Asperger? Hyperactive?

[DesertWind]

SpecialNeeds:

On the other hand, if (and that is an IF) later down the road, you really discover that your son really needs intevention, would you then regret that you could have given him help much earlier (i.e. now) ?

And why should one finds it difficult to tell another person that his/her child is undergoing early intevention ?

Hi Specialneeds!

No, definitely no regret putting my DS at this early intervention centre now as he is enjoying himself, learning, went out for excursion and got fabulous principal and teachers! Because they are in this area they have much more patience and were able to feedback to us in great detail what he does and whether his behaviour is ok or not. As he has gotten used to this centre, I do not want to pull him out now and switch him as we feel he need to take refuge here this year until his speech is on and toilet-trained before we put him back to a mainstream pre-school with big class-size.

As for not telling people he is undergoing early intervention, it is to prevent him from being labeled, got different looks and treatment or even worst, got rejected by normal pre-schools! We don't want to \"destroy\" his reputation and schooling chance even before he has properly begun.

[DesertWind]

jedamum:

Desertwind,

last year, a few months before his 3yo birth day, my ds2's preschool teacher told us to get ds2 diagnosed as his attention span is very short and he liked to do funny stuff in class. i was very angry then. dh was also very angry. i did know that ds2 is very active, but although as parents we know our kid better, sometimes it is the teachers who had seen so many children, can give a better gauge of their behaviour. i did not want to deprive my son of a chance of a better life ahead and did not want to regret not getting early intervention if the teacher prove to be right, so i went to polyclinic to get referral to NUH for ADHD diagnosis. dh was very upset that i chose to listen to the teacher. i told him that i don't want to regret not doing anything, and going for early diagnosis does not mean that i am going to put my son through any treatment or medication; i told him that we just take a step at a time and if it prove too much, we can stop any time.

at the therapist's advice, our kid also underwent speech therapy. there is nothing much they do to the kid during any of these sessions cos we did not go to any intervention centre. the speech therapy sessions involves mostly diagnosis on the degree of delay and tips given to me on how to work on his speech. questioning by the therapist also leads me to realise what are the mistakes i had made that could have possibly led to his speech delay.

Hi Jedamum!

Thanks for sharing, I think your post is the most similar to what I am going through now! At this moment I am at the same point as you were last year with my DS!

Difference is I am like your DH (very angry, don't think there is a need to go see pychologist) and my DH is like you (more pragmatic, get it check out just in case).

So may I ask you some questions now about your DS:
1. Is he still attending the same pre-school?
2. Has his speech came on already?
3. How do you react to teacher's feedback about his short attention span and doing funny things in class ie. will you try to tell the teacher that they should do something or apologize for his behaviour and pull him out?
4. What would be your reason for not putting your DS into early intervention ie. not even for a few hours a few times per week?
Sorry you can PM me if you wish! :?:

[DesertWind]

snowyqueen:

Dear Desertwind,
Though I am not sure if your DS is confirmed as a Aspergers but I had gone through the same thing before...........Basically she learnt not much thing during her three year pre-school education because of her behavioral problem. If I could turn back the clock, I would have done otherwise....I never give up and put up the utmost effort to help her. My whole brain is always thinking of how to help her to become a better person and cope with the society. Another advice which I think is very important is to choose a suitable primary school for this type of children, a school with good understanding and willingness to work with parents on the problem.

Hi Snowyqueen!

Thank you for your encouragement and advice! I think I still have a long way to go but taking each day as it comes. No, I understand that there will be no concrete diagnosis until a child is 4 yo. Before that, I understand it is just close monitoring and intervention only. This also gives me hope as I am attributing all these to his young age and the \"boy speaks later\" common belief! My main priority now is to get a supportive pre-school for him so that he will not waste his time and learn nothing much during the years before primary!

:celebrate:

[dimsum]

jedamum:

the speech therapy sessions involves mostly diagnosis on the degree of delay and tips given to me on how to work on his speech. questioning by the therapist also leads me to realise what are the mistakes i had made that could have possibly led to his speech delay.

Hi jedamum, do you mind sharing the tips given by the therapist and the \"mistakes\" that you had made that could have possibly led to his speech delay? My boy is around the same age as your DS2 and former CC teacher highlighted to me before that this speech development was slow at 2 yrs plus. I could have made the same mistakes too. Thanks!

[jedamum]

dimsum,

pm-ed you. hope it helps.

[pingsped]

snowyqueen:

Hi Pingsped,
Thank you very much for enligtening me. I am a mother constantly trying ways to see how to make up for my DD deficency. This phenonmen sorts of confuse me. As the visual memory power of my DD deteriorates, she excels and has been coached by me to be good at application skills (i.e Maths and Science). Or rather she did have the strength in this kind of subjects. Maybe by bringing out her inherent potential (as most people said ASD kids are good at Maths and that was how I put in tremendous effort to coach her to her current standard from a poor standard in P1), her talent of visual memory lost as she is performing more of reasoning skills. However, i still cannot understand if her weakness in english comprehension is more because of her deficiency or her poor vocabulary? She always tell me she cannot understand the passage and most often she would give up even in Exam and anyhow did and picked an answer or write an answer, same for close passages. I really feel a bit at wits end of how to help her in this area. Else, it is difficult to imagine she can did well for Maths and Science but poor in English, very unbalanced. If this is indeed caused by her deficiency, then I can decide the path forward for her and focus on it.

Hi Snowyqueen,

The notion of normalisation is the child with ASD is now able to socialise with peers and strangers (to a large extent). He is also able to deal with demands of daily interaction, ie take small disagreements, unexpected change etc in his stride, like a neurotypical person. He may still exhibits \"quirky\" behv when he is stressed or anxious.

Most children with Asperger have strengths in logical subjects such as science and math. They tend to have normal language development, esp good decoding and grammatical skills, except for comprehension and lg use.

Generally children who are on the spectrum have poor comprehension skills; ie Aspies have poorer or weaker comprehension skills (esp fictional texts), relative to IQ-matched peers. This is due mainly to difficulties in social perception eg reading between the lines, inability to automatically process and relate social situations as well as process typical human response.

A child who is \"normalised\", has comprehension skills that are within age-norms. He may struggle with literature-type texts but is generally able to answer most inference-type questions.

A child who is no longer having meltdowns but generally keeps to himself, still has a social skills problem. There are other criteria for normalisation eg having a few friends, asking strangers/classmates for help, etc.

Helping your girl with comprehension
- try to use visual methods eg concept map and/or timeline (arrange events in chrono order), to help your girl process the text
- managing stress/anxiety
a stressed child cannnot think clearly
- answering questions
Once a child is able to process the text, he is able to answer most qn, except the synonym-type and inferential questions.

Cloze passage - v difficult to advise as it depends on overall lg skills & vocab

(A child with high-functioning autism has a different lg profile)

hope this helps.

[pingsped]

snowyqueen:

Dear Desertwind,
Though I am not sure if your DS is confirmed as a Aspergers but I had gone through the same thing before. My DD has good eye contact but had problem socialising in pre-school and had behaviorial problems (quite serious when she was younger) and tends to be stubborn and rigid in thinking even till now.

Every child is different but I do feel that if it is Aspergers which is only mild Autistic, an early intervention program at young is appropriate and beneficial for the child. I did not do that for my girl as we got the confirmed diagnostic results at K2 so no point to transfer her to another school. Basically she learnt not much thing during her three year pre-school education because of her behavioral problem. If I could turn back the clock, I would have done otherwise.

Hi desertwind

Actually, most children with Aspergers, do not have a history of language delay. Rather, they present as bright or precocious toddlers (below 4 yr old) who memorise things effortlessly. They are able to express their needs logically but have difficulties receptively (understanding SOME instructions or explanations). At that age, they are able to relate to adults better, as opposed to peers (toddlers). Some may have sensory-processing problems. ASD traits tend to be obsession & rigidity (content-based) as opposed sensory behv (eg rocking, flicking). A child with asperger may talk abt cars, as opposed to lining them in straight line. Play looks more \"normal\".

This is the main reason why they tend to be diagnosed later. Parents, caregivers or even teachers may explain away the odd behv as just \"being kids\" or even spoilt. However the behv remains the same until parents find it increasingly difficult to explain the child's behv with using age-norms.

There are exceptions of normal lg devm such as a dual diagnosis of disability eg dyspraxia, or dyslexia.


Of course, there are various schools of thought abt high-functioning autism vs asperger syndrome. I belong to the school that feels that children with asperger syndrome have normal lg development except in areas of lg use and social comprehension.

The label is not very impt as long as the child gets help and parents are able to move on without having to know the exact diagnosis of ASD.

I have helped some kids who were diagnosed with ASD but I personally feel
they have receptive & expressive lg disorder instead. These tend to \"normalise\" very fast. Treating them as having ASD would be counter-productive & yield \"rigid\" results.

So my advice is go for general screening, allow for a provisional label so that u can get subsidised early intervention (if u r not going pte therapy). Without the ASD label, one can't enrol child in AAS, etc. Get formal diagnosis at age 6 - to get further help, or remove that provisional label.

[DesertWind]

pingsped:

The label is not very impt as long as the child gets help and parents are able to move on without having to know the exact diagnosis of ASD.


So my advice is go for general screening, allow for a provisional label so that u can get subsidised early intervention (if u r not going pte therapy). Without the ASD label, one can't enrol child in AAS, etc. Get formal diagnosis at age 6 - to get further help, or remove that provisional label.

Hi Pingsped,
OK, thank you very much for the advice and will bear in mind!
:celebrate:

[snowyqueen]

pingsped:

Most children with Asperger have strengths in logical subjects such as science and math. They tend to have normal language development, esp good decoding and grammatical skills, except for comprehension and lg use.
(A child with high-functioning autism has a different lg profile)

Hi Pingsped,

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and analysis. I wish I had known you earlier :D. I am going to try for the next few months to see if her defiency in comprehension can be improved and if by doing so if she may lose some strength in logical skills, I hope not . It sounds weird to discuss things in this way but I am willing to keep on trying to help her to overcome her weakness. Then, I also leant a lot of things cannot be rush and needs time to materialise. I really hope she can be a normal but I also accept the fact that she is \"special\" and I am amazed by her potential as she grows older though I could possiby encounter the same degree of disappointment at times when she displays her ASD traits.

[sheryl]

Hi All,

My boy is suspected to have mild AS. Did a screening last Sat. The psychologist does not think that he needs a full assessment at this moment. She does not think he will have a problem going to mainstream. She recommended social skills training. My boy has difficulty decoding facial expressions & social situation. Any recommendation for centre that conducts social skill training? Where can I get social stories books?

Thinking of letting him to join team sport. Will this helps his social skills?