Awesome news...and "real" progress We got some great news today.  B's school program is going to incorporate some VB/ABA /yay for him.  I wanted this so badly for him...and almost resorted to begging during his IEP meeting.  They said they'd try to find someone qualified to "manage" the program and guess what...THEY ACTUALLY DID.  His new program starts Monday and I have great hopes.  I have always though that I was too lenient with him and that's why our home ABA program just never seemed to work like it was supposed to.  Now we'll see if it was that or if ABA is just not a good approach for Brendon. Good report from his speech therapist today.  They were doing an activity that involved a metal person and some magnetic clothes.  She was trying to work with him on putting the clothes on the person.  She'd say, "Put on" then "take off" and demonstrate how while saying the words.  She was trying to get him to put something on the person and he grabbed the little magnetic stick out of her hand and said, "Take off" with alot of force and then took off the pants.  It was awesome.  She said this is great progress over where he was just 3 weeks ago.  She hasn't seen him in a while because of B's teeth issues, gut issues, and a few other reasons (she wasn't there.)  This was so funny because just this morning, when I first dropped him off, the speech therapist was arriving.  I told her about starting him on fish oil and how I've seen alot of positive as a result.  She actually said to me, "Sometimes parents see things they want to see, and not what's really there.  I look for "real" progress."  Things that make you go humm....it's okay for a speech therapist to think this, but to actually say it to a parent....humm.  Some people just don't think before they open their mouths.  Then 20 minutes later the above happened.  Hehehe...my baby showed her. Are you by chance using a verbal behavior home program now? If so, do you know where I can find one? Mary, your son may have shown her, but you can also tell your speech therapist that there are now double-blind, placebo-controlled empirical studies of fish oil with ASD children, and they demonstrate that fish oil does work. Amminger et al., (2007). "Omega-3 Fatty Acids Supplementations in Children with Autism: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study" Biological Psychiatry 61:4, p551-553. Results We observed an advantage of omega-3 fatty acids compared with placebo for hyperactivity and stereotypy, each with a large effect size. Repeated-measures ANOVA indicated a trend toward superiority of omega-3 fatty acids over placebo for hyperactivity. No clinically relevant adverse effects were elicited in either group. Conclusions The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that omega-3 fatty acids may be an effective treatment for children with autism I'm going to be getting alot of information about this VB program next week and I'd be happy to share whatever I get with you Marilyna.  The program I'm doing at home now is based around the book, "A Work in Progress" and that's not VB.  I don't have a clue what all VB entails...and you know what...I'm just happy I'm not having to dig up my own resources to implement something new this time...I finally feel like I'm a member of a real team that's working towards my son's eventual success in life instead of like someone who's just screaming as loud as I can and no one can hear what I'm saying. Good for him! (and for you too!). I'm glad he showed her. It's true that parents often see what they want to see - but I'm thinkin' she should have withheld judgment before she actually saw how he was doing! Open mouth, insert foot methinks! I'm glad that Brendon is getting more help and that he is making such awesome progress. It is finally paying off Mary - you're an awesome mom! Mary, Congratulations on the nice progress in ST and the ABA!  That's so great. That was a rude thing she said to you and I would have been mad.  But maybe it's better to not let them know when you implement things so you can see if they bring up the improvement.  Then it will help you assess the effectiveness better. But still, I get annoyed when people act like parents are too stupid to know if their child is showing improvements or not.  [QUOTE=Bluebird]Are you by chance using a verbal behavior home program now? If so, do you know where I can find one? Amminger et al., (2007). "Omega-3 Fatty Acids Supplementations in Children with Autism: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study" Biological Psychiatry 61:4, p551-553. Results We observed an advantage of omega-3 fatty acids compared with placebo for hyperactivity and stereotypy, each with a large effect size. Repeated-measures ANOVA indicated a trend toward superiority of omega-3 fatty acids over placebo for hyperactivity. No clinically relevant adverse effects were elicited in either group. Conclusions The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that omega-3 fatty acids may be an effective treatment for children with autism [/QUOTE] Thank you so much Bluebird for sharing this article! I am also having great success with fish oil and just posted about it as well... p.s. I found the summary online at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16920077 and even sent an email to the researcher sharing my experience. selam39472.7463425926
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