? about Speech and the PDD diag. | Autism PDD
We used a baby born doll to practice on the potty as well. I would make
the doll go and give it a reward so my dd would get the idea. I didn't
bother about videos but by then she was able to understand when I
talked to her about using the potty.
I also used a decent sized potty like a chair so that she wasn't
perched on something small that made her scared of falling. The potty
could then be put on the toilet while she transitioned to using the
toilet.
I didn't want to force her to sit on the potty every 15 mins which was
one suggestion I was given. I did however check her underwear was dry
every 15 minutes or so and praise her for dry or if wet get her to sit
on the toilet for a short time as a reminder.
I definitely think using something that they can feel is wet is a great idea.
I read something recently by a psych in the field who said that there
is usually no delay in the physical aspects of toileting it is just the
understanding that is delayed so with the right supports a child with
Autism can be trained.
With that in mind I am sure that you will get there soon. Good luck.
well Mary hang in there, My son started prescool in oct.03 a special one and when he went he only spoke 25words,now its full sentences..But he still has trouble with articulation understanding what hes sayin,so he gets and qualifys for speech therapy,in my opinion OT ALSO but thats another subject.When he went this to a regular preschool 3 1/2 days a week last oct. he started to regress in speech,you couldnt understand him,after i pulled him out b/c of stress was onsetting his seizures..the IEP team members thought it was horrible i did that OH WELL hes not there child,after him just at the special school his speech came back.in 6wks.THANK GOD.but hes now 4 1/2 and still stays directly on one thing,but its not everyday,so little at a time.I agree with Michele its the DX thats always there,I was told by his nuerologist .. but will improve with patience which mine runs low half the time, and early intervention and nothing but a BIG FIGHT WITH SCHOOLS..RRRRRRRRR..BUT ITS ALL BABY STEPS,TAKE YOUR TIME, and potty train,well his pyschiatrist told me last year,dont push them it will come.slowly..and it has.good luck
Mark,
I agree. And, I have also heard that some children have had the diagnosis removed after showing such improvement that services are no longer necessary and it is very difficult to tell the child from an NT child.
As far as potty training goes, we had a real tough time with my son. About 5 months of intensive work - we didn't even try to start until he was past 3 1/2. He just wasn't ready until then. But, he started showing interest when I or daddy would go potty. So, I finally got him to move from diapers to pull-ups and we tried going every hour to hour and a half. Also, sitting them on the potty right after meals is good as a lot of kids will poop then. My son did and he actually got poop-trained LONG before he was pee-trained. He was willing to sit for long periods of time if I would read him stories. So, we would mostly work on this during my daughter's naps. She took 3 naps until she was 9 months old (which was only about one month into potty training), but we just worked on it a lot. We tried having underwear-only weekends as well. I know they say not to go back and forth, but I wanted him to really get the wet sensation (and the poopy one), but I just couldn't send him to school with underwear on. The Pull-ups with wetness liners worked really well for my son too. After a couple of underwear-only weekends (although we used diapers at night), my son was rarely having poop accidents. I would have him help clean up his underwear and he HATED having to do that with poop accidents.
We tried various books. One that was particularly helpful for my son (who is very verbal and needs long, detailed explanations for everything) was "What to Expect when you Go Potty" or something like that. The reviews on-line were bad because they all thought the book was written for a more older child and that all the detailed explanations weren't necessary. Well, those bad reviews made me want to buy that book for my son - and it helped a lot. A video that helped too, was "Bear in the Big Blue House - Potty Time". We got a Potty Elmo to help my son learn how to help someone else go potty - I think that will be more help for my daughter when she starts sitting on the potty.
Anyway, I read to my son for long periods of time - sometimes with my baby girl crawling around in the hall right outside the bathroom. When he accidentally peed or pooped in the potty, I'd give him a lot of praise and then he'd get to pick out a dinosaur from a container. He also got to put a sticker on a dinosaur calendar I got him. We had different stickers for peeing and pooping. Peeing were little animal ones and pooping were larger Clifford ones. Four days in a row of peeing and pooping in the toilet (even if it was only one time each) earned a trip to Sears to look at vacuum cleaners, leafblowers, whatever he wanted. The ultimate was ten days in a row without accidents and he got a real guitar with strings (kid-size). He got that about a week after his 4th birthday. When he turned 4, he decided he was a big kid and he was going to go in the potty and also sleep in his big kid bed (rather than the crib he was much too large to be in). We had made a big deal of 4 being a big kid, so that really helped too.
Hang in there - it will get better and it is hard to realize that when you're in the middle of it!
I was wondering if you have used PECS at school or home with your DD? My ds has possible PDD-NOS and he has done very well with the PECS system and soon we will be trying them with his potty training. With my son he learns by example and seems to do better that way than just asking him to do something. Like your DD my DS also still has abstract language and does seem to make progress and then regress a little, I wish you luck and hopefully you will find something that will help your DD use the potty
Mary I know where you are coming from. I, too, have seen wonderful things happening w/ ds recently. He is starting to really try to talk and most of what he says makes sense (use a word for the right thing or person). Still lots of issues to work out, but I just can't get over that I hear real WORDS!
And it's hard to get your hopes up because ds has also had a time where he was seeming so nt for about 2 weeks. He was stimming less, interacting more, better eye contact, even attempting more socialization (inside the home at least where he does the best). But then when I thought all was well and maybe he was ok and I was the crazy one thinking asd, then he seemed to go back to his odd behaviors full force. I don't know if something set him off or what. It makes it hard for me to know what to expect next now that he is going through another wonderful period where he is progressing and improving again. But I just enjoy it anyway and try not to worry about next yet. I'm just loving to hear him try to copy words. He rarely even attempted to mimic us or others before (although when in the mood he sometimes would copy us when we asked him to repeat the few words he knew). Now he is even trying to copy what dd does sometimes like playing. Which is good because he never playS appropriately.
Anyhow I'm going on which is a bad habit of mine lol. I just hope that in your case and my case the progression just continues. And I hope you get potty training worked out. I haven't even attempted such a thing, even though I certainly had it going by now w/ dd. I wish you the best!
Amber
Although there is no cure for ASD, there are many early diagnoses that change over time. A child may present behaviors or symptoms at age 2 or 3 that are not there at age 5 or 6. The 6 year old child may still be ASD and simply coping with it better, or the child may have been NT all along, and simply displaying ASD-like behaviors as part of a slower-than-normal development cycle.I think that when a child diagnosed as ASD at age 2 shows no symptoms at age 6 it should be seriously considered that the child was simply misdiagnosed. It is extremely hard to correctly diagnose developmental disorders at ages under 3 years.
thanks, I like the idea of a potty timer. setting aside a time to insist she sit on her potty. If i don't get a tantrum over it then they may work or help at least.
mary
Hey there guys..me again.
Seems like Anna is coming farther w/her speech and now I find myself shaking my head again.
What comes next? Ofcouse...her speech is still abstract but lately she has been just saying the right things at the right time...i don't know if it will last (in the past she would seem to making progress and then bam, we were back to odd behaviors).
So, once speech comes does she still qualify as PDD-NOS or mild autism?
She still has mild CP...very mild...mostly you can tell if she trys to run or walk up and down stairs or jump.
She still spends hours playing w/the same thing and has extreme attachments to the same things. (insisting on sameness)...but not ALL the time.
Anna is turning 4 soon. We are having problems w/potty training (she isn't wanting to do it at all)...and she acts very babyish.
After all this time you think I'd know what to expect now...but to be honest I have been working so hard to get her talking I never thought about what comes next.
Am I just entering a new phase? And how do I get this girl interested in the potty????? I thought this video and book would help her "once upon a potty" but she isn't taking to it like I thought. Is there a video out there that works better?
shoooooooooooo sorry to go on and on. I am happy Anna is progressing these days...a week ago it seemed like she was regressing and I wasn't sure she would get better.
The ebb and flow or progress I suppose.
mary
Mary, a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, Autism, Aspergers etc doesn't go away because there is no cure for any of the ASD's.
To qualify as any of them you have to meet The DSMV IV criteria for autistic disorders .
Usually with a PDD NOS diagnosis the child has a speech delay, many kids are non verbal. But one goal we all have with our kids is for them to communicate - hopefully by talking. When they do become verbal it doesn't mean their speech delay is gone because thre are other areas like understanding and abstract thinking and so on. But just being verbal isn't going to change the diagnosis.
The goal for any kid on the spectrum would be to get them to a point where they have become so high functioning it is near impossible for the untrained eye to tell them apart from an NT child/person. Of course many kids unfortunately won't reach that goal, but we all work as much as we can to get as close to it as possible!
Once Anna meets the goals that are set for her now there will be new goals and more new goals, and more, and more.... The diagnosis doesn't ever go away.
Hi
As far as potty training goes, AJ's teacher said if they don't mind feeling wet or dirty, they are not ready for potty training. I set the potty timer (as I call it) for an hour thereabouts and kept taking him in there. It took months and months on end but it paid off cuz he is actually peeing in the toilet right now. Oh, and also, I peed in front of him...I told him shhhh listen...hear that...Mommy's going pee pee. I am working on PooPies now. He likes to hide, and when I THINK I am catching him in the act, he FIGHTS me. He knows what it is 'cuz he says it and takes me back to his room and gets out the wipes. I guess that's a start.
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