Re: Was just told 16 yr old son has symptoms of high functioning aspergers

March 10, 2011

There is a lot to do to help your son. My daughter too found

the lunchroom very overwhelming, she would spin around or panic

and leave for the bathroom.

So the first thing since he is so overwhelmed is to have him

on medication for anxiety and depression. What is he taking now?

Is he sleep schedule stable? If not there are a few things that

can help with that. He needs to be able to have his anxiety

and depression treated so that he gets to sleep at a regular

time.

Being overwhelmed in the lunchroom is a common AS issue,

you can get an accomodation

to eat in a smaller quieter setting.

You can have him placed in a small special education classes to help him perhaps

stay orgnaized and help him with areas he find hard. You can get accomodations

to not have any homework at this time.

Does your son have an IEP? He needs one.

You need the help of the partial

hospitalization program to write a plan for him

to return to school and suggest these accommodations we

talked about and more (extra time on tests, less projects but

more time etc).

Unless he is still clinically depressed and a risk of harm to

himself the program should be moving forward to help

him get stable.

The school has to have him in the least restrictive environment

by law, unless he is still medically unstable he can

be back in mainstream school with an IEP.

Don't listen to the principal, join a special needs parent

group in your area and find out what are the options.

Perhaps there is some small out of district school for

kids with learning differences that he would feel secure

in and supportive.

He is a smart boy he has a future.

Pam

He has options and e

>

> Problems started with social anxiety and school issues when my son entered

into the middle school. Everyone attributed his uneasiness with going to a new

school, even though he was with friends. He started cutting his arms with

plastic knives in the lunchroom, skipping school and was very depressed on a

daily basis. He went from a straight A student to getting some C's and D's. He

is extremely intelligent and even took a test for 8th grade when he was only in

5th grade and scored higher than 90% of the 8th graders. I have had him in

counseling, therapy for behavioral problems, even got the school involved to no

avail. He has been placed in psychiatric hospital twice and has been expelled

from school twice. The principal no longer wants him at their school when

honestly my son really did nothing wrong. So now, he is in a segragated school

for partial hospitalization, not getting the education he needs and I am told

today he has symptoms of aspergers. Although it makes sense now, I am fearful I

can't help him. Anyone have words of wisdom?

>

March 10, 2011

What grade is he (would he be) in now? Is he taking any medications? Have they done a behavior analysis on him to find out what the functions of his behaviors are? How is he doing in the new placement?

ne

From: Snow Angel <snowangel1973@...>Subject: ( ) Was just told 16 yr old son has symptoms of high functioning aspergers Date: Thursday, March 10, 2011, 6:00 PM

Problems started with social anxiety and school issues when my son entered into the middle school. Everyone attributed his uneasiness with going to a new school, even though he was with friends. He started cutting his arms with plastic knives in the lunchroom, skipping school and was very depressed on a daily basis. He went from a straight A student to getting some C's and D's. He is extremely intelligent and even took a test for 8th grade when he was only in 5th grade and scored higher than 90% of the 8th graders. I have had him in counseling, therapy for behavioral problems, even got the school involved to no avail. He has been placed in psychiatric hospital twice and has been expelled from school twice. The principal no longer wants him at their school when honestly my son really did nothing wrong. So now, he is in a segragated school for partial hospitalization, not getting the education he needs and I am told today he has symptoms of aspergers.

Although it makes sense now, I am fearful I can't help him. Anyone have words of wisdom?

March 11, 2011

One of the things to help with the buzzing is headphones that surround the ear, not the ipod ones. then play soft sleepy music. this helps my son to fall asleep quickly. he kept complaining about a buzzing noise and we couldnt hear or find anything that was buzzing. last year we finally found the source. we had put in electronic rodent and mole equipment in the flower beds in the front of the house. his window is on the front of the house and even though humans are not suppose to hear them, he does. once we turned them off, he said it has stopped and has no problem sleeping anymore. so there may be a source that you dont know about that is buzzing, but can not hear! i still giggle when i think about the story.deborah Sycamore Art StudiosSycamore Art SchoolDeborah GustlinGraphic & Web DesignArt classes for K-12www.sycamoreartstudios.comwww.sycamoreartschool.comHome: 408-710-0892 Business: 408-710-6070From: Snow Angel <snowangel1973@...> Sent: Fri, March 11, 2011 10:21:47 AMSubject: ( ) Re: Was just told 16 yr old son has symptoms of high functioning aspergers

Thank you so much for your reply. My son Corey, has been on Zoloft and Abilify since he was in the hospital in Feb of 2010. He is currently taking 200mg Zoloft and 20mg Abilify. We try to get him to get to bed at a regular scheduled time, but 9 out of 10 times he lies in bed for hours because he says his mind is racing. He begs for music every night because he complains of ringing in his ears and says it is so loud he cant sleep. When checked by the dr, they say his ears are fine. He is a 10th grade student who was kicked out of school because when stated he didn't want to go to the lunchroom, the principal gave him 2 choices, the nurses office or the library. My son said he was going to neither one. When asked why he would'nt he said he was too scared. since he was adament about not doing what the principle asked, they told me he was not welcome in their school. His IEP was requested about a month before that incident, we just had the IEP

meeting about 2 weeks ago. In the IEP it was recommended that he be placed in partial programming at another school. He has been going there about 2 weeks and the first 2 days was ok because it is not as overwhelming as the high school was. Less students in the class nd so forth. But now, he is coming home more and more depressed, but doesn't ever want to talk about it. The school offers very intense therapy for half the day and school classes the second half. it is very frustrating to me because Corey has an IQ of 218 but can't have a friendship, relationship, and can't understand consequences when he does something he shouldn't, like defy the principals requests. I guess my frustration is he has been involved with counselors, therapy, dr.s and it took about 5 years for someone to say well he has signs of AS. Signs?? I go online and it seems everything he has done or doesn't do is a perfect example of AS. Except he has no sensitivity to light and to

meet him, you wouldn't think anythin g was out of the norm. For years I was told he was manipulating because he was so smart and knew what he was doing. I think I could go on for days about how the past few years have been, and i'm so very concerned for Corey and just want to see him smile and be happy. He tells me he doesn't have the desire to be anything in life and unless he can spend every second on the computer he is miserable!

> >

> > Problems started with social anxiety and school issues when my son entered into the middle school. Everyone attributed his uneasiness with going to a new school, even though he was with friends. He started cutting his arms with plastic knives in the lunchroom, skipping school and was very depressed on a daily basis. He went from a straight A student to getting some C's and D's. He is extremely intelligent and even took a test for 8th grade when he was only in 5th grade and scored higher than 90% of the 8th graders. I have had him in counseling, therapy for behavioral problems, even got the school involved to no avail. He has been placed in psychiatric hospital twice and has been expelled from school twice. The principal no longer wants him at their school when honestly my son really did nothing wrong. So now, he is in a segragated school for partial hospitalization, not getting the education he needs and I am told today he has symptoms of

aspergers. Although it makes sense now, I am fearful I can't help him. Anyone have words of wisdom?

> >

>

March 11, 2011

ï»¿

Wow - IQ 218! You do have your hands full! My son has a high IQ also but not that high. My son is 6.5 and was diagnosed with Aspergers in Aug. It was over looked by several people - pediatricians, psychologist and a psychiatrist. If you suspect Aspergers then carefully select the Dr. who will perform the eval making sure they have good experience with ASD. Getting an outside private evaluation is necessary for the school to take you seriously and also then the Speech Language Pathologist will also know what to look for. Sorry maybe we've already had this conversation and I missed it or it was with someone else. My son doesn't have any academic deficits but when the school did their eval we already had the diganosis. Luckily the SLP had alot of experience with ASD kids and her report was amazing. It carried the weight for the whole IEP. When looking at pictures over a 3 week period he was asked what do you think this person is thinking - or feeling. "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know". Her report helped make so much sense for us to understand our son in a way that the psychologist never saw or explained. But I think it would have been missed if we didn't start out by knowing of his diagnosis first.

This buzzing in his ear could be a side effect from the medication. It happened to me when I was on antidepressants. Zoloft first then it happened another one I tried. Just a thought.

What is partial day programming? I'm curious what that is like for him and what other types of kids are in his class.

My son never wants to talk about anything either. It makes it so hard to reach into their world to be with them. Keep trying - hang in there! : )

( ) Re: Was just told 16 yr old son has symptoms of high functioning aspergers

Thank you so much for your reply. My son Corey, has been on Zoloft and Abilify since he was in the hospital in Feb of 2010. He is currently taking 200mg Zoloft and 20mg Abilify. We try to get him to get to bed at a regular scheduled time, but 9 out of 10 times he lies in bed for hours because he says his mind is racing. He begs for music every night because he complains of ringing in his ears and says it is so loud he cant sleep. When checked by the dr, they say his ears are fine. He is a 10th grade student who was kicked out of school because when stated he didn't want to go to the lunchroom, the principal gave him 2 choices, the nurses office or the library. My son said he was going to neither one. When asked why he would'nt he said he was too scared. since he was adament about not doing what the principle asked, they told me he was not welcome in their school. His IEP was requested about a month before that incident, we just had the IEP meeting about 2 weeks ago. In the IEP it was recommended that he be placed in partial programming at another school. He has been going there about 2 weeks and the first 2 days was ok because it is not as overwhelming as the high school was. Less students in the class nd so forth. But now, he is coming home more and more depressed, but doesn't ever want to talk about it. The school offers very intense therapy for half the day and school classes the second half. it is very frustrating to me because Corey has an IQ of 218 but can't have a friendship, relationship, and can't understand consequences when he does something he shouldn't, like defy the principals requests. I guess my frustration is he has been involved with counselors, therapy, dr.s and it took about 5 years for someone to say well he has signs of AS. Signs?? I go online and it seems everything he has done or doesn't do is a perfect example of AS. Except he has no sensitivity to light and to meet him, you wouldn't think anythin g was out of the norm. For years I was told he was manipulating because he was so smart and knew what he was doing. I think I could go on for days about how the past few years have been, and i'm so very concerned for Corey and just want to see him smile and be happy. He tells me he doesn't have the desire to be anything in life and unless he can spend every second on the computer he is miserable!> >> > Problems started with social anxiety and school issues when my son entered into the middle school. Everyone attributed his uneasiness with going to a new school, even though he was with friends. He started cutting his arms with plastic knives in the lunchroom, skipping school and was very depressed on a daily basis. He went from a straight A student to getting some C's and D's. He is extremely intelligent and even took a test for 8th grade when he was only in 5th grade and scored higher than 90% of the 8th graders. I have had him in counseling, therapy for behavioral problems, even got the school involved to no avail. He has been placed in psychiatric hospital twice and has been expelled from school twice. The principal no longer wants him at their school when honestly my son really did nothing wrong. So now, he is in a segragated school for partial hospitalization, not getting the education he needs and I am told today he has symptoms of aspergers. Although it makes sense now, I am fearful I can't help him. Anyone have words of wisdom?> >>

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March 11, 2011

Perhaps the ringing in his ear is medication related. I can believe

he has that. Perhaps from the abilify. Or the zoloft is very high

for someone with autism spectrum disorder.

Your son is so smart, and he wants to fit in I am sure. It is so

depressing for these kids to not fit in. My daughter too wants

to just stay home and be loved by her family and do her hobbies.

I really like the Dielectrical Behavior Therapy for my daughter.

It validates her and her issues, accepts that she is doing the

best she can yet cheerleads her on to keep taking small healthy

steps. DBT is skill based too, your son is not expected to have

insight and benefit from insight, he is taught skills though.

DBT is often used for people with emotional regulation issues.

He needs something for sleep, melatonin sometimes works at 2-3mg

over the counter in the vitamin section or many kids with

ADHD take clonidine at night. Some kids get sleepy on rispedal

(same class as abilify but sedating to many). It is awful when they

can't relax. Many kids with AS have a defiencey in melationin

look it up on the Mayo Clinic Web site (are you familiar with

this famous hospital in MN?). I didn't beleive it would help.

But it really has.

I am so sorry he doesn't like the school, but many kids with

AS don't like insight based therapy.

Has the medication helped? My daughter did well on zoloft,

but we could not increase it beyond 50 mg without her getting

aggressive. Now she is on prozac but it is too sedating she

is so much less aggressive though. I prefer her calmer but she

doesn't like that feeling. So hard to get medication right.

It is hard to tell in the school year if it is the school that

is the problem or is the medication that still is not enough.

What is the harm in asking for a trial where he has less

therapy but an hour of computer time or so at school. This way you

keep him in school, otherwise he may quit on you. He sounds

unhappy and hopeless. I would ask for these accomodations to

see if it helps his mood.

I hope he feels better.

Pam

> > >

> > > Problems started with social anxiety and school issues when my son entered