When? | Autism PDD
For those with older children, when did your kids start recognizing letters and numbers? My 5 1/2 year old has no clue about it. He couldn't tell a letter "B" from a number "5" ... his brain just doesn't seem to be wired to recognize these things.
Is there hope that it will all click one day? I've asked his teacher if she thinks he is capable of learning this. She says she thinks so, but only time will tell. She has over 20 years experience with autistic children, so that doesn't sound very optomistic to me.
You all know how much I adore and accept my son "as is", but I do want him to progress. It seems as if time has stopped for him at 2 1/2 or so, and I'm hoping this isn't as far as he will ever go.
I think they all have uneven development compared to one another, so I hope you won't fret too much over this. What do his other teachers say?
Cole knew his digits and most of the alphabet by age 2. But he didn't walk until 16 months of age (he was 3 months premature) so I let him crawl around the neighborhood sidewalks. Sometimes he'd crawl over to the neighbors car to pull up to a standing position, and then touch the license plate.
I was bored out of my skull and started reading the license plates of their cars to him as we rubbed the letters and digits. When what to my wondering eyes did appear but a toddler who could accurately run a plate for the police!
Its all in what currently interests them. Cole can read well for a first grader, but still contentedly sits in the stinking poop in his pullup. Go figure.
This is my issue. and why I am suggesting a forum for more seriously affected children.
My son is 5 1/2 and is clueless to all this ... I need to have input from parents that have children that are moderate to severe autistic, with MR as well. I feel lost with my son at times, ever here.
My 4 1/2 yr old knows some of his letters, but not all..my 10 yr old knew all his basics by 4 and couldn't read til 2 nd grade...My little one's teachers mentioned to me that he is on a lower track, so I guess it comes, but just slower!!!No need to apologize, Leanne. Lots of us worry about how our concerns might seem trivial to other's with greater struggles.
my son (6), also doesn't know his letters, numbers. He will say "B", but he says it for every letter. I know right now in his first grade class, they are working with him on "sounds" of the letters, rather than stating the letter. They just started this protocol, so we'll see how it goes.
My friends son is in a different program (same age), and he IS reading. He is Moderate in severity, has very little language and social skills, but is a WHIZ on the computer, reading, coloring, etc. He comes home with homework everyday, and completes it with very little assistance.
I guess a lot of it depends on the child's interests. My friend's son always loved looking at books, games, etc. I guess things that peak their interest have a profound effect on learning.
nakama
I saw that you have a child with LD? As in learning disabilities?
My child who has LD's came out of K not knowing ANY sounds and not recognizing letters. Now she is 6th grade with a 2nd-3rd grade math/reading, etc level.
My HFA son didn't know much of anything at 5-6y. His K went horrible and his behavior got in the way of him learning. We found the right med combo in the summer before 1st grade----he started reading within 2 weeks. We didn't think he even knew the sounds of the letters!! It all must have been trapped in his brain!
I'm not saying to medicate your son, but at least you can be alert to difficulties that may arise. Especially if you have a child with LD's.
My totally NT dd just started K. She even just turned 6y on Tuesday------she can not recognize any letters--except "A"(her name is Anna)---and knows zero sounds!
ALL kids (ASD and NT)---are all different. They all learn differently and at different times.
Fred, totally off topic - under the Autism Resources area - which I think is for financial and legal stuff (?) - there is a thread about an autism book just for girls. It had an aspergers title in it...was unsuccessful in copying it over.First is he verbal or nonverbal does he has a communication device? its possible he may know but if he is not verbal nor has a communication device you wont know until he is able to tell you or write to you. Continue to work with himI apologize, I refered to your son as a she Sorry think it is bedtime
I am malfunctioning
My younger son is 3 1/2 and is only recognizing maybe half the alphabet. I would imagine for most children it would happen somewhere between 3 and 5 . It may be that she just does not have any interest, letters may not have enough meaning for her to hold her interest. But I would consider that maybe something else is going on maybe Visual processing problem.
keep us posted
My ds recognized numbers and letters at about 2.5 (?). Or at least thatwas when I realized that he knew them - he was not really talking then
though. He is 7.5 now and he does not yet read. He started to be able to
write his name at 4 years and when I look at his writing then and now
there is no improvement. It always seemed like that my ds somehow all of
a sudden knew stuff and then no progress for a long time and then he
makes another jump overnight. Dd was 2 1/2 for letters.
I don't know if it will help, but she watched the Leapfrog "Letter Factory" for two weeks and knew them. I've heard a lot of moms say the same thing. I think there is something hypnotic about that video.
For nmbers I would say between 3-4 as far as recognizing them.
NY Mommy - I feel like that too, sometimes when I read about kids who are having actual conversations with their parents or peers. Or are potty trained.
I confess to having felt annoyed with a parent who acted very alarmed about some issue , then put on a video clip of the child to explain the concern. It was because the kid wasn't completely keyed in properly on how the conversation was moving on to another topic or something. Yet s/he brought up something lsimilar to the teddy bear conversation by saying...hey, remember the last time we saw a bear at the zoo? and he had a leaf on his head? (I am faking this so I don't offend the parent). It made me feel like this parent had no clue what other kids on the spectrum are like. It felt like somebody whining about a pimple to some one with major burns.
Whoa. Sorry.
The Leapfrog Videos are absolutely great for kindergartners, and if your son responds well to movies and songs like mine does, this may be just the ticket.
Also, people who are fired up about the one awesome thing their kid CAN do are more likely to be the fastest at responding to your thread's title. Just keep reading. And staying. We all learn from one another...at least I do. Thanks.
I don't know what to think about my son. He is 6 and is mod-sever. He know Number up to 10 and can match number to set up to 5. He know some letters but not all. He only read well enough to play his computer games. Yet he is nonverbal and stims and has attention problems he is not potty trained. He has obsessions that can get in the way. He cannot write. Fine/Gross motor delays.
He loves being in class with the typical kids but is only mainstreamed for non academic classes. But asks through his pictures to go there. Maybe there is something in there he is obsessing about but cannot tell anyone. Noises bother him but only certain buzzing kind.
I don't know what to think of him.
[QUOTE=Holly_WA]My totally NT dd just started K. She even just turned 6y on Tuesday------she can not recognize any letters--except "A"(her name is Anna)---and knows zero sounds![/QUOTE]
I was going to say something similar... my best friend's little girl who is NT, 6 & just started K is exactly the same - doesn't recognize letters or know sounds. & Another "except A" because her name is Ally. lol
Cassidy is 5 & recognizes letters & reads, but doesn't comprehend much (has to read the copyright page, etc.) & she can't 'sing the song' and 'only' counts to 11 (she thinks 11 is 7 & gets into a loop - has done this for 3+yrs. now).
The only reason I posted is because I wanted to give the info. on my friends NT dd.
All kids develop differently. My son was reading on a first grade level in kindergarten, and he is only moderate functioning. But his language was VERY impaired and he was still only at a 2 or 3 MLU. There is a current post on Edmark as an excellent sight word reading program. In ANY event, your school MUST use a research-based, peer-reviewed reading methodology to help your son progress in reading. This is FEDERAL law. Although it's traditional to learn the alphabet BEFORE learning to read, the truth is that it's not actually necessary. Some kids learn sight words better and LOTS of kids (even completely NT ones) NEVER learn to read by "sounding out" words, but thru other methods.
Why don't you try to post the written labels for things around the house ON the objects. Like TOYS on the toy box. WINDOW on the windows. DOOR on the door. Your son's name on his room's door (Jamie's room, in my son's case, for example). Or if he's obsessed with some type of toy, stick the name of that toy ON it. For example, my son has always love exotic animals. When he was little, I put "giraffe" on his plastic giraffe, "horse" on his wooden rocking horse, etc.
When I was attending my son's preschool's parent support group about 13 years ago, there were parents of kids with all sorts of disabilities and all sorts of severity. One day, one mom of a child with a not-so-severe speech delay and not much else finally admitted that she didn't talk much because she thought her son's issues were so minimal compared to the issues of some of the kids. The parent of a child who was deaf, blind, completely physically disabled and generally not functioning more than a newborn spoke up. She told us all that eventhough our kids' issues (which ranged from pretty mild to moderately severe) were different from her daughter's issues, she totally understood that those issues STILL needed to be addressed and that no mother thinks of ANY issue her own child has as mild. We should ALL have a chance to get support and to rejoice in whatever strides our own child makes. Victory is victory, even if it's the difference between pronouncing words correctly and finally rolling over. For the child that MAKES the stride and the parent who witnesses it, it's still success. And the lack of success, at any developmental level, is grieving to the parent, no matter how high functioning (or low functioning) the child is. Yes, our kids' issues vary, but our emotional need for support while facing these issues does not. We all NEED each other.
My own 16yo son does not have the language ability of a 4yo. He communicates effectively, verbally, but he will never speak normally. Does it hurt me to see children way younger than him speaking better? Yes. However, that does not stop me from understanding that that parent is worried about ANY delay and that whatever the issue that child is facing, that issue is VERY grieving to the parent. Support is about US, to a great extent. How WE feel about our child's issues. And grief, for us, is universal. It actually doesn't matter the exact thing we are worried about. The point is that each of us IS worried that our kids won't make progress. That woman speaking up all those years ago freed me to feel as though my son's issues are valid and that it is not inappropriate to speak about them in front of someone whose child has more severe issues. And it's also valid for me to be worried about my son in front of the MANY parents whose child's issues are way more mild than my own son's.
If it helps people whose kids are more severe to start a topic on issues faced by parents of kids who are severe, then start one (and also a thread can be started by parents of kids who are quite mild). Sometimes it's important to discuss PARTICULAR isses that occur mostly at a particular point on the spectrum. But, remember, parents of kids from all over the spectrum CAN make valid contributions to parents whose kids are more severe or less severe than their own. That's why I would think it appropriate to welcome anyone who has a contribution to make to any topic.
BTW -- I'm still in touch with that woman whose daughter is SO severe. This girl is now a teen and not much better off than when she was little. But she's healthy and her mother gets lots of help for her. This girl is welcomed in her community and is much loved.
Sharlet will be 4 in 4 months. She knows numbers 1-10 and all upper case letters.It's one of her strengths though I think, she often can't actually say them and when she does they are mispronounced, but she points them out consistently. Her weaknesses are more in communication, social, behaviors and motor. Skills like matching and puzzles and numbers etc are her strength but still far from age appropriate.
I just wanted to add that just because Sharlet can point out letters and 1-10, it doesn't make her not mod-severely autistic. She recently had the CARS and Vineland tests re-done and still scored mod-severe. I don't like how the theme lately has become well if they can do this or that they are not severely effected. Anyone else's kids having genital infections and sores all over their scalp because they have not been properly washed in 3 months? The things that make sharlet mod-sev are different to what makes another kid mod-severe, all kids are different with different issues, this comparing is starting to feel upsetting to me.
I think this varies greatly. It was pretty frustrating for me when I was trying to teach my autistic son the alphabet the year before he started school (which is the same age your son is right now). His 2 year old little brother could identify more letters than he could!!!
He eventually learned them during his first year of school. He was slow to catch onto reading, too -- that didn't fall into place until the middle of his third year in school (age 8-1/2).
Keep up your hope, and remember that kids with autism often show that stairstep pattern of development -- long, flat plateaus with little apparent learning, followed by a steep, abrupt learning curve.
Good luck with everything!
She was 5 yrs 6 months. It took for ever. I spent 1 hour a day just with letters and numbers with flash cards. At first I felt like I was teaching a wall but I refused to give up. I also bought counting beads with the strings. But it was hard for her to say them in class bec. of the noise.
I never mean to brag. I've spent so many hours on teaching J, up to 4 hrs a day. It used to feel like I was teaching a wall for years but I guess she was taking in the info. You would think J would of caught on sooner.
That look can be upsetting but at the same time they are taking in some info each time. Remember their body lang is off 99% of the time.
MYMommy,
You say that your son refuses to work with you at home, with clear division between home and school. I can relate to that. We struggled with that last year with both kids. My NT son is a bit behind his peers in reading, and my ASD son is on track, but I want him to read fluently as soon as possible because I feel he can use reading to compensate in some ways for not being able to always handle large amounts of language. Given that, I really wanted to work with them both outside of school and they wanted nothing to do with me. They comply great at school, but they had that clear line too between "home stuff" (toys and games) and "school stuff" (letters and numbers). I had the workbooks, the flashcards, the works and they would just pitch a fit and run away from me if they saw me take that stuff out. They did like the starfall.com site though.
What we did, and it took some time, is built it into the routine. I bought a small table, and had a basket with all of the "reading aids" in it. We started them on a routine of bath, workbook page, read (try) to mommy, book on the computer (starfall) then off to bed where dh and I would each read them a book. They were very resistant at first, but one it got to be day-to-day they adapted. They also knew that if they didn't do the workbook and reading stuff that they wouldn't get the computer, and they wouldn't get a story, and as a result, they would be going to bed early.
Do you already use a visual schedule for your son to lay out the afternoon / evening routine? If so you might incorporate a "time for letters" pecs like card on the schedule. You could start small making it only a 5 minute activity, slowing building to 15 - 20 minutes over time, but do it every day so he gets used to it. Does your son respond to rewards (stickers or food)? You could make a star chart on the wall by his "work" and give him a star each day he sits with you and tries. Or maybe reward with a favorite snack? What kind of desk or table does your son use at school? Maybe you could get one just like it, plus create some sort of "cubby for home" so if feels more like the school environment. I know this may not be completely practical, I'm just brainstorming here.
[QUOTE=LeAnne C]NY Mommy - I feel like that too, sometimes when I
read about kids who are having actual conversations with their parents or
peers. Or are potty trained.
I confess to having felt annoyed with a parent who acted very alarmed
about some issue , then put on a video clip of the child to explain the
concern. It was because the kid wasn't completely keyed in properly on
how the conversation was moving on to another topic or something. Yet
s/he brought up something lsimilar to the teddy bear conversation by
saying...hey, remember the last time we saw a bear at the zoo? and he
had a leaf on his head? (I am faking this so I don't offend the parent). It
made me feel like this parent had no clue what other kids on the
spectrum are like. It felt like somebody whining about a pimple to some
one with major burns.[/QUOTE]
LeAnne, I literally couln't sleep last night thinking about this.
I think there should be a place to discuss some topics having to do with
more severe autism, for sure. Everyone needs support here.
I just wanted you to know that this post made me feel bad (and I
know I'm not who you were refering to) My kid can speak. He can speak
just as well as an NT kid. But, he has autism. He has OCD, anxiety
disorder, major social delays, gross and fine motor problems, full blown
SID, is NOT potty trained, etc....
I only mention that because I come here for support, too. I don't want
anyone to feel that they don't really belong here. I want everyone to
feel welcome. I don't want parents of more mildly affected kids to have to
start censoring themselves any more than I want those with more severly
affected kids to feel their needs are not getting met on this board. I think
we all need each other here.
I hear you when you say it was annoying for you to watch and hear about
some very verbal kids. I think sharing those very real feelings is fine, but
please don't accidentally make people not feel welcome here. Some of
our kids are verbal, some are not. That's autism. All parent's concerns
should be welcome here--big or small.edited, because it was a double-post
NY Mommy - I feel like that too, sometimes when I
read about kids who are having actual conversations with their parents or
peers. Or are potty trained.
I confess to having felt annoyed with a parent who acted very alarmed
about some issue , then put on a video clip of the child to explain the
concern. It was because the kid wasn't completely keyed in properly on
how the conversation was moving on to another topic or something. Yet
s/he brought up something lsimilar to the teddy bear conversation by
saying...hey, remember the last time we saw a bear at the zoo? and he
had a leaf on his head? (I am faking this so I don't offend the parent). It
made me feel like this parent had no clue what other kids on the
spectrum are like. It felt like somebody whining about a pimple to some
one with major burns.[/QUOTE]
LeAnne, I literally couln't sleep last night thinking about this.
I think there should be a place to discuss some topics having to do with
more severe autism, for sure. Everyone needs support here.
I just wanted you to know that this post made me feel bad (and I
know I'm not who you were refering to) My kid can speak. He can speak
just as well as an NT kid. But, he has autism. He has OCD, anxiety
disorder, major social delays, gross and fine motor problems, full blown
SID, is NOT potty trained, etc....
I only mention that because I come here for support, too. I don't want
anyone to feel that they don't really belong here. I want everyone to
feel welcome. I don't want parents of more mildly affected kids to have to
start censoring themselves any more than I want those with more severly
affected kids to feel their needs are not getting met on this board. I think
we all need each other here.
I hear you when you say it was annoying for you to watch and hear about
some very verbal kids. I think sharing those very real feelings is fine, but
please don't accidentally make people not feel welcome here. Some of
our kids are verbal, some are not. That's autism. All parent's concerns
should be welcome here--big or small.[/QUOTE]
It's a tough thing, isn't it, MamaKat? We all have real, justified concerns about our children...whatever their dx or "functioning level" is.
Feelings are often raw, and I know my feelings get hurt on occasion. I think we're all doing the best we can here, and I guess it's sort of inevitable that these things will crop up from time to time. For me, especially, it's when my kiddo is having a really hard time, and even well-meant suggestions rub me wrong.
I think we're all so accustomed to seeing/feeling judgement out in the "real world" that some of that angst gets carried over onto the boards as well. I think if we can all try to keep in mind that we all mean well, want to help, and do our best to understand, we'll do better.
Though I think kristys' suggestion in another thread for splitting up some new folders along the lines of "the triad of impairments" is a good one, too!
I deeply apologize and I will delete my post on this thread. I in no way intended to offend here. And while it may seem trivial to others, my son is impacted by autism. It is not obvious to others (unless they have prior knowledge/experience with autism). Which also makes it difficult as they are less willing to work with him in terms of accommodations and often just think he is a spoiled brat and I'm a terrible parent. None of this does any good for my self-esteem or his - let me tell you.
No matter what level of severity your child has - I hope we can all feel welcome on this board and since we are all judged by others, I hope this is a place we can all feel safe. If I have in any way contributed to not making it so, again I am very, very sorry.
I hate to split up the board as I learn so much from all of you, but if this is causing tremendous hard feelings - then perhaps it is needed. It seems wrong to have a board for those who have children with moderate to severe autism, those who have mild to moderate autism, etc. I'm still trying to figure out a way to describe ds without offending anyone. I use the term "mild autism" because he is verbal and can sometimes pass for NT (but not this last week!). I just don't know how else to put it and am open to suggestions!
My son recognized all the letters and numbers (even past ten) by two, and learned to read early. However, his reading level dropped and he is now in high school and behind his peers.Copyright Autism-PDD.net