15
votes
Accepted
My 3-year-old is not speaking but pointing
As I'm sure your OT and SLP have told you, there's a lot of natural variability in when kids hit language milestones, and late language emergence is not always cause for concern.
Your child --- with ...
- 2,447
13
votes
How to help my 4-year-old son, who pretends play to be a girl with long hair, develop a stronger identity?
I am not sure there is an actual "problem" here. I might be biased on the topic though because my son was only two when he asked me to stop stealing his hair (his explanation of having had his hair ...
- 7,330
9
votes
Our son is slightly autistic, Is it wise to have an indoor cat?
You may have heard the expression "if you've seen one child with autism, you've seen ONE child with autism". "autism" covers such a wide range of behaviors and experiences that it's really hard to ...
- 431
9
votes
How to help my 4-year-old son, who pretends play to be a girl with long hair, develop a stronger identity?
Kids are kids
and love to explore the world. Let him both dress up as a soldier and paint his nails. No big deal, most of us did.
Do not look bothered / worried / overinterested
whatever a kid will ...
- 346
8
votes
Is my child autistic?
If anything, it's not the diagnosis you should be concerned about, but the underlying condition and the specific problems it presents to the child.
The sooner you have your son diagnosed, the better ...
- 431
8
votes
Accepted
Our son is slightly autistic, Is it wise to have an indoor cat?
Both my daughter (16) and son (13) are high-level autistic (would have been called aspie by the old yardstick). We've had cats their entire lives.
Currently we have two cats, a big black labrador, ...
- 196
8
votes
Accepted
How to convince a young child with ASD to begin ADHD medicine?
We couldn't wait any longer. Our daughter confronted us about why we wanted her to make her take "happy pills" and that it was silly to expect someone to be happy all the time. I told her that whoever ...
- 511
7
votes
I'm worried my son may have autism
Your child does have some symptoms worrisome for autism, and some that are not, but he certainly should be evaluated for it.
The doctors should take this seriously (I'm not sure why you think they ...
- 69.8k
7
votes
Accepted
What kind of bottle can I use to make a heavy duty sensory calm down bottle?
Try PET preforms
These things get inflated like baloons to produce PET bottles we usually see. They're food-safe, transparent, pretty heavy-duty and cheap. You can order them in surplus to experiment ...
- 188
7
votes
What strategies can I teach my (autistic) child to deal with another child who winds him up?
Perhaps for a time you should supervise their play. Don't let them be alone together. This way you can see the way they interact with each other. It might be that both are doing whatever is annoying ...
- 13.4k
7
votes
Activities to Distract from Stimming
Firstly, no "distracting" activities will help him "outgrow" what is potentially ASD. If your son has ASD, he will not outgrow it. You need to know that no matter what you do it is ...
- 71
6
votes
My 3-year-old is not speaking but pointing
I used to do this; teach him sign language so that you can communciate better. Make the sounds of the words as you sign.
Signing isnt hard to learn at a basic level - get a book from amazon. My two ...
- 331
6
votes
Accepted
Mindfulness Meditation for 6 year old with ADHD, ASD
I taught special needs students, including autistic students for over 30 years. We did yoga and meditation to varying degrees of success every day.
We started with 30 seconds of meditation -- yoga ...
- 17.5k
6
votes
My 3 years old daughter doesn’t talk to teacher
This sounds like anxiety manifesting as situational mutism.
Formerly called "selective mutism," situational mutism is a stress response akin to freeze (as in fight, flight, freeze, fawn, ...
- 281
5
votes
How to convince a young child with ASD to begin ADHD medicine?
I was ADHD inattentive and did not receive medication for it (story for another time, but I am passed that now). My wife is ADHD inattentive and she may be mild ASD, and she started her medication as ...
- 126
4
votes
Worried sick about 3YO and aspergers
Not a parent, not a psychologist or anything. But i've shown signs of asperger since i was a young child as well. In the textual record of my school behaviour even in the first grades, i can still see ...
- 141
4
votes
Autistic child constantly mobbed by other children - what can be done?
I have two children with autism and spent years in autism, LD, you name it special education classrooms as a parent volunteer. I also have one not autistic child. You son may need need a smaller ...
3
votes
What kind of bottle can I use to make a heavy duty sensory calm down bottle?
My best suggestion is an "unbreakable" plastic (reusable) water bottle. These can be either rigid or somewhat flexible. Rigid will probably last longer, but it really depends on how hard your son ...
- 61.8k
3
votes
What do I tell my child about her Asperger autism?
The first important thing is obviously to move the tone of the conversation from "What is wrong with me?" to "In what ways am I different from neurotypical people?". The latter ...
- 3,022
3
votes
Worried sick about 3YO and aspergers
I have a child with a neurological difference (Tourette Syndrome and ADHD; he is 13 now). When we figured it out and got the official diagnosis, it was really helpful, because (1) it enabled us to ...
- 5,047
3
votes
Worried sick about 3YO and aspergers
Don't be worried - be glad it'll be found soon if it's there!
I'm a woman on the spectrum, and I wasn't diagnosed until I was 22! If I had been diagnosed sooner, I probably wouldn't have had to have ...
- 431
3
votes
How to help our autistic 13-year-old-son who has a withholding issue and gets senna?
I taught autistic students for 30+ years, and I hesitate to give you advice. These kids are so individual that there is no 'one size fits all' solution.
We found that not only was there discomfort ...
- 17.5k
3
votes
How do I get my 3 year old son to wear his prescription glasses?
I don’t have personal experience with getting kids to wear eyeglasses, and I’m not familiar with the “most common methods” of getting them to wear glasses, but I recently had some trouble getting my 7 ...
- 5,235
2
votes
Worried sick about 3YO and aspergers
My daughter (2 1/2y) has it, and the sooner the better for intervention. Her speech was very delayed and we started teaching her sign language to defuse frustration, but then she was doing full "four ...
- 331
2
votes
Should we force our slightly-autistic son to have hobbies (other than "computer usage") which will allow him to socialize more?
I know this post is old, but I really hope you, or someone like you, reads this and understands the importance of getting a diagnosis. If your son has autism, whether it be mild or severe, they NEED a ...
- 21
2
votes
How to convince a young child with ASD to begin ADHD medicine?
It may be that you've left out key details from your description, but it sure sounds like you're rushing into this. Psychotropic medication should be a last resort, not a first one. Maybe your ...
- 29
2
votes
I'm worried my son may have autism
It's very difficult to tell with a child that age, because many very young children display traits such as most of the ones you describe, and the majority of them grow out of them. Nevertheless it's ...
- 6,143
2
votes
I'm worried my son may have autism
It is not for anyone here to diagnose your child, but it is enough that you are alarmed and upset for you to seek help. Talk with your doctor. When ours was diagnosed at 3 we were told that autism was ...
- 181
2
votes
How can I emphasize to my children the importance of developing social skills?
In reality most of the world does not care for hard work
I very much doubt that's true. Just like not everyone is beautiful, and not everyone is socially adept, not everyone is capable of being a ...
- 8,675
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