She did not mark a support level. She didn't even label it asd1 (I don't know what that means without lookin it up). She just diagnosed Autistic Spectrum disorder, F84.0

Is anyone here a homeschool mom in PA who has a kid with a disability and can tell me what the implications are on your homeschool? My son was diagnosed with ASD and I'm leery of looking for services and letting the state find out about the diagnosis because right now I kind of fly below the radar using the tutor law since my husband is a public school teacher.

And this is how we've worked over the past few months to get to where we are today. We figured out, within our preferences, what works for us and our child. I think I was just really thrown by a diagnosis that I was not expecting at this point. Grief is really part of the process which I have read over and over and thought it wouldn't apply to me because I knew. But when I read the paperwork, I took a shower in the middle of the day so the kids wouldn't see me crying. It's frustrating too because my husband didn't even want to read the paperwork. But if nothing else the thorough history she included in the paperwork gives me a really good Ebenezer stone (forgive the biblical reference) to say look how far we've come, look where God has brought us. We still have a long way to go, but I feel kind of like my whole world shifted yesterday and I'm trying to get my feet on solid ground again now.

This is interesting - I think this plays a huge part in people's inability to see some issues - surely nothing's wrong with this child because I like him! He's likable! Which if you think about it is kind of sad - a kid with a problem can be likable and still have a problem......guess a "visible" problem is more likely to have the same people feeling sorry for him instead? Thanks for the book recommendation. I'm also in the middle of the book Differently Wired by Deborah Reber. It speaks to me because my eldest has SPD, my next has Dyslexia and then there's my son...

She addresses ODD in the paperwork, explaining why she DOESN"T think it fits him. Which I was thankful for. I have these torn emotions - on the one hand I felt like I was managing the behavior difficulties and now this "label" makes me feel wholly inadequate to continue to manage. but I know nothing changed from one day to another. I also feel like now I don't have to "do this alone" but I don't know what that means exactly. And yes, my relatives are not safe to talk to.

He's 5, turns 6 in January. Honestly I knew he had autism when we went to go to that first appointment. The time and "anxiety" diagnosis and then the improvements in behavior seen through the dietary changes and OT intervention were just strong enough that I settled comfortably into this "he's got severe anxiety and some allergies to various artificial food additives." It brings into play the question of the "curability" of autism, which I know is a philosophical one, but at the same time, I see things that I KNOW are not neurotypical. We are having to structure his time and social interactions more than should be required of a neurtypical kid, I structure our calendar so we have a down day at home after any busy day where he interacts with others. He has periods of regression with sleeping in his bed/accidents during the day/etc. I have to manage his protein/carb intake carefully, limit his screen time dramatically, watch his total carb intake, ensure he gets enough sleep, and if not bail on plans or we will have melt-downs. So basically he's a "new kid" as my MIL told us (which is big for her, because she claimed he was a "normal boy" a year ago.), but much of that is because we manage his behavior through the environment. We still deal with the anxiety being a huge problem from day to day.

Her recommendations included: continuing OT until such time as the OT determines he is no longer benefiting from what they offer (which we did - we were graduated from OT in August because they felt they could no longer provide meaningful services to him). Whatever necessary services we can use to reduce his anxiety (OT, routine, structure, visual schedule). For a mental health professional to continue to monitor his anxiety and provide further treatment if necessary. Professional help for the potty training issues (which have been nearly resolved through dietary intervention, we will still have accidents at times, and right now we are in a regressive period of time). A comprehensive speech and language evaluation including social pragmatic language. An IEP if he ever is enrolled in the public school. (at about this point in the paperwork I started having trouble breathing...) Any community support program available for children with autism/parent support groups. and the final recommendation was an eval that includes the use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule to confirm the diagnosis. That said, I was told by someone else that this is in fact an official diagnosis because the paper work includes the diagnosis list with ICD-10-CM codes listed next to each one.

Much of the diagnosis was based on the paperwork, but her comments about her observations all seemed to confirm what she was thinking. She spoke to his communication, eye contact, and ability to be flexible with choice of play.

A year ago we were pretty sure our son was on the autistic spectrum. We put our name on a waiting list for a behavioral evaluation with the only place near us that took our insurance and could diagnose autism. In January 2018 we had the initial visit. We filled out tons of paperwork and the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1.5-5 and had a Sunday school teacher fill out the teacher version of the checklist. Her parent meeting with us after 2 visits gave us an anxiety diagnosis and recommendations for OT and a picture schedule and then illnesses (the psych got the flu) and trauma (we had a traumatic death in our extended family) delayed our next visit until April. In April she insisted on continuing her observation sessions and our final appointment in May saw us with almost no feedback at all. She was sticking with anxiety as a diagnosis, and told us she saw some fidgeting and some lack of focus. Our insurance changed June 1, and she was no longer covered and so we asked her for a copy of the behavioral evaluation for our records. She told us she hadn't done an official evaluation, that it would be simpler for her to have a phone conversation with the next psych we transferred to. Now, in the meantime we had made dietary changes and began OT, and with both, but mainly with diet, saw a big improvement in his behavior. So my husband and I made the decision to not find a new psychologist at this time, and so I formally requested a written report from her of whatever she did do so that we could have it for our records to document our time spent with her. She called me back to tell me that she went over all our paperwork and wanted us to come in to discuss the possibility of autism. I declined, stating that we weren't interested in the diagnosis at this time and simply wanted her written report. 4 months after my request for the written report, I get in the mail yesterday an official "Psychiatric Evaluation Report" that is very detailed, wholly accurate to his behavior when we begin the process (even though we've seen huge improvements since then) and a diagnosis list starting with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. She kept the Anxiety disorder as well. She gave us a laundry list of recommendations including having us go to another behavioral health professional to confirm the diagnosis of Autism. I feel like she didn't even read the paperwork until I asked for a report. I also am shocked that she was willing to give him the ASD diagnosis without us "coming in to talk about it" like she requested of us. Maybe I misunderstood and what she meant was "I'm changing his diagnosis and want to tell you in person instead of over a written report..." And what does confirming the diagnosis mean? Is it an official diagnosis or not? My husband is inclined to not trust her at all given how the whole thing unfolded, and said that if our son is on the spectrum he's right on the edge of the spectrum. (Granted, he's a teacher and the kids he sees with ASD diagnosis right now are pretty obviously autistic and he doesn't have any experience with high functioning kids who might fly under the radar.) He said that people will likely define our son as "quirky" as he gets older. And I've got a myriad of conflicting emotions and reactions to the whole thing, even though I was pretty sure he was on the spectrum when we started the process a year ago. And I live in PA, so I am not sure what the consequences of seeking ASD Services might be on our homeschooling, and a big part of me wants to just file the paperwork and ignore it entirely.

interesting - I'll have to look into that, see if there's something commercially available! Thanks ? In the meantime I am exhausting the air from the living room window with a fan and used diluted baking soda/water to spritz the keys.

My husband got a used electric piano yesterday and put it in the living room last night - it's great, only it reeks of cigarette smoke ? . I used baking soda on every solid surface except the keys because hubby said he didn't want me to powder them and ruin the piano. Today, the surfaces I powdered smell mostly better but the keys smell terribly. and now my living room has the faint scent of cigarette smoke ? . I have an air purifier running non-stop in the living room next to the piano, but it's obviously not doing enough. What do I do?!?!?!?

I realize the cost, my husbands comment was that it might be a way to break the cycle of continuing to try the same basic teaching methods while expecting a different result. It does seem to be quite different take on the concept of teaching reading. It is a shame it is not offered in parts instead of As an expensive whole. I would love to hear what anyone else experienced with it for a struggling reader.

What have you seen/read about this? I tend to be wary of the marketing on a product's own site, but the idea of teaching reading from an entirely new angle intrigues me... (even if the price makes it look prohibitively expensive...)

Thanks ?

What recommendations do you have for working memory?

She has been finished with speech therapy from the time she was 5...that said, the blends she can't put together are sounds she can make in isolation. honestly, our 10 year old makes more articulation errors than she does. I'm going to take a look at this link, and the books you link to for High Noon, and probably just need to slide to something more age appropriate. My son who is k5 this year is just starting phonics and doing so well with phonics pathways that I think it woke me up to the slow, painful lack of progress my daughter is making. And no - she has just as much difficulty spelling it the words, and now that I'm thinking about it, that is most likely a working memory thing.

I need to do some of that with her for working memory, see if that could be the problem. If it is, that's something we could stop and focus more on for sure. Nessie accent doesn't seem to be a problem for us, at least not in the first day. We are going to try the free 7 day deal and I'm going to withhold judgement until then. She does nonsense words much the same as real words - her vocabulary is pretty low, I've figured out, which makes many of the real words (especially in Barton when they use some odd words to keep the sentences readable) nonsense to her until we discuss the sentence anyway. I'll look for a pattern in how many letters she can hold in her head. I saw other patterns but didn't pay attention to that. (vowel is always correct, b/d she refuses to use the tool to figure it out or uses the incorrect hand so is about 50/50 on it, often will miss the beginning letter of a consonant blend at the end of a word - like will skip it entirely, will garble 3-letter consonant blends when trying to put the slow sounds into a fast word).

To answer the questions - yes she passed the Barton Pre-test. She has received speech/articulation therapy in the past but has graduated from that. I ensure that any word I ask her to read is first a word that she can say correctly and we have not had a speech issue interfere with reading. Hearing has been checked, as has vision. Both fine. She's 7 and a half years old. We did not take 6-8 months off of Barton, just those optional books. We took 3 weeks off in June. Other than that we have worked every day but the weekends from January through now, with only a day here and there off for illness and fieldtrips as necessary. That's all on the first 3 and a half lessons of level 3. Lots of repeating sections, lots of games, lots of review. She has not read those specific books again since December but they should have been stepping back enough that they should have been doable. I may try working with just 3 letter blends without the words to see if that helps. My husband suggested we try the online program Nessie too, as he would like to see if it helps to motivate her. She's able to say words when she knows them (repeating me say them) but when sounding them out, if she doesn't get an idea quickly of what it is, she has difficulty keeping all 3 letters in the correct place when going from say it slow to say it fast like a word. I too have received the advice to talk less with my prompting, which for the most part works except that she does have an attention problem that has worsened over the past year and only during math and reading.

I am wondering if adding LiPS would provide a piece of the puzzle that would be beneficial?

In January of this year we started Barton level 3 after finishing level 2. We worked VERY slowly, putting in 30-45 minutes work a day, but making very little progress. We frequently repeated individual activities or went back to the beginning of a lesson and starting again. She has gotten very frustrated with it and I'm at a point that I probably need to just start back at the beginning of the level again, 3 letter blends get all garbled in her head so that on some words, no matter how many times she says the sounds slowly, she just CANNOT blend them into a word properly. So I took a break this week to have her just read to me the books recommended on the tutor side of the Barton site for practicing after level 2. She's not only made no progress since I first printed those books in December, but that she's lost some of the fluency she had at the time. I feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result, and don't know what to do next. We play games, use flash cards, try to find ways to mix things up and practice, but honestly starting over at the beginning of level three AGAIN seems like a frustrating waste of time after months of working the same material with no progress. Part of me feel like I need to go back to level 2 instead to reestablish fluency with 2-letter blends, and then I wonder if I'm too invested in this method and that maybe I need to seek another strategy to work with her.

lol psalm 139:13

yes, I picked out a bible verse to use ?

nevermind, I figured out what I'm going to do ?