Advice!

[Guest guest]

Hello! I am new to the group and have been reading many of your emails over the

last week! I hope someone can give me some insight. I have a 9 yr old son in the

4th grade with PDD-NOS, social anxiety, a little OCD component, and a touch of

ODD. To sum it up, he's very complex and also is academically ahead of his peers

by many years. He's always had behavioral, tantrums, and social issues since 2

1/2 and school became a struggle the beginning of 1st grade. We have tried many

alternative approaches, as he also has the typical gut issues, asthma/allergies,

etc.. that many kids on the spectrum have. Currently, we are consulting with a

DAN doctor in hopes of getting him better this year. We started cognitive

behavioral therapy and meds this past November to see how this would work.For

the last 3 years school has been painful. When he gets frustrated, his way of

shutting down is refusal, not verbalizing what is wrong (which is one of his

struggles in school), and then it can turn ugly! He can get upset and then

become physical which resulted in taking him out of the private school he was in

back in 1st grade, to the public school being certified as Emotionally Impaired

to get services, and then being put in a restricted environment. Last Aug of

2008, we moved out of state, and found a very small,specialized school where he

did so well in 3rd grade.This year, not so good!! Different teacher, (the other

one moved), and she didn't connect well with him. He had many episodes since Nov

this year, which resulted in him being restrained many days. After many

meetings, we took him out and he is now home. I'm forced to home school him for

now, with the help of a private teacher. Home is where he is most happy. He

still has tantrums here and there, but has gotten much better, but they are

still happening. What he does here at home is nothing like what he does in

school. He literally goes into flight or fight mode and just wants to get out of

there! But, he becomes aggressive with whoever is dealing with him.One of the

suggestions his school mentioned we try, a wilderness program (which is where

he's stay for 4-6weeks) or a hospitalization program. We aren't ready to send

him away since he's only 9. And, many of his issues stems from him being on the

spectrum, but he does have the oppostional component that can be excruciating as

many of you know.Has anyone heard or tried a partial hospitalization program

before? They get 2 hrs of schooling which is broken up in the day, and the rest

of the day is therapies, ie. social skills, recreational therapy, and

psychotherapy, all with kids 1st-5th grade and a max of 10 kids. It's 8-2:30

Mon- Friday. If anyone knows of someone who has tried this, please let me know.

We are trying to decided if this is the next step to take with our son in order

to help him gain better coping skills, social skills, etc.. Sorry so long and I

hope someone can help me!!

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