
Autism / Autism Spectrum Support Group
Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder which manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, patterns of interests, and patterns of behavior. Although the specific etiology of autism is unknown, many researchers suspect that autism results from genetically mediated vulnerabilities to environmental triggers.

deleted_user
I was told that my son may have "compound disorders" and that he may likely be ADHD. He is extremely hyper and has a hard time sitting for even short periods. He doesn't watch t.v. and hardly takes and interest in his toys unless it's something that moves fast or flies. He's constantly climbing on things(sometimes while wearing skates),jumping, and moves all day non-stop. His teachers have a hard time with Speech, and O.T. because he won't sit still and I'm wondering how he's gonna learn anything when he won't slow down long enough to listen. The doctor gave me something that was supposed to help, but I don't want my son to be dependent on meds in order to function but at this point I don't see any other way.
Posts You May Be Interested In
-
A friend sent this to me..As far as I can see, grief will never truly end.It may become softer overtime, more gentleand some days will feel sharp.But grief will last as long as Love does - ForeverIt's simply the way the absence of your loved onemanifests in your heart. A deep longing accompaniedby the deepest Love some days. The heavy fog mayreturn and the next day, it may recede.Once again, it's...
-
Today is my 25th birthday, to my somewhat lack of surprise I can see already no one really seems to care. I've always been the kinda person to make sure that everyone I Care about feels appreciated and knew somebody had their back. I can count 4 times this year when I Went out of my way to make sure a "friend" felt good on their birthday, especially if they got left hanging. Its early in the...
Dr. J
I understand it is hard to accept that your child may need a medication to focus. It is an OK thing if your childs Doctor reommends meds. It is worth a safe try. I still sometimes shake my head at what my son takes today. Antiphycotic Drugs sounds pretty heavy and it is. I think its part of the whole acceptence of Autism and what will help our children. Not our needs but Thier needs.
When he was two we put him on the Feingold Diet. After about a week one night we were sitting in the living room and noticed that Kristopher sat and watched almost an hour long television show. I didn't even realize it at first.
I never got interested in anything on t.v. because I could never sit down long enough to enjoy it because Kris was terrorizing the house, scattering toys everywhere, but never playing.
Ironically, the diet helped alot at first. By the time he was in school, though, we did have him on meds and he is better for it.
I was like you and didn't want to medicate my child. My biggest objection to doing so, however, was that I was afraid that he could NOT tell me how the medication was making him feel. Once he was more verbal we went with medication and it's made a world of difference for Kris.
In fact, at one point about a year or so ago we decided to wean him off of all of his medications and see where we were at. It didn't take long for me to call the doctor saying, "enough already!!! I'm going nutso!!!"
When Kris started back on the meds he was actually happy and smiled alot, where before he was always just "on the go".
Kristopher has ADHD, Asperger's Syndrome, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
The one thing I love is that his behavioral m.d. is wonderful about not adding so many medications one on top of the other. When she adds one she tries to take another away. Right now he is only on 3 different medications.
I'm grateful to her for that. And, while things could be better, they would be ALOT worse without the meds.
And, some parents wean their kids off of meds during the summertime. NOT ME!!! I'm a glutton for punishment, but NOT that big of a glutton!!! LOL!!!
Both Kris and I believe he is better served with medication that without.
That is what works for us. If your child canNOT slow down, it will be much harder for him to learn. So, whatever you choose to do, behavior modification, specialized diets, medication or (as in our case) combos of all three, you have to help your child if you want him to learn and to grow up to "play" with his toys.
Kris does play with his toys now and he reads books, and he watches his favorite t.v. show, "SpongeBob" so, all in all, the three things we chose have made all the difference in our child.
Remember that your child's teacher may NOT be looking for "the easy way out" as you think. If you can't get him to settle down long enough to watch t.v. and play with his toys, how can you expect his teacher to do otherwise.
Not critizing just giving you food for thought.
hugs,
gaylek11
Best of luck to you.
Tracey
If you ever get interested in looking into any other meds for your son, you might wanna look to those. They have worked to make our son able to settle down enough to learn in school.
hugs,
gaylek11
First off, hence the word spectrum, autism is a bunch of disorders in one, so its not uncommon for the doctors to say I think he also his ADHD, etc. Autism is all of those in one.
Also, sometimes medicines are good, I tried a couple that were ok, one Abilify that is supposed to be really good for Autism- The other ones the more anti-psychotic ones really affect a person on the autism spectrum...I have had baby doses and passed out or been not afraid of danger or in pain or I get the rare effects...so does my cousin who has aspergers. Some autistic kids have a bigger chemical imbalance in some parts than others...thats why some medicines would really help too, but have to be careful with dosage.
Kris
PS: also he can try fidgets and therapies throughout the day to calm him naturally that way too.
Anyway, food for thought...
Tracey
So, I think it's very possible that all of these things are interconnected, may not be issues for all children on the spectrum. . . but, certainly occur with enough frequency that they are prolly all interconnected.
It was like "pulling teeth" for us to get to the final diagnosis. When he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, all the other pieces of the puzzle that didn't fit, finally made sense and came together.
Hugs,
gaylek11
I did NOT want to medicate my son when he was little because his speech was not good and he could not tell me how the meds were making him feel.
Then when he started kindergarten we put him on meds and I have never looked back. The meds help make our lives much more manageable.
I wish it wasn't necessary. We even did a diet called Feingold and it was rigorous but we did it until about a year ago when Kris through the diet out the window and refused to abide by it.
I canNOT control everything he does these days so we no longer use the diet. But, we definitely do use the meds which help him to settle down and learn during the day and help him to sleep during the night. And, whew, that helps me to sleep, too.
: ) hugs,
gaylek11