I have 2 children with OCD (runs on both sides of the family). I am wondering about my almost 9yo, but I'm not quite sure what to think. He worries excessively about scorpions (we don't even have scorpions here), being alone, people coming after him, people being under the beds or in the closets or getting him if he goes to the mailbox and more. He constantly asks for reassurance EXCEPT I'm not sure if it's reassurance or if it's that he doesn't get what I'm saying. For example, I'll say "Get the book off the floor" and he'll look around, finally finds the books and says, "This book?" (Even if it's the only book on the floor.) I say yes and he says "This books?" I say 'yes' and he says "You mean this book right here?" This happens a LOT during the day. But the flipside, and why I'm not sure if it's OCD or not... another example: We went to Wendy's yesterday and since we don't usually go there, I explained the choices to him. I told him he would like the Crispy Chicken sandwich as it was similar to a McChicken. I mentioned "Crispy CHICKEN" sandwich several times and he got one. We were eating and I said how much better than are than McChickens. He agreed and enthusiastically said "I know! I think it must be FISH or something." :confused: (He does not read more than CVC words at this point as he has severe dyseidetic dyslexia.) He's the one I posted about a while ago, who doesn't realize I'm on the phone, or in a conversation with someone else. However, he makes friends very easily. He's always in the center of the action when we do activities with our homeschool group, or at the park he finds someone and makes friends with him. Any ideas on if it could be some OCD? Mixed with something else? There are other issues going on in the family (as far as other dx) and this son has some mild speech difficulties.

Just wanted to come back and say, as I was thinking about this post I realize he's not noticing a lot of things. Like, if he's looking for his baseball glove, it could be right in front of him and he's not seeing it. Or if I ask him to pick up something right by him, he turns circles around and around, but doesn't see the article until I almost stand on top of him and point it out to him. I don't believe the phone issue is a discipline problem. I believe it's part of a bigger picture and realizing these other things I've just mentioned puts it together for me some more. :)

My sons, ages 8 and 10, are currently in OT for mainly sensory issues and some fine motor skills issues. I have heard bits and pieces here and there about OT being just as helpful as VT for children with visual processing disorders. What have your experiences been? I've tried to broach the subject with the OT, but I feel like I am not explaining it well to him. I was thinking I had read here (or somewhere) that some OT exercises help with the same things that VT would. OT is covered by our insurance and VT is not. At this point, the OT is seeing my boys 2 more times for sensory issues and then they're done. They tested average to above-average on the other tests, so he feels he can't take them on for those things. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Misty! We had testing done last year but it was mainly focused on academics, since that was the *crucial* starting point at the time. Now, I am trying to tease out the "other issues" and I have wondered about AS for this son in particular.

I guess I see it as "different" because, while my other children may do it, they also understand when I indicate I am on the phone and stop. With my 9yo, it seems that he does *not* really understand I am on the phone, or in a conversation with someone else. It is not impoliteness... it's more like cluelessness. He has some other tendencies to not notice "Details" so I guess it could all tie together.

Common things, like, when I am on the phone for example. I have a phone up to my ear and I'm either listening or talking. But he will come up to me and start talking like he doesn't even realize I'm on the phone. I'll even point to the phone and go "Shhh" and he will often keep talking. The expression of his face and body seem to be that he just doesn't realize that I'm on the phone. Or talking to other people in public. He doesn't seem to realize that I'm in a conversation and talking with someone and will come up and talk to me. He has a severe visual processing disorder and speech and language delays (speech and lang. delays are about a year delayed, so not severe). I am wondering if anyone has experienced this. Why is he not realizing these types of things? (He's not being rude, IOW...) What have you done?

I was wondering about this for my 10yo as well. While my 8yo doesn't always get jokes, he does well socially (except that he has speech articulation problems and can be hard to understand). But he makes friends and seems to fit in easily. My 10yo is very rigid in many areas, but he also has OCD. He started medication for that about a month ago and I see some changes as far as not worrying so much about germs. But his rigidness seems to be about the same. Our doctor wanted to wait on exploring the rigidness until he was on the meds for OCD for a while and see how things even out. But he definitely doesn't get the nuances well, he does better playing with younger kids, and often prefers to be alone rather than in a group. So I am wondering if the joke aspect is caused by different things for both boys-- one being more immaturity in understanding and one being in a group of symptoms that may indicate a spectrum disorder (rigidness, immaturity in play and social situations, not getting jokes, etc).

Do you worry about this if your child exhibits this? Is there anything to do to help?

Thanks, Debbie. That's helpful. I will keep digging. :001_smile:

Thank you. I was wondering if it tied into their visual processing disorder. Does anyone know of a website that would explain *how* this happens (or why)? I'm guessing then that speech therapy would *not* help this?? Or can it? What would be helpful for this?

I haven't posted here for a while, so briefly, I have two sons who both have severe visual processing disorders and varying speech and language delays, among other things. Tonight, my 10yo was telling a 'story' of one of his experiences to some family friends and here are a few of the mistakes he made while speaking: He wanted to say buffalo burgers but instead said "boogers". He does this particular word quite often. He was meaning to say "antelope" and said "cantaloupe." There were a few other things like that. I know someone helped me before with trying to understand why ds is mixing these things up, but I lost my PM. :confused: We are in speech therapy and have had recent evaluations done. It just doesn't seem like these errors ever show up in testing. The ST seems quite willing to listen to me and work with me, but I'm not sure she's either understanding *me* or understanding what the issue is here. Also, do these types of errors fall into the same category of these: saying "river" for 'lake' or "lake" for 'pond', etc. saying "Cabelas" for 'Gander Mountain', etc (even after being reminded repeatedly) saying "washer" for 'dryer' and vice-versa And the like? I am wondering if these are all the same type of errors as far as coming from perhaps the same brain functioning, or if it's two different things. Any ideas? :)

Has anyone treated OCD in your child naturally? My 10yo ds has pretty bad OCD in the form of scrupolosity and recently, thoughts of harming himself or others. My dh does not want him to take an anti-depressant and wants me to look into natural remedies. However, I am concerned about giving him something "natural" and not really knowing what, how much, and if they are OK for ds to take. For example, ds had asthma until he was about 4. Now he hasn't suffered from it in the last years, but how do I know a natural remedy wouldn't bring it on again? Just questions like that. I'm willing to try a natural remedy but would like some places to start that are proven and safe. Have you taken your child to see their regular doctor before starting natural remedies?

I am really surprised and wondering, now, if my dss didn't get a very good neuropsych. eval. They both tested for 2-3 hours a piece, that's it. Hmmmm......

You know, last night ds was talking to me and used the word "hid" in a sentence. Often he says "hood" instead of "hid" ("I hood in the shed."). And yes, there are words that he totally mispronounces and can't seem to keep straight. I am going to see if I can tell whether it's the same words all the time, or inconsistent. I know some words are consistent: Like 'refrigerator/freezer' and 'washer/dryer', both boys have a hard time remembering the freezer is on top and the fridge is on the bottom. But some words are just weird, like "hood" instead of "hid" or "fother" instead of "bother".

There are several different state diploma options. Here's a link for the Erie County diploma program. I never thought about an IEP aspect of it. I'm wondering if it's something I should look into for dd, so we're not as pressured.

For my 9yo ds, she is doing expressive language exercises. For 8yo, she does mainly articulation and some expressive language stuff. She thinks 8yo's issues are mainly articulation and that he doesn't slow down enough when he speaks. However, he has been in ST since he was 4. The fact that he is still difficult for family members to understand is a concern. The reading/mispronunciations links seems strange to me as well. 9yo ds has the most problems with things like "fother" and "hay combinder". 8yo seems to mispronounce the word, like "telephone booth" is telethone boof". But if he remembers the word, he can pronounce it as best he can with is articulation issues. 9yo pronounces most words fine, but certain words (like "bother/fother") he mixes up. I am not sure if there is a pattern to that or not. There are certain words that he *always* says wrong, no matter how many times we've told him the correct way to say it. It's like he can't remember. So they don't really have the same issue in mispronunciation, but they both have a problem with it. Does that make sense? We go to our local hospital and she is the only ST in this area. I would have to travel at least an hour to get another one. She mentioned APD to me at first but after working with 8yods, she felt it wasn't the problem. I should say he has ADD as well, and she felt it could be part of what she was seeing. ???? The thing I am wondering about is that when both boys had testing done by a neuropsych., their auditory/verbal scores were average-above average. Would that indicate they probably do not have APD? Not sure if it's the same kind of thing we're talking about or not. Their visual processing skills were very, very impaired. I have heard that dyslexia can cause problems with speech as well??? Could maybe that be part of it? I think I can probably just ask for the APD evaluation if it seems warranted. It's so hard to explain. I think about when they're watching a movie, they ask a LOT what's going on. It's kind of like they either can't follow it, or they don't understand it, or they aren't hearing it like we do. And with their visual processing scores and their low-average IQs, it just makes me wonder if it's more that than an auditory problem. What do you think? Thank you. :001_smile: And I'm going to see if our library has the book you mentioned.

*SIGH* I hate living where we live. I mean, I like where we live, but the distance from specialists and other out of the ordinary providers is about 2 hours. There is a psychiatrist in conjunction with the therapist she is seeing, but I don't believe he is a bona fide child psych. I am certain he sees teens, though, as I see a lot of teens in and out of there. I haven't heard of C-PTSD. I will look at this link. Dd has *always* been 'intense'. Even as an infant. If anything was scratchy, if she got too hot and sweat a little bit, if her diaper was just the tiniest bit wet... she howled. She was early on all her milestones, but she was a serious little baby. She spoke at 9 months (she said 'cow' and 'what's that' and more)... she recognized all her letters by age 2, all her colors. Spoke almost perfectly at age 2. Taught herself to read at age 4. But just a very intense child. If she got hurt, she'd cry for hours. I mean, looking back, and compared with my other three (she's the oldest), she was different. I think it's something I need to ask her again. You are very right... And unfortunately, my kids spent time over there and spent overnight over there a few times. They seemed like such a wonderful, homeschooling, Christian family and they went to our church. I thought we knew them. Thanks. I'll have to see if they even have that around here. Yes and no. It works well as in, if she does *not* take it, I can tell. It makes her tired and unmotivated. I feel bad for her. I also have bipolar disorder and I'm tired, too. It's hard to be motivated when you struggle so much with your moods. We've tried several things and this seems to be the best so far.

I am in a similar situation, but unfortunately I have no advice. In fact, I posted above about borderline personality disorder and my dd's lack of motivation. She is very, very intelligent and does well in all areas of school except math. But... she just has no 'motivation' or ability, maybe, to self-monitor. And I realistically know that I cannot sit wtih her all day just to help her maintain her credits (she's in 9th gr). I'm going to put in a call to her homeschool evaluator this week and see what she suggests. We live in PA and have options for a state-issued diploma, which is what I had hoped for. But with her, I don't think it's going to work, and I don't know if she'd be able to handle college at this point anyway. Academically, yes. All other areas, no. So if I find out any good ideas from our evaluator, I'll come back and post them. :)

Are you really happy with this site? How helpful has it been to you? Off to check it out. :001_smile:

I have mentioned before that our speech therapist does not think my boys have APD. Because they can hear sounds and if, for example, I say what does c-a-t say, they can tell me CAT by sounding out each letter; and in reverse, they can spell CAT by sounding out each letter, I can see why APD might not fit. HOWEVER-- when they are asked something or told something to do or something is explained to them, they both have a difficult time understanding what is said. We almost always repeat what we said. Often they 'get it' and sometimes they need further clarification. They also still consistently mispronounce words (my youngest is the worst with this). For example, my almost 10 yo still says "fother" instead of "bother". (The ST thinks it's because they can't read and since they don't see it in print, it doesn't gel in their minds???) He says, "Hay combinder" instead "haybine" or "combine", even though in this case, his dad is a farmer and he sees this stuff all the time. What exactly would this be? Is it perhaps that they aren't understanding the "meaning" of what is being said as opposed to it being something more along the lines of APD? Would this be receptive language delays?

Just wanted to add... As far as I know, the cutting didn't begin until *after* the sex abuse incident. I did not realize she was cutting and she didn't tell me later.

I sure wish this whole thing just came with an instruction manual and gave me clear answers. :confused: Yes, she has self-mutiliated in the past though she says she is not currently. However, she did ask me the other day what I would do IF she were cutting again. I have not yet determined if she is or isn't, or if it's just 'a question'. She spent five days in a children's psych. ward before her bipolar diagnosis (which was tentative at the hospital) and she absolutely hated it, of course. She was really in with a bunch of kids that were there for more social behavior problems than she had, if that makes sense. She could hear the violent ones in the padded room or something, I remember her saying. Anyway... she's looking for reassurance that she won't have to go back. And I digressed... sorry. Her 'official' bipolar dx wsa a combination of the hospital, her regular doctor and now initially, her new therapist. Now, after a few months, the therapist is saying maybe it's BPD instead. Dd was scheduled with a neuropsych for testing (she also needs some academic testing, mainly for math) but we had to cancel due to weather, so now it will be April till we get back in. Her therapist and I were hoping that would give us a more definitive idea of a diagnosis. It's hard to say what her 'normal' behavior was as a bipolar because she wasn't diagnosed until age 11 and the trauma happened right before she turned 12. See what I mean? She didn't witness the act but her friend shared her diary with her and told her several times that her father was molesting her. It took dd several months to finally tell us. The man did go to jail but we were very much left out of the loop in this case and abandoned by our church and support systems, which is dd mainly struggled with. The current focus of dd's therapy is this abuse trauma. Her therapist's main job is in adolescent residential treatment, so I imagine she deals with all kinds of trauma. Is there a specific question to ask, or just, "Do you deal with trauma?" The therapist feels that dd is still holding back on her, though she has made some progress. She feels dd isn't always honest with her about what's going on. So what do you think? Thanks so much. :)

The therapist did mention that to me. And she was not willing to 'officially' diagnosis. Currently the dx is bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. No trauma or sex abuse/physical abuse. However, at age 12 she was the primary witness for a sex abuse case involving her friend. That seems to be when things went a different direction for her. The symptoms her therapist pointed out (and that I agree with) is a strong tendency to love or hate but no middle ground. Once she 'hates' it's very difficult to change her opinion about it (be it a person, a book, a food, etc). Very moody... moods change a lot during the day, everyday. She felt it was more than rapid cycling bipolar. Dd used to have lots of friends and be outgoing. Since the sex abuse incident, she became afraid to trust people, more paranoid, seemingly more unable to relate to people who want to be her friend. For example, there are two very nice girls who really have gone out of their way to invite dd to functions. Dd has decided that really do NOT like her and that she thinks they're fake. But it's this intense opinion about people that causes a problem. I have a friend who's a doctor and she said the same thing about it being difficult to treat, hard to work with and that the medical profession would tend to shy away from treating her. She actually advised fighting tooth and nail against a BPD dx. How does dialectical behavioral therapy work?

Have we ever discussed this? Is there anyone who knows a lot about this or who has experience with this? It is being suggested that my 15yo dd has this, which I mentioned in another thread briefly. My main concerns right now are her schooling. Well, that and her mental health. But she seems SO unable to cope with anything! When she feels overwhelmed, she melts down so quickly there's no use pushing anything. She's not motivated unless it's something very creative that she is interested in. She does read voraciously, however. From what I understand, BPD's either love or hate, and once they 'hate' it's hard to get them to see it otherwise. Which is one of the problems with school. If she decides she hates something, there's no getting her to really do it. I know Laurie mentioned dialectic therapy, which I've asked dd's therapist about. Haven't received an answer yet. But as far as school, I just don't know what to do. We live in PA and I had planned to go with one of the state's accredited diploma programs for her. She's in 9th grade this year. However, I don't see how she'd ever cope with all the requirements. But even still, there are lots of credit requirements just for a parent issuesd diploma. Is there something else I can do with her? Can I, perhaps, look more into a vocational type program for her that would focus on her strong interests and abilities? She's an excellent writer... short stories, poems, song lyrics. That's what she wants to do and she excels at it. Any suggestions?

I'm a bit confused and I'm sure you will notice my ignorance when I ask, Which is the better/easier way to teach phonics to children? When I was learning to read, I remember learning, for example: -it says /it/. Then p-it would say pit, n-it would say nit, s-it would say sit, and so forth. However, Abeka's blend ladders seem to do it 'backward'. Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu will all teach you the *beginning* sounds to which you'd an an 'end'. So: ba-t says bat, ba-d says bad, etc. What are your thoughts and experience on this, or am I totally out in left field? :001_huh: My reason for asking this is that I wanted to make a Go Fish type of game using phonograms (right word?) such as 'ough' and 'ing'. So I wanted to know which approach was the best to take. This game was suggested to me by someone who used the Spalding method.