Special Needs Check In

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Drew, age 14, very severe ADD - mostly inattentive - and Dysgraphia.

Drew has a really hard time concentrating on anything he isn't interested in. Mostly, this includes all of his school work. We have struggled for the past 4 years with him going from being an honor student to actually failing 6th and 7th grade (he passed by going to summer school). Although we have seen a slight lessening of some symptoms (like being able to follow 2 or 3 commands at a time instead of just 1), he still struggles daily. We are STILL trying to get the insurance to pay for him to start seeing a child psychiatrist. While he refuses to take medication anymore, there are therapies that can help. Rick and I just aren't qualified to give him what he needs, at this point, although we do our best. I also think he is prone to depression. He goes thru bouts where he is just miserable for weeks on end. He is angry, sullen, lashes out at everyone for no real reason, etc. Then suddenly he is happy as a clam. Sounds like bi-polar, but I really don't think that is it. The good news is that he seems determined to do better in school this year. I hope it sticks. He is bringing home his homework everyday (so far) and asking for help in class when he needs it. His behavior at school for the last part of last year had greatly improved and he seems to be doing well so far this year. Keep your fingers crossed.

His Dysgraphia mostly like a fine motor skill problem, except that it is neurological. The signal from his brain to his hands gets messed up. He just got good at tying his shoes last year (13yo), but still asks me to do it every morning because he can't get them tight enought to stay tied all day. I still have to tie them in double knots. To make matter worse, he only has 60% strength in his right hand (he is right handed) and 75% strength in his left. He does his exercises to keep his hand strength up, but it doesn't get any better. But at least it doesn't get any worse! There really isn't anything they can do for Dysgraphia except make certain provisions for him, like letting him use the computer for written assignments and the teacher giving him typed notes because he can't write fast enough to take them himself. I don't really think much about it, to be honest. It's just something he will have to learn to deal with. We do the best we can with what we're given. He does pretty well with this problem.

Ally - age 7 - no diagnosis.

Got a note from Ally's teacher last week. Seems she is a talker (no surprise ther! ). But the teacher is concerned that she fidgets - alot. Almost contantly. I suppose with the history of ADD and Autism in Rick's family, I will go ahead and get her tested. But it is so much harder to diagnose young kids, especially girls, unless it is very severe. Personally, I just think she has boundless energy. She is constantly on the move at home, but can sit still when she wants to. I don't think there is anything to worry about, but we'll probably get her tested just to be sure. I think we will wait unless it starts causing problems before we do anything.

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Nathan ~ age 5
speech apraxia
He is getting so much easier to understand... needs to speak up at times...still has problems with certain sounds. He is receiving speech therapy once a week at school plus the speech therapist comes into the kindergarten classroom once a week. Otherwise he's doing great and is in the advanced group for reading (he's at a 1st-2nd grade reading level)

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Angela, age 13 yrs, OCD ~

Still no change in her meds. Without them she's terrible and actually will tell us she wants her meds. But since the few "problems" she has while on these meds are handleable, we don't feel they need to be altered at this time.

Brandon, 12 yrs, ADHD & autism ~

We will always have problems. Lying, stealing, hitting, kicking, bad mouth. But since it's at the home/school level (as osspossed to stealing from a store) we aren't terriblly worried. Of course, we would love for it to stop. He has his social problems still. The school has him in therapy for it, social stories and such. We work with it here as well, but his mind is set and there's no changing it. (He's stubborn like my Momma.)

Caitlyn, almost 10 yrs old, severe ADHD ~

She's still on the patch, a higher dose than most kids her age/size would be on. Most of the time it's enough. However, every couple days it's not enough and the whole household is turned upside down because of her misbehavior. But she's just so loveable and sweet that you forgive her almost instantly.

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Jennifer, what are Brandon and Caitlyn taking for the ADHD? And do mind sharing dosages? Although Drew doesn't want to take meds anymore, Rick and I are thinking we may have to force him.

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I am new to this board but I am seriously thinking of haveing Trey tested for ADD. I have been reading a couple of books on it and he so has so many signs. I personally would like to go with no meds and try other ways of controlling it but I get calls daily from school and his behavior.

The psy at the public school wants to test him too but only has reservations with how smart he is on that he might just be bored in school and home.

I dont know what to do because DH is not behind this because he feels he was just like that. Well Duhhh there is a history then right?

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Ryan-29 months, ASD and Sensory Integration Disorder.

We are in the process of getting moved to get intensive treatment for him. Illinois has nothing. I currently have him in Speech and OT once a week, which will become twice a week starting in October.

I am strongly considering doing the rest of my MSN ed papers on some area of Autism. There needs to be more research and treatments for it.

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Brandon takes Adderall XR (40mg) in the am and a 5mg Adderall when he comes home from school or around 4pm on the weekends.

Caitlyn is using the Daytrana patch. 30 mg. Slap it on her hip in the morning and it claims to last 9 hours. Like I said, most times it does.

If he's not wanting to take meds, talk to the doctor about the patch.

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I talked with the child psyc today and then will get something in progress after a few weeks of school has passed.

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Logan has ADHD and is on daytrana 15mg patch. I just got a referral home form school for OT eval. He cant wrote well enough to keep up in class. So they want to evaluate him. The old school system seemed to think it was a behavior problem. I am filling out the paperwork and sending it back toorrow am to get the ball rolling fast!

Sam has ADD but with the new school she seems to be applying herself very well and they have wonderful ways to track homework on thier website and calling teachers voicemails so I am keeping on top of her. Having Wayne around is a huge blessing bc she is comfortable enough with him to go to him for help with homework.

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Yeah, I really don't think I would try chelation on my child. The balance of fluid and electrolytes in an adult is very difficult to manage, I wouldn't try it on a kid, but that's MHO.....

We are moving to Wisconsin in the near future.

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I wonder if they will use Daytrana on ADD. Drew is not hyperactive at all. He is still to the point of being lazy most of the time! The patch would be a much better solution for him. One of the problems we had was other kids asking him for some of his meds. With the patch, this wouldn't be a problem at all. Of course, all of it is hard to tell if it is his ADD or just "obnoxious teenager syndrome" OTS! LOL!

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Samantha is ADD with no hyperness. They offered it to her but its too expensive to have 2 of them on it so we are using concerta on her.

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Christian is still in speech therapy but has improved greatly. We just had his IEP meeting last week and she is so impressed with his progress. He does talk so much clearer. Every once in a while it takes him a little longer to spit a sentence out and I think that is because he is thinking about it so that he says his words right. But he has no problems with his friends and his teacher ( his bible school teacher also) has noticed big improvements with him. Christian moved to one day a week of speech instead of 2-3 days from previous years

Kel--we have her IEP meeting tomorrow so she can start speech and then we will see where we go from there. She has been in speech the last 2 years. But since this is kindy, I don't know how many days a week she'll have it.

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I took Caitlyn and Brandon in yesterday for their every-three-months medicine appointment. The doctor and I discussed and then decided to change Caitlyn from the daytrana patch to something else. However, she has to try Ritalin first.

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Logan's OT eval is done and he is getting OT at school 2 times a week. His teacher sent me an email today, he is having a bad day, refusing to do his work saying its too hard, breaking pencils. I have a huge suspicion his patch has come off

Re: Special Needs Check In

Sounds like it, Becky. for both of you.

Re: Special Needs Check In

Drew can't take anything Ritalin realted. We had him on Adderall RX for a while, and while it worked wonderfully (better than anything else we tried), it also gave him a horrible tic - head rolling. Took about 6 weeks after we took him off before it finally stopped. If the Daytrana patch is Ritalin based, it won't work for us. Bummer!

Becky, was it you who said you son has trouble writing? Ask them to test him ofr Dysgraphia. I had never heard of it before they diagnosed Drew. Apparently, it is fairly common with ADHD/ADD. Technically, it;'s a neurological disorder. But the best way I can explain it is that the signal fom the brain gets messed up before it can reach their hands. Drew has it BAD. Ally (7) writes waaaaay better than he does. If he does have it, there are accomodations they can make for him in school. Drew's teacher's must give him typed notes, he has a "slant board" for writing (useless in my opinion) and he gets to use the computer for lengthy written assignments. On top of that, he also has a hand strength problem, which contributes to it. Can't hurt to have him tested. Drew's PT is the one who discovered it.

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The doctor got the Vyvanse approved before we got the Ritalin, so she took the second one today. We'll see how this works out. Got my fingers crossed!

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I have to say that this year Jimmy's school work looks better than ever. His behavior is lacking. We have tried several different meds and because of the Asperger syndrome we haven't been successful with meds, they just don't seem to work.

He's very smart and has impulsive, attention issues. Over the summer I enrolled him in OT through the Cleveland Clinic, not cheap! She wrote a very nice summary in which I shared with the school and informed them of his progress and also said " I hope that he doesn't start to decline" I've done my part the school must step in and provide OT and PT during the school year. I signed the paperwork for the MFE last week, BTW! they knew of his issues last year!

Currently, he's having attention behavior issues at school but seems to know all the material and even is reading at a 2.1 level, he's in 1st grade. He read If you give a mouse a cookie entirely last night. Any ideas on improving behavior is appreciated, I want to implement a daily reward system using a yes or no flag from the teacher so that I may reward daily. Any thougths????