Hey. I'm struggling right now with three autistic boys.
Matthew is 17. At 14, he finished middle school but could not go to high school. He went on a tour of it, and it was just too much. There are over 1000 kids there, and there was one hallway that he said was "just bad. Really bad." So we tried to home school him He has severe, out of control panic attacks, and is hard to help, being over a foot taller than me. We haven't really done a lot of school work because of his panic attacks. He has recently acquired a terrible fear of going out of the house. He won't even walk the dog sometimes.
Connor and David are almost 13. (Yes, twins. God DOES have a sense of humor).
Connor has autism and Central Auditory Processing Disorder. His two brain hemispheres don't communicate very well. He is in 6th grade, and they've put him in a cubby with no visual or auditory noise, and he does the entire days' schoolwork in three hours. But he has to wear headphones.
David is the younger twin. He is very emotional. He only has "markers" for autism. But he also has major depression - like, suicidal depression. He also began having seizures, which were a blessing in disguise. His neurologist thought it odd that out of four boys, (I have a married 27 yr old as well), three have autism. So he did a micro-array test - tool 14 vials of blood from the poor child. Thank God none of my kids are scared of needles.
Anyway, this test showed that he was missing 248 unit wide section of one of his 22nd Chromosome. This happens to be a section they have mapped. People missing this part either have major depression, autism, or schizophrenia. They tested me, and I have the same thing. It explains why I've been depressed since before kindergarten.
Anyway, that's what I'm dealing with. (Plus a totally disabled husband!!)
Any pointers would be helpful.
Matthew is 17. At 14, he finished middle school but could not go to high school. He went on a tour of it, and it was just too much. There are over 1000 kids there, and there was one hallway that he said was "just bad. Really bad." So we tried to home school him He has severe, out of control panic attacks, and is hard to help, being over a foot taller than me. We haven't really done a lot of school work because of his panic attacks. He has recently acquired a terrible fear of going out of the house. He won't even walk the dog sometimes.
Connor and David are almost 13. (Yes, twins. God DOES have a sense of humor).
Connor has autism and Central Auditory Processing Disorder. His two brain hemispheres don't communicate very well. He is in 6th grade, and they've put him in a cubby with no visual or auditory noise, and he does the entire days' schoolwork in three hours. But he has to wear headphones.
David is the younger twin. He is very emotional. He only has "markers" for autism. But he also has major depression - like, suicidal depression. He also began having seizures, which were a blessing in disguise. His neurologist thought it odd that out of four boys, (I have a married 27 yr old as well), three have autism. So he did a micro-array test - tool 14 vials of blood from the poor child. Thank God none of my kids are scared of needles.
Anyway, this test showed that he was missing 248 unit wide section of one of his 22nd Chromosome. This happens to be a section they have mapped. People missing this part either have major depression, autism, or schizophrenia. They tested me, and I have the same thing. It explains why I've been depressed since before kindergarten.
Anyway, that's what I'm dealing with. (Plus a totally disabled husband!!)
Any pointers would be helpful.