My son was diagnosed through the school as a high functioning autism. He is 4 years old and currently in PPCD and Pre K. The school wants to push him through to kindergarten all day next year as long as he gets potty trained. Im frustrated with everything.
No one has given me any real answers or information. Where do I go? Does our family qualify for any services? How do i find out? how can i help my son?

Im a stay at home mommy and have 2 other boys ages 2yo & 3yo. I have my hands full and I have MS.

Any help, insight, greatly appreciated!!!!!

I know you have enough to deal with already, but I personally would never trust a school to dx my child with anything, especially something that's medical. Autism of any degree is a medical dx. You need to get him evaluated by a ped specialist. I would go for a pediatric team of specialists if you can. If you're near a children's hosp, you should be able to get a team eval. They can then recommend appropriate services.

I know what you mean about being overwhelmed with your own issues, too. I have hydrocephalus and epilepsy, and when my son was dx'ed (after two years of begging doctors to take my concerns seriously ), my epi was out of control. I have had about 20 GM szs in my life, and during that time, I had six in 2 years. I also had a young daughter and a strained marriage that needed my attention.

You DO find a way to balance it all. It takes time and a lot of hard work, but it can be done. Start with the right eval and go from there.


and good luck!

LIZARD

I agree with the op. I have a nephew with autism and I know he
gets all kinds of help. It made my heart sing when he called the
other night and we had a conversation. It was his 13th birthday. he is
doing so well.

Good luck with everything and pm me if you need me to find info for
you.

Sox

My son has autism. His dx is pddnos (pervasive developmental disorder, non order sepcific), or mild autism. I new something was not right at 18 mo's, and got the usual runaround. I finally found help through WEAP, the Wisconsin Early Autism Program. My son was dx'd by them at 3yrs, 3months old with an IQ of 58. He presented as a 19 month old with veral scores of a 9 month old.

I started him in Applied Behavioral Therapy through WEAP. After one year his IQ jumped to 86 with erbal performanceat 2 yrs, 5 months. After two years his full sacale IQ is 93, his non verbal IQ is 108 and his verbal skills jumped to 3yrs 6mos expressive and 4 yrs 8 months receptive. He is 5 years 10 months old.

We now have conversations, he is doing well in school and his reading ability is at 6 yrs, 10 months. There is hope, and there is treatment. Find someone in your area that does ABA therapy. It has changed our lives.

Well, it depends on where you live. As was previously suggested, once your son has been re-evaluated by some specialists, get him into a behavior therapy program as soon as possible. I work 1:1 with Autistic children at a Lovaas replication site and have seen first hand the difference it can make. Although you do need to act quickly, as many places have age restrictions on applicants. However, as your son is high functioning, they should accept him at 4 years old. But that will all depend on circumstances. Regardless, know that help IS available and there are on-going studies of therapy for children with Autism. You should be able to google some information on a resource-like center for developmental disorders in your area. I hope that helps!

PS: You mentioned that they wanted to push him through as long as he's potty trained. I'm not positive, but I believe that most behavior modification centers for Autistic children (ours and the other ones in my area at least) require that the children be in "normal" classrooms-no special day/special education classes. Our company will have a shadow in the classroom with them to help moniter their behavior; however, as the term "shadow" may imply, noone at the school but the student, the teacher, and the principal will know why the shadow is there without the permission of the parent(s) or the supervisor of the case in order to keep confidentiality and protect the student's privacy. Outside of school hours we work with the client on a 1:1 basis either at our center or in the client's home depending on location, availability, and ease for the client. Like I said, I don't know if all companies operate like ours; however, most should at least be similiar.

He was first in ECI....early childhood Intervention...for not speaking. That didnt go well mainly because we didnt like the therapist. We went into the public school (PPCD) last year. He is now still in that class and pre k. He is being given 2nd grade work.

Unfortunately, from what I understand Texas Childrens Hospital offers testing for autism but is very expensive and there is a great wait. Unless you have qualify for free (which we dont).

Im currebtly looking on the Autism speaks website. Hopefully i will find something.

Thanks