Hi Jessica - how did this go? - I never got a chance to address
this.  I went to the Wrightslaw conference and it was helpful in
reviewing goals and I felt the same way.  Our therapist wrote the
worst most non measurable goals ever and I had to rewrite them in
order to make some common sense.  One completely stupid goal was
something written like "will address peers appropriately"  OK well is
that a high five?  Include eye contact?  Include a name?  I mean
really what is the goal here?

BTW you can get a free advocate to help you by contacting DDD in
Trenton once you are in the system you can request one from your case
manager.  It took a few months but we got approved in less than four
months and it's helpful to work with someone who is a speech
therapist and an advocate.  Once the evaluations are complete with
our son I think my district will find themselves up against my
experts and I will be in a better place to get the services we need
for our son.  When more eyes are on the IEP it helps in building the
right education instead of the cookie cutter one most give out.

April

I'll definately ask the case manager then.  Thank you all for your
reply.
>
> Jessica
>

I'm very glad that my son got his ESY today. But it's a very short 6
weeks program. Is that normal length for most of the ESY program?
Should he continue to get PT during ESY?

Thanks.

Jessica

I'm very glad that my son got his ESY today.  But it's a very short 6
weeks program.  Is that normal length for most of the ESY program?
Should he continue to get PT during ESY?

Thanks.

Jessica

This is our first message in the group, and we're happy to be here.

We moved into NJ from PA almost two years ago, and it has been a
whirlwind.

We live in the Bridgewater-Raritan school district, and haven't been
pleased with the progress our son has had in his co-teaching
classroom. He is much smarter than his performance shows, and all the
meetings and IEPs in the world don't seem to be doing much for him.

Even though his developmental pediatrician has recommended certain
therapies (OT, social group, etc.), the school district has given
very limited help/services. While not directly the teacher's or
therapists' fault, we cannot stand to lose another year while our son
is pushed aside and not given the support he needs. For example, the
occupational therapist doesn't have a sensory gym at his school -
which is what both she and the developmental pediatrician have stated
he needs.

We have finally gone outside the school district and are paying for
OT and a social group for our son.

Luckily, we live in an apartment. We are going to move, so we are
open to suggestions as to where the better school districts are that
have helped pay for outside support that they could not provide 'in
house' and also have good special education programs. While we
currently live in Bridgewater, we are pretty much free to be roughly
one hour from Morristown (where the primary source of income is).

Additionally, we are also interested in hearing from those who have
had good experiences with developmental pediatricians who aren't
spring-loaded into the following categories: a) Just totally give in
to your child and make the world revolve around them; b) load the kid
up with drugs and keep them that way, c) there's nothing wrong with
your child/he's high functioning so don't worry about it.

If anyone has a son or daughter with dark circles under their eyes
that turned out to be a food allergy, and managed to
isolate/eliminate it, we'd also love to hear from you.

Lastly, does anyone have their child in a special school that has
smaller class size and caters to kids with sensory integration
issues/autistic spectrum/etc., but who also happen to be highly
intelligent? We view it as a kind of Shangri-La if we could find a
place that would help our son deal with his shortcomings, help
maximize his potential, and bring out the best in him.

Sorry this is so long, but we've got a lot more questions than we
have answers, and we want to thank in advance everyone who takes the
time to read through all this and respond.

--- In Care-to-ShareSupportNetwork@yahoogroups.com, "Tina Rear"
<tina@...> wrote:
>
> Hi and welcome to Care to Share, we are happy you are here also!
>
> If you don't mind sharing your name it would be great so we can
> talk.

Sorry!  We forgot to sign our names at the bottom of our initial
message.  Our names are Chris and Colleen Andreychik, and we have two
sons (6 1/2 and 2 1/2).  Both boys are on the spectrum; our 6 1/2
year old currently has an IEP.  We started working with early
intervention in Pennsylvania when he was almost 2 1/2.  Unfortunately
with Chris' job, we've moved quite a bit - three times in the past
five years.  We're hoping to stay in one spot long enough to 'set up
shop', find the support our boys need, and set them up for success.


> What grade is your son in?

Our 6 yr old is in first grade.  He is one of the younger kids in his
class.  As we posted in our initial message, it is a co-teaching
classroom and he is considered mainstreamed (also called a 'typical'
classroom) - but we don't think he is being given the tools necessary
to deal with a mainstreamed classroom.


> Regarding sensory needs - depending on what the issues are some of
them
> may be able to be solved in the classroom, or with a little support
from
> the teachers.  You do not necessarily need a whole sensory gym.  Our
> school (Hillsborough) has a very small OT/PT room and yes, I am sure
> everyone would prefer it was larger but it works and the teachers
and
> therapists work "everywhere" to help the child..  Inside the
classroom
> is key.  We have a great OT online here (Christine) who I will copy
> offline in this message and if she has any additional input she will
> reach out to you offline.

Our six year old needs more than what he is receiving in the
classroom, hence our seeking outside OT and social group help.  Here
is one extreme example (not to give you the wrong impression, because
sometimes he can be an absolute angel):
As some on the spectrum tend to do, our son has obsessive behavior.
One of those obsessions is an extreme dislike of a little girl in the
classroom.  Our son's behavior has been, at times, dangerous to this
little girl (pulling on a sweater so hard the buttons pop off,
putting his hands around her neck in a choking manner (thank God he
didn't apply pressure!!!!)) and little has been done to correct the
situation.  We have tried to talk with him/use positive
reinforcement/etc., but he cannot get away from his very strong
obsessive behavior regarding this little girl.  We're fairly certain
that if this little girl wasn't in his class, that he would direct
the behavior towards another classmate.  Though he hasn't taken any
physical action lately, this little girl is such a distraction that
his school work is suffering because of it.  Instead of trying to
diffuse the situation, we just recently found out that the teachers
put this little girl in his reading group - why???  On top of it all,
at a after-school function in our sons' classroom, this little girl's
mother purposely directed her daughter towards our son just to try
and invoke a reaction from him - so we have to wonder if there is
more to it than just our son's issues.  The latest is that the
teachers have moved her even closer to where he sits in the
classroom.  Our son's issues seem to be exacerbated by the people who
are supposed to help him!  It is at the point that he doesn't want to
go to school, we can hardly blame him, and we don't want to send him!

Obviously, this is not the only problem we or his teachers have with
him, but the overall lack of attention to his issues and the
resultant lack of progress with school work HAS TO STOP!!!!

There is NO sensory gym room at our son's school.  The 'OT' room is
quite small and does not have what our son needs (basically, the
extent of what she can do with him in there is pull him around on a
board).  As I mentioned in my first message, the therapists try their
best, but they do not have the tools to help our son with what he
needs.


>
> Diet - We have experienced the same things and have had my son
tested
> and he did have allergies and we have a treatment plan that has
helped.
> If you are interested in talking further about this we can do it
> offline, I will be happy to help.  - Again, Christine is pretty
good at
> this also!

Well, we know for certain that our 6 yr old has environmental and
food allergies.  As far as food is concerned, he has a severe allergy
to nuts and egg.  We are beginning to wonder if there is something as
of yet undiagnosed simply because of the circles/dark spots under his
eyes.  We believe that an elimination diet should be given a try, but
we just don't know where to head.

Also, are there any recommendations from others in the group who have
had success with holistic doctors/supplementation???


> Moving - Once I know a little more about your situation maybe we can
> help get you the support you need
>
> Hope that helps

Thanks so much Tina.  I think we would also benefit greatly from
coming to some of the support group meet-and-greet nights.  Chris
travels A LOT with his job, so it may be difficult, but we could
definitely use some help in knowing that we: a) are not alone, b) are
not crazy!, and c) others have had success helping their kids who are
very much like ours!!!

Thanks to the entire group, and we look forward to the responses.

Chris & Colleen

This is our first message in the group, and we're happy to be here.

We moved into NJ from PA almost two years ago, and it has been a
whirlwind.

We live in the Bridgewater-Raritan school district, and haven't been
pleased with the progress our son has had in his co-teaching
classroom. He is much smarter than his performance shows, and all the
meetings and IEPs in the world don't seem to be doing much for him.

Even though his developmental pediatrician has recommended certain
therapies (OT, social group, etc.), the school district has given
very limited help/services.  While not directly the teacher's or
therapists' fault, we cannot stand to lose another year while our son
is pushed aside and not given the support he needs.  For example, the
occupational therapist doesn't have a sensory gym at his school -
which is what both she and the developmental pediatrician have stated
he needs.

We have finally gone outside the school district and are paying for
OT and a social group for our son.

Luckily, we live in an apartment.  We are going to move, so we are
open to suggestions as to where the better school districts are that
have helped pay for outside support that they could not provide 'in
house' and also have good special education programs.  While we
currently live in Bridgewater, we are pretty much free to be roughly
one hour from Morristown (where the primary source of income is).

Additionally, we are also interested in hearing from those who have
had good experiences with developmental pediatricians who aren't
spring-loaded into the following categories: a) Just totally give in
to your child and make the world revolve around them; b) load the kid
up with drugs and keep them that way, c) there's nothing wrong with
your child/he's high functioning so don't worry about it.

If anyone has a son or daughter with dark circles under their eyes
that turned out to be a food allergy, and managed to
isolate/eliminate it, we'd also love to hear from you.

Lastly, does anyone have their child in a special school that has
smaller class size and caters to kids with sensory integration
issues/autistic spectrum/etc., but who also happen to be highly
intelligent?  We view it as a kind of Shangri-La if we could find a
place that would help our son deal with his shortcomings, help
maximize his potential, and bring out the best in him.

Sorry this is so long, but we've got a lot more questions than we
have answers, and we want to thank in advance everyone who takes the
time to read through all this and respond.

Hi Allison... knowing how sensitive your son is I am going to make a
recommendation that you might want to review with whoever is helping
you make the switch to a casein free diet and or others here might
want to chime in...

While I realize the goal of the diet change is to remove ALL casein
given his pickiness you may not be able to do it ALL at once to avoid
him completely refusing foods... take the food/drink that he is
familiar with and slowly mix in the new option changing percentages
as you go.. ie... first time 90% cows/10% alternative, give for a bit
then 80% cow/20% alternative, then 70% cow/30% alternative all the
way down until you are at 0% cow and 100% of the new casein free
alternative.  You may not have to go as slow as a 10% change each
time but just enough so that there is not a great abrubt taste and
texture change.  You can do this with other foods too..

While this approach will take you longer to get to truly being casien
free and actually seeing the overall results of what this can do for
your son it will help alleviate him losing more food options since he
is so picky to begin with.. better to do gradation than have to work
past his refusals and will-power (which is very astute and strong if
I recall correctly)

Are you doing a full glueten casein free diet or just the casein?

Are you giving him any EFA (essential fatty acids) supplements - like
the ProEFA we discussed at one point?

Call or email me off line if you have any questions...

Good Luck!

~ Christine, OT

My son is starting on a casein free diet and he currrently LOVES cows
milk and I was wondering what is the most similiar taste and texture to
2% cows milk?
My son is a very picky eater.
Any feedbcak from experience would be appreciated.
Allison

Early Bird Registration ENDS May 1

Be sure to sign up for the  by May 1 to take advantage of early bird
2008 Autism Society of America National conference
prices. This conference is designed to provide something for
everyone. If you are a parent, individual on the spectrum, medical
professional, service provider, behaviorist, speech and hearing
therapist, educator, first responder, community supporter or other
autism professional, this is the conference to attend. We anticipate
close to 2,000 attendees, with over 160 sessions and 9 preconference
workshops. We also host the nation's largest autism exposition,
featuring over 150 booths.

Highlights:

Keynote speakers: Bob Hendren, DO; Temple Grandin, PhD; and Jim Ball,
EdD, BCBA
Continuing education credits available, including CME, BCBA and ASHA
Respite childcare provided onsite for families through QuestKids-
Florida
Presentation of National ASA Awards
157 exhibit booths in the exposition hall
ASA Panel of Professionals Forum & Preconference Session
Safe and Sound Preconference Session with Dennis Debbaudt and other
featured speakers
Evening of Champions Gala Event honoring autism community leaders

For more information contact ASA at conference@... or
301.657.0881, ext. 110.

I sent you a message but haven't heard back from you! Check out my page and send
me a line:
http://lisafran123.zoomshare.com/files/AboutMe.htm