I'll jump in first!

We have two profoundly autistic boys.  One 16, one 3.  Both are non-verbal.  Communication issues are a subject Helium needs to cover more thoroughly (title wise).

Veronica is a horse of another color.  With Asperger symptomology, she falls just shy of all benchmarks to be diagnosed.  She is four and tremendously speech delayed.

On the other end of the spectrum, Taylor is on HgH because he is growth hormone deficient.  MAGIC Foundation is helping raise awareness for this disorder.  This is another one which needs Helium attention.

Our oldest daughter had a congential kidney malformation which never let it develop.  She has had a transplant.  After five years, she is suffering rejection symptoms and will likely not be eligible for another transplant.

Vanessa (another daughter) is special in quite a different way.  She is gifted.  For any parent who has not had a gifted child, I assure you, their specialness is treated by society with the same misunderstanding as our handicapped children.

The largest irony being: Her responses to tests were deemed "immature" because the evaluators did not understand the logic.  (Not "the logic was flawed"...they could not follow the speed of the thought process.) Scary.

Yes, this is a subject close to home for us.

Momma Bear

Hi, guys

I just wanted to say that I know it can be difficult and rewarding when it comes to special needs children.

My mother adopted my little brother when he was four months old.  Now he's nine, at the age of one he was diagnosed with PDD.  I am kind of like a second mother to him. *Laughs* I went through all the Early Intervention, he was even in a school for Autistic children.  Right now he is doing much better, he's in a regular school and he's having a great time.   Though he still doesn't like to be touch,  which was a big problem when he was younger.  We went through many therapist for him.  Speech, OT, PT.  Even though he is mildly autistic he is a great kid.  What the out side world needs to understand is children with special needs does not need to be treated differently by their peers.  In most cases these children can be smarter in certain aspects, than what society would call a normal kid.

Thanks,

M

Hi M

I fully agree with you! I treat my special needs kid at home and my special needs kids in school the same way as I treat others! And 110% with you that these kids are smarter in some way than any 'normal' kid!

My greatest breakthrough was to get this girl with Dyslexia to read and spell as well as any 'normal' kid, using my own phonics methodologies. It's still under experimentation and I'm going to try them out on another kid with acute Dyslexia this year. I've just been told he's got dyslexia and he spells so terribly.

I've this ADHD under me since last January. I constantly remind him that being special people, we may have our occasional qwerks, just as any normal people will have but the important thing is for us to learn through our mistakes and move on as a better person. No excuse for our ADHDism!

PDD - that's something very new to me and I'd love to learn more about Autism and PDD from you. Hooray, you are an answer to my prayer for a guru on this subject especially since you're in contact with some kid who has this 'specialty'. Educate me, please. :)