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4 lads mom
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| Posted: March 24 2007 at 9:30pm | IP Logged
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Thank you so much for sharing, Julia!! My little 5 yr old ds is working hard in speech, major articulation, I didn't know how delayed it all was until she showed my the results to his artic test she gave him (we just changed therapists last week). He will be six in a few months and his articulation tested at 2 yrs and a few months.... So, slowly it is, but we'll get there...hey, WE can understand him 
God Bless!
4 Lads' Mom with baby due in Sept.
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Willa
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| Posted: March 24 2007 at 9:56pm | IP Logged
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momtomany wrote:
| Willa, this was a great idea to start this thread. I had no idea how many special blessing children we had here. |
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Me neither. It is touching to read all your stories. It is comforting a sort of heart-ache I didn't really realize I had.
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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marysjoys
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| Posted: March 24 2007 at 11:57pm | IP Logged
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Well, you certainly touched a nerve in the 4REAL community with this thread, Willa. Thank you.
I have just read "When Slow is Fast Enough" in time to organize a short presentation on it for my Committee on Preschool Special Education meeting with the school district next month. It was such a help, giving me research to back what my heart, and the Holy Spirit were telling me about Christina, "just let her be, she's learning every day, at her own pace, with her own particular interests".Now I have the courage to say to them that I will be homeschooling Christina for Kindergarten, and explain my reasons if they care to hear them.
That book was like reading Dr. Sears for the first time, it gave me permission to listen to my heart. As a special needs mom, you have too many experts telling what's best for your child, most of whom barely know her.
I did let them push me around last year, but I'm back in charge this year, and I can tell Christina is happier, and whatever she learns will be remembered for it's relevancy in her life.
Thanks, Willa, for suggesting that book! I'll write my thoughts into a post when I get them together.
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Mom to three lovely girls, Gabby, 13, Bella, 9, and Christina, 5 who has Down Syndrome.
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hopalenik
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Hi,
I am Holly, we live in Connecticut with 5 kids. Tara is my oldest at 7 1/2. She is mostly doing second grade work and aside from being extraordinarily sensitive is just fine. My twins are Nadia and Joshua. They are almost 6 and are doing K. I will get back to them. Tegan is 2 1/2 and Keara is 8 months.
My twins were taken in an emergency C at 31 weeks, because Joshua's kidney failed in utero. His first week of life was touch and go but after he survived all the respiratory, heart and blood pressure problems, the doctors still gave him a <5% chance of survival to transplantation. He survived for 14 months in end stage renal failure without dialysis until I donated my kidney. His kidney has been fine ever since but we have a constant myriad of infections do to the immunosuppressants. He is also 55% deaf, we only just discovered that right before his 5th birthday. The aids have corrected grammar issues and helped with disciplinary issues. Joshua had an NG tube for feeding from 9months to 2 years. He had speech and feeding therapy till 2 and recently we restarted speech because he has a "mush mouth tongue" and a lisp. He is learning to read and write on schedule, although number discrimination is not coming along as quickly.
All the girls are "normal".
Holly
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ALmom
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 3:59pm | IP Logged
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Susie:
I've been wanting to say thanks for your post for a long time. Your sensitivity to your children shone through and made me ponder along many different lines. If the truth be told, we all have quirks and challenges and remembering that helps me remember to keep things in perspective. None of us should be defined as a person by what we can or cannot do - but as made in the image and likeness of God. When our whole world defines the worth of a person in terms of what they can do, it is hard, sometimes, for me not to panic at limitations or get sucked into an academic panic with all my children - who are all special in the real sense of the word. Even with my children who progess at a "normal" academic and social rate - or seem to make it there eventually, it is easy to be tainted by that error in the emphasis and direction of our homeschool and forget that our main goal is helping our children get to heaven and find God's will for their lives. God has a plan for my child, whether or not we ever find answers to why the struggles or how to "correct" these. While we work to provide as many helps and opportunities, we really know and love these children and so does God and we have no reason to be afraid.
Thanks for your reminder in the way you shared both your and your dh foibles. And yes, I have some odd habits too. I hate crowds, noise will bring out the worst in me and only in adulthood has excessive noise not inadvertantly led to a major temper outburst. I do not use both of my eyes together, am awkward and clumsy (my poor babies were always ending up in walls because I misjudged and had them on my hips). I have directionality issues and a myriad of visual processing things very akin to my children's. I have trouble with sewing, art, - I cannot write a straight line even with a ruler and I am timid at trying new things and can never seem to hold a face in memory and forever forget names. Thankfully, no one labels me by my limitations and people seem to just accept me for who I am most of the time. It is wonderful to find this site and though my children may or may not have a diagnosable special need, I love the celebration here on accepting our children wherever they are and helping them grow and develop in their own way and time. You moms and your children are a wonderful witness to all that is really important.
Janet
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At_His_Feet
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| Posted: April 29 2007 at 5:50am | IP Logged
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Hi there, this is my very first post!
Our second son was dx with mild Asperger Syndrome 7 months ago.
At that point he was still at school (he is only 7)
but last
last week was his first week at home. We have been hs our eldest NT son for 15 months. It has been a wonderful journey.
We also have a 2 year old. At present he isn't talking, but thankfully that is the
only ASD trait he is showing.
To say that I am nervous would be an understatement. I am terrified that I won't be able to cope on the bad days. The Lord did not bless me with as much patience as I would like! Having said that, the more I learn and understand about my son and his disorder, the more patience I find!
I think that praying through the meltdowns does help. When Campbell starts to wind up, I have been trying to remember to pray as I go.
Campbell's obsession is commercial air craft. So if anyone has any good links for unit studies etc I would really appreciate it!
Looking forward to getting to know everyone.
Tricia
Aussie Wife to James (95), Mum to Thomas (98), Campbell (00), and Riley (04).
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Willa
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Welcome, Tricia, praying and learning as you go sounds like a successful strategy.
Janet -- I just read your last post and wanted to mention that I also have some idiosyncrasies like misjudging spatial situations and getting overwhelmed by noise and busy visual environments.
I forget if I mentioned it but I struggled with selective mutism before there was a name for the condition, when I was in late elementary and middle school. The mutism occured at school and I'm sure it was because the spatial, visual and auditory barrage was way beyond my ability to cope. Even now I have to really prepare myself to go to a shopping mall or a busy large church and when I think that back then I was dealing with it for 7 hours five days a week with an immature sensory system, I'm surprised I did as well as I did.
The journey to understand my wonderful childrens' quirks has helped me be more patient and understanding of my own little quirks. With patience and understanding, it's easier for me to develop coping strategies both for me and for them rather than just scold myself and get frustrated and discouraged. Definitely a journey but in that way I have found it a true genuine gift to mother my special blessings.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Taffy
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Hi Tricia,
Just wanted to welcome you to the board and the world of homeschooling! There are a LOT of resources available online for homeschooling with Aspergers, just take it slowly so you don't get overwhelmed. Expect to have a little "down time" as you get used to being around each other more and as he adapts to learning at home.
One thing I'd like to mention is that you may find that your son will have fewer meltdowns since he's not dealing with the stresses of school anymore. Of course, he'll have new stresses to deal with at home, but at least you'll be in a better position to help him deal with the stresses of daily living in a more positive way.
Good luck! 
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At_His_Feet
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Thanks Taffy,
So far we are finding there are less meltdowns. Long may it remain! 
If you have any links that you think would be useful, please pass them on.
Blessings,
Tricia
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Taffy
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| Posted: May 04 2007 at 10:11pm | IP Logged
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What kind of links are you after, Tricia?
Here's a few that I've found very helpful...
And here's some curriculum sources specifically for autism and special needs...
Hope this helps some! Let me know if you'd like some more...
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Susan
Mom to 5 on earth and 1 in heaven
Susan's Soliloquy
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KC in TX
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Susan,
These are great sites!! I've never seen some of them and they come at a great moment because I've been rethinking my son's needs. I think he has greater needs than his therapies are covering so I'm researching many things and those sites are helping me hone in on them.
Thank you!!! You've given me a much needed boost.
__________________
KC,
wife to Ben (10/94),
Mama to LB ('98)
Michaela ('01)
Emma ('03)
Jordan ('05)
And, my 2 angels, Rose ('08) and Mark ('09)
The Cabbage Patch
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albeto
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Well, I'm not usually confident enough to post an introduction. Generally I lurk, insert a thought here or there when I can't keep my thoughts to myself anymore, but, well, here goes. You all seem like a very well grounded, normal sort of gals with realistice approaches to the difficulties we face daily, so I'll just go ahead and introduce myself.
I am the sahm of three children, the oldest dx with PDD-NOS (essentially Aspie but for the early language part). He's been quite the handful from day one. Probably mostly because dh and I are quite mellow, spontaneously inspired folk and ds needs structure, predictabiliy and routine. It never occured to me when he was young. Much of his troubles have been from behavioral habits established to solve his unrecognized problems because his mom certainly didn't see what he saw - spontanaity means unpredictability means frightening.
Now I'm on top of things and after years of ABA training, some RDI, some OT, usless psychotherapy, extremely helpful behavior management, I finally have a handle on some of this. We pulled ds from our local Catholic School in Feb, in 6th grade. The public school (grades 1 & 2) was a nightmare and caused a bit of traumatic stress. There was neglect and physical abuse there which was meant to control his behaviors (throwing a pencil down, crumpling his paper) but only succeeded in teaching him aggressive ones. He felt he was defending himself. I was clueless.
However, now that the behaviors used to escape and avoid difficulties have deminished, we are left with a kid who has huge gaps in knowledge that has gone undetected because all our energy was spent in reclaiming him after the ps fiascos. He's so bright with science, especially microbiology, that it's easy to assume he's really, really smart. Only, autism has a sneaky way of holding him back. He has very poor executive functioning skills, he has very poor concept of time (not on the clock but in relation to life - last week vs. yesterday), he has poor expressive speach (which was covered up when throwing a pencil in ps distracted all of us from the fact that he couldn't write). We've done meds (our psych is a bit trigger happy with the dx, I think, and we are now pulling him off every med to see just what we have underneath it all), we have done the natural assult (DAN! Docs, mulitvitamins, natural chiropracors, special diets). All of these have helped but now we're back to a relatively normal life.
I love homeschooling him. I love teaching him and filling in the gaps I'm still learning about. I was amazed at how well this visual mapping (using the whiteboard to organize thoughts) works to keep him focused. I love being able to intergect little pearls of wisdom that he needs to navigate life that his teachers at school just wouldn't know or have the time to address. I love letting him pace around the room as I read, or stop to have conversation, knowing he isn't on meds to help him sit in a chair quietly for most of the day. I am still weary of teaching the some of the courses that he will need as he gets older and am relatively new to Christianity so I often forget to pray. Having come from a pretty athiestic background, I tend to rely on my own strength to solve all the problems and then freak out when things get out of control. (deep breath, one day at a time!) I am finding the behaviors are significantly less now that he's home and able to take life at his pace. Even dh, who was adimantly against hsing, sees a calmer and happier kids.
My younger kids still attend the Catholic School, which will be fine for them for now. Ds still gets anxious if one of them is home, but this school's value kind of peeters off in middle school (the teachers are more lax, kids start to click hard, religion is only a 20 min subject, not a foundation for making choices in life). I would love to hs them all but dh is very nervous about hsing and so we just plod along.
Anyway, should anyone still be reading this, you now know how long I can ramble given half the chance!
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Taffy
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Hi Albeto! Welcome to the board!
Glad to hear that homeschooling is working out for you now. I share the same issue with my husband about homeschooling all of our children. I'll pray for you and you can pray for me.
And don't worry too much about forgetting to pray. I'm a cradle/revert Catholic and I still fall into periods of time where I forget to pray - well formal prayers anyways. I think all those "Help me, Lord!" kind of thoughts are a way of praying too.
And thanks again for the visual mapping tip!
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Susan
Mom to 5 on earth and 1 in heaven
Susan's Soliloquy
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Willa
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Albeto, not too long an intro at all. I was with you for every word; so interesting to hear your story about your son.
That visual mapping idea is making me think. My almost-8year old functions at 5 year developmental level so I don't think he could understand the conceptualization yet, but I am wondering if there is some more concrete way to help him organize himself -- he has some of the same issues about time concepts and categorization problems, just at a lower level right now.
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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marysjoys
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Albeto, nice to meet you! I enjoyed your intro, and it inspired me. I have homeschooled my two typical girls for nine years, but blanch at the thought of homeschooling my five year old with Down Syndrome. I'll need all of your support, as I begin this September.
BTW, I often call for help during the day, and am learning to pray using the name of Jesus
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Mom to three lovely girls, Gabby, 13, Bella, 9, and Christina, 5 who has Down Syndrome.
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4 lads mom
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Glad you spoke up, Albeto!! The one thing I love about this board is...the women on this site are REAL....we all have bad days, "forget to pray" days....and we plod on, knowing we love these beautiful kids with every fiber of our being....and feel awfully small and weak lots of times...my special needs kids are the ones who have made me become more of who I was suppose to be, emptying me of...me...and filling up more of HIM!!!
Thanks for the tip about the white board, I am going to try it.
Nice to meet you!
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Mom of four brave lads and one sweet lassie
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tntreefarm
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Hi Everyone
I joined the forum several weeks ago. I'm so happy to find a group that has Catholic mom's with special needs children many of which are homeschooling all or some of their children. We live in a great h.school area, but I rarely hear of anyone who is doing it with sp. needs children.
Our little family has 5 children. The oldest, P.J., is 16 (17 in Dec- panic) he is our first born and has Down Syndrome. Obsessive-Compulsive behaviors, perseverative speech and the strong willed personality from my Italian side of the family are his biggest problems.
Our next child is a lovely and most of the time wonderful daughter that joined our family at 9 1/2 months via adoption from Anhui Provience PRC. Although she didn't start out with a label, she started getting them aroung her 3rd birthday and currently we use Asperger's and recently added ADHD and math LD. Clare Jian-Cui will turn 10 in August.
The next is Thomas Thanh-Ha who came home from Bac Giang, Vietnam just a little under a year from his older sister Jian's arrival. Thanh turns 9 in October. Thanh is our first "normal" child and did everything the Denver Developmental chart said he should be doing right on time. That is until he started passing it and doing everything early. He is very smart, fast, and driven. It might be interesting to see if his IQ is in the gifted range- but considering that intellectual giftedness falls into the sp ed category I do not want to find out that I have 3 children that would qualify for an IEP.
Next is our surprise- Lia Grace- born on Thanksgiving day 1999. In the weeks prior to my husband preparing to travel to Vietnam to bring home Thanh (I had gone to China) I was feeling a little "off" and at 43 didn't think about pregnancy. By the Grace of God (or His sense of humor) she is "normal" and it certainly was a great relief.
The children in China never left our heart and even though we could barely, think, or sleep for several years we found ourselves once again doing "paperwork". We prayed hard and hoped that God would somehow stop us from doing something really stupid if we weren't understanding the tug in our hearts. Things went all too smoothly and in June 05 I found myself going back to PR China. This time I traveled for a waiting child and a boy. His medical problem (intestines protruding from his abdomen) was repaired and he is very healthy. so, John Le-Si joined our family on June 13, 2005 (St. Anthony of Padua feast day ) and we landed home to NE Tennessee on June 24, 2005 (Birthday of St. John the Baptist)
He walked into our home like he'd always been there. He is trying hard to keep up with big brother Thanh and tries to do all the stuff that makes my hair go white.
So, that's us ...
I think I'm experiencing big time "burnout" Having the two oldest have sp. needs seems to be a tougher situation. PJ needs job training and someone to stay with him all the time to keep him busy. We are thinking of putting him in a public school in August that has a decent program and a very good voc rehab counselor. this situation is rather stressful for me. I need him out of the house , but I'm not sure if the school placement will help or be worse. the school we want to use is not the district we live in. the drive might "drive" me crazy as well as having to do IEP meetings and going through a large committee to change anything.
I'm feeling rather "burned out" so if anyone has gone through the job training/placement years while still h.schooling younger ones would like to offer comments I'd be all ears.
Peace, Cathy
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4 lads mom
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Cathy,
Welcome!! You are an amazing person!!! I see so much of God's grace in your life. Thanks for sharing. I do not have any experience with your specifics, my guys are younger, but feeling overwhelmed is no stranger to us all!!
It's like running a marathon every day!!
Peace and praying for answers for you!
__________________
Mom of four brave lads and one sweet lassie
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marysjoys
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I have wanted to share my article in Faith and Family, which will serve as my introduction, but was asked not to publish it until after the magazine had a chance. It appeared in the previous issue, so here's the link to the article on my blog.
__________________
Mom to three lovely girls, Gabby, 13, Bella, 9, and Christina, 5 who has Down Syndrome.
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Lori B
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I'm pretty new here, and haven't made an introduction yet. We are a family of 6, and three of our dc have challenges (17yod is graduated, working, and fairly normal  )
12yod has Asperger's, and is doing amazingly well- her neuro firmly believes it's because she is at home 
9yos was a preemie, has APD, dyslexia, and ADHD. Sounds overwhelming, but he is also doing great- his developmental ped. firmly believes it's because he is at home
6yod has an extremely rare disease (JXG) that causes tumours to grow anytime, anywhere. After 3 years of no new tumour growth, children affected are considered to be in remission- dd hit that milestone 1 1/2 years ago One of her tumours was unfortunately on her left eye, which resulted in many secondary complications (glaucoma, cataract, lens implant...) and 17 surgeries before she was 14mos old. As a result, her vision is poor in her good eye as well (not unusual, I'm told). After years of vision therapy her good eye is much stronger, and she has some (very) limited vision in her bad eye. She is resisting learning to read due to the huge effort involved, but is an absolute math whiz and very creative/ artistic. We are introducing a lot of hands-on/ Montessori-type activities for her this year. Even though it has been a long, hard road to recovery, she is doing amazingly well- her vision therapist and ped. ophthalmologist firmly believe it's because she is at home
I seem to be doing a lot of , but that is truly how we feel most days (now that the 'hard bits' seem to be behind us).
I'm looking forward to participating!
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: Can we introduce ourselves?
