive functioning. It seems that lots of activities suit her better. Sat she has swim practise, a 3 hr dance/theatre/singing class and then synchro swim. She has one day with animation class followed by art, next day a 1.5 hr home learner trampoline, 30 min break then 1.5 hrs of gymnastics. Anyone else have a child that seems to need constant activities? I always hear about how many kids need more down time, but wonder if she just needs lots and lots of up time.