Re: advice about early intervention

[Guest guest]

My daughter did best at an early age in small supportive settings.

If you can get your child into a special smaller setting I would chose that.

Even at age 11 we have to be careful not to overwhelm our daughter or she shuts

down completely. I was not given a choice and my daughter had to suffer greatly

before a smaller setting was offered.

good luck,

Pam

-- In , " lakeducation@... " <lakeducation@...>

wrote:

>

> Hi! I have a two year old diagnosed with pdd-nos. His language, cognitive

and motor skills are all on or above level. His difficulties are with

reciprocal interactions, referencing/eye contact (does do but not as frequent as

typical children), and some odd interests (but can be easily redirected away and

does some nice multi-step play activities) . He's been receiving intervention

from a young age with experienced SLP's and teachers in his home.

>

> At home and with familiar adults, he's happy and interactive. In new places

or with new people (or even with acquaintances), he becomes extremely shy and

anxious. When he goes to play groups, he does not talk to adults or children

and won't even smile. When we're in circle in play groups, he won't answer

questions or even go get a toy if the instructor offers one. Once we split up

into our own play/climbing, he talks away to me. An instructor actually said

" Oh he talks " to me after seeing him outside of circle time!

>

> He seems to be so afraid and anxious in these social situations. Does anyone

have any experience with your kiddos acting like this at such a young age. Any

advice? We are debating on putting him in a typical or special preschool but

are worried that he'll just shut down as he does now in play groups even with

his parents or caregivers present. We're also going to soon have the transition

from infants and toddlers to an IEP so we need to make some big decisions. It

seems so scary to put him in a class when he hasn't really changed his response

in play groups after several months.

>

[Guest guest]

I have a son who is now 12, that was extremely anxious as a younger child. I think what is very important at a young age is that whatever program you choose to put him in is structured, designed for toddlers on the autism spectrum with trained/qualified teachers. My son did engage in lots of 1:1 therapy (speech and ot) from early on and that seemed to make the most difference. He was extremely anxious in groups. He would not enter a waiting room for appointments in fear of the other children. Private therapy started engaging him slowly with 1 other peer. It was almost 1 year before he could go into therapy sessions without me. He did begin a public school preschool program that at best was lacking. It was not a good experience and probaby exacerbated his anxieties. At age 5, when he began a more specialized public school program, we did begin a very low dose of Zoloft, which really helped him with the anxiety. I was very nervous about trying medications with him being so young, but my psychologist told us that either he would have damage from unknowns about medication or damage from the level of stress he was living with day in day out. He is doing really well now. He is still very reserved in new situations but once he knows the routine and what to expect he relaxes. Pam

In a message dated 8/6/2009 4:36:42 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, lakeducation@... writes:

Hi! I have a two year old diagnosed with pdd-nos. His language, cognitive and motor skills are all on or above level. His difficulties are with reciprocal interactions, referencing/eye contact (does do but not as frequent as typical children), and some odd interests (but can be easily redirected away and does some nice multi-step play activities) . He's been receiving intervention from a young age with experienced SLP's and teachers in his home.At home and with familiar adults, he's happy and interactive. In new places or with new people (or even with acquaintances), he becomes extremely shy and anxious. When he goes to play groups, he does not talk to adults or children and won't even smile. When we're in circle in play groups, he won't answer questions or even go get a toy if the instructor offers one. Once we split up into our own play/climbing, he talks away to me. An instructor actually said "Oh he talks" to me after seeing him outside of circle time! He seems to be so afraid and anxious in these social situations. Does anyone have any experience with your kiddos acting like this at such a young age. Any advice? We are debating on putting him in a typical or special preschool but are worried that he'll just shut down as he does now in play groups even with his parents or caregivers present. We're also going to soon have the transition from infants and toddlers to an IEP so we need to make some big decisions. It seems so scary to put him in a class when he hasn't really changed his response in play groups after several months.

[Guest guest]

What might be helpful is providing information and practice for him. For example, write simple social stories about how to play with other kids. Also, you can do a lot of teaching in the area of what to say and do and then have him practice these skills in small group situations and then larger groups. you can see about having someone (an aide?) who can help prompt him to do things he might not ordinarily do. If you are working on how to playtrains with other kids, for instance, you can have an aide who can help guide him into the play situation and then slowly fade back as he does better or whatever situation you are working on. For his IEP, you can come up with these kinds of goals and have data taken to see how often he can initiate conversations, ask for a toy from someone else, join a group, etc.

My ds was overly anxious as a toddler and then as he got older, it got worse. He spent his first year of pre-k hiding under a desk. They thought he couldn't even count but he was a math whiz even then. Well, that's because he was so overly anxious that he could not speak up and let people know things or join in. This was 18 years ago now! lol. We did have to make use of medication for a number of years as his anxiety grew. But he did not have as much early intervention as is available these days. He was kind of "thrown to the wolves" in many areas. It sounds like you are doing great!

Roxanna

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." E. Burke

( ) re: advice about early intervention

Hi! I have a two year old diagnosed with pdd-nos. His language, cognitive and motor skills are all on or above level. His difficulties are with reciprocal interactions, referencing/eye contact (does do but not as frequent as typical children), and some odd interests (but can be easily redirected away and does some nice multi-step play activities) . He's been receiving intervention from a young age with experienced SLP's and teachers in his home.

At home and with familiar adults, he's happy and interactive. In new places or with new people (or even with acquaintances), he becomes extremely shy and anxious. When he goes to play groups, he does not talk to adults or children and won't even smile. When we're in circle in play groups, he won't answer questions or even go get a toy if the instructor offers one. Once we split up into our own play/climbing, he talks away to me. An instructor actually said "Oh he talks" to me after seeing him outside of circle time!

He seems to be so afraid and anxious in these social situations. Does anyone have any experience with your kiddos acting like this at such a young age. Any advice? We are debating on putting him in a typical or special preschool but are worried that he'll just shut down as he does now in play groups even with his parents or caregivers present. We're also going to soon have the transition from infants and toddlers to an IEP so we need to make some big decisions. It seems so scary to put him in a class when he hasn't really changed his response in play groups after several months.