Is there hope and healing to hf asd that's clearly genetic?

amother

Seablue

Sun, May 19 2024, 7:19 pm

amother DarkYellow wrote:

If your child has pandas, that's the first thing that needs to be addressed, and it needs to be addressed aggressively. The symptoms you listed are all classic pandas symptoms and can go away with pandas treatment.
Are you able to get to a pandas specialist or do you want to diy?

Fwiw I was like this as a child, and I have a child like this as well, and they are doing sooo much better with pandas treatment. At one point I was sure they would have qualified for an asd diagnosis but at this point their struggles are so minor I'm the only one who notices.

did you outgrow it?

what were your symptoms?

amother

Lotus

Sun, May 19 2024, 7:24 pm

amother Geranium wrote:

Floor time therapy, and loads of it. Ideally a session with a therapist every day, and then daily floor time play at home with the family. You really can do floor time all day long.

My son was diagnosed when he was 2.5. We put him in a floor time public school program for 3 years. He was getting 5-6 hours of floor time therapy daily, in a social setting, plus floortime informed OT and speech therapy. It wasn't an easy decision, but BH we have an amazing Rav who met with our son, heard our concerns, and backed us all the way. It was probably the best thing we ever did. I stopped working for 2 years, which was very hard for us. But it allowed me to join many of his therapy sessions in school and we also did private OT and more floortime after school. It cost a fortune. It was worth every penny.

When he'd gotten a bit older and we put him is yeshiva, we continued the after school ot and floortime, and did a lot of follow up at home. We started working with the super flex model therapist (Michelle gracia winner), which made a huge impact. We worked with an OT on and off through the years, and always prioritized sensory outlets-- swimming several times a week, horseback riding, trampoline, hiking.

We tried lots of other things too, but this is what really worked.

He stopped meeting criteria for his autism diagnosis when he was about 10. We kept up the floortime and superflex therapies until he graduated elementary school at 14. Now he's in 10th grade, almost 16, in a mainstream school. He's an incredible kid. Kind, tuned in, funny, empathic, calm, flexible. He can still get more overwhelmed than your average kid, but he copes with it well and has the self knowledge and tools to deal with his emotions. He has deep, sincere empathy for others and real, reciprocal relationships. I'm confident that he'll make a wonderful husband and father.

Academically, my son was always gifted. (People assume this is the case with all autistic children, which is very much not true. Most have average or below average intelligence.) This was a huge boon for him and us, one area of his life where he thrived and excelled. It made it easy for us to take him out of school frequently for therapy and stuff we called therapy so his yeshiva would go along with it (swimming for example).

This is amazing but not doable for people like me. I must work a full time job and definitely don't have any extra money for swimming, riding etc. I truly wish my son could have had all these opportunities - he went to a special ed preschool and had speech for several years. He does karate as much as I can afford but I wonder how he would be had he had all these opportunities. Floortime was not an option given to us.

He is in 8th grade now. Mostly keeps up with the class however is difficult at home.

What were his main struggles as a 2.5 year old?

amother

Bottlebrush

Tue, May 21 2024, 5:27 pm

amother Lotus wrote:

Also curious if there is a Michelle Garcia Winner therapist in Lakewood

It doesn't need to be her program neccesarily. She has a good social skills program which is top down. Most social skills programs that I know of are top down. So any program where you teach emotions and social skills that is a good program can work. Floortime works from the foundation so once they have the basics in floortime children may be able to intergrate a social skills program as well but if they are not ready then it goes into their heads but is not generalized. At the end of the day they are both great methods when used in the right time. If you know of anyone who runs social groups from a floortime lens that can be good as well or have a floortime therapist run a playdate during their session.

amother

Mistyrose

Tue, May 21 2024, 6:29 pm

amother OP wrote:

he has no speech delays and is communicating well. It's just his unique way of thinking and expressing himself. No speech therapists would accept him.
Ot would work on which part? He's been to great ot and was told hes reached his ot goals. He's had group therapy in school but no more group in his school for this age anymore. He can for sure benefit from social skills therapy. Anyone know of male provider in N.Y. ?

I can recommend a very good male provider in Ohio who does remote social thinking skills services, using Michelle Garcia Winner’s approach. The organization he works for is Tree of Knowledge Learning Academy and you can reach them at info@treeofknowledge.us.

amother

DarkKhaki

Wed, May 22 2024, 9:46 am

amother OP wrote:

can you elaborate what their approach is in how to deal with hf asd? I've taken my dc to a great otwhen he was younger. He said there is no sensory issues and worked with him on other stuff until he said he's reached his goals and no need for ot anymore.

They actually dont have one approach. With me, they worked on some of his underlying sensory systems and reflexes. (His regular OT also had discharged him because he is so funcitonal..) They are excellent at diagnosisng the source of the issue. so we did exercises but they were most impactful in teaching me how to speak to him based on his brain profile so that we can get through to him and have him change.

They have talks online and a membership. You can definitely learn a ton from them just from listening but I am so grateful that I was able to work with them directly.

amother

NeonOrange

Wed, May 22 2024, 10:22 am

amother OP wrote:

Dc five. Symptoms are lacking some social understandings, black and white thinking and rigidNess.
So far im doing these for pandas / but think they are also advised for asd
probiotic- though would love to hear which kind is best
Vitamin d
Coloidal silver
Epsom salt and magnesium in his baths
Brain exercises MERTZBACH
The least gluten dairy and food coloring possible usually only mostly in school
Anything else I can do he shouldn't
Grow up like my husband? My husband claims he remembers being like him when he was Can't Believe It

young and doesn't get why it makes me sad...

You cannot heal ASD. ASD is not a disease. It is how a person is born.

It is the same as asking if you can heal being a boy or a girl.

However, you can treat the symptoms. You can teach skills so that they are better able to get along in this world.

Early intervention teaches these skills and offers the child a chance at an independent, successful, satisfying life.

You can teach social understanding - to a degree. To which degree depends on the child.

Again, though, you cannot "heal" ASD. ASD is not a disease. It cannot be treated or healed. It is a different wiring and you can only teach the child the skills that those with normal wiring learn automatically.

Some of what you wrote is questionable not only in efficacy but also in safety. Collodial silver, for example.