Bethintx
02-25-2005, 03:46 PM
Hi! I'm Beth. I'm Mom to Jonathan, age 15 and Ryan an autistic 13 year-old. When Ryan was a baby he was a quiet baby he would be happy playing in his crib and he didn't cry very much. A Good baby!
When he was about 15 months old we noticed he didn't pick up little things right. He used the knuckle on his thumb instead of the end of his thumb. The pediatrician recommended we take him to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. It's a wonderful place for children with physical disabilities. Their Neurologist diagnosed him with PDD (Pervasive development disorder) and ordered a battery of tests. (thank God TSRH is a free hospital !)They said he had autistic tendencies. I asked if he was autistic. They were reluctant to give him that label! I said if he is autistic, then let's call it that! They finally decided to officially dignose it as autism so we could get the help Ryan needed. They gave us information about the local MHMR (Mental Health and Mental Retardation) and ECI (Early Childhood Intervention.)
MHMR and ECI both had teachers and therapists come to out home and work with both us and Ryan. Wow! what a difference! He started making eye contact!
At age Three, he was eligible to go to the local public school. They had an early childhood program where Ryan went to school for half-days. He thrived there! They provide Physical, occupational, speech and music therapists as well as wonderful special education teachers! They involve the parents in the education too. He moved on to full-day classes as he got older and he was enrolled in a class for autistics called communication class. They sent us to different conferences and classes, some were free, others cost only a few dollars. We learned how to use the PECS (Picture exchange communication system) and Ryan began to say simple words! He answerd yes and no questions and would make choices too!
Now Ryan is in Middle school and continuing to make progress. We are prepering to send him to the High school next year. We just had his ARD and have everything planned for that transition.
As different subjects come up I'll probably fill in other things that have happened or things we tried. Sorry for this being so wordy!
Bethintx :D
When he was about 15 months old we noticed he didn't pick up little things right. He used the knuckle on his thumb instead of the end of his thumb. The pediatrician recommended we take him to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. It's a wonderful place for children with physical disabilities. Their Neurologist diagnosed him with PDD (Pervasive development disorder) and ordered a battery of tests. (thank God TSRH is a free hospital !)They said he had autistic tendencies. I asked if he was autistic. They were reluctant to give him that label! I said if he is autistic, then let's call it that! They finally decided to officially dignose it as autism so we could get the help Ryan needed. They gave us information about the local MHMR (Mental Health and Mental Retardation) and ECI (Early Childhood Intervention.)
MHMR and ECI both had teachers and therapists come to out home and work with both us and Ryan. Wow! what a difference! He started making eye contact!
At age Three, he was eligible to go to the local public school. They had an early childhood program where Ryan went to school for half-days. He thrived there! They provide Physical, occupational, speech and music therapists as well as wonderful special education teachers! They involve the parents in the education too. He moved on to full-day classes as he got older and he was enrolled in a class for autistics called communication class. They sent us to different conferences and classes, some were free, others cost only a few dollars. We learned how to use the PECS (Picture exchange communication system) and Ryan began to say simple words! He answerd yes and no questions and would make choices too!
Now Ryan is in Middle school and continuing to make progress. We are prepering to send him to the High school next year. We just had his ARD and have everything planned for that transition.
As different subjects come up I'll probably fill in other things that have happened or things we tried. Sorry for this being so wordy!
Bethintx :D