still several questions, (so sorry this is long)

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for all your answers. Yes I figured we would be in a fight

for services. The thought physically drains me. I asked my husband to go with

me on these meetings as he is much more forceful than I am. I have never been

one to fight about stuff. It will definitely be hard to do. I do have a lot of

questions and I hope I'm not being a pest so here it goes.

1)My husband and I are at a loss on how to discipline my son and daughter. We

have a big family and never had a problem with the other kids. But these two

are literally driving our family crazy. They hit people, scream, don't follow

directions, can't share, my daughter constantly opens and shuts the doors even

if you tell her not to (is this stimming?) We don't know what to do or how to

go about doing it.

2) Should we start some kind of schedule? We aren't really good at scheduling

so I don't know how my kids would do on one. I've read autistic kids do well on

a schedule. How do you put one together? How in depth do you go? Is there

anyone who can help me with this?

3) I live in the Saginaw area. Are there any support groups out there to help

the parents with this?

4) I do have a question about my daughter. I am not sure if I should have her

evaluated or not. Here is her situation:

She does a lot of repeatitive things like opening and shutting doors several

times a day, spins herself, sometimes she walks with her head at an angle, she

has a lot of sensory issues, she will stare at someone for an abnormally long

time, she throws bad fits, and if I shut my door she will throw herself against

the door screaming and kicking, her sunday school teachers say she doesn't talk

to kids at all at church and she doesn't talk to them (the teachers) either.

She does repeatative speech as well like asking " what's that " several times or

she sings the same song over and over. But here is the clincher, she has been

with my mom for the past several weeks after she was hospitalized for GI

problems for 5 days. My mom is taking care of her as I deal with my son. I

drove up to the hospital for her follow up appointment and she was talking well,

making good eye contact. If she acted like that at home I doubt I would even

think anything. She is still delayed in speech, OT, and PT. I did see when the

doctor came in she shrank back and didn't talk but that might be normal given

the situation. So, now I wonder if she needs to be evaluated or not. I wonder

if her improved behavior is due to 1 on 1 interaction. She will be coming home

next week and will be back to the very noisy chaotic home of 6 brothers and

sisters. I wonder if she will stay with the good behavior or if the stress

causes her to revert to the poor behavior. Would that be an autistic red flag?

To tell you the truth I am not sure I want to know. I can't afford the one I

have. I appreciate you letting me vent. Any advice would be appreciated. I

feel like I am by myself right now.