How many of you have a special needs child or grand child?

[hersheesmom]

As some of you know my grandson has aspergers Syndrome which is an Autism Spectrum disorder. He also has Tourettes and Sensory Processing disorder. He loves horses like his little sister but lacks self confidence when others are watching. We are planning to get them a mini or probably a bigger classic. How many of you have children that show in PMC? Is there a pmc class at congress?

What do you find the most helpful with your kids and where would you like to see things different for them. We are fighting the school right now for help for Robby, one of the pannels that evaluated him said because his iq is 125 he doesnt qualify for special ed but they are not taking into consideration that he has trouble processing what he hears and needs visuals more to learn. He is going into the second grade and is on a medication that is helping him. I was opposed to it at first becasue it is a med we use on our psychotic patients. Risperadol.

I am looking for other mothers and grandmothers out there who have similar issues.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Our daughter is no longer a child, (she is 21 already...amazing

)but she also has a condition that is one of the Autism spectrum disorders, Angelman's Syndrome. She was the biggest reason we got miniatures since she loved animals but had no sense of risk (no ability to see cause and effect) and we found her underneath our 2yr old Clydesdale cross colt who was a very 'reactive' horse. The horse stood very still until she was gone but it was just one of a long list of scares we had, regardless of how close we tried to watch her. So on meeting our first mini we thought that could be the answer to her interest without so much risk. She became our best foal trainer, teaching all the little ones to lead by just out waiting them. She never had an agenda, just wanted to share some time with them and show them things, she would wait until they were ready to follow her insistent but light tug on the lead and never got upset with them for wanting to do something else. lol, they were her friends and if they didn't want to do it when she did they would eventually. Of course she is accustomed to communicating with body language since she is non verbal so perhaps she could speak their language better than most. In spite of the many hours she spent hanging out with the horses tho when we sent her into the ring with one she panicked, dropped its lead and froze. She was too shy to enjoy being the focus of the crowd. We accepted her limitations after that and tho she still came to shows, if asked if she would like to try again she was always very clear, NO. We know of several other children with AS (considered quite rare) and at least one of those is on Risperadol. I don't recall specifics but I believe his family discovered some unpleasant side effects. Sometimes the benefits out weigh the risks so I'm not saying its a terrible drug but from experience I would recommend being as informed as you can be about what the effects of the drug are. We made the mistake of not being thorough enough in our check with one of the meds our daughter took and because of it she will probably have a life long tremor so I always offer this advice.

OK, so you didn't ask for a novel, sorry, I seem to have warmed to my subject

 

[hersheesmom]

I am thankful for your response! I am wanting to learn everything I can about these disorders because even thought I am a psych nurse, I would like to become a Special Needs Life Quality coach. There is a school in CA TERI is the acronym. I am saving up for the course now.

Thanks so much for sharing. We are not going to push Robby, He is doing very well in school now with the Risperadol. He takes 1/4 mg in the am and again in the pm. At the end of the school year he was able to complete his tests which he has never done before and got 100% right! He loves science and math, typical of Aspergers kids but he has some sensory issues, sound and touch and sensitivity to bright light. He is working thru those.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

There were 3 boys in my children's age group. all from this small community, who have Aspergers, if it is any comfort to you, all 3, even tho they each struggled with somewhat different challenges as a result of the Aspergers, have graduated from hi school with high grades, a consistent group of friends and hopes for the future. At least one of them is now married and doing quite well. The common thread seemed to be that once they could deal with their own frustrations (each seemed to be affected by a different thing, in one case he could not stand it if things were not done in the same order each day)and control their reactions, they excelled at school work. They aren't always able to 'think outside the box' but they can sure see facts and recall them well. I think most Aspergers children really epitomize the idea of being 'differently abled' rather than 'dis - abled' in any way.

I'm happy to share my own experience raising our daughter and if you want to ask me anything in particular just PM me (or I can give you my e-mail).

 

[hersheesmom]

That would be great! thanks. We are finding with Robby that once he figures out how to process his info he has like a photographic memory. I met a 40 year old man this summer with Aspergers who is writing a book about it. He stayed single but adopted a more severely affected boy. They are all about rules and order and patterns and yes its true they cant think outside the box, they dont understand lots of jokes or inuendo because everything is black and white. Once they figure out the rules of a situation they become very successful. We have high hopes for Robby.He is a very sweet and loving child, cant lie, says what is on his mind good or bad. He still cant look you in the eye when talking but he will give you :LOTS of hugs and kisses.

At the beginning of summer he could

not bear to put his feet in the pool because the water was too cold... he screamed. Last week he was swimming the length of the pool with his life jacket and laughing like crazy. HE decided to just jump in! Took him all summer to get there but he did.

Another example of his sensory stuff is he loves to pet the dachshunds who are long haired and very smooth but he hesitates to pet the poodle or the sheep at a friends because they "dont feel right", He does love to brush the horses tho but prefers to pet the soft tissue places rather than boney ones.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

"they dont understand lots of jokes or inuendo because everything is black and white"

That is very true and they struggle with some of the common things we say "its raining cats and dogs out there"...WHERE

that kind of thing. It makes them seem rather naive and young at times and can make it hard to fit in at school (every generation of kids has its own 'kid speak' it seems) Every Aspergers child/teen I have known has struggled with social skills far more than the academics in school. Sounds to me like your Robby has the attitude to see him thro a lot if he can tell himself he wants it and find ways to push himself(like the pool...Waty to go Robby!!!) then he has won at least half his battles. Some things he may never really get past, like the literalness of how they translate spoken communication. He probably will however learn to question his understanding of a phrase when it sounds unbelievable. LOL, when I was a kid my parents, when asked where they were going, if they were going out, would often say, "to see a man about a dog" I used to get so excited thinking we were getting a new dog. I was probably 8 or 9 before I understood it was just their way of saying they didn't want to explain where they'd be. So even those of us without Aspergers can struggled with that

.Our daughter's condition is much more extreme (more like what we all think of when we think of autism)than Aspergers and she really struggled with even being touched by me or her Dad for the first year of her life. She adored her older brother tho and he could hold her hand and she didn't struggle to escape that. Even as a newborn in the hospital she didn't want to be close to me and would place her hands against me and try to push herself away. We just held on and loved her while she cried, whenever she was distressed I would hold her and rock her even tho it didn't seem to help. Now as a young adult we often hear comments on how loving she is and how much compassion she shows when others are hurt.