Interesting Article | Autism PDD

YEAH ... T has concrete reasoning out the WAZOO.  And nobody picks it up on testing her!  She is only just getting into playing with blocks (3-d stuff) now, after only picking up drawing and the rudiments of writing, a year ago!  So they totally have missed it!  I think the testers know better, but the training in test adminsitration stops them from using any evaluation or assessment outside of the stinkin rigid tests! 

LOL ... IT IS LIKE THEY ARE BEING TOO LITERAL!!!

I remember my little guy at age 2 counting numbers and shaking in
excitement and happiness. Five years later he sitting next to me ( as I
write) inventing math questions 'Mommy 25 % of 1 is 0.25', 'Mommy the
squareroot of 64 is 8'. And yes - he failed his first grade math this year
because the traditional format did not work for him but that is what is
measured.
We know that our kids are much brighter than most people think. And as
the grow older we need to let them know that we know that they are
bright because they will be getting messages from society that they are
stupid.

[QUOTE=NorwayMom]The myth of autism and mental retardation is one of my pet peeves.  I'm glad the subject is getting some mainstream press.  Thanks for sharing the link.[/QUOTE]

me too

Very interesting article...it is ironic that the means to test our kids uses means in which are the most adversive..very expression and eye contact is so very hard so many times the demand causes our kids to just shut down all together..mine does anyway depending on the day.  She is very gifted in art and music but these things are not tested..her reading is too:) I will use these gifts to their full advantage as far as she wants to take them! 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20226463/site/newsweek/from/ET/

The above is the URL to an article from Newsweek that my daughter sent to me. It's about hidden abilities in autistic children. I found it very interesting because my grandson Nathan has had an obsession with letters and numbers since before he could speak. I remember him at 20 months or so being able to take magnetic alphabet letters and put them in order. He also learned how to spell simple words by the time he was 2. Now at 2.5 he still is totally obsessed with letters and numbers and will do just about anything to play with them or write them. It's been hard to know whether to try and redirect him all the time or just let him go and have his letters and numbers. He does play with other things and is doing great but we are always second guessing ourselves about this obsession. Hope you enjoy the article. I'd love to know what you think about it.

The myth of autism and mental retardation is one of my pet peeves.  I'm glad the subject is getting some mainstream press.  Thanks for sharing the link.My little boy is also consumed with love for letters and numbers.   Thanks for sharing the link!
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