it seems like day care is now a must for a child's development for some reason, for fostering social interaction and that kind of garbage. i think day care is not benicifal for children becuase of many diffrent factors.
i didn't have real friends until i was 14, and i think at that point, i was old enough to know what the soical interaction really was about. i dont think kids when they are at 2-3 years old really know what soical interaction is all about, and in my opnion very overrated. if we teach the child with the parents like they are supposed to, they can be kindled to become the best they can be before formal education begins, and the child ends up the best.
The problem is, people need to work, in many cases not for costly treatments but just for the basics. not the ones in this article, true, but many others.
Alex goes to pre school care and in September he will go to after school care too. he will be 8.
I'm a single parent, and when i didnt work at all, it was grim.., very far from idyllic, and I am always aware that i need to have a job which is bringing in enough money to pay for his adult care, should he need it. Or at least to fill in the gaps standard services leave behind.
My son goes to play therapy every Wednesday at 5:00. I have NOT noticed that he acts more NT or pretends to be other than he is. In fact it is just the opposite. Since November when we moved back to this area and he started seeing THIS doc. he has been more hisself. Had LOTS better days at school and home.
Despite the name "troll"ette I HATE confronting anyone. But please do not group "play therapy" as being a bad thing. My son has beome more comfortable, confident and in touch with 'who' he is since doing his therapy. David is the best therapist I have ever seen. And I have seen plenty.
My son is 13. I have been married this time for 11 years. My first husband left when there "problems" with our child. My son is perfect. My second husband agrees. But home schooling did NOT work for me. We were to much alike. Our arguments would have drove the most patient person crazy. I tried. That is how I found Bonnie, which led me here. (Bless you Bonnie.)
All I am saying is please do not group all play therapist together, just as you would not want to be grouped with others because the beautiful thing about AS is that every one who has it, is different. We do not want to be grouped with others, or treated different, so please just be careful how you group others.
i think the reason why alot of us don't like the aba or anything like that is becuase in the media, they publize aba as a way to change autistics into indisgitubale from the non autistic classmates and promote that as the main goal of aba. they also make blanket statements representing these few as the whole population, which is false. as long as the "treat and cure" mentaility is in the media, the bias for thearapies will never change.
i was in speech thearpy all though school (i thought it was a pain later on), but it has benifited me till today. i still have slight speech gaps (especally when talking too fast), but i surive indepently with the skills i have.
i think every parent needs to verify what will help their child reach their true potental, without the treatment mentality to change their child into something they are not. the pro-cure groups are pushing that all austitics are helpless beings that need change for success, and are pressuring the parents that change is the only answer and austim is horrible, etc, without giving the parents a chance to reallly know their kids. if you look at the pro cure groups, they don't want you to accept your autistic kids, they want you to fight the austitc kids and change them into a non autistic state.
I have tried getting him into all different kinds of things. He doesn't want to do any sports, or any group activities. In his therapy its more he can act out his aggression. And David helps him to find differnt ways of handling his aggression.
I am sure there are a lot of bad docs out there. (We have been to a few :roll: .) But I just didn't want everyone to group all play therapy as bad. I do what ever is best for my son. I never want to change or 'cure' him. But I do want him to be able to handle situations better than he has in the past. And this helps him and he likes it.
Yes he has a major issue with anger managment, but most of it is in relation to his AS. For example, if he feels someone is "stupid" (his favorite word), he becomes totally verbally abusive towards them. And will go out of his way to either aggrivate or make them mad. Then gets mad and physical when he is reprimanded in any way. His therapy is to help him overcome his anger AND to help him understand that not everyone thinks like he does.
He gets extremly mad at my 5 yr old because he cant play games as well or doesn't remember things like he does. My 5 yr old doesn't really care about video games but wants to play b/c his big brother does. But my 13 yr old gets very mad if the 5 yr old doesn't do exactly the right thing on the game.
He is learning how to cope with this anger and not understanding others thru his therapy.
The begining of this school year was awful for my son, and the rest of us. Wednesday we had his IEP and they are actually talking about main streaming him part of the day next year. The progress he has made with David is a miracle.
I am not privy to what is said during his therapy sessions, but I know that my son comes out smiling everyweek. And everyweek in school gets better and better.
Thats all I need.
I dont think kids when they are at 2-3 years old really know what soical interaction is all about, and in my opnion very overrated. if we teach the child with the parents like they are supposed to, they can be kindled to become the best they can be before formal education begins, and the child ends up the best.
I'm afraid I have to disagree, as this is the area I work in and have first-hand knowledge of.
Children were never meant to interact just with their parents; evolutionarily, humans lived in large extended families, with the children hanging out together and working with the other members of the group as they got older.
The NT kiddies I work with every day are busy learning what social interaction is all about at the age of around 3-5 (preschoolers) and the only kids who really can't seem to get it so early are the AS kids (I have one in my class of eleven children, and there are two others in the other preschool rooms).
If you just interact with one or two adults (parents) you will have a very restricted base to learn social rules. While learning social rules is difficult for those of us with AS, we have to remember that to NTs interacting with others is essential to their sense of self and well-being and they learn it by being with others around their own age. As such, high quality child-care and preschool is essential for them.
Alison
When I helped out I saw about half of the kids there acting up or looking bored or crying because they wanted their mummy. This teacher was one of the ones that spends a lot of time talking with the mothers or aides, but seems to have little rapport with the kids.
That does happen, unfortunately. I've had trouble with the social network with my colleagues as I'd prefer to spend time with the kids than talking to the other teachers. I get paid to interact with the children, after all, not to sit chatting about my weekend with my colleagues. But it's a nice feeling when the children say "Oh, don't go Alison, we want to play some more with you!" I never seem to have trouble interacting with the children, it's only as they get older that I start to feel alienated from them. But there's still those who, after leaving for "big school", still come up and give me a hug when they see me.
Alison :smile: