[Grovenet] GroveNet Digest, Vol 54, Issue 1

[Jamsm at aol.com]

There has been much research on the subject of treatment by various  
groups.  Searching the Internet will reveal many techniques. Personally, I  
believe you have to try different methods and find what works for your child as  
each child is different.  You may want to look into food/diet  changes.  
There are foods that can make  the high function  Autism child become more 
emotional/reactive/hyper.  Some of the  foods have been found to give a kind of 
'high' and the child will  frequently have these very same food items on the 
limited list of foods they are  willing to eat.   One in particular is 
gluten, found in most wheat products  - try minimizing the intake -  purchase 
gluten free or gluten low  content products.  Milk products and red 40 are 
often cited as a  catalyst to exciting them. 

As far as my son being disruptive, it  was mostly because he was quite 
outspoken.  Meaning he would speak  (loudly - no volume control of his voice) 
without waiting to be called  on.  Because he was bright, he frequently would 
not give the teacher a  chance to call on someone to respond - he would just 
blurt the answer out  to the chagrin of the teacher.  He would  have 
emotional breakdowns  when the routine changed from what he expected to happen.  
This could  be anything from what he was told that was to happen next and the 
teacher  decides to do something different or a subtle change from the day 
to  day routine.  He was very strict about rules and what people were  
expected to do (exception sample: waiting to respond until called  on.)  In his 
early years at school, he would not leave it to the  teacher to 'correct' the 
'misbehaving' student and would attempt to stop  the child (his idea was to 
prevent the other student from getting in trouble)  but would result in him 
getting in trouble.   Being very literal  in what he was told, he would 
often misinterpret what he was told or taught  which would lead to all sorts of 
various issues.  A teacher could make a  remark about something in jest but 
he would not take it as a joke and would  learn or understand the statement 
in its literal interpretation.  [To get a  good idea of my son's character, 
read about the characteristics of the  Aspergers (AS) child.  He has been 
referred to being a classic  AS.]

His current school system, put him in AP classes but he has been  pulled 
from some of the AP classes because he never learned to study  in the early 
grades; a result if his not being properly challenged academically  while we 
were in FG.  Another area of difficulty for him is dealing  with art work 
(including tactical touch of things) or being told he  has to write it out vs 
being able to type it.  Tactical touch can bring on  issues with writing with 
pencils, using crayons, etc.  He still complains  that he can 'feel' the 
lead coming off the pencil as he writes.  We have  found by trying different 
brand pencils and paper, we could find a combination  that he was not as 
sensitive to.

Given the above descriptions, you can  imagine the types of things that 
were put in his IEP.  But to get the  teachers to abide by the IEP or use 
redirection techniques was a huge  problem in FG.  His current teachers are much 
better about following  through with the IEP directions.  Thus, the amount 
of time we have to spend  at the school resolving issues has been 
significantly reduced  and he has fewer meltdowns.

James
 
 
In a message dated 5/2/2009 7:45:47 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
theresacus at yahoo.com writes:


Has  anyone done any research as to what the best teaching methods are for 
children  of Autism and ADD?  I have friends, with children, who have been 
tagged  with those labels. They are both off the scale as far as intelligence 
 too. That in itself does not make it any easier.  One mom  ended up 
quiting her job, to home school her son and he is  now studying to become a 
dentist.  The other battled the schools and  her son is in Alaska fishing. Both 
are doing well for themselves  and the families seem to be happy.  

I am not sure that  with the labeling that the child actually gets a better 
education.  The  parents too are questioning whether, that was the best 
thing to do but at the  time it all seemed to be guided or driven, by the 
school.  Unless  the school is able to truly teach these kids using different 
methods then it  seems pointless to me, to put both parents and students 
through the  testing.  

I have to mention that my younger sister, who has  now been diagnosed with 
dyslexia. My mom saw her falling behind in school  and spent countless hours 
teaching her to read.  Later, a tutor that my  parents hired.  (She is 46 
years old and at that time there was no  additional help in the schools.)  My 
sister went on to a  community college, in electronics.  She struggled but 
was determined in  chasing her dream.  Now she is pushing polygons around as 
 a mask designer, at Intel and doing very well for herself.   

My mom then became a reading tutor at the grade school, as a  volunteer.  
Some students simply needed a stronger foundation in reading  and others had 
some severe family issues, that were distracting them from  learning.  The 
one thing that she did see is that the individual  attention helped with not 
just their reading but their self esteem and  behavior as well.  She 
couldn't imagine putting any child through 13  years, of failure.  The one thing 
that she used to say to me as my sons  were growing up.  "A child who can not 
find possitive attention will find  negative attention.  No attention is the 
worst kind of lonliness."   

In defense of the teachers, the class sizes in Forest Grove are  huge. My 
youngest son, a senior, at the high school dropped two classes  this year 
because there were not enough seats to accommodate the class size.  One was an 
AP class too.  It is next to impossible to give the attention  that is 
necessary to just one or two in a class of twenty-five or  thirty.  I do know 
that some of the students have a special person that  shadows the students, who 
tend to be disruptive.  Maybe it would be  better to have those people 
actually giving individual education, rather than  having them in a classroom as 
a child's behavioral monitor, all  day.  I personally feel that those 
dollars could be better spent on  educating because the socializing will come 
with the  students success.  

Theresa  Carter





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