I noticed in another thread elsewhere, a non-Christian was wishing the could post here in our little sub-forum, so here's a little thread for more inclusiveness.
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
Special Needs chit-chat [open]
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ravenscape
Free Crazy Liz
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Hi Amy, thank you for the thread, and for the invite. I know of a few other non-Christian members who have special needs children. Would you like me to send a link to them?
I have two teenaged sons, both with learning challenges. Online, I call them Thing 1 and Thing 2, after the two Things in "The Cat in The Hat".
Thing 1 is 17. When he was in 3rd grade, he was diagnosed with ADD. Since then, he's been collecting alphabet soup. He has an auditory processing disorder, anxiety and depression. His anxiety and depression can be controlled pretty well with medication, but it's been a long road trying to find a treatment for ADD that he can tolerate. Most of his academic life, he's not been on ADHD medication.
School has always been hard work for him, though he did ok academically he started high school. 9th grade was tough. But, last year (10th grade) was a complete disaster for him academically. By the end of the school year we decided -- with a lot of gentle encouragement from his psychologist, and with complete indifference from his school -- to enroll him in an alternative school. He's doing independent study. He started there this summer so he could dig himself out of the 10th grade hole. He is almost completely caught up from last year in terms of credits for graduation, and things seem to be going very well. Independent study gets around all the barriers to his ability to focus and learn that he experienced in a classroom environment. Especially a high school classroom environment.
* crosses fingers*
Thing 2 is 14. He was diagnosed with ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder in 1st grade. That was quite a blow coming so soon after his brother was diagnosed. But it wasn't over. He couldn't learn to read, no matter how hard he tried and everyone tried to help him. At the end of 2nd grade he was diagnosed with a form of dyslexia. We were not very encouraged by the help the school offered for dyslexia, so we wound up paying for a year of intensive remediation with a specialist during 3rd grade. He learned to read! By the end of 5th grade, he had also reached the point where he could do essay writing assignments without any assistance. During this time, he was always way behind his peers in terms of handwriting and drawing. I mean WAY behind. His drawings looked worse than many kindergartners produced. By 6th grade, the more severe issues that threatened his ability to succeed in school were doing so much better, we had time to try and figure out what was going on with his writing. It turned out he has a visual-perception disorder. He really was that bad at drawing. It wasn't our imagination. His diagnostic test results were .9 percentile for his age. 99.9% of students his age draw better than he did.
He still draws poorly, but now we and his teachers know to factor that in when he is required to draw for assignments -- and we try to come up with a non-drawing option for his visual presentations.
Looking back, it's hard to believe that he graduated from middle school with straight As. He's taking AP science this year in 9th grade, and is taking 8 classes instead of the usual 6. One of his classes is geometry, and I worry about how his visual motor issues may affect him in this class, but so far he's hanging in there.
That's pretty much a rundown of their special needs and learning issues. These things don't define who they are, though at times the issues have overshadowed everything else. I have pictures of them on my profile page
.
Thanks again! Sorry for writing such a BOOK!
I have two teenaged sons, both with learning challenges. Online, I call them Thing 1 and Thing 2, after the two Things in "The Cat in The Hat".
Thing 1 is 17. When he was in 3rd grade, he was diagnosed with ADD. Since then, he's been collecting alphabet soup. He has an auditory processing disorder, anxiety and depression. His anxiety and depression can be controlled pretty well with medication, but it's been a long road trying to find a treatment for ADD that he can tolerate. Most of his academic life, he's not been on ADHD medication.
School has always been hard work for him, though he did ok academically he started high school. 9th grade was tough. But, last year (10th grade) was a complete disaster for him academically. By the end of the school year we decided -- with a lot of gentle encouragement from his psychologist, and with complete indifference from his school -- to enroll him in an alternative school. He's doing independent study. He started there this summer so he could dig himself out of the 10th grade hole. He is almost completely caught up from last year in terms of credits for graduation, and things seem to be going very well. Independent study gets around all the barriers to his ability to focus and learn that he experienced in a classroom environment. Especially a high school classroom environment.
* crosses fingers*
Thing 2 is 14. He was diagnosed with ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder in 1st grade. That was quite a blow coming so soon after his brother was diagnosed. But it wasn't over. He couldn't learn to read, no matter how hard he tried and everyone tried to help him. At the end of 2nd grade he was diagnosed with a form of dyslexia. We were not very encouraged by the help the school offered for dyslexia, so we wound up paying for a year of intensive remediation with a specialist during 3rd grade. He learned to read! By the end of 5th grade, he had also reached the point where he could do essay writing assignments without any assistance. During this time, he was always way behind his peers in terms of handwriting and drawing. I mean WAY behind. His drawings looked worse than many kindergartners produced. By 6th grade, the more severe issues that threatened his ability to succeed in school were doing so much better, we had time to try and figure out what was going on with his writing. It turned out he has a visual-perception disorder. He really was that bad at drawing. It wasn't our imagination. His diagnostic test results were .9 percentile for his age. 99.9% of students his age draw better than he did.
He still draws poorly, but now we and his teachers know to factor that in when he is required to draw for assignments -- and we try to come up with a non-drawing option for his visual presentations.
Looking back, it's hard to believe that he graduated from middle school with straight As. He's taking AP science this year in 9th grade, and is taking 8 classes instead of the usual 6. One of his classes is geometry, and I worry about how his visual motor issues may affect him in this class, but so far he's hanging in there.
That's pretty much a rundown of their special needs and learning issues. These things don't define who they are, though at times the issues have overshadowed everything else. I have pictures of them on my profile page
.Thanks again! Sorry for writing such a BOOK!
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Thanks for coming, Ravenscape, and please let your other friends know about this thread. Thanks for sharing about your boys. I haven't had to deal with the school system, yet, as my special guy is only 7 months old, but I know it can be quite a challenge.
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Mayzoo
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How do they diagnose a child with visual-perception disorder? My daughter is 4.5, has Arnold Chiari Malformation, Syringiomylia, and an Arachnoid Cyst (don't worry if you never heard of any of them--most her docs haven't either). She is very poor at drawing. I have not mentioned this yet...as I hoped she would "outgrow" it. Denial is a great place to visit--but I don't live there...and I know smiley faces should not be so distorted at her age....even upsidedown sometimes. Her daddy is dylesic...and if she is diagnosed with that--it may hurt him badly. I have not expressed the obvious---She loves to draw....but has no proportion skill or ability to place eyes, ears, nose, etc....where they actually go 80% of the time. I want to start early on intervention if she has an actual issue.
Thanks, Mayzoo
Thanks, Mayzoo
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ravenscape
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Hi Mayzoo,
I've heard of all three conditions actually. Do you feel like her drawing problems are related to how her brain processes what she sees? Or possibly due to fine motor control? Or perhaps some of both?
There are 2-3 different screening tests that an ecucational psychologist can administer that will help pinpoint what's not working quite the way it should. It's good to identify early, so definitely keep an eye on this as your daughter nears school age. Remediation gets more difficult as the kids get older. Especially if they start to avoid activities that point up their lack of "artistic ability". We were past that point by the time Thing 2 was diagnosed. His drawing skills have improved some, but he'll never enjoy drawing or painting. Fortunately, there are other outlets for artistic expression. He's a musician and also enjoys drama.
I've heard of all three conditions actually. Do you feel like her drawing problems are related to how her brain processes what she sees? Or possibly due to fine motor control? Or perhaps some of both?
There are 2-3 different screening tests that an ecucational psychologist can administer that will help pinpoint what's not working quite the way it should. It's good to identify early, so definitely keep an eye on this as your daughter nears school age. Remediation gets more difficult as the kids get older. Especially if they start to avoid activities that point up their lack of "artistic ability". We were past that point by the time Thing 2 was diagnosed. His drawing skills have improved some, but he'll never enjoy drawing or painting. Fortunately, there are other outlets for artistic expression. He's a musician and also enjoys drama.
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Cat59
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Hi...good to see an open thread here! I was just perusing the forum and saw raven's name.
Thanks for doing that Amy...
My little one is now taller than me at 17. He has learning difficulties and autistic triats and also has a psychotic disorder, probably after brain damage at birth but has done really well in his fabulous special school. He had a lot of visual perception tests when he was younger, Mayzoo, and as raven says, these tests can look into if there is a problem and if so what and where it is and what type of help could be best. Over here (UK) occupational therapists do the tests (ed psychs are few and far between.) Funnily enough my hubbie has quite severe dyslexia too, he has a reading/writing age of about 8. He fretted a lot at first that he was in some way "to blame" for son1's problems too. Son2 has readin/writing difficulties, but fortunately mild and they've responded well to the extra help we've given him.
Thanks for doing that Amy...
My little one is now taller than me at 17. He has learning difficulties and autistic triats and also has a psychotic disorder, probably after brain damage at birth but has done really well in his fabulous special school. He had a lot of visual perception tests when he was younger, Mayzoo, and as raven says, these tests can look into if there is a problem and if so what and where it is and what type of help could be best. Over here (UK) occupational therapists do the tests (ed psychs are few and far between.) Funnily enough my hubbie has quite severe dyslexia too, he has a reading/writing age of about 8. He fretted a lot at first that he was in some way "to blame" for son1's problems too. Son2 has readin/writing difficulties, but fortunately mild and they've responded well to the extra help we've given him.
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Hi Mayzoo,
It sounds like you may be describing a visual-motor deficit. The most popular assessment for this is the Beery Test of Visual-Motor Integration. (Berry VMI). It asks kids (and adults) to copy a series of increasing complex images. This assesment (along with others) are most commonly administered by neuropsychologists.
Hope this helps.
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Oh, I should introduce myself.
I am Grizzly. My wife and I have an 8 year old boy with autism. He's in the second grade right now and he's doing fairly well (especially compared to the hell we lived in when he was younger). He's still a challenge but he is really growing into a joy to be around.
I am Grizzly. My wife and I have an 8 year old boy with autism. He's in the second grade right now and he's doing fairly well (especially compared to the hell we lived in when he was younger). He's still a challenge but he is really growing into a joy to be around.
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Hi Cat and Grizzly. 
I guess I should introduce myself, as well. I have 2 sons, a 3 year old, who is normal (whatever that means
) and 7 month old Phillip who has Prader-Willi Syndrome. (10 blessings to anyone who's heard of it. 
) He was born 6 weeks premature and was diagnosed at 2 1/2 weeks. He spent 40 days in the NICU and came home on NG feeds and an apnea monitor. He has outgrown his breathing problems (they were associated with his low tone) and at 5 1/2 months we were able to stop using the NG tube. Feedings can still be a struggle, but he is developing really well so far. Developmentally, he is at about a 5 month old level, he's still lagging in trunk stability, but it is coming along.
I guess I should introduce myself, as well. I have 2 sons, a 3 year old, who is normal (whatever that means
) and 7 month old Phillip who has Prader-Willi Syndrome. (10 blessings to anyone who's heard of it. ) He was born 6 weeks premature and was diagnosed at 2 1/2 weeks. He spent 40 days in the NICU and came home on NG feeds and an apnea monitor. He has outgrown his breathing problems (they were associated with his low tone) and at 5 1/2 months we were able to stop using the NG tube. Feedings can still be a struggle, but he is developing really well so far. Developmentally, he is at about a 5 month old level, he's still lagging in trunk stability, but it is coming along.
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