Hey,

Until my son comes back home (to know more see my "cps and autism" post in the support forum). does anyone have any ideas and advice on what I can do with him?

He just recently got diagnosed after receiving years of therapy. I kept pushing for some type of diagnosis. Autism has always been on their minds and he finally got diagnosed with it.

He doesn't talk and that's very frustrating for me especially when I see his younger sister who is 1yr younger than him, beginning to say words and doing sign language. Even though he gets therapy everyday at where he is at (which I provided to him before they were taken by cps) when he comes back home (hopefully after this next court hearing), is there anything I can do with him to try to improve his speech? I tried doing sign language and so did the therapist and he never caught on. he did the "more" sign for a little bit but then stopped doing it. He just said a half of a word at my last visit with him. was so excited, despite the situation, for him.

The other thing was his behaviors. He doesn't understand cause and effect and that's not his fault..its just frustrating. He can take direction really well. I can ask him to do something and he will do it. But when it comes down to discipline and saying "no", he doesn't understand. When he scratches his sister (I presume out of frustration because he can't vocalize what he wants, whats wrong,etc) he doesn't understand that scratching her hurts her and that its a  "no no". I can put him in time out a million times but he continues to do the same behaviors. Same thing with opening the fridge constantly and going into the bedrooms, where he isn't suppose to go (main on he gets into is the bathroom and my bedroom). He is attracted to electronical things (tv, computer), light switches, cords, and outlets. He is extremely smart as well and when he got the diagnosis he was rated for "average intelligence rating". which is good. he will figure anything out. So thats why the "gate" didn't work to keep him safe during his room at night. He knew how to either hop over it or push it down. The safety lock handles for the door didn't work either because he knew how to push it down to where they would pop off. The only way I could keep him safe from "wondering" as a temp. fix was to lock his bedroom door which many professionals from valid autism websites suggested to do (reasoning why cps took them).

Its hard because my younger daughter is able to learn "no" at this stage, even though she can have a pretty nasty tantrum. But if my son who has autism isn't able to grasp that and learn "no" and why he can't do certain things (which is why he keeps doing them) then she thinks, "well..why do i have to do it if he isn't doing it" frame of mind. does that make sense?

I also want to get more educational things for him, what that is I dont right now. What is educational for my daughter isn't educational for him. He has to be taught in a different way.

Any advice, info, or suggestions??

patience and love

"He can figure anything out".... Says to me that he does have some idea of cause and effect, when the cause and effect are connected by a mechanism he can see. You might try moving the cause and effect REALLY close together. Have you tried PECS? For example, if you want to teach him to ask for a cookie, get the picture card for "cookie" and stick it on the cookie jar; show him how to point to that card. Eventually if he gets the idea he should be able to use the card by itself rather than taped to the jar. That kind of thing. I don't know why he's having such a hard time with speech and sign; but maybe it's because they're both symbolic. PECS is much closer to the actual item because you're using photographs and starting out connecting card to item directly. Maybe you could give that a try.

Its all that matters is that you love your son for who he is, using this PECS system is beneficial. Especially if people just try the new stuff thats not mentioned from the "experts" to begin with.

Hope were being of some help...

and if it doesn't work out with the PECS system, at least it was thought.

This post was last modified: 10-30-2010 07:46 PM by Genesis.