I did read this article.... and WOW! I didn't have quite the experiences in school that he did, but the part about articulating feelings on external issues and deeper emotions really hit home. Thank you so much.

Hello all.... I'm really more of a lurker, but this question has been mulling around in my head for far too long to remain unasked. Do you think it's possible to be an adult with undiagnosed but high-functioning Asperger's with SPD? I've been reading everything I can get my hands on over the past few years (just found this board about 3 months ago) to find out what is going on with my daughter and how to help/mediate issues. I started out when she was 3 with Raising Your Spirited Child, which seemed to help issues until schooling began. Then I read about dyslexia first because of her major struggles in reading, The Mislabled Child, The Out-of-Sync Child, etc. The more I read, the more I see my own childhood in a new light. Let me give some background so I can be confidant in your answers..... My mother always said that until I was about 3 she thought I was "brain-damaged" (her words, not mine): didn't sit, crawl, talk, walk anywhere near the 'normal' range, just cried no matter what was happening or who I was with. Then by 3 1/2 I was asking her at church suppers, "Where do I put my utensils?" I read before K (reading Isaac Asimov/Agatha Christie, etc and explaining my older sister's school lit to her by 5th grade), can write with both hands - backwards and forwards (took mirror image notes in boring classes in high school), was obsessed with dogs (memorized just about every breed standard, subscribed to dog magazines although never had a dog), extremely picky eater (food couldn't touch, nothing spicy, very easily gagged and still can't swallow pills at over 30 yrs old!), can't stand light touch but love, almost need, deep pressure massages, can't tolerate hair in my face, things around my neck, scratchy things, breathing warm air, very high tolerance for pain (would pull out my own hair by the root in class/natural childbirth was no big deal), the list goes on and on. My parents were really great in working with me on things such as buying me divided plates, jeans that snap instead of button, not making an issue of using training wheels past 3rd grade, allowing me to spend hours watching how the piano levers worked, talking with teachers about school menus, etc so I was extremely blessed to have them. Many of these things still bother me as an adult, but I have more control over my surroundings, food, smells in the house, etc. I severly dislike large parties where there is loud music, lots of people, etc. If there are more than 3 or so people talking I never know when to add to the conversation, and when I actually do jump in it's usually 2 or 3 topics back because it took me that long to find an entrance point. My husband is always telling me that people have gotten offended or upset by things I said because the tone, timing, whatever was wrong and I am clueless about the whole thing. I can't tell how my voice is supposed to sound. I don't even try to tell jokes and normally just keep quiet around people that I don't know well so it is really hard to even get to know someone well enough to feel comfortable talking (vicious cycle that one is!). My dh and I were talking about this just the other day after going to a company function and I said I never know what to say to his friends beacause whatever I do say comes out wrong and I just feel stupid. (Just noticed this one... don't use smilies much 'cause it takes too long to figure out which one fits with what I'm saying/meaning.) His response, "And I don't understand that because you are one of the most brilliant thinkers and minds I know". I'm very much a perfectionist and often won't even try something if I think there's a chance I might fail because failure is not an option. I even layed awake last night formulating and phrasing this question in my mind so I could type it in "right"!!! These types of things have been major hurdles in our marriage that we're still working through after 10 yrs! I've spent a fair portion of the last 15 yrs wondering what is wrong with me... why does it seem so easy for others to talk, make friends, etc? I am only now trying to get evaluations for my daughter because I always compared her reactions to my own as a child and they didn't seem too different.... therefore it was a discipline/personality thing instead of a diagnosable thing.... does that make sense? Does any of this make sense? Am I totally blowing everything out of proportion? I guess I just want a reason why most everything just seems so hard and exhausting when dealing with people! Looking forward to seeing responses... and thanks in advance for all of them!

If you go to their website www.allaboutspelling.com they have info about using it to remediate older students with it and a simple quiz to determine what level to start with. They do their lists differently than others so the levels are not graded, but go with spelling patterns. I can tell you that words such as "clamshell" and "desktop" are included in Level One. The site also says that Level Four should be out sometime later this year. You do have to do it with them, but so far we have only spent about 10 min at most on any lesson. Granted we are just about to start using the letter tiles so it may start to take a little longer. What takes the most time so far is cutting out all the letter tiles and cards to put in her personal spelling box!! I guess I should update my sig line so it shows we're using this... :blushing: Good luck!

:iagree: All About Spelling & Headsprout, definately! We have just started AAS and I have already seen improvement in her reading simply because we are working on all the sounds the letters can make. She's not getting stuck trying to fit one sound in a word. Also, we tried OPGTR with ETC, ABEKA little books, Phonics Pathways, R & S... but nothing seemed to work and she hated our phonics sessions until we tried Headsprout. We're working on getting her tested for LDs but these 2 have really, really helped more than anything else.

My ds sounds a lot like yours.... he loves listening to the tales of the Arabian Knights, early chapter books like Henry & Mudge, and tales of knights and dragons yet is only 3 1/2 yrs old. He also knows his letter, sounds, and a few words but isn't ready to do workbooks yet. We found Headsprout, an online based phonics instruction that works very well for us. It uses space aliens, dinosaurs, forest creatures, etc to engage and teach phonograms, sounding out strategies, even working in concepts such as plurals and subject verb agreement all very easily and in a fun, almost gamelike manner. When I tell him he can pick a computer game to play, he often choses Headsprout over any other game we have! You can take the first 3 lessons for free at www.headsprout.com. Hope that helps.

:DThanks for all the help guys!!! I learn so much by reading all the posts I can, but gee... asking for help works so much better!

Your description sounds a lot like my friend's ds 7... same inapproprate comments, meltdowns, refusing to get out of the car, etc. He was just recently Dx with auditory processing disorder. The way he processes things said to him/he wants to say isn't function right and so he gets misunderstood, misunderstands very frequently and doesn't know how to deal with all the confusion so starts to meltdown. Just my two cents... We're working on getting help for our dd as well, starting with dyslexia but I really suspect SPD is in there too, but there are no developmental peds in our area at all that I can find so we're starting with Scottish Rite.

I did the questionnaire and they did suggest level B, but the questions didn't seem to fit her problems... KNIM? I also left a msg on their board and haven't heard back... thought someone might be on summer vacation. I got such great advice from you guys before I wanted to see what ya'll thought. This is such a GREAT board!

Well... that's kind of a long story. When I pulled her out of ps after 3 months of K we started with Saxon K and she absolutely loved it. Math was her favorite subject with all the manipulatives and games. We kept with Saxon 1 when we started 1st grade work and it suddenly became too hard and frustrating. Even with all the counting every day she still can't find numbers on a number chart, tell me what number comes before or after another one, even recognize most numbers individually if they're over 14 or so. So we switched to Singapore and started at the beginning of 1A to hopefully lay the foundation better. It still didn't help - takes over 20 min to find most ways to make 8 (and misses some), can't count on from a number (has to start at 1 every time), etc. We camped out on the games for number bonds for a week and she still has trouble with the part/whole concept. I moved on just to give her some sense of accomplishment even though the understanding wasn't there. But for addition within 10, she came to me several times not understanding that if there were 2 balls with an empty box under them she needed to write a 2 in the box!! Math is no longer fun for her... just confusing and frustrating and I'm ready to pull my hair completely out!:banghead: She's completely missing the concept of numbers and how they work. That's why I'm contemplating level A of RS. Does that make sense? She also just turned 7 a few weeks ago before I joined the boards so I guess I should have put her as 6 in sig since that's the age she was for this past school year. :o

So.... after looking at all the great suggestions I received earlier on this board I decided to go with Right Start math. Now I need suggestions from those familiar with it as to which level, A or B? I know the site recommends A for K (we're finishing up 1st grade), but my dd struggles so much now I don't want to push her too fast like the other programs did. Do you think it would be so easy we would fly through and need to purchase B the same year anyway? Would B frustrate her by the pace since she still has trouble just recognizing numbers, order, which is greater/less than, etc? Any suggestions, please! :confused:

My dd just turned 7 and also struggles with sounding out words and then remembering what she has just sounded out when she reaches the same word again. We started using Headsprout about 3 months ago and the improvement has been amazing. She actually asks to do lessons and they only take 12-25 minutes each. It's mostly online, but they do send a few readers in the mail and there are plenty to print out once certain lessons are completed. We love it! :D

I have the K-3 vol. 1 of Artistic Pursuits and it is not consumable. The book gives you the lesson and what materials you need and then all work is done on a separate sheet. When we can actually get to it, my dd loves it. I hope that helps.

Maybe I should clarify... we didn't cut out all the 'fun'. We have a great HS support group that meets once a week that includes show & tell, Presidential fitness, field trips, beach days, crafts, etc. She's in a homeschool gymnastics class at a local gym and we try to find fascinating books to read together from the library at least once a week as well. I was just talking about the day to day history study, science and such. We cut out our "formal" science study in favor of finding animals in the backyard, making roly poly/cricket habitats, and going to the beach and looking for shells, crabs, etc. and then talking about them. I consider those the 'fun' subjects because my major included art history and chemistry in college...:blush:.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my question. I have looked at MUS before and wondered if we should try it and will certainly check out the others that were mentioned. We're in the process of trying to get some testing done because of all the problems she's having with reading as well as some other issues. I just know we need to get the numbers straight in her head before we go on to the other 'fun' subjects. We've only made it halfway through our history & grammer stuff because we're still struggling with reading and math so much. This is such a great group and I really appreciate all the help I've received from simply reading others' questions and replies. We'll certainly be hanging around more! Mom to - dd 7: SOTW 1, Singapore 1A, FLL, Headsprout, R&S reading, HWT ds 3: Singapore Earlybird, Headsprout, HWT (so he can be like dd :D)

DH is an active duty marine so he's sometimes gone before light, sometimes still home at 9 am. Sometimes he's home before lunch, sometimes he's gone for 6 months. We never really know till that day so we take things as they come and do most of our school while he's gone for long stretches. When he comes home on leave, we normally take at least 2 weeks off to celebrate daddy being home and supplement with computer learning games so we don't lose anything we've worked on, but dd was only in 1st grade so this approach works pretty well for us. We go year round trying to make the learning as much a part of everyday life as possible. Mom to: dd 7: SOTW 1, Singapore 1A, FLL, R&S Reading, Headsprout, HWT ds 3: Singapore Earlybird, Headsprout, HWT (so he can be like dd)

Hello all... I just recently joined the boards and was wondering if someone could help me find a math program that could help my struggling dd 7. We started with Saxon K and 1, then switched to Singapore 1A the middle of this year when I found she still wasn't understanding most of it. She still has trouble recognizing numbers past 13, knowing which is greater or smaller up to 100, even basic addition up to 10. Finding a number on the 100 chart without counting from 1 is pretty much impossible even after working on it for 2 weeks solid. We're both really frustrated and she hides when I even mention math. We tried taking a break from 'math books' and worked with counting, weighted numbers on our balance, computer games and such but nothing seems to be helping. Any suggestions???

Hello... I just joined the boards today and saw your post while browsing. We live down near Swansboro and the air has been clear all day today. I didn't even know there were fires in the area since I haven't turned on the news in a few days. Hope this helps your travel plans.