I'm soooo thankful to find this forum after untold hours of perusing the net for info. I just finished the first 5 chapters of The Explosive Child and I'm looking forward to finishing it tonight.
My DS is 3.5 and was adopted from Russia at 13 months. Since day 1, he has been extremely active, impulsive, aggressive and disregulated. He lacks play skills and is an EXTREME attention-seeker. His behavior has caused an unbelivable amount of stress in our household and he consumes 200% of my energy leaving almost nothing for my easy child DDs ages 9 & 7 not to mention myself and husband. We've had DS in EI since age 2 for ST, Occupational Therapist (OT) for Sensory Integration Disorder (SID) and behaviorial support. Had him diag by devel pediatrician with ADHD and ODD around age 3. A child psychiatric has also diagnosed him with 'language processing disorder" and "anxiety". He has been in inclusion PreK since turning 3 with-ST 3x/week and Occupational Therapist (OT) 2x/week. I also started taking him to a private Occupational Therapist (OT) 30 min a week who implemented a Therapeutic Listening program. We started him on Clonidine for aggression/impulsivity following a horrendous six month follow-up visit to the devel pediatrician where he kicked and spit at the Dr. and called her a 'stupid lady' for no reason other than her asking him a question. While DS has done well during structured time at school, efforts to 'regulate' him have not fared so well and unstructured time is still a major challenge for him. Even with a pretty solid sensory diet at home, his needs are so high that I cannot meet them myself as a parent for his remaining 8 waking hours in the day that he is not at school. We've tried several play-gym type places with no success. He really needs one-on-one structured high intensity 'novel' activities delivered in very quick succession or he starts to spin out of control. His IEP is coming up next week and I'm strongly considering asking for more services. My big question is what and how much and what do I use as criteria to show DS needs it? I know that the school district provides and additional 10 hours a week of in-home services to children who are Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) (to the parents who ask/fight for it). DS has not been diagnosed as 'on the spectrum' because no one feels this is his problem because he desires to interact with people (he just doesn't know how to, effectively). I know some Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) children in our district also receive daily Occupational Therapist (OT), either on pull-out or after school. My question is that in my view, my DS is equally disabled and in need of additional services. I so far have not been successful in finding any resources on the web related to DS's complex array of evolving diagnoses that I can take to the school, saying, look...he needs x, y & z. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed or of any resources I might turn to?
My DS is 3.5 and was adopted from Russia at 13 months. Since day 1, he has been extremely active, impulsive, aggressive and disregulated. He lacks play skills and is an EXTREME attention-seeker. His behavior has caused an unbelivable amount of stress in our household and he consumes 200% of my energy leaving almost nothing for my easy child DDs ages 9 & 7 not to mention myself and husband. We've had DS in EI since age 2 for ST, Occupational Therapist (OT) for Sensory Integration Disorder (SID) and behaviorial support. Had him diag by devel pediatrician with ADHD and ODD around age 3. A child psychiatric has also diagnosed him with 'language processing disorder" and "anxiety". He has been in inclusion PreK since turning 3 with-ST 3x/week and Occupational Therapist (OT) 2x/week. I also started taking him to a private Occupational Therapist (OT) 30 min a week who implemented a Therapeutic Listening program. We started him on Clonidine for aggression/impulsivity following a horrendous six month follow-up visit to the devel pediatrician where he kicked and spit at the Dr. and called her a 'stupid lady' for no reason other than her asking him a question. While DS has done well during structured time at school, efforts to 'regulate' him have not fared so well and unstructured time is still a major challenge for him. Even with a pretty solid sensory diet at home, his needs are so high that I cannot meet them myself as a parent for his remaining 8 waking hours in the day that he is not at school. We've tried several play-gym type places with no success. He really needs one-on-one structured high intensity 'novel' activities delivered in very quick succession or he starts to spin out of control. His IEP is coming up next week and I'm strongly considering asking for more services. My big question is what and how much and what do I use as criteria to show DS needs it? I know that the school district provides and additional 10 hours a week of in-home services to children who are Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) (to the parents who ask/fight for it). DS has not been diagnosed as 'on the spectrum' because no one feels this is his problem because he desires to interact with people (he just doesn't know how to, effectively). I know some Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) children in our district also receive daily Occupational Therapist (OT), either on pull-out or after school. My question is that in my view, my DS is equally disabled and in need of additional services. I so far have not been successful in finding any resources on the web related to DS's complex array of evolving diagnoses that I can take to the school, saying, look...he needs x, y & z. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed or of any resources I might turn to?