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***I contacted the moderators of these forums several weeks ago, asking if it was okay to post this information here, but I haven't heard anything back. So I'm going to post this anyway, and they can delete it if it violates any forum rules.*** I received this email from a local autism support network. The author is doing a doctoral study on the effects of autism spectrum disorders on families; you must have a child between the ages of 3 and 17 who has an ASD and a neurotypical child between the ages of 11 and 17. The study consists simply of completing an online questionnaire and then having your NT child complete a similar questionnaire. I have taken the survey, along with one of my NT kids, and it took less than 30 minutes each. In addition to helping increase understanding of the effects of autism, the questionnaire gave me a lot of insight into areas in which our family is affected by it. I do not have any connection, personal or financial, with the researcher, his university, or this study, and I do not profit in any way if anyone participates. As the mom of a child with Asperger's, I just want to help increase understanding. Please consider participating. Thanks. P.S. I don't post much, but I am a legitimate member of the WTM forums, not someone who joined just to post this.

I was able to look at a copy of it briefly. It says it's an executive function curriculum, and its primary focus seems to be on increasing flexibility in thinking. Does it address any other executive functions? If you've used it, do you feel that it was effective? Thanks. :-)

This stood out to me. I understand so much of what you posted. I look back at all the years and the hard work and ask myself why things turned out the way they did. Wasn't homeschooling supposed to be different? Isn't the homeschooling world full of examples of how it IS different? I get that no mom / teacher is perfect, I get that children have free will and get to make choices. But when you've been committed and you've put in a good-faith effort, and the results take the form of your child thumbing your nose at you and your values ... well, at best it feels like rejection, and at worst it feels like failure. I think sometimes we subconsciously (or maybe not) assume that there's a guarantee in this homeschooling thing. If you are willing to make the sacrifice to homeschool, and if by all appearances it's the right thing for your child, and if you give it your best ... voila! -- you end up with a poster child for homeschooling! And if you don't ... well, there's no advice for that, because if anyone else is in your shoes, she's not admitting it. But thank you for being so honest so that I could, too.

Thank you. This says it perfectly. We have observed Passover for several years, and it is a deeply moving experience to see how the Passover foreshadows Christ. We don't do it because we're trying to "follow the Law" or score any points with God. We do it freely and willingly because it is such a beautiful way to experience His redemptive plan. It is as meaningful and celebratory for us as observing Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. There is nothing legalistic about it, and I believe that God is glorified in it.

Oh, heavens, I hope not. I'm familiar with all of that but couldn't remember her name. I'm definitely not interested in a program that has any connection with that. Will have to do a little digging to find out.

Yesterday I had ds take their free online learning assessment, and I was really impressed with the feedback from it. If they work to address a student's individual learning profile, that's great. Their programs are pricey, though. Anyway, I'm just curious if anyone has any experience with them. Ds will be a sophomore next year -- not only do I think he could benefit from having someone else be his teacher, but I think the online option would suit him well.

We got ds' neuropsych results earlier this month. The neuropsych spent some time going over the results with us, and I pretty much understand what ds' strengths and weaknesses are. But I'm wondering if there are any online resources, maybe a forum, for getting more specific -- "If he scored high in this area and low in that area, what are the implications of that particular combination?" -- that kind of thing. I'm trying to take his test results and translate them into practical educational choices.

My son has epilepsy, in addition to Asperger's and ADHD, so I've got a bit of experience with seizures. Could sleep studies miss seizures? Sure. There is something called "subclinical seizure activity" that occurs under the radar, so to speak. An EEG could miss it, too. I don't think it's highly likely, but it can happen. My son had a perfectly normal EEG after he was weaned off his seizure meds this past year. He'd been seizure-free while on meds for years, and the doctor felt that it was a good idea to do a trial withdrawal. So ds was gradually weaned off his meds, and he then had a normal EEG. Then three months later, he had a major seizure -- and he's back on meds now. Why didn't the EEG give any indication that there was still a problem? Because an EEG is simply a snapshot -- it shows what's going on in the brain during one window of time. And if there's underlying seizure activity that is infrequent, an EEG might not catch it. I'm assuming that since your ds has had EEGs, he's seen a neurologist. Has there been any diagnosis? You also sound very sure that your ds isn't on the autism spectrum. Are you sure? My son has some of the same behaviors as yours, and I've been so frustrated because he just doesn't fit neatly into one category. Plus, his different issues overlap. One doctor thought that his attention issues were really secondary to his Asperger's; another doctor felt that while his irritability and aggressiveness (especially verbal aggressiveness) could be due to childhood bipolar, it was more likely that they're due to the frustration and anger that stem from his Asperger's. I went from wanting specific diagnoses to not caring WHAT they called it -- I just wanted solutions. We're still working our way through this.

Oh. My. It's Y2K all over again. :eek:

I was kind of anxious about telling ds about it -- I figured the fact that it was four hours long would upset him. But he is actually quite excited about it. He asked, "Is this personal time? Will it be just me and her?" When I said yes, he said, "Good! There are a lot of things bothering me that I want to talk to her about, including you, and I don't want you to hear it." I'm not surprised. ;)

Hakim. (YMMV. ;))

Go To the Head of the Class. It was full of trivia, and I was good at that sort of thing. :D

I think we're looking at $2000-$3000. That's less than the $5000 we were quoted when we lived in the NY metropolitan area. We had the worst time, which is part of why it's taken so long to get this done. Many doctors who should have been able to do a neuropsych mysteriously developed full caseloads when asked to do a neuropsych. One of them took the time to explain why. He said that there is an ongoing dispute between insurance companies and neuropsychologists over billing. The neuropsychs say that they need a certain amount of time to do a good report on their testing. The insurance companies think that the doctors should be able to write their reports in less time, so they draw the line at how many hours they will compensate a doctor for when he's writing the report. This has caused many doctors to simply refuse to do them if you're going through an insurance company, because they feel that they are going to get stiffed in payment. (I should clarify that that's how it was in New York. It might not be that way everywhere.)

I can't find it anymore at Amazon, but when the final installment in the Left Behind series came out, one reviewer said that it was "slightly less painful than a root canal." :D (I agreed with him.)

I haven't been around for a while and just saw the notice about the upgrade. Is there really a chance that things will be lost?

Our stereo equipment is 15-20 years old (some of it is older than that) and not working so well anymore. (We have a receiver with AM/FM radio, a CD player that holds 5 CDs, and a dual cassette player, plus two large speakers. The turntable bit the dust about a year ago.) I turned on some music this morning and was disappointed -- only one speaker is working, and the way I have the living room furniture configured, the speakers don't project the music outside the living room very well -- and I really can't change the furniture arrangement to any great extent. I realize that in the world of iPods and such, we are probably pretty behind the times in terms of music technology in our home. Our kids all have iPods. Dh and I don't. While that might be nice for personal use at some point, I want to have a working stereo system to play our music, which is contained mostly on CDs with some LPs and cassettes as well. I also want to be able to listen to the radio, and little radio units don't have very good reception, in my experience. (I know that you can also play music via the computer, but our computers are in a different part of the house, not in the main living area where I want the music to be.) So, anyway ... I've been hearing/reading Bose ads for years and have been impressed by their small size and the quality they are supposed to have. If you have any experience with Bose equipment, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks.

We have a date. Two dates, actually -- it will be two four-hour testing sessions. I was literally on my way to the phone to call the doctor's office to see if they'd gotten the approval from the insurance company, when the phone rang -- they were calling me to tell me the approval had come through. This of course does not mean that the insurance company is paying for the whole thing, but they will pay at least a portion of it, and the doctor is in network AND she was highly recommended by the pediatric neurologist, so dh and I are happy with how this is working out. So if you've been through this with your dc, what was it like? What did you do while waiting there through two four-hour sessions? How did your dc react to the testing? And anything else you can share that might be helpful. Thanks.

I was reading an article at KidsHealth.org about APD, and it had a list of questions to help you determine if your child struggled with this. Some of them made sense, but these two didn't: I can understand why *spoken* language would be affected by an auditory processing disorder, but I don't understand why the above areas would be affected. Can someone explain this to me? Thanks. :)

Ds #2 is really struggling in this area. It seems like he's experienced a major setback in his skills, and I don't know what to make of it or what to do about it. Reading comprehension has never been his strong suit, and we've worked steadily over the years on it. We used workbooks that worked on a variety of comprehension skills, and I've been having him take online quizzes on books below his reading level to work on comprehension as well. That was going well. But this year, when I've had him read a chapter or when I've read a section of SOTW to him and asked him questions, his inability to answer most of the questions is very troubling. And the things I'm having him read by himself are Magic Tree House books or Great Illustrated Classics. He can recall nothing but the most basic details, and sometimes not even those. A little bit of background. He has Asperger's and ADHD (his new pediatrician doesn't think it's full-blown ADHD -- he thinks the inattention is a part of his Asperger's). He's 13 and reading at about a 3rd to 4th grade level. He also has epilepsy. After several years of being seizure-free on his meds, he was weaned off the meds in June. The EEG showed no problems. Then he had a seizure two weeks ago, and he's now on the meds again. I'm wondering if, during the summer when he was off his meds, he was going through some kind of neurological changes and that's what's resulted in the problems with comprehension we're seeing since we started back with school. He has an appointment with his pediatric neurologist next month, and I plan to ask him about this then. I'm just at a loss to explain it. He still has an amazing memory for other things, but his grasp of what he's reading is tenuous.