My ds is one of those kids who was diagnosed relatively late on his 7th
birthday. While I always noticed something 'different' and delayed about
his developement I could not put my finger on it and most other people
did not see it. Well, within the last year it has become more and more
obvious to everyone. I am not sure if at this age he stand out more clearly
against his peers or if he has truely regressed - I almost fear the later. His
insurance does not pay past age 7 and in school he did qualify for 20%
pull-out but not O.T. or speech.
It seems like most therapies are geared towards and successful with kids
under 5. What therapies are sucessful for newly diagnosed school age
kids? What have people done at that age that they felt made a difference?
Adam was dx'd at 7 also. He has had OT and Speech. Both of these helped him greatly. Our insurance paid for OT for him for over 1 1/2 years once or twice a week.
For school, he has had accomodations, including increased test time, being able to take his test in the spec ed room. Sentence starters for written answers, and he does reading and got math help in the spec ed room also. He had speech therapy once per week for pragmatics. If your son has not had a pragmatic speech test, I would suggest it, as many ASD kids have problems with that he he would probably qualify for speech. Also, Adam has a social skills class.
micki -- good question!
T's dx came at 6 so everyting I read seems too young for her!
We are doing social skills, and sensory stuff including Wilbarger "brushing," and trying to translate Floortime concepts, into something for a more advanced mind, but it is challenging!