Introduction

August 17, 2000

and Sharon,

cannot socialize very well although he has gotten some better. He

loves karate so that is very good for his self esteem. He walks around

doing karate moves so that gives him a repetetive motion that is acceptable.

He hates a change in schedule and needs to be kept informed when the

family is going to do something. He paces a lot. He is infatuated with

machine parts and his room is full of stuff for building an airplane. He

obsesses about a topic. Building an airplane has stayed with him though

many have left. He often does not understand what the teacher is saying and

he hates small talk. Actually he is incapable of small talk! He will not

eat in front of other people. He does not understand metaphors or sayings.

If you say " I wanted to get that off of my chest " he will look at your

chest. When the teacher gives an assignment he will miss it every time.

Do any of these things sound like your boys?

Jenni

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August 18, 2000

In a message dated 8/17/00 2:40:35 AM !!!First Boot!!!, SSch184188@...

writes:

<< I was wondering, when you noticed your son had problems and what

symptoms you noticed? >>

Well, to be honest, we knew was different from a really young

age. He never walked.. his first steps were at a run. One thing I will

never forget is that when he was young say age 2-3 he wouldn't take no for an

answer. When we tried to put him in a corner for punishment he would go into

a rage. I realized quickly that this form of punishment wasn't working

because by the time he got calmed down he didn't even remember what he had

been put in the corner for. He has an older half brother that was ADHD and

was really aggressive, so I thought he was ADHD to the extreme. He had a

fascination with keys for several years at a very young age and new how all

kinds of keys worked and what they did. He drove his grandfathers straight

drive truck into our barn at about the age 3-4. And this is with the

grandfather standing there in the door right beside him. All of his symptoms

seemed like ADHD to the extreme. It wasn't until he was in the second grade

that the school suggested that there was something other than ADHD involved.

This was after years of them and everybody else blaming me for " the way you

are raising him. " So I immediately rejected the idea. It was in the second

grade that I finally insisted that the school stop sending him home and deal

with him in the form of an IEP. One of the things they brought up in the

meeting was that he rocked in his chair and they thought it might be autism.

He never did that at home and I knew it had to be school and stress related.

They did some kind of autism test during his school evaluation and it came up

borderline. They disqualified him from assistance because he was on his

grade level and labeled him behaviorally impaired or something like that and

sent him to resource for and hour 3 days a week. But they recommended that I

have him further tested for autism. This is where I became involved with

TEACCH who is one of the leading facilities in the US. I will have to look

and see if I can find the tests they did. They interviewed me while they

were testing him. It was then that I realized that this is what my son has.

The questions they asked me fit him to a tee. One I can remember was that if

I was in the kitchen and got supper ready and he was watching tv or playing a

game in the other room could I call him and he would come. No. Could I go

in the room with him and call him and he would come? Probably not. Would it

take something like turning the tv off to get him to come to dinner even if

it was say his favorite dinner.... YES!!!! They have a problem changing from

one thing to another they are not ignoring you!!! I thought oh my.. all

those times I thought he was ignoring me he really wasn't and he couldn't

help it. I have a big art show coming up this weekend and have been really

rushing with that but I will look up his paper work from that Monday and give

you more details. Hope this helps!

August 18, 2000