Ok, this is helpful, thanks. So he seems to be good on his fine motor skills, lots of Legos, play dough, etc. He does well with coloring books/ kumon type stuff. We have the HWT pre-k book and he will do it in spurts, one day begging to do several pages and no interest on others. I guess my concern is that he wants to be able to write/draw apart from the workbooks but he's completely overwhelmed and frustrated by it, and strong-willed kid that he is, doesn't accept much guidance from me. He has no desire to try to practice the skills he needs, he just wants to get it all out on paper, now, without the tracing, pre-requisite stuff. The drawing time is actually with my oldest but 4 YO always wants to join in and ends up very frustrated. So, like you said, I think his issue is going to be pulling it altogether and getting things on paper. I definitely have no desire to push or work on things he's not ready for. I just didn't know if there was a specific way of approaching writing for kids with these issues before we've hit the point of him feeling like he can't write well, etc. He definitely has some sensory stuff going on that we try to tackle at home, our local OT isn't great for sensory. My 6 YO begins RDI and MNRI on Monday so I could just go ahead and do the reflex integration exercises with both of the boys if that might play into things.

I've been taking a very laid back approach with my 4 year old (he'll be 5 in a couple of months). Though my signature lists some curriculum for him, in reality we've done "school" maybe 3 times this year. He's extremely bright, loves to be read to, absorbs letters and sounds, numbers etc. by osmosis it seems, so I haven't bothered with much formal work. I'm concerned because we do drawing a few times of week, often following simple drawing books from the library that give you lines and shapes step by step. He can't seem to follow the simple steps and becomes extremely frustrated trying to do so. He writes with his left and right hand intecangeably with incorrect grip though I've tried coaching him on that. He knows the letters of his name but without my direction he is likely to write them upside down, flipped, even going vertically up the page rather than left to right across. When he draws on his own (which he does ver often) it's mostly scribbles and just coloring the page, not many lines/shapes. I know that we're going to need to do some evaluations to sort it all out. We will do them privately as our school system testing is a joke (attempted to do it with 6 YO years ago). Is it worth it to shell out the money for private evaluations at 4 years old or we'll we be able to find out more when he is a bit older. I just don't want to waste the time and money if we are likely to get the wait and see run around at this age but I also want to get ds the help he needs as soon as possible.

She didn't give a lot of practical suggestions beyond the reading aloud and recommending "brain training" programs in general. She did mention playing concentration games or card games that require attention and working memory. She really didn't give much info on the FF program either, other than to say it's like a video game with exercises targeting the different processing regions of the brain. Her argument for brain training being useful was that the exercises target all of these different processings areas, which in turn increase attention. she talked briefly on distinguishing between a language processing disorder vs an auditory processing disorder by saying that the language disorder is more pervasive and affecting vocabulary, reading, comprehension, etc while a child with auditory processing issues are able to compensate in a lot of areas and usually just struggle with tuning out or comprehension. I think she recommended the FF type program for either issue though (I had kids running in at that point so may have missed some details here). There was no discussion of meds at all. It seemed to mainly be an intro to understanding the latest neuroscience and how it can contribute to learning disabilities, without going into the solutions with any real depth. It was really interesting for me just because our ASD diagnosis is still fairly recent so I've been researching and tackling that but I'm just now starting to branch out and figure out some of the processing issues that go along with it.

I really enjoyed the webinar. A lot of it was new to me, but I haven't done much research into auditory processing yet because I only suspect that we're dealing with it along with comprehension issues. Anyway, she started off pretty heavy with the neuroscience behind language and auditory processing disorders. She showed the main sensory areas of the brain and how they all must mature so that an infant can build language, processing abilities and integrate information. These perceptual systems get mapped over time and build upon each other. If even one of these areas is weak it affects the development of others and so that is why you see these processing disorders along with adhd, ASD, etc. She talked about how the brain's regions are connected, how using a region strengthens it, brain plasticity, etc and because of this they can be strengthened. Attention, working memory, auditory processing, language processing and sequencing skills are most effectively strengthened when you work on all of these processing systems together from the ground up through training exercises such as Fast Forward. Practical suggestions for working on this at home included reading aloud and asking questions so that the child has to engage, playing games that target skills of attention, working memory, etc and making a daily habit to require the child to attend for a set of amount of time each day either to a conversation, book, etc. Hope this helps for those who couldn't listen. I'm looking forward to hearing what others got out of this as well!

This looks great! Thanks for sharing!

Another vote for LeapFrog Letter Factory. We also used a Melissa and Doug alphabet train puzzle and went over sounds as we put it together.

Dropped most of the AO year 1 books for SOTW, library books for science, and ELTL. Dropped PAL reading and went back to progressive phonics.

Agreeing with Lecka and kbutton. I can see both sides of this and overall agree that it's great that Sesame Street is increasing awareness and acceptance in any form. We're in a middle of the road place where we can readily identify with the "Sheldon" type and the more classical stereotype of autism, I've experienced what Lecka is saying about people wondering if your child should even participate in activities because of his refusal to speak during them (despite the fact that he talks brilliantly about it later at home). We've had new doctors that know our diagnosis but not our child and they speak to him for the first time as if he couldn't comprehend anything they said, even in baby voices. Anything that will increase knowledge on interacting with kids on the spectrum has to help ALL of our amazing kids in the long run.

I loved Uniquely Human, I have my husband and my mom reading it now. It provided more understanding than any other single resource I've come across yet. I'm finishing up NeuroTribes The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman right now. It has been a fascinating history of autism and how we've come to where we are today in the research and the therapies available. It's been very helpful to me as we figure out which therapies to pursue.

Yarn and books are my weakness.

Kbutton, oh goodness we have had the exact same reenactment at our house after ds watched tree cutters at my mom's house, complete with boxers over his pants to be his harness and yarn tied in a loop around his shoes with the ends dangling down to be the spikes. He kept begging me to get the tent stakes out of our garage to attach to his shoes. You're so right about something that makes them so happy despite the frustrations. I'm glad that we have the freedom to let them grow and learn this way! Ds has a big costume/ dress up collection and is constantly recreating characters and career uniforms with them. We were just looking through old pictures last week and found pictures when he was less than 2 imitating weed eating with his dad's shoes and hat and a ball popper push toy turned sideways, lol.

Six weeks in and hits are: Singapore math HWT Progressive Phonics CHOW BF early American history books (following our own plan with these) AO literature, natural sciences, geography and Bible plan Nature Journals Misses: PAL reading...the boys enjoyed the games but the lessons/ busy work dragged on far too long and we went back to simple progressive phonics books

Yes, I strongly suspect an autoimmune disorder. I just need to find a doctor/specialist that is willing to take my concerns seriously.

Thank you, the naturopath was what I was leaning toward just based on what is available in our area and the feel I get from thewebsite. It also seems more affordable despite the fact that our insurance won't cover anything.

Thanks for all of your responses. Looks like we will go ahead and get some testing done despite the costs. There are just so many things that could be at play and I'm tired of taking shots in the dark with this. We do have a functional medicine doctor with a nutritionist on staff that meets with each patient so I guess we'll start there. OhElizabeth, I definitely think he's not digesting properly, rebuilding with fruit sounds interesting, especially since fruits are one of the few healthy things he will eat most of the time. I will look into that. Wapiti, I'm right there with you on all of the time and guesswork! It's exhausting. Good to know that the super restrictive diets weren't the ticket for your family. I dread having to do a restrictive diet since food is already so difficult.

Thanks, Cricket. Apparently all of his bloodwork was in the normal range and our doctor isn't concerned so back to square one with figuring out what's going on!

Does anyone have experience with functional medicine, chiropractors, naturopaths etc? My son with ASD also has a combination of physical symptoms that our regular pediatrician seems to brush aside as part of his autism or just not of concern. I'm thinking that we're dealing with some underlying medical issues. Our local options that practice more integrative medicine do not accept insurance so it will be a financial stretch for us to pursue this route. Has anyone here used these types of practitioners with any success? Symptoms we're dealing with (I may delete this portion later for privacy, please do not quote) include constant body temperature ranging from 99.9 to 100.5, dark eye circles, insomnia/unrestful sleep, chronic ear infections (though these have stopped since using probiotics for past 9 months), picky diet, fatigue. We've done a year of strict gluten free, we did a few months casein free, neither of which had dramatic results in the above. We're currently supplementing with multivitamin, dha, probiotics and melatonin, about to start magnesium. Basic bloodwork at our regular pediatrician did not raise any red flags. What am I missing here?

Cricket, absolutely read and glean whatever you can! I was only sharing a general overview of what it covered because I'm fairly certain it is similar to the book Crimson had mentioned reading already. Interestingly enough, I pushed our peds for some blood work yesterday due to what I saw as symptoms unrelated to ds' ASD but it looks like we might be dealing with hyperthyroidism, so maybe that is why the hypothyroidism info wasn't clicking with me. Either way, it never hurts to keep reading more as we try to sort out any little thing that might help our kids! Crimson, my note on head tilting exercises simply says lift and drop head 6 sets of 8 counts....maybe cricket can elaborate when she reaches that point in the book because I'm not remembering clearly the point of that one.

Ok, just pulled out my notes from this book to refresh my memory. Here are some of her recommendations: Heavy metal hair test from Doctor's Data website to test for heavy metals Avoid vaccinations- she blames heavy metal toxins on them Avoid fluoride Have your home inspected for mold and hidden toxins Diet heavy in bone broth, unrefined salt, magnesium citramate or glycinate and zinc, all organic diet Use a naturopath or functional medicine doctor Supplement super doses of vitamin d3 Elimate use of all plastics and Teflon, use stainless steel and glass Cranioscacral therapy Aquatic therapy, swimming, Taekwondo, head tilting exercises Covd vision Allergy testing and treatment Neurodevelopmemtal movement therapy No microwaves for reheating food There is a lengthy section on recovering gut dysbiosis, gfcf, probiotics Avoid common meds such as Benadryl, cortisone, Tylenol etc Clean with all natural homemade products No SLS or fragrance in body products Magnetic clay detox Hopefully this helps to see the gist of the book...I do have more of the same type homeopathic suggestions written in my notes from the book. I agree with what you all are saying as far as some of these lifestyle changes may improve daily life/functioning but for many of us they are not the root cause.

I read the book last year, it is a kitchen sink approach of diet, supplementation, chelation, etc. I don't think there is anything in the book that you can't find throughout the Internet. I found the book to be very repetitive and not very helpful honestly. I read it when my son only had a SPD label, although we know now he is autistic.

I put Smarties and Nerds in my boys' pencil boxes along with new supplies on the first day of school. We do first day of school pictures as well.

Also, as far as the immediate changes we've made: I've gone to local workshops to find out about services and resources in our area. I'm taking my time researching our options rather than jumping into every therapy on the market (ds has been diagnosed with ASD). I'm reading a ton and I've taken the pressure off of myself to solve all of our challenges overnight. I think the biggest impact has been on my husband and extended family finally "getting" what I've been trying to communicate for some time now. They've all been very supportive of his needs and my ds has visibly relaxed in his relationships with extended family.

This is almost exactly like my experience receiving the official report. I knew all along and did not have a big reaction the day of, I just felt confirmation of what I already thought to be true. A few days later I just felt a suffocating finality about the situation and had a panic attack during a trip to the roller skating rink. I guess even though I knew, I always wanted to believe it was just a phase we would grow out of. Anyway, it took about 6 weeks between our testing and finally receiving our report so during that in between time I was reading resources, researching various therapies available in our area and realizing that all of the challenges we had been facing made perfect sense from this new framework. I think it helped to soften the blow when our diagnosis became "official."

Scolding and being firmer will not be effective. Learning new habits and how to stop certain behaviors can be very challenging and time intensive for someone on the Spectrum. As difficult as it is for your son, this may be a situation where you need to just get through it. My son is on the spectrum and while it is necessary to alter some of his behaviors it takes far more time, patience and effort than what we could accomplish in a 2 week period. The repetitive singing could be a source of comfort for him. Interrupting is also very common for people on the spectrum and a very difficult habit to break. Trying to understand the behaviors and simply empathize with the challenges this young man and his family face on a daily basis can go a long way in renewing your patience. Hopefully others will have more concrete strategies for you over the next two weeks so you can enjoy your time!

Mine was denied twice as well. My husband called customer service today and they validated it so definitely call if you have been denied.