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MicheleB

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  1. Yes! very, very interesting information on aphasia/dysnomia/anomia. it was very helpful. it sounds a lot like what my 11yo does, esp- doing the round about way of talking when he can't think of the word and describing it to us. i am very surprised none of the speech/language people have ever mentioned this possibility to me- or the neuropsyhologist- because it is something i've mentioned before and hoped might get better. it is interesting because they do well on the picture vocabulary tests. but in everyday life, finding the right words is often a struggle. hmmmm......
  2. well.... that is a good question about therapist vs. pathologist. i really don't know. i think at least one of theirs has been a pathologist, but i will check on that. i have mentioned this problem before but have never been given a definitive answer. i will look up those terms you mentioned. they have a visual-perceptual processing disorder which i guess could also include dyslexia. thanks again! :)
  3. again, apologies for the crude typing... broken finger here. what success have you had with math facts? my boys have a very difficult time remembering things like this. i have, on the recommendation of my brother who is a special educator, just started 'chanting' with them on addition tables. they seem to really like it. basically we just do the addition table from 0+0 to 0+9 in a chant. then the 1+ table. i was going to work on that until they had them down then move up to 2, 3, etc. i also explain the concept to them, that 0 plus any number is that number. if you have 0 apples and i give you 1, how many do you have? because they tend to think 0+ a number equals 0. same with 1+ meanwhile, we still work on math at a grade 3 level, even though they are in grades 4 and 6. they are learning to add and subtract multiple digit numbers, and 'regroup' (or carry and borrow as this old-timer used to say). we use a k12 curriculum through their cyberschool. i also was going to post a math facts poster for them to use for reference as needed, figuring the reinforcement would be helpful and they can find their own answers. any other things that have helped? i can't use another curriculum and i'd really like to try this k12 for now, anyway. the only other special math program the school offers at this point is touch math and i'm not sure, from what i hear, that it's the best choice, either. has anyone had success with chanting?
  4. thanks, dobela. i see what you mean. we are in a hard place because our town has one psychiatrist and he is almost impossible to get into, which is why our regular doctor works with him this way. the nearest ped. psychiatrist would be over 2 hours away. but there would be no 'connection' there as far as really knowing us. i guess i worry about how beneficial the treatment would be when we'd be starting from scratch and also travelling so far. ??? i am stable on my meds and have been for several years, so i just see our family doc and if she had to, she would confer with the psych here in town. my dd is pretty ok with her meds as well, and when we've needed to, the family doc has conferred with the town psyh on her, too. i always feel like the over-reactive stage mother. i know kids argue and i know teens want to assert their independence. my oldest will be 17 in a few weeks, so we've been all through that and we have a 15 yo. in other words, adolescence isn't something new to us, so when i say my child is 'argumentative' i mean, it's a problem. not just a typical 'phase.' kwim? i think i will write her a letter. i can always express myself better that way and just lay out all the symptoms and issues as we're seeing them. and we may very well need psychiatric treatment or maybe more evaluations. it's confusing because he has always been rigid and had autistism spectrum behaviors... which can also be ocd.... and also seem like odd... or bipolar... or... you know. ;) i just want to make certain that celexa isn't contributing to the problem.
  5. thanks, sailormom. his ocd was affecting his quality of life. he was consumed with scrupolosity, a form of ocd. he had to 'confess' everything he did- real or imagined wrong- constantly. it was out of control and he was distraught because of it. and the celexa really did help that. but he went so far on the other end of the spectrum that it makes me wonder what else is going on. he also has processing disorders and other issues. i worry about the bipolar since i have it, my dd has it and my 10yo is leaning towards it. i would like to wean him off the celexa... he only takes 10mg a day... but i don't want to have nothing else in place, either, if he crashes and gets depressed or worse. which is why i'd like our doctor to dialogue with me on it some more. i will just have to tell her it's not "just arguing." i know arguing from over-the-top opposition constantly. i hate these trial-and-error medication issues.
  6. what??? my 11yo was dx with OCD over a year ago. it had been a while before that that we had noticed symptoms but i was really trying to hold off on meds. (sorry for the non-caps, my pinky is broken) he has always been a sweet, loving, happy child except that he is very rigid about things like his cookie not being broken or having the cup he wants to have or everything being 'fair.' i know, doesn't sound easy-going, but aside from things like that he was not argumentative. he started celexa a year or so ago and has become unbearable. he argues from the time he wakes up till he goes to bed. he has meltdowns several times a day. i have bipolar disorder and so does my oldest dd. i also tried my 10yo ds on celexa because he has ocd. it made him very paranoid and the doctor told me she consulted with the town psychiatrist (very small, rural communit) and they felt celexa was not a good choice for him considering our bipolar history and that his symptoms on celexa were probabaly manifestations of a tendency toward bipolar. after she told me that, i started thinking more about my 11yo and wondering if celexa is also causing him these severe argumentative episodes and meltdowns that weren't his typical m.o. yes, he is still very concerned and always has been that his food is a certain way or his cookie is whole or he's first, but the arguing and arguing with everyone- even my sister and mother- wasn't like him in the past. the doctor told me that 11yo was becoming an adolescents and adolescents argue more. that really irked me because i have two teens and she has none. i know what teens are like. i know they 'argue' more and push more for their way. this isn't what i meant. so.... i want to approach this with her again but want to have some more ideas and ammunition. i do think ds shows aspergers tendencies in that he only relates to boys or girls who hunt or love animals. he has a hard time in groups if the topic isn't about animals or maybe baseball. he'd rather go off and be alone. he's very rigid, as i said above. i just don't know what to think. i want to take him off the celexa, but then what? my 10yo tried buspar and it didn't help him. i think my 10yo will need risperdal, but i don't think my 11yo would benefit from that as much as maybe just a mood stabilizer. this, of course, affects schoolwork as well. 11yo *has* to be beside me, or hold the computer, or go first, or isn't going to do his work at all.... all. day. long. it's to the point where i just dread even starting.
  7. Both my boys have speech and language difficulties. They have recently been evaluated and will be receiving services through the cyberschool we started using this year. I've mentioned this before but I can't quite remember what 'issue' this is, so need to ask again. What is probably going on if a child has difficulty remembering the correct word if the word can fit into a type of group. Such as, the difference between binoculars, telescope, microscope. Things that are similar in function but yet very different. Such as washer/dryer, refrigerator/freezer. I want to make sure we work on this in therapy. Is it a word retrieval issue or could it be something else if they have other diagnoses going on? I am glad they at least get the right "category"... but the specific correct word is difficult for them, esp. my 11yo. Another example would be names. We have a big gas well business going on in our area. A woman we know has the last name of Gastrock. My boys can't remember Gastrock but they remember 'gas' and so think her name is Mrs. Gaswell. Which is pretty comical, but pretty typical of their difficulty in this ares. Their cousins names are Misty, Mandy and Megan. They can remember the names, but not necessarily which one is whom.
  8. :lol::lol: I have one of those, so I totally get it. :D
  9. Thank you, Heather. I have wondered about the autism spectrum for both my boys. This boy is very friendly and makes friends wherever he goes, however it is typically with children younger than he is. He is very concrete- both of my boys are- and don't often get nuances and little jokes iwthout explaining. I am supposed to fill out a parent's questionnaire for behavior at the psych-ed evaluation and am just trying to get my ducks in a row, I guess. :)
  10. I posted about this before, I think, but it was a while ago and I need to ask again. My 10yo does not "get" what is going on around him. For example, today I was helping him prepare some breakfast and I asked him, "Do we have milk?" Meaning, we need some milk for this breakfast. He checked the fridge, said, "Yes, we do." and shut the door without getting the milk out. That is just ONE example... there are many more like that. I've posted before that he doesn't "get" when I'm on the phone, or talking to someone else (beyond just rudeness or being a kid)... he just doesn't seem to have a sense of what is going on around him. What is this? How do you look into this more and what do you suggest? We're doing lots of evaluations right now and just wondering about this particular issue.
  11. Wow! Honestly, isn't that a crime? To point a loaded gun at someone? I think tomorrow will bring a whole other round of emotions and thoughts for you, which might include thinking about legal ramifications for this boy. Unbelievable. I'm so glad your son is OK.
  12. I think, too, we can make it easier on ourselves by not so much 'explaining' as we are just stating the facts. Does that make sense? To me, there is a slight difference. 'Explaining' takes emotional energy and hopes to get approval or understanding or sympathy, which we all know is in short supply. ;) 'Stating the facts' says, "Look, here's the way it is and this is what we do about it and let me know if x,y,z happens..." And we don't have to care if people understand it 100% (well, unless it's something life threatening, like an allergy to peanuts or something!), we get to state the way it is and hopefully keep our emotions at bay in the process. It's difficult, I know. It's hard enough to have non-typical children without the world putting us under a microscope. But it is what it is and sometimes we just have to not care quite so much about what others think.
  13. KarenAnne, that story reminds me of myself! And it is interesting to me, as over the last few years I've learned more about my dss' issues, that I have many similar ones, yet so different. For example, we take evening drives a lot in the summers to look for deer. I have a very difficult time picking out deer against a background (trees, high grass, etc). I also am not good with details. I have some face blindness which causes a terrible time in recognizing people, especially outside of their "element." I am not good at putting puzzles together. But- I never, ever had difficulty reading, learning to read, writing, with numbers like my boys do. My 10yo has a lot of the issues I mentioned about myself- figureground problems, recognizing people, etc. But in addition to the not making sense of print (which, by the way, they were not diagnosed as "dyslexic" except for the neuropsych to say that all dyslexia means is 'trouble reading.'), they also have difficulty with opposites, like refrigerator/freezer; washer/dryer. Or, similar groups, such as 3 cousins they've known all their lives, but all their names begin with "M" and they are just starting to get them straight. The refrigerator/freezer, washer/dryer and the like problems are interesting to me, because it is "reverse" of what it should be- much like them writing b,q,d,p wrong, or reversing numbers and letters. And yet, it's not the same process (at least I don't think it is). Yes, very fascinating thread. Lots of good ideas!
  14. Thanks, Heidi. It does feel that way, sometimes! I do see improvements with my dss. I have to look at it year-to-year, but it's there. They do LOTS of sports and physical activities and I think that helps them in many ways. Plus I'm sure we all do things with our kids everyday that we don't even think about as being therapeutic, but really are. I also believe we are dealing with CAPD as well. The ST that is doing the initial evaluations for our cyberschool is looking into audiologists that do CAPD testing. We have had difficulty finding someone! I know reading isn't the only issue with my boys and sometimes I think if I could just "fix" the reading all would be well. But it's so many other things as well, so we keep plugging away piece by piece in ways that work for us. And thanks agian, OhE- I have looked into several places for VT and all have quoted pretty much similar prices. Even when I've told them we can't afford it, no one has offered a discount or pricing tier. Maybe we'll have to go through another round of making calls and asking again. That would be great. There is a new clinic about an hour away from us, but it's in the town I grew up in so I feel very familiar with the area. I was pretty excited about it as it was recommended through the boys' regular eye doctor. The regular eye doctor does VT, but he said his isn't comprehensive enough for our boys' problems (and I really appreciated that honesty!!), so he recommended this other guy. He was very willing to talk with me and discuss VT until I said finances were a concern, then I never heard from him again. But I might just give his office another call and see what he might be willing to work out. Thanks for mentioning that. :)
  15. My twin brother and my mother also have tics. We've all had tics all our lives. I think mine started around age 9 or 10?? That's at least when I remember being teased for them. Yes, I meant ds's tics come and go, and change. Typically the same 3 or 4 tics, but in "cycles". My MIL has a vocal tic, though she'd never admit it. ;) She clears her throat in short "grunts" constantly.
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