[Elizabeth_Kane949]

Hi there. I have some experience with this as well through my studies. If you would like to PM me I am happy to talk with you etc. I also have a Psychologist in CA I can refer you to who's son is 11 and has Aspergers. Hang in there.

[twinhorse2004]

hi the reason i am writing is because my son is being labeled with aspbergers. he is also ADHD, bipolar, emotionally imparered with OCD and depression.along with anger issues. i am looking for advice i guess on to whom should i go to to have the proper care for him. he is a soon to be 16 year old that in alot of ways is still a 10 year old. this is very draining on my husband and me. we have 3 other boys 11, and 2 year old twins. he has been admitted into a hospital for help back in november we were having terrible fits of anger with threats twords my husband. ( his stepdad) any ideas out there on how to deal ?? i had to pull him out of school last march to homeschool and he went from incopletes to A-B grades. we have had alsot happen in our family this year so he was given the chance to go bsck for the remainder of his freshman year. he was the most immature one in his hospital group and is the most immature one in his class now. please help if you have ideas??/

mom in michigan

Originally Posted by blossy

I've always had an idea that my oldest son (who is 13 tomorrow) has now officially been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. I told some agencies that I have contacted like CAMHS (Child & Adolecent Mental Health Service) that he had Aspergers because the paediatrician told me he did but because I did not have him officially tested by a psychologist they wouldn't believe me.

So today I had him assessed privately by a psychologist in the city and she agreed that he does have Aspergers. I don't know whether to feel relieved or not. I don't know if I am happy that I was right and that now my son has another label we can add to his list of labels (he has ADHD also).

I do know that now it's official we will have so many more doors opened to us that we didn't have before.

I just hope that ALL the trouble we've had at the High School these past 4 months was all worth it and I hope that they will now listen to me and stop trying so hard to make him ' fit in' just like the other kids when he isn't! I've always known he was a special needs kid and now they need to listen! They just have to.
You wouldn't believe the problems we've had at the HS. Last term they had me collect him every day at lunchtime because they just couldn't handle him. He would have many outbursts of anger and frustration. He would be extremely defiant and refuse to follow instructions. I'm thinking that the school really needs to learn about Asperger's and refresh their memories if they had learnt about it already.At one point I was thinking that they just wanted him out of the school grounds .. you know that saying .. out of sight ~ out of mind! If he wasn't there they didn't have to worry about him.

Sorry if I seem to have gone one a bit but it sure has helped me by writing this all down and not bottling it all up.

[blossy]

Hi Mom in Michigan

I so know where you are coming from. I am still dealing with the same problems with my boy. It sure makes it hard at times for everyone in the family.
Does your son still see a paediatrician or a psychologist? Do you have any outside help at all? If you do have a doctor or someone else you can voice things to they may also help provide some ideas/suggestions for you.
Are there any groups that your son can join in with, like scouts or something similar? That may help with the social side of things. Even a team sport of some kind.
Brodie still has the outbursts of anger, mostly directed at his step-dad, but we are encouraging him to do something he loves to do. He's into music and I've asked him to create a new song on the guitar or to even write a story to take out his frustrations. It doesn't always work but it helps a little. Sometimes he will 'walk' off his anger.
I don't know if any of these things will help your son but perhaps it might give you an idea for something that may work for him.

[scrapbookguru]

Originally Posted by twinhorse2004

hi the reason i am writing is because my son is being labeled with aspbergers. he is also ADHD, bipolar, emotionally imparered with OCD and depression.along with anger issues.

I know this is probably no consilation at all, but here it is.
A child cannot be labeled with both ADHD and Aspberger's at the same time. The reason is, every symptom for ADHD is commonly found in a child with Asp's. HOWEVER in order to be given the diagnosis of Aspberger's, there are several other criteria one has to meet.
So if your child is being "labled" aspberger's - they will HAVE to drop the ADHD diagnosis because there is another cause.
I know for sure this does not help, but I definitely wanted to put it out there for you. Food for thought, and a reassurance at least that one label is going away? Good luck to you!

[twinhorse2004]

my chris is obssessed with music and movies to the point of he will go thru our tv listing and use a notebook and write down all the titles to the movies along with thier rating and why they are rated whatever they are rated . he is also drawn to the worst of the movies and music that is out there. over the last few months he has been part of a youth group with our church. he gets privlages thru the church like concerts. last weekend he was able to have a friend go with him to see the michal gungor band at our church . he has a social worker that comes to the house 2 times a week to kind of work with him. but my husband is not very sympathetic when it comes to his actuall "hanicapp" for no better form of word to decribe chris. my husband is not always this selfish but whne it comes to chris and my 11 year old he is. our twins who were 2 months early are behinde also developmentally one more than the other. our one twin has early trates of possible autism. (my husband really can not handle this ) knowing that it is not just my older kids from the other marriage it is his boys also. our marriage has been challenged more than enough times. i am not sure how much more in general i can take . but i also know that i can not go on with this kind of stress in the household all the time either. chris in the past has come right out and said he wished we would divorce so that he could be in charge . he is a 163# 5'4 1/2 almost 16 year old that i can still put in his place if needed. even though i am 135# 5'3 gal. i have been trying so hard to get him into activities also we have horses dogs, a cat we did 4-h , he is learning to ride the horse with more security. i try to boost him as much as possible ... alot of his issues i realize may be typical teenage hood... i am going crazy ans seem to be talking in circles...
any replies will be welcomed

thanks
emily mom in michigan

Originally Posted by twinhorse2004

hi the reason i am writing is because my son is being labeled with aspbergers. he is also ADHD, bipolar, emotionally imparered with OCD and depression.along with anger issues. i am looking for advice i guess on to whom should i go to to have the proper care for him. he is a soon to be 16 year old that in alot of ways is still a 10 year old. this is very draining on my husband and me. we have 3 other boys 11, and 2 year old twins. he has been admitted into a hospital for help back in november we were having terrible fits of anger with threats twords my husband. ( his stepdad) any ideas out there on how to deal ?? i had to pull him out of school last march to homeschool and he went from incopletes to A-B grades. we have had alsot happen in our family this year so he was given the chance to go bsck for the remainder of his freshman year. he was the most immature one in his hospital group and is the most immature one in his class now. please help if you have ideas??/

mom in michigan

[codirector]

Wow, talk about deja'vu! When Emily started talking about how her son goes through the tv guide and has a notebook that he writes in, I said "Hello!" My son has had a notebook for a couple of years now and writes in it all the time. Most of it is pages and pages covered with the lists from one of his favorite shows, "Most Extreme" where they do a top ten on a variety of topics. He doesn't just have them in lists on the page, they are every which way on the page. Not only can he tell you where an animal is on each different list, he can tell you where they rank even when he hasn't seen the show in some time. The other things that he does is write out complete episodes of his favorite tv shows. We have let him do this, but he isn't allowed to take the notebook to school-too distracting. He seems to be able to focus better without it present, but still will write and doodle when bored.
Katie

[sadgradma]

Originally Posted by blossy

I've always had an idea that my oldest son (who is 13 tomorrow) has now officially been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. I told some agencies that I have contacted like CAMHS (Child & Adolecent Mental Health Service) that he had Aspergers because the paediatrician told me he did but because I did not have him officially tested by a psychologist they wouldn't believe me.

So today I had him assessed privately by a psychologist in the city and she agreed that he does have Aspergers. I don't know whether to feel relieved or not. I don't know if I am happy that I was right and that now my son has another label we can add to his list of labels (he has ADHD also).

I do know that now it's official we will have so many more doors opened to us that we didn't have before.

I just hope that ALL the trouble we've had at the High School these past 4 months was all worth it and I hope that they will now listen to me and stop trying so hard to make him ' fit in' just like the other kids when he isn't! I've always known he was a special needs kid and now they need to listen! They just have to.
You wouldn't believe the problems we've had at the HS. Last term they had me collect him every day at lunchtime because they just couldn't handle him. He would have many outbursts of anger and frustration. He would be extremely defiant and refuse to follow instructions. I'm thinking that the school really needs to learn about Asperger's and refresh their memories if they had learnt about it already.At one point I was thinking that they just wanted him out of the school grounds .. you know that saying .. out of sight ~ out of mind! If he wasn't there they didn't have to worry about him.

Sorry if I seem to have gone one a bit but it sure has helped me by writing this all down and not bottling it all up.

My 4 year old grandson also has been diagnosed with aspergers syndrome But unfortunaly my son and daughter in law don't take him for his therapies treatments, I worry so much about him because he has many outburst of anger and constantly hitting my other grandchildren (his brother's) What can I do? Please advice.

[codirector]

Dear Blossy, You really need to encourage your son and daughter in law to take him to his therapy sessions. Not only will it help him, but it will help them. A lot of the anger that he is showing is because he doesn't know how to cope with the situation in a proper way. It could be something as little as a brother is "doing something to annoy me and I don't know how to cope, so I'm going to hit him and make him stop". Not only can he learn coping techniques from his therapist, but his parents can also learn coping skills to help him. The easiest way to think of Aspergers is being born without a social skills gene. These kids don't get the non-verbal cues that we take for granted. A lot of our son's anger problems before he was diagnosed was because people were doing things that weren't right in his mind and he wasn't diagnosed until he was 10! He's now 13 and coping so much better. Also, your son can get help through the school system because now your grandchild qualifies for an IEP and you can put anything you want into that in order to help them best and the school has to do it! Power to the parents! I hope that this helps.
Katie
Been through it and you'll make it too!!!!

[Homeschool_Mom_07]

Blossy I am new to this site but I know how you feel. I tried for the first 48 months of my son's life to get someone to listen to me that something just wasn't right. It took him smacking his sister with a metal car carrying truck toy to get someone to listen and even then it was just to say well have him evaluated that took until he went in for grade K screening.
He was even told by a "roving circus" of college dr interns that he was normal for my area, after he had smacked one of them with the eyes of a stuffed Kermit the Frog toy, I wanted to shove the toy up their tushes one at a time but instead I decided to take him to a specialist. They told me he had ADHD/ODD and a few months later that he had Bi-Polar (he was 4 to 5 at the time).... Now at 13 1/2 they are finally deciding maybe he does have something more severe like Asperger's... he has begun the battery of test at our local Children's hospital... Which I had to get my own referral from his pediatrician since the Psychologist wouldn't accept that it was more than his previous diagnosis's. Anyway I hope this helps you not feel quite so alone.... I will keep you updated on my son's diagnosis and hopefully we can help each other

[blossy]

Hi Homeschool_Mom_07
You sound like you're a good Mum. You know if we don't stand up and say something about our kids who will?
I'm with you on the interns. I think I would've wanted to do the same thing!!
Good Luck with all the tests.


I thought I would also give an update since I haven't done that for quite some time. We finally got funding for an integration aide for Brodie. School went back at the end of January (our new school year) and Brodie got to meet his aide on the first day back. He has a male which I am very grateful for as I don't think he would listen to a female. Brodie has his help for three days a week. It would've been nice if it had been for longer but to have a aide is much better than not having one.

Although school has only been back for a week and a half Brodie is already having so many successful lessons. He is even getting his work completed and has even done some homework, which he hardly ever did. I am so proud of the effort he has been putting into his work and the fact that he is staying in class instead of walking out is wonderful.

We have also found a few more medical problems over the last twelve months. It's not like Brodie doesn't have enough to worry about. He has now been diagnosed with a leaky heart valve and high blood pressure. He's only 14 and far too young to have sugh high BP. We're going to see a kidney specialist on the 19th. Not too sure what will happen there as all the tests we've had done recently has not found anything wrong with his kidneys, blood or bladder. But the paediatrician knows what he is doing so we'll just go to the appointment!

I have the feeling that this year will be fantastic as far as school is concerned. It's just too bad that we are still having so many problems at home & hopefully we will find out what is up with the blood pressure!