My son is almost five years old. Since birth we have questioned whether or not he may have some type of disability.
For the longest time after he was born he would roll his eyes quickly into the back of his head, it slowly wore off by age 3, but he still does it but you have to really be watching his eyes to see it now.
He didn’t start talking until 2 1/2 and those where just words like momma and dadda, now he has picked up verbally alot. However he showed signs of not being able to hear us but was tested and came out fine.
He is all boy but he doesn’t recognize numbers, or letters,he can’t color in the lines it’s all scribbling, his speech can be hard to understand at times. He doesn’t understand questions and can’t repeat anything you say to him like if I ask him to go play in his room and than say what did I just tell you to do he doesn’t know.
He’s always been whinny and doesn’t have patience to wait on anything he will continually ask over and over. He plays by himself well he tends at times to line up toys and if you move them he gets upset. He repeatedly rubs his thumb and index finger together all the time.
He won’t have a bowel movement on the toilet at all.
When he is around other children or people he won’t talk he will interact a little more than he used to but not much people just think he is really shy. If some one other than me talks to him he won’t respond.
Even though he plays like a normal child with his brother and at home talks alot I know there is something not right with his thinking skills and learning abilities.
Even though he is almost five it is like he is acting like he is 2years old at times and I don’t know what to do.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. My nephew by marriage is Autistic and my sister in law thinks my son may be Autistic also. Can Autisum be genetic?
I also home school my older son, but wonder if I can homeschool my son who may have learning problems are there homeschool materials out there for children with learning disabilities?
Thank you jenny
Re: How do I find out if he may have learning disablities ?
Nancy offered very good suggestions re: testing.
>Any suggestions would be appreciated. My nephew by marriage is Autistic and my sister in law thinks my son may be Autistic also. Can Autisum be genetic?
Yes autism is pretty well thought to be genetic or have genetic components. For example, I know it was before they dxed people but on my dad’s side, his sister, my dad, and his mom all had Asperger or autistic characteristics. The current research is that it is likely to be genetic and some of what you describe sounds like “mild” autism, possibly aspergers or PDD in a young child.
>I also home school my older son, but wonder if I can homeschool my son who may have learning problems are there homeschool materials out there for children with learning disabilities?
As Nancy says it may be the best way to teach him. There is LOTS of info on the net on homeschooling an ld or autistic (really just a form a ld so we don’t get too wound up about it being ld vs autistic) and there are a lot of excellent materials and material sites. Some of the sites are “Christian”. If you are not a conservative Christian look at those sites anyway, as they often do have very good info. OASIS site is also useful, there is also some important differential dx. info available:
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/
It is great to get an early start, so don’t let anyone (doctors, etc.) talk you into waiting and seeing. Social stories by Carol Gray are an excellent way of teaching social skills whether or not he is autistic. I dont’ think you need to buy anything, just look how they are written. They can be good for preschoolers. Take a look at my search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Social+stories%22%2B%22Aspergers%22
Gee, just shows I can’t really write a short post. :-)
—des
One of the best approaches at this point would be to get a neuro-psychological evaluation. Try calling local hospitals, especially children’s hospitals, to find out if they have teams that specialize in this kind of work-up. Once you find one, ask about insurance coverage. Hospitals deal with insurance all the time and should be able to tell you if yours will cover it and, if so, what exactly you need to do to ensure coverage (e.g., get a referral from your GP, or …..). Neuro-psych eval’s include quite a wide range of testing and should help determine if your son has symptoms of Asperger’s (milder form of autism), sensory integration disorder, speech/language delays, etc. It’s actually not all inclusive, but it’s a good start.
If you can’t get a full neuro-psych workup paid by insurance, you might want to take a step back and start arranging individual evaluations yourself.
For example, find a good speech pathologist and then call their office to ask about insurance coverage. Most insurance will cover a speech/language eval if you jump through the right hoops (e.g., referral from GP, specific wording on the referral, specific coding on the referral, or …..). I would do the same with an occupational therapy evaluation — first find a good OT (if possible, one with a specialization in sensory integration).
With these symptoms, I would also plan on getting a CAPD evaluation (for auditory processing disorders, which can mimic the symptoms of Asperger’s). See http://www.ncapd.org/ and http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/ for more info. Most CAPD audiologists will not test a child until age 7, although a few specialize in pediatric testing which can be very useful for severe cases.
Homeschooling is often much more effective for special needs children than public school. The reason is that at home they can get daily one-on-one work and individualized curriculums and therapies. Ideally you would be consulting with professionals who would help design programs to be done at home. Special needs children in school often develop self-esteem issues early because of the lack of appropriate one-on-one.
Nancy