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My brother showed many signs of Autism as a child and my mother neglected us so he never got diagnosed. The school labeled him ADHD but now that I’m an adult I see that his behavior was not ADHD at all. I am pretty convinced he has either autism or Aspergers. (sp?) This is the first opportunity we’ve had to get him some answers because our biological mother is finally out of the picture. He is 19. If anyone has any help that would be great!

Is he interested in being evaluated? As an adult, this will need to be his choice. Besides that, this is difficult to answer as it wasn’t mentioned whether he has insurance or not. If he does, the first step would be to obtain a list of mental health providers who do evaluations from the insurance company. If he has managed care, you’d need a referral from his primary care physician.

If he does not have insurance, you’ll need to do some research on mental health clinics in the area. He’s still under 21, so if you can locate something like a Child Development Clinic, they would be able to evaluate and diagnose. Some avenues to look into for a clinic would be local hospitals and universities. Googling is also a great resource. Just google your city/state and autism diagnosis, treatment, etc. Just know that without insurance, these evaluations can be expensive.

good luck!

We have a nine year old daughter that is severely ADHD. She is on two kinds of medicine- morning and evening. She started her meds a few weeks ago. What are some of the ways you deal with the problems that happen with an ADHD child? Temper tamtrums, not listening, just plain moody sometimes. Since she started taking her medicine, she really has gotten better. We still have our problems though. She goes back in a few weeks for reevaluation. My husband and I are looking for a few tips to make things a little easier. We have two other children in the house as well-3 years and 10 months. Thanks for your answers.

Increase her exercise…chances are she’s pretty sedentary, right?

There are studies being done by some physician (saw it on the news so I don’t have a URL reference, sorry) and he has shown that increasing the exercise in children causes the brain to naturally produce the stimulant the brain needs (that the medicine is doing now) to get rid or greatly reduce the ADHD symptoms.

Kids now a days are stimulated mentally but not much physically, and this is the body’s way of letting you know there’s problems…according to this physician.

But, his studies may have merit…I am an adult with ADD, and I have started exercising again regularly, and do not need the ritalin now…I just started that on my own…my physician is impressed.

Good luck!

As in, they already had children without autism, then they have a child with autism. How do the parenting skills change?

Im 14 years old. I have a brother and he is autistic and he is 13. I know from seeing them all the time that autism can make the parents life so much more stressful (including mine). But, i know patience is a big thing that changes when they had my brother. My dad isnt very good with that but i know my mom sure is. I mean, my brother is pretty smart (above the average smartness level of autism), he can read, write, spell, and do math. I know that having an autistic brother changed me completely, without him, i totally would look at life so much differently. It makes me appreciate autistic people and mentally challenged people way more than i would if i didnt have my brother. Also, ive been thinking of becoming a special teacher. But yeah, back to topic [lol] parenting skills change by having A L O T more patience, and idk but its hard and i give anybody who has an autistic child [including my parents] alot of credit, it is alot harder than people think.

hope this helped

My hypothesis is: "If children have dyslexia, then they will have an inability to read words and learn." With a hypothesis such as this, how can I form steps for such an experiment? I need help! Please help me.

I would go to the library, and look up dyslexia/learning experiments in the psychology journals there. If you find one or two articles published in academic journals, they will describe how the experiments were conducted and you can base your model on that.

In general, psychology experiments involve the test subject group and the control group. You would have to define the age and characteristics, such as dyslexia, and how this was determined.

I imagine you would have 1-3 word lists of 5-20 words each, depending what age children or students you are testing. These words could be written on notecards or read on a recording. The children would either be shown the cards to read out loud, or would hear the words and write them down. There would be one part of the exercise where the words are presented with the right answers given, a second part where the subjects write or speak the words along with the answers being given at the same time, and the third part where they are tested for being able to read and/or write the words by themselves, based on the same cues as before, but without the answers given.

Then you could quantify the responses based on how many right and wrong or how long it takes the children to read or write them.

This is a very vague example, and could leave room for other learning issues besides the dyslexia affecting the outcomes. Technically, you would have to eliminate or isolate other possible factors, such as attention deficit or test anxiety, but you could show that dyslexia "interferes" or "correlates" with difficulty in learning. It could still be that the kids without dyslexia are taught independent study and practice skills, or the kids who test for dyslexia could have other issues instead of or besides dyslexia that are causing the learning difficulties.

I think a better way to control it would be to show kids’ learning ability before and after being shown ways of studying and practicing so they can learn words successfully. If you showed the low retention and recall when they were given words on their own, and then showed a sharp increase in performance when they were given special assistance to study and practice in between the initial run and the test run, that might still show that left to their own devices, the dyslexic students have difficulty in contrast to the true capability they have when given the means or assistance to study words and retain and recall them later.

You may have been told that chiropractors treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Well, that’s just not the case. Chiropractors don’t “treat” ADHD. But, chiropractic care can definitely help children, and adults too, who suffer from it. The reason why chiropractic treatment is effective is that ADHD is a neurological disorder. Chiropractic manipulations are not only effective in reducing nervous system disturbances in general, but an adjustment can be intentionally directed to stimulate under-active areas of the brain and calm over-active areas as well.

Because a chiropractic approach to ADHD is natural and drug-free, a large number of parents choose chiropractic care over the conventional medical practice of giving children Class 2 psychotropic drugs that have intense side effects including personality changes and permanent alterations in the brain. The vast majority of parents who’ve opted for chiropractic treatment for their children have noted marvelous behavioral changes as a result.

Due to the differences between the manner in which boys and girls use the two hemispheres of their brain, ADHD seems to occur in more boys than girls and, additionally, for the same reason is often more  easily observable in the behavior of boys than of girls. Some of the symptoms that are most prominent include difficulty concentrating and sitting still, lack of ability to control impulsive thoughts and behaviors, easily distracted by noises and activities, constant movement of fingers, hands, arms, feet, or legs.

Quite a few children who manifest ADHD symptoms are hypersensitive to certain foods, such as dairy or gluten products, and sugars and artificial sweeteners. Furthermore, they generally have a hypersensitive reaction to additives in foods, herbicides and pesticides used to grow non-organic fruits and vegetables, and laundry products such as detergents, fabric softeners, and other chemicals. Often, the removal of these environmental agencies can go a long way in reducing ADHD symptoms.

Checking for spinal anomalies and certain responses to specific neurological tests are part of the thorough examination offered by your chiropractor.

You may be able to assist your child in getting his or her life back in balance through natural, safe chiropractic care. Before taking drastic pharmaceutical measures, if your child displays the symptoms of ADHD, call your chiropractor to make an appointment for a complete evaluation. Call today for the health of your child!

Technorati Tags: ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, chiropractic, chiropractor, drug-free, natural

Ok, i think i’m dislexic, my mom is and i think i have a.d.d, but thts totally different. Okay anway, the freakin school won’t test for a learing disability and my dad can’t take me to be tested, neither will my mom. is there anway i can be tested maybe even online (maybe for free). I just need some advice so that i can get the help in need. Oh, the high school i go to says thay won’t test me cause i wasn’t switching things around before when i actually was, cuz i cheated on a lot of tests when i was younger but i need alot of advise Please help!!!
MY PARENTS WON’T TAKE ME TO GET TESTED!!!! AND THE SKOOL WON’T TEST FOR ANYTHING! THIS WOULD HAVE TO BE OUT OF SCHOOL!!!!!

Ask your school or school district’s special ed. department if they have a volunteer educational advocate available, who will advocate for you to be assessed or tested on behalf of your parents.

Volunteer educational advocates / surrogate parents for special ed needs, like me , can be appointed by a parent or legal guardian to act on their behalf in all matters having to do with an IEP ( Individualized Education Program ) , which schools are required by law to provide to all students with a suspected learning disability. A full assessment of the student’s Special Ed needs is the first step in an IEP.

My friends and I are doing a community service project to spread awareness about autism. We are planning a roving carnival, with game stations that children can take part in to learn about autism. Basically we just wanna let them understand how it’s like to be autistic, or to learn more about autism through the game. Currently the only game we can come up with is Charades. The kids range from 7 years old to 12.

Do you guys have any suggestions for games?

Another game that could be fan and shows again how difficult can be to communicate something, is the following:

- Place small items like a clothes pin, a key, a battery, a ring, etc each in a small cotton fabric bag (you need to make these) of the same color and tie them shut.

- Make two identical bags of each item. And have the kids in two teams. Each kid gets one of the bags. S/he needs to feel what is inside the bag and then describe it to the team-mates without using the name of the item. Example: Key – it is made of metal, can be used to open a door, has teeth, etc.

- Time them. The least time to guess gets a higher score.

This will show kids how people with autism can sometimes create a mental image of something (thinking in pictures) but it is hard to communicate (put into words) what it is they "see" in their mind.

Since the kids do not see item but visualize it through the sense of touch, they create a 3-D mental image of the item, which is similar of how an autistic person will think of an item before communication what they are thinking in words, describing the mental image, is the hardest part, and that is why the speech of many autistic kids is so fragmented because they are describing a mental 3-D image into 2-D words…

Once you have made these little bags with the items, you can use them again and again. If they get dirty just put them in a pilowcase and wash them in the washing machine.

Good luck!

I just want to see what people thought about Dyslexia Screening – is it of any benefit to screen all individuals for possible Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects a number of students.

To screen for Dyslexia would be a major benefit to all students. Often a Dyslexic person will go unnoticed for years and will eventually drop out of school due to the difficulty he/she is having with reading.

Not every child or adult that has Dyslexia is diagnosed. To screen all individuals would be a considerable help to the teacher as well as to the students. But then if we only screen for one learning disability should we not screen for all of them? Perhaps when children enter the first grade they should all be screened for learning disabilities, that way no one would be able to slip through the cracks

My four year old son was just diagnosed with ADHD (more hyperactivity than attention). My husband and I will choose the medication route only as a last resort after all other methods of treatment have been exhausted. I’ve heard about cutting sugar and processed foods out of the diet and Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids (flax seed and fish oil), but is there anything else out there that is safe enough to try?

Rebecca M -

There are a number of alternative "treatments" for ADHD, but I would first be curious to know a lot more around the circumstances of how your child was diagnosed? A child as young as 4 has a LOT going on…and while one can start to think that it might be ADHD, I am always hesitant about making a diagnosis at this age.

A 4 year-old child is still growing and developing, and has so much to absorb from the world.

I really applaud you for taking this stance to use medication as a lost resort.

I would strongly recommend speaking with a "therapist" or coach who specializes in ADHD and child development. I would also encourage you to focus more on the behaviors that you are noticing, rather than the "label" of ADHD. There are a lot of different things that can look like ADHD when it is not really ADHD.

So to answer your question, I would really take a look at how your son is different…and what strategies you are using to support him. In my work, I often find that having the right strategies can make all the difference in the world.

Also – diet can play a significant role or have a great impact. Cut back on sugar, increase protein (especially in the morning), and focus on a balanced diet that is a lifestyle and a "punishment."

Hope this helps!

Rory
http://www.adhdfamilyonline.com

Child ADHD Coach, "Former Therapist"

I am a home tutor and I have a 7 year old kid who exhibits symptoms of dyslexia. The school has identified her as one of the students with weaker language learning skill.

The school has given some supplementary notes to help her, but I wanted to do more. Is there any way to better teach a dyslexia child?

And also, her attention span is extremely short and likes to argue with me, not following my instructions. Any way to catch her attention?

Thanks.

Both my daughter and I have dyslexia. What helped my daughter when at school and home was;
Using different coloured chalk/white board markers for each paragraph, especially if student is to copy from the board (my daughter was mostly able to keep up with the teacher with this method).
Coloured paper for handouts etc.
A list of most commonly mispelt words, and a list of words that sound the same, but have different spelling, e.g which, witch, where, wear, were etc (these type of words get me all the time, and I have to check the dictionary or spell check to make I am using on the right word).
Coloured film overlay placed over the words on a book, this may help with reading.
When reading use larger font books, and read slowly, but never out aloud in a group. (my daughter hated being asked to read out aloud)
Coloured magnetic letters are great way to teach the alphabet, as well as their placement in the alphabet.
Teaching phonics is important as it teaches the sound the letters make.

I have included two of my favourite links, which have helped my daughter, so I hope they maybe of some help to you.