WELCOME TO JIM'S AUTISM BLOG





Hi everyone and thanks for visiting our blog. My wife and I created this blog to chronicle our experience while raising a son with Asperger's syndrome. Since our son was diagnosed with an ASD at age 5, we've had a lot of questions. Lucky for us we have a great support network in place. And our blog gives us an opportunity to share what we've learned with our readers. We hope you find our blog informative and interesting. Thanks again for visiting.


"It seems that for success in science and art, a dash of autism is essential." Dr Hans Asperger 1906-1980



Saturday 18 May 2013

NEW DOCTOR, NEW DISCOVERIES

It's been a few days since we all attended the appointment that Jacob had to meet his doctor.  I originally planned on doing a post right away, but there was a lot to take in and a lot to process.  In my past few posts, I expressed my concern that Jacob may need medication to help him in school.  The good news is that Jacob, at this point, doesn't need medication, but we did receive some intense news.

Jacobs new doctor feels that Jacob has a neurological disorder that prevents him from grasping some rudimentary school things like math and reading comprehension.  He also felt that Jacob has some fine motor skill issues that needed to be addressed.  We knew that Jacob had fine motor issues, as he's had for most of his life in spite of plenty of practise.  But we were taken back by the due urological disorder diagnosis.

Once we took a deep breath and really thought about what the doctor said, things became more clear.  The doctor felt that the disorder Jacob has, which prevents him from understanding basic things like early math, causes him great anxiety.  The anxiety that Jacob feels in school when doing certain things, then leads into the aggression and compulsiveness that he's been exhibiting as of late.

The doctor also explained that many times, kids like Jacob often have issues in the winter, and when in grade 3, kids with ASDs, often have other issues that tend to become more prevalent during this time.
It seems that during the second half of grade 3 is when schools begin to focus on levels and student expectations, which of course causes jacob to have anxiety.

So we spoke with the school and expressed what we've learned and they're going to implement a couple changes.  Jacobs going to spend the first 10 minutes of each day in a quiet place so he can adjust his mindset and prepare for whats expected of him in class.  Then his math work is going o be owned down in a more detailed IEP.

The sad thing is that we've always wanted Jacob to be in a regular class learning the regular curriculum that other kids do.  But we knew that he wasn't like other kids a long time ago.  It's just hard for us to learn that no matter what we do that Jacob is going to be behind in certain subjects his whole life.  We just have to stay strong and be positive for Jacobs sake and hopefully, with all that we've learned, things will hopefully begin to get better.


2 comments:

  1. I didn't realize the changes in school expectations in late 3rd grade could cause more anxiety for ASD kids. Looking back that does make sense. It was 4th grade when my son was retested and put on ADD meds. He still wasn't diagnosed with Aspergers yet, but that was the next step we followed to get to the correct diagnoses. I'm glad there's more information on it these days. Makes life a little easier for you guys. A little anyway! Good luck!

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    1. Thanks Kristy. This path that we're on is full of learning and the curve is never ending. But that's okay because you're never too old to learn something new.

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