Melissa

Our family is a very tight knit unit. Homeschooling has allowed this
to happen for us. I don't think my son with autism would be nearly as
close to his sibling if they were in school all day. We started hsing
my oldest daughter first (1/2 of a school year) and I noticed right
away that he was interacting with her more than his other sister. She
began hsing the next school year and they have all been very close
since that time.

Melissa

Nicole Willoughby

Melissa ...if you dont mind me asking how old is your son with autism? how severe is it? can he speak?

I have noticed that he ( Nathaniel , age 4 nonverbal ) bites and hits his little sister who he is with all day and has started nearly ignoring Courtney unless she grabs him and gives him a hug. The biting Im not sure about but the hitting while he is smiling and making happy noisses is I believe an attempt to reach out and connect.

Nicole


---------------------------------
Yahoo! Mail
Use Photomail to share photos without annoying attachments.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Melissa

I'm sure you're talking to the other Melissa, but I forgot to jump in
and say howdy to her when her intro came up. So I'll say HI! now.
Josh has aspergers (a form of autism) and my Breanna has moderate
autism. We totally had the hitting thing with Breanna because it was
the only way she knew to communicate (the only sure way to get the
response she could anticipate). It took some work, but it was less
than six months til the time when she would walk up and say 'hi'. She
couldn't follow it with anything else (she's still functionally
nonverbal unless prompted) but it was better than the hitting. We
just stayed with her at all times, and when it seemed like it was
going to happen, we'd step in, walk her through appropriate ways to
say Hi, and then step back and let her continue.

We also had some biting, when some observation it showed that she had
learned that if she bites someone, they cry and 1) they are removed
from the situation for nurturing (ie they are out of the way) and 2)
she got removed from an unpleasant situation. That was the worst
about public school was that they kept putting her in time out for
negative behavior, not believing me when I said that they were
actually rewarding that negative behavior because she WANTED out of
the situation.

I could go on and on...sorry!
Melissa
Mom to Josh (11), Breanna (8), Emily (7), Rachel (6), Sam (4), Dan
(2), and Avari Rose


On Feb 21, 2006, at 8:20 PM, Nicole Willoughby wrote:

> Melissa ...if you dont mind me asking how old is your son with
> autism? how severe is it? can he speak?
>
> I have noticed that he ( Nathaniel , age 4 nonverbal ) bites and
> hits his little sister who he is with all day and has started
> nearly ignoring Courtney unless she grabs him and gives him a hug.
> The biting Im not sure about but the hitting while he is smiling
> and making happy noisses is I believe an attempt to reach out and
> connect.

Nicole Willoughby

I could go on and on...sorry!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

No! dont be. I love hearing different views of things from people who are actualy experiencing it themselves.
But now you get bombarded with a couple more questions lol..........
are you guys doing the gfcf diet and is it helping?
Have you ever had a problem with poop smearing ? if so......Does it ever stop! ?

Nicole


---------------------------------
Yahoo! Autos. Looking for a sweet ride? Get pricing, reviews, & more on new and used cars.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]