is this normal?

July 7, 2004

Don;t worry Ruth, keep going. Keep the fluids up for the loose stools, they

shpould settle down shortly - how long have they been on them?

Mandi in UK

started my twin boys on enzymes recently and I expected them to regress but

nothing has happened at all. They are on 1 capsule of AFP Peptizide and 1

capsule of Zyme Prime at each meal. They seem calmer and less anxious and they

both have a bit of diarrhoea. Is this O.K or am I doing something wrong?

July 7, 2004

Hi

I started my twin boys on enzymes recently and I expected them to regress but

nothing has happened at all. They are on 1 capsule of AFP Peptizide and 1

capsule of Zyme Prime at each meal. They seem calmer and less anxious and they

both have a bit of diarrhoea. Is this O.K or am I doing something wrong?

Ruth

July 7, 2004

Hi Mandi

They have only been on them a week and I expected a huge regression and general

down turn in behaviour at first but they have improved already and I am a bit

surprised at teh speed of the improvement to say the least. One no longer has

yeasty bits in his nappies and he is happy and relaxed and his brother is not as

tantrummy as usual. They ahe also started eating food they wouldn't have

touched with a 10 foot barge pole before. I am not worried about the loose

stools as I expected that. I suppose what I am saying it all seems to have gone

a bit too smoothly lol. I am really excited about it as I can see the light at

the end of the tunnel and for once it does not seem to be an oncoming train.

Wish had done it years ago.

Ruth also in UK

November 12, 2006

>

> Until my son went to his kindergarten " testing " I never had any

> indication he was different or behind. At his testing they said my

> son's skills were way behind and encouraged me to place him in a

PPI

> program for a yr. (he had been in preschool/daycare since birth

and

> his teacher there felt he was on schedule). I had some concerns

> about his maturity but placed him in the ppi program where he did

> very well. He began kindergarten and then about November of that

yr.

> I got a call that he was refusing to do any work and I needed to

> come get him. He had never been sent home or caused any problems

> before. I got him from school and all he would tell me is that he

> could not write in his journal. He continued to refuse to write in

> the journal, they continued to call me. We met and thought of ways

> to help him cope through journal writing(he would write if he had

> one on one attention). He was then told he couldn't go to recess

> till he did writing, so he began kicking a table... and was sent

> home. Then the next incident he began kicking thean IEP for his

> language (understanding what others said).

> We had an IEP and the school requested I move him to a

schoolacross

> town where my mother worked, for first grade. They believed she

> could help calm him if a siuation arose.

> Then... they suspended him for kicking the chair (his 5th

suspension

> in kindergarten! I am not even counting all the times he was sent

> home). He finished the last couple of weeks at my mother's school

> with no incident. He went to a YWCA summer camp ... no incident.

> First grade started out pretty good ... then he began kicking and

> swearing in the classroom to avoid doing work. The last straw at

the

> school was him throwing chairs and tables thru the library. I

> contacted his pediatrician and they had me take him to a day

program

> at a psych hospital. At that point they were thinking he had

> asperger's(or pdd-nos) and adhd. He returned to school on concerta

> and risperdal.. the school evaluated him and classified him as

> possible aspergers with ei classification. They felt table and

> tipping chairs... then it progressed to him throwing things and

> kicking at people who came close to him. I took him to see a

> psychiatrist... he told me he believed he was ADHD and told me to

> request they could not contain him at the school for fear of

others

> safety.

> So after Christmas break he was placed into the EI program at yet

> another school. He hated it... but they did not call me everyday,

he

> was getting work done.

> And now... second grade. they have combined the ei and ai room(and

a

> new teacher), he is becoming out of control again and they are

> threatening suspensions. I recorded his days and have been

> listening to the ways these kids are talked to. Yelling at my son

> has NEVER worked and I can hear the teacher aide yelling at him

the

> second he come's off the bus .examples " SIT DOWN AND DO YOUR WORK

> NOW " , " I DON't CARE IF U DON " T WANT TO IT IS YOUR JOB " , " SIT DOWN

BE

> QUIET " .. I hear no instruction, it seems work is being passed out

> and he is expected to do it. My son can be rigid (most of the time

> with school work), he has a average IQ but functions above his IQ

> (reads at 5th grade level, spells at 4rth grade level, math in

4rth

> grade level).. but he is in second grade. He can be upset by a

> wrinkle in a page or if he doesn't make a letter the " right " way.

> Other people doing things he believe's to be wrong can upset him

if

> he feels they were not " punished " for what they did. ONe boy

> continuously cries in his room and that can make him throw things

or

> tip his desk.. and he also takes off his shoes. When he gets

> frustrated he throws things, spits, yell, swears, takes off his

> shoes... and also tends to sweat and produce body odor. My son is

> also pre-puberty with armpit hair and pubic hair at 8yrs old!

> Currently, he is in an autism social skills group, counseling, and

a

> play group. I am researching advocates to help with his upcoming

IEP

> and have requested a Functional Behavior Analysis.

> DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR TO ANYONE? Sorry for the long post.

>

Wow you should check into Autisim, and send that tape to the

principal.

November 12, 2006

, have you been able to look into a new school for him at all?

It took an entirely different school system and a move 65 miles away

in order for my son (first grade) to have a GOOD experience. His

kinder experience was awful and he was on the same type of path that

your son has been on. Not to say that our boys are troublesome or it's

their fault - on the contrary! It was the way my son was treated that

was so bad and awful. It looks to me as htough your son is being

treated just as poorly as my Max.

New school, go to the principal, go to the superintendent, go to

whoever you need to go to. He deserves a GOOD school experience.

~

>

> DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR TO ANYONE? Sorry for the long post.

>

November 13, 2006

Writing in a journal was just the worst experience with my now 17 yo. He had

zero ability to do this, had no idea what to write about and even less desire to

record his " thoughts and feelings " - which he didn't share with anyone anyway,

ever. The difference with my now 10 yo is that we work on various skills that

would be required to be able to write in a journal - he learned about feelings,

to identify them in himself and others. (Not that he's great at it but he can

pass.) He also learned how to write, what to write, etc. Right now he has IEP

goals to learn how to write one complete paragraph with a topic sentence and

three supporting sentences. He tends to wander from the topic sometimes but has

tutoring 4 days per week to help him edit and write. He is in 5th grade this

year. I am amazed at what ideas he has! They come out in pieces and the tutor

helps with with a " word web " to sort it out into topics and details. Then he

types it up from there. It seems like my older ds was opposite in that he could

eventually be taught to write supporting details but could never ID the topic of

the paragraph. But we did not even start trying to teach him basic writing

skills until middle of jr. high.

Writing in a journal is definitely a skill that I would want to have taught and

not just expect a kid with learning problems to know. If he is working " above

his IQ " level, I would suspect his IQ score is not that accurate. I would also

guess that the subtest scores were scattered - some high, some low. My older ds

has a learning disability in addition to having HFA so this has made writing

even more difficult for him. The whole " language processing " concept was the

worst for him and I did not know how to get him help when he was in elementary

school so he really struggled.

Behaviors usually pop up in kids like this when they can't tell you or don't

know how to tell you what's wrong. If he is being yelled at to produce writing

that he can't do without proper instruction, he could decide that throwing

chairs works to get him out of that. And the more he gets sent home, the more

he will decide to throw chairs. If you consider that he " can't " do the required

activity due to lack of instruction, it would be the same as me handing you a

broken computer and yelling at you when you don't fix it. (Unless you do that

for a living! lol) If he does know how to express himself on paper and just

refuses to do it, then you really need to get a proper FBA done to identify why

he is refusing and how to motivate him to do his assignments. My older ds, for

example, once he was being taught and given help, would balk at the topic

suggestions we would try to give him as being " stupid. " He didn't think a lot

of things were worth writing about. Eventually he had a good sped teacher who

basically told him, " Hey, you got to pass this class in order to pass 8th grade.

So even if it's stupid to do it, we have to do it. " That actually worked with

my older ds. <G>

For my older ds, when he was told to write in his journal without any help or

instruction or any assignment he didn't feel he could do, he would have

behaviors such as refusing to speak, falling asleep, sitting and spinning

objects or shredding paper. My older ds is an " innie " and he holds his thoughts

inside. Other kids are " outies " and everything about how they feel just comes

out at you. For my older ds to throw things or have physically agressive

behaviors at school meant that the situation was at the danger level. For other

kids, that might be their first response - to throw things or hit someone. To

be sure, if a kid throws chairs, they will get attention fast! My ds hated

attention. So he would passively avoid things.

Anyway, you really need to figure out why he isn't doing it. But I must say

that journal writing is a huge obstacle for some kids with HFA and AS. They

have no clue what to write about, even if you give them a subject. They don't

remember what they did over the summer and wouldn't know how to explain any of

it anyway. Remember all those assignments at the start of each school year?

" Write four paragraphs about what you did over the summer. " My ds would write,

" I rode my bike. " That was it! lol. Now I have learned to take lots of

pictures, even of typical summer activites like riding bikes, and my younger

kids can use those to remember what they did. We also discuss it before school

starts - an " end of the summer " chatting about all the fun things we did. There

are a lot of strategies out there to help kids with these problems and I would

insist that the school get educated and start working on some. Push to get a

behavioral expert in there to assess the situation and someone with training in

autism to devise learning strategies so he can succeed. I would also forbid

them to use yelling as an " instructional method. " If I had to write that in the

IEP, it would be in the IEP. Whatever it takes to make them stop that. I bet

teaching him appropriately will reduce his throwing chair issue a lot. But if

they keep at it, he will have learned to handle his struggles that way since it

works to get him a ticket out of that class.

Also consider that whenever he is taken out of school, he is being denied a

" free and appropriate education " (FAPE). After ten days total of being out of

school, they are obligated to decide whether the problem is due to his

disability and if it is, provide an FBA to work on the problem. Pam, did they

change that part of the law with the new IDEA? I didn't think so but am not

sure. Your son may need a 1-1 aide in class to help him cope better or to

explain things or help him stay on track. He might need pull out help for

certain subjects. He might resent being in a special class and acting out just

because of that. I mean, it's hard to say but I would encourage you to keep

nosing around to find out! And try to visit whenever possible to see what he is

doing, what kind of work he is being given (too easy? too hard? grade level?)

and if he's being really taught and not just handed worksheets. You can learn a

lot just by watching because you know what sets your own kid off.

Medically, I do not know what early puberty means to the situation or what is