Thanks, I will check out that thread, and I will post the results once we get them. I'm sure that this is a stupid question, but, they can't come up with a way to more accurately test younger kids? And what about people with severe disabilities for that matter? There have got to be kids falling through the cracks left and right because people aren't realizing that they are intelligent.

Oh no, please feel free to suggest anything that you think of! It's no loss if we've already tried it. We got him glasses last year, and that DID make a difference, so you're right on target with that thought. I don't doubt that OT and PT would help him (he qualifies), but I do doubt that he would participate, and that any benefits that we might see would outweigh whatever behavior issues result from dragging him there. We're trying theraputic horseback riding this month, so I am really really hoping that he might be more motivated to participate in that (but equally convinced that he might be terrified of the horse lol.) I'm really hoping that the swimming lessons are somehow replacing some aspects of PT. Timers help to an extent, and I definitely do use them. He set his own timer earlier today, so I know that this is helpful to him, and we have actually taken visual schedules to the next level and taped them to pill boxes so that he can open it up and have a treat after completing a task. However - I think you are on to something with saying each individual step of multi-step directions. This MIGHT actually make a difference for him. Maybe he's overwhelmed by all of the steps? I really would not be surprised if that is the case, and it is just so easy to assume that he is capable of these sorts of things and not even think twice about it. I will try this immediately, thank you!!!

Oh thank you! :grouphug:

He was diagnosed with autism, level 2 at age 2 by a developmental pediatrician (so an M.D.) At age 3, a different developmental pediatrician changed his diagnosis to a level 1. He had a full preschool evaluation at age 2 with a team of therapists (so a PT, OT, speech therapist), there was also a psychologist who administered cognitive testing, and he had testing done with his therapists every 6 months or so (like the DAYC) to evaluate progress from ages 1-4. What he is doing now is a standard tri-annual re-evaluation with a therapy team, and of course the psychologist doing his IQ. I'm kind of doubting that a person who has the kind of experience you are describing exists around here (I will look into it though!) I don't expect the IQ test to give us the whole picture, it's just the only piece that we haven't really addressed yet, so I was just hoping that it would prove to be some magical missing piece that makes everything else come together. We have spent years focusing on sensory issues and trying to figure out how to use incentives on our own (we do not have ABA where we live.), etc. etc. and then it's like "ah-ha! here's this whole huge concept that we've been neglecting the entire time!" I do post on the Learning Challenges board. I've definitely gotten some valuable help from them. I'm not sure if I have talked to them about this specifically though, so that is a good idea. Thank you for your help and understanding.

Look, I naively thought that an IQ test was just meant to measure intelligence and that it was separate from disability. If I had thought it was relevant then I would have mentioned it. And frankly, I am surprised. I was very surprised. Shocked even, which is why I posted immediately after looking for answers. We have been through ALOT, and I just when I think I may have found an avenue that could lead to some answers, they start telling me that I'm not going to get them, or I'm not going to get the full picture. And, I do not know how to act accordingly, especially with limited information.

First, it should be noted that he has autism, so that is definitely a factor, but I really feel that there is more going on here, and I feel like his past professionals attitudes were sort of like "well, he has autism, this is what you get." and I just do not feel like that is helpful or fair to him. He has the potential to be extremely high functioning and live a fairly typical life if I can just figure him out. The overarching problem has been labeled as "non-compliance." and I think that does explain things pretty well, but I also feel like he's being misunderstood here (by me as well.) He won't get dressed, he won't participate in gym class, he won't get out of the pool after his swimming lesson, he won't pick up his toys, etc. The other day I locked him out of our school room because he was destroying the place every time he went in unsupervised (and yes, refuses to clean up the mess.), so he FOUND the key when I wasn't looking, let himself in, and started destroying it again before I noticed. If he does *try* to do something, he tries to get away with putting in as little effort as possible. He constantly complains about everything under the sun and how "tired" it makes him to do these non-preferred tasks. If it's something that he doesn't absolutely love to do, then he seems to find it completely intolerable. When he is able to engage in something, he's happy as a clam. He doesn't misbehave, he doesn't refuse, and he's actually quite pleasant to be around. We really have very minimal issues when it comes to doing his school work, and he is generally at his best behavior if I give him a science/technology toy to play with. If I wave a new science kit in front of his face and tell him that he can have it if he does X,Y and Z, it would make your head spin to see how quickly and efficiently it would get done (of course incentives that I can actually afford to use regularly aren't enough to see results.) This is a child who started reading at age two, but refused to play with toys. We had to have therapists come in and try to get him to play without throwing a tantrum over it, but he would happily sit and read flash cards to me! So this has been going on for years. Honestly, a solution for me would be to have someone say that they understand him - and then when they explain their understanding to me it FINALLY makes sense. They would say "he does this, that and the other thing because of this, and here is what you can do to improve it." and then when I try it, things actually improve. Ideally, we would get to a place where he just does the things that he has to do without having a 20 minute battle over every single little thing throughout the day. It would be wonderful if I could figure out ways for him to actually enjoy engaging with other children. We would love to be able to take him to stores and restaurants without having behaviors that make it more stressful than it's worth.

I agree, it's important to know that he should be able to get through it. He's having an entire evaluation, so I'm sure they will go into some detail on that. Im feeling better knowing that this is common at this age. I'm not sure what help I'm trying to get for him. I don't know what is available for gifted children. I do know that we have dealt with 14 different therapists over the years with him and once we got to the point that he was refusing to participate with them and they would just make him sit in a chair (as a punishment) and then write me a note complaining, we quit because it was obvious that they just didn't know how to help him. I guess I'm trying to find someone who can look at him from a different perspective, but I have no evidence that he is gifted other than the fact that I suspect it.

I have never heard of hoagies, but that is good info to know (sorry, I'm on my phone and unsure of how to quote you). It's not that it's urgent, it's just that my son has a lot of social and behavior problems and I am trying to get him some more appropriate help than we have had in the past. I think this could be an important factor and it's not something we have considered in detail yet, so I was really hoping for an accurate result.

I was watching them administer it. The memory portion was where they would show him 2 or 3 pictures on one page and then turn the page and have him point to the same 2 or 3 in a larger group. She skipped chunks of those pages stopping at random ones saying "here, this one should be harder." He is my oldest, so I honestly don't know if his processing speed is considered to be fast. He did many pages of the bug matching and then just quit. They got him to finish one more page after some prompting but he didn't want to.

My son is doing IQ testing up at the elementary school. They are breaking it into several days because he cannot sit through the entire test in one session. Today, during his testing, he was so bored that after several pages of memorizing pictures he wasn't even looking at them or trying at all. He was refusing to participate on some pages, so the psychologist told him that he wouldn't get credit for those pages. It was clear to everyone in the room that he can do these in his sleep. Then, they were having him match bugs. He was commenting on how some of them weren't actually bugs. Amazingly he got through like 5 pages of this (30 or so bugs) before he got bored and decided that he didn't want to do it anymore, so again, he just DIDN'T GET CREDIT because he was too bored to do page after page after page of the same easy/boring task. The kid is only 5 years old. He doesn't understand that it's important to push through the boredom to get an accurate result, all he knows is that he is bored and doesn't want to do anymore work. The psychologist doing the testing was skipping pages at some points, so why didn't she just skip to the last few pages on every section? Am I crazy, or is this a complete waste of time? I complained that the results would not be accurate because he clearly knows answers that he is not getting credit for and they muttered something about it being an accurate representation of his abilities at this age, and that IQ testing is not actually accurate at this age???? So it represents the fact that a 5 year old cannot sit through hours of testing, and does nothing to represent his actual intelligence? Should I have this re-done privately or is this somehow typical? I was under the impression that IQ testing SHOULD BE accurate by age 5. If it's not than how can they even consider it an intelligence measure!

These are right up his alley, thank you!

Oh yeah, we have a tinker box already too. It's more like a tinker work bench lol. That's a great idea to go to the thrift store though. I will look into Camp Invention, thank you!

What are some STEM must haves for a young child who is interested (obsessed) with science and engineering? We already have: - A microscope with many prepared slides - Snap Circuits - Thames & Cosmos intro to engineering kit - My First Mind Blowing Science kit - Laurie Fun With Magnets - Lots of Lego's - Lots of K'nex - A marble run I'm considering signing up for Tinker Crate, is this worth the money? What else should I look into? Thank you!

Yes, we can do that at the Y, and it's probably a good idea. They have water slides and sprayer things there. We don't really have a lot of outdoor pools around here though.

Just autism traits in general, as that is what the study seemed to be comparing (using the ADOS and whatever other tests they mentioned.) That being said, I haven't had much success with figuring my son out, and neither have the professionals we have dealt with (there have been many.) We're having his IQ tested this week to see if/how that's a factor, I'm getting him set up with theraputic horseback riding this month, and I might try a play therapist who thinks she can help (I've heard this before.) He does have behavior problems, and his self care skills are severely lacking - but he is extremely intelligent, so I just never ever know what to do with him. He's a 5 year old who acts like he's 2 and sounds like he's 9 when you talk to him.

Thanks for the extensive info! Yes, I know the difference - we had sensory integration therapy with occupational therapists for 4 years straight. This year we attend informal sensory play groups. I'm also autistic, and experience these same kinds of challenges myself as well. I do hope that there can be long term success. It doesn't seem like it's going in that direction for us, but even if it only helps in the short term, that is still a positive thing, so I don't think that anyone can really go wrong here.

I'm curious about what happened over time - 6 months later, a year later. Did the kids regress when no longer receiving the stimulation, or did the results stick? I'd be interested to see long term results compared to other kinds of therapies. We have access to sensory based therapies and sensory activities here and I feel like the results have been questionable for us. It seems to sometimes take the edge off in the very short term, then disappear, which makes it more of a management tool than a therapy for us (not that there's anything wrong with having tools in the tool box.)

Yes, he does have SPD. They did not diagnose it in addition to autism though, they said it's lumped into the autism diagnosis now or something along those lines. Either way, he definitely has it and I'm sure it's further complicating things. I am mostly looking for activities with other children (anyone he can get along with, really.) Doing things outside of the house with just me is better than nothing, and I think he benefits from not being so cooped up, but I would really like to see him make a friend or two. We had him in a warm water and movement (sensory) class at one point in addition to swim lessons. Maybe I'll add that one back in again. He really ignores the other kids while swimming though, so it wouldn't really help with socializing. We're trying therapeutic horseback riding soon, but it's a 1:1 lesson,so again it wouldn't really be a social activity. I'm curious to see how that goes though, if he likes it, maybe I can look into 4H or something.

I think that I have my curriculum choices all picked out, but I'm hesitant to actually order them. On the one hand, I'm afraid that I'm going to change my mind and wish I had waited. On the other, seeing them in person might actually be what causes me to change my mind. If that is the case, then I would want to have plenty of time to figure something else out. Not to mention, I'm not sure how long lesson planning will take me since my oldest is only going to be in first grade next year, so I've never really had to do it before. When do you start purchasing materials for the next school year?

Thanks, everyone! He is 5 1/2. He hasn't exactly expressed any interest in music. In fact, he used to complain whenever I would put any on. It's only recently that he is willing to listen to kids songs in the car, but he has told me that he likes classical music, so I'll try that instead. As far as art and gym, he hates them both (aside from swimming.) What he does like are science and engineering. I was able to find a science class geared towards his age group, but it was way below his level and he was behaving inappropriately. We tried one at the library that was a little bit more engaging, but even then, he was behaving like a two year old and disrupting the class. I'm tempted to try putting him in a much more challenging class (Lego robotics or something along those lines) just to see what happens, but I'm about 70% sure he's going to act like a toddler and have to leave. There was a kid at the playground last summer though - he was much older and had an electric scooter that my son was beyond fascinated with. Well, this kid was willing to let him look at it and he was willing to spend some time with my son, and he did get along much better with him, so it's probably worth a shot.

How do you find appropriate activities for a child who is developmentally delayed but also intellectually advanced? My son is bored to death in activities with his age group, but is MUCH less mature than them at the same time. I just never know what to do with him. I teach him on his level at home, but I really want him to have better experiences while out in the community. What can I do? And just how accommodating should I be? If he refuses to participate in his gym class because it's not engaging enough, do I try to find something different? Or do I try to let him learn how to cope with that boredom for awhile? He is on the autism spectrum, but he has a lot of behavior problems that I am just betting are related to his intelligence. We have dealt with countless professionals, and nobody ever seems to know what to do with him.

We're using progressive phonics and explode the code. I've been happy with the combination of the two of these. I also have my son do a reader from the library every day or so and just help him to sound out whatever words he get's stuck on. I will occasionally throw in some sight word flash cards, and we do the flashcards that you can print from progressive phonics along with each book. Nothing super formal, but it seems to be working just fine for him. I plan to use All About Spelling next year because I hear that this program really reinforces phonics, while obviously teaching spelling.

I'm planning to do the same thing next year, move from Singapore Essentials to RightStart B. It's not that Singapore has been a terrible fit, it's more so that my son doesn't seem to be finding it to be very engaging. Also, when they have him do something like write numbers 1-40 in little clouds or something, he is just about ready to die from boredom.

Hi there, I didn't have time to read through all of the responses, I just wanted to pop in and let you know that I'm in the same boat and I can relate. I'm very mildly autistic and I do worry about professionals blaming my kids issues on my parenting abilities (or lack there of?) I actually worry about this quite a lot. In all honesty, though, I have never once had anyone even remotely suggest that I was doing anything wrong. Quite the opposite, actually. Some of these therapists really probe me for insider information lol, and I'm happy to give it because I know that it's helping the kids on their caseload.

Hello, I'm trying to figure out what to do with my son for math. He is in K right now and finishing up Singapore Essentials B. I have already purchased Primary 1A and was planning to just start that once we finished Essentials, but he has been complaining and dragging his feet through math nearly every single day, so I am having second thoughts about it. I am planning to at least switch him to a different program for first grade next year, but I'm also not sure what I would like to do once we finish up Essential B. I had it in my mind that I would try MUS with him, but the more I read about it the more I am convinced that he will be bored out of his mind once the novelty of the manipulatives wears off. That being said, I'm starting to lean towards RightStart. There seems to be a lot of variation, even within the individual lessons, which I think will keep his attention. The problem seems to be that he is bored of doing the same thing for more than a few minutes (I think?) I think that he has the potential to be very good at math, once I find the right approach. He declared a year or two ago that he IS an engineer (not that he will become one lol, he already is one) and I honestly fully believe that this is exactly what he will end up doing with his life (he will be the 4th generation to follow this path.) So getting him on the right path for math is important. That being said, I have a few questions about RightStart. Being that he is finishing up Singapore Essentials, would I start him in RightStart B? Also, what do I do when we finish Singapore Essential B? I think we have maybe 2 or 3 weeks left to go before we finish it and then I'm not sure where to go from there. Would it make sense to order RightStart and jump in now? (Assuming I choose it.) I'm hesitant to start Singapore Primary 1A because I think it will just be more of the same. Also, at least if we don't write in the book, maybe I can sell it or give it away. Also, I keep reading that this program is "teacher intensive" and I'm just not really sure what that means. Since my son is only in K, everything has been teacher intensive so far. Lastly, I am not a math person. I need a math program that will lead us to a place where I can send my son off on his own when I am no longer capable of teaching him. I have Teaching Textbooks in mind for once we get to that point. Could we easily transition from RightStart to a program like Teaching Textbooks once I am no longer really able to teach this? (My husband is mathy, but not necessarily a teacher, so I would at least have someone who understands math on hand.) Anyway, if you have any insight or advice, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!!