Parents Ratings of Most Beneficial Treatments in Autism

I found this link to Parents Ratings of Behavioral Effects of Biomedical Interventions very helpful and highly useful, especially for skeptics who wonder whether biomedical treatment works. Here's the link: http://www.autism.com/treatable/form34qr.htm . Many of the things that we've found helpful, others also found helpful. Parents know best! Take a look at how many drugs (the most pushed by many mainstream doctors) parents found actually WORSENED behavior. Yet, see how dietary changes, simple supplements, and other biomedical treatments were rated as helping children "get better".

Sundays...the WORST day!

Sundays seem to always be Caleb's worst behavior and mood day. I'm glad it's not during school, but it gets old having to have him sit by me during Sunday School because he's too moody to do well in his own class. For a LONG time, Sundays have been his worst day. I often wonder if there's some sort of cycle to moods/behavior for him. Does anyone else notice a day (especially Sunday) as being the worst?

Halloween is our annual Family Day where instead of celebrating Halloween (which we don't believe in) we go bowling and swimming. The kids LOVE it and look forward to their day off from school. Caleb especially loves it, and did wonderful this year! He took turns, knew to look at the screen and announce who's turn it is, and even called "Taco Bell" for lunch :) He does need a bit of help on his bowling technique though! We all appropriately named it "thunder ball"!

Summertime..when the living is easy?

Not a lot new and exciting. Summer's winding down, and we're beginning to think about school. Caleb's summer school went very well at his new autism classroom. He'll be doing 3 days in this class and 2 days at our local school. The goal is that this asd teacher will help guide our school district on how to plan for him, as well as handle any behavior. The asd classroom is about an hour away (a 2 hour bus ride), otherwise we'd just do that every day. I love what I've seen so far though! He comes home saying, "If you get angry...take a time out." I smile when I hear that :) So many times I've said the same thing, but it takes a teacher to get it to stick! We also have adopted the asd teacher's tactic of taking his hat (which he MUST wear at all times...a bit of an ocd/sensory thing) when he screams. He avoids screaming now, so we won't take his hat. Now, why didn't I think of that before?! Anyhow...still sometimes a bit of a rollercoaster ride this autism, but we're getting somewhere.

Hope all are having a fun summer! Oh...the pic is of Caleb catching a fish. Afterwards, he got bored and just kept casting his line into the weeds and trees :) But...he caught his first fish!

The Beast of Obstinacy

"The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't." - Henry Ward Beecher

I read this quote today and had to LAUGH! Caleb is so like this lately! He's had his fill of school and no amount of coercing is going to get him to cooperate fully! In fact, tomorrow is going to be his last day instead of finishing off this week. He's reached his max for the year! As far as the obstinacy, I need to do some research on what can help with this. I know much of it at school is just because he wants to be home for the summer, but there is also always a bit of the obstinacy every day. I saw online that one person even calls it 'ODD--Obstinate Dude Disorder'! Again, this made me laugh and perhaps will help me get through it a bit better :)

Decison Making

We went and visited the autism classroom at the elementary school. Although it was set up nicely and the staff was well versed in autism, it left much to be desired. Caleb was far and aways TOOOOO high for that class. He would be the only verbal child, and the only one working on reading skills and math. They suggested we look at the classroom for 3-5th grade autistic children. We went to that school and saw a much better fit for Caleb. It was set up more like a classroom and the children were working on actual educational goals...like reading and math. Because I'm still concerned about socialization, Caleb losing connection with the great class he has at our home school, and then our home school not being prepared for him to return in a year or 2....we are contemplating a dual enrollment. Caleb would be enroled at the autism school 3 days a week, and our home regular ed class 2 days a week with it written in his IEP that upon successful achievement of listed behaviors he will return gradually to his home school (regular ed). Hopefully by then the staff will have had some help in setting up his education to best suit him...not the teachers. That's really the problem. If they'd just look beyond the behaviors to focus on his education and how best to teach him...we'd have none of this crap. Instead, they all want to make it easier on themselves and get him out of the school. I'll have none of it! I'm not "dumbing him down" and taking away his best asset--that of incredible intelligence--so he can go be part of an autistic classroom where he's not pushed nor expected to succeed. This is a child who's on the verge of normalcy, but still struggles with erratic behavior at times. I would just love to see these teachers go observe some autism classrooms to see just how far Caleb has come! Sigh.....I may end up homeschooling yet! Let's face it...no one will see the good in my son like I will. I just don't want to do Caleb a disservice, so I continue to fight.