NEW Tinsley house support thread -part 2!!

[Badvoc]

Hello everyone!
Thought I should start a new thread as we were nearing 1000 posts! :)
Indigo is no longer posting as you all know, but I think it would be such a shame for the support thread to go too.
I know I find reading about all the ups and downs we all experience very helpful and it's so great to hear all the progress :)
So.
We go back to TH next month and can't wait. So interested to see of the tracking programme has worked. I think ds1s reading speed has improved and he is now reading proper chapter books!
He continues to show less anxiety, OCD behaviour and stress.
He is eating better and is generally a much happier chap.
Looking forward to hearing from you all over the next few weeks/months...X

BP. That very insightful and very true. Sorry dc are poorly :( it's the pits.
Just hoping dh isn't abroad when it's our aunts funeral :(
Well, I am off to London today to see IB! :)
Been a rough week so hoping for a fun day.
Shopping.....we do sums when Tom is on hemi opk.
At first he really struggled...and got quite cross!
Have a good weekend everyone x

BP- ds definitely gets very 'down' when he is poorly. Recently, he has seemed a lot stronger psychologically. It is the worst feeling when your child is saying things like that - I really want to try to distract ds when he says these things but know it is important to let I'm talk about it.

If ds is on a 'downer', I also try to do the bolstering of dd when ds can't hear. Homework is often done in a separate room so she cannot hear any comments from him.

Ruggles - I'm sure all that 'behaviour' is reaction from starting a new school. I expect he has been trying hard to contain himself at school and from learnng new routines and it has all just come out at home. I always console myself that it is much better to be ok at school and worse at home rather than the other way around! Hope you have a great holiday.

BV- have a fab visit with IB. Say 'hi'.

Shameless boast alert- ds was given the Headmaster's Award at school today for massively improved handwriting!! When we started TH he couldn't/wouldn't write at all and if he was talked into writing his letters were about an inch high. This latest piece of work is in beautifully joined writing :)
Very proud and once again so thrilled we found TH

I'm loving the boasting :)

Fantastic Shopping!

BV, how was IB?

She was fine, very upbeat :)
We went to the V and A. It was lovely.
Am a bit tired today though!
So, I have officially resigned from the PCC.
Feel a bit sad about it, really.
But I need to concentrate on family for a while.
Tom will - hopefully finish his project today.
It's assessment week for him next week and I am trying not to get too het up about it.
He got into his middle school, no surprises, it's the only one! :)

Hi all, I posted on this thread a few months ago now and finally saved up the money to take ds1 to TH back in January. I am so pleased I did, it has made such a difference!
I started him on the vegepa a couple of weeks before we went and noticed the difference in his hypersensitivity when ds2 came home with nits (again!) and I had to get the nit comb out. DS1 would usually climb the walls and be an absolute nightmare but he sat calmly and let me get on with it then a few weeks later he let the hairdresser use the clippers on him
Since we've been to TH ds1 seems much more articulate in expressing himself and although he starts to meltdown when things don't go his way, he seems to have learnt to rein himself back in and persevere - this week he spent nearly 2 continuous hours on a jungle poster for homework and earned himself a head teachers award
His behaviour at school has slid backwards but I think it is in part because he has landed the same teacher he had in yr 2, a big disappointment after the amazing teacher he had in year 3. However, he only has 1 and a half terms till he goes to middle school, and I am dreading it a lot less, I think he is much more resilient even in the few short weeks since he started at TH.
We go back again at the end of March, can't wait!

Brilliant news Puddle!

Hi puddle and welcome back :)
Good news about your ds.
My son goes up to middle school in sept too so I completely understand your worries.
I wish he could have had his year 4 teachers this year :( he loved year 4 and made amazing progress due to TH but his teachers just seemed to "get" him whereas the year 5 teachers don't seem to have the time and the TA is horrid!
I am still planning on continuing with lumosity as we have paid for a years subscription...only £30...bargain!
Also to continue with apples and pears during the holidays as it has helped him.
Got a Skype appt with robin in 5 weeks time...

Hi all. I have tried to get on and post a couple of times this week but its been mayhem with us! I have managed to catch up on the thread so I do hope you're all well. Badvoc sorry about your sad news, and Ruggles I felt so sorry for your DS taking so long for them to get blood. I hope things are improving for you both.

We've had our first full week on TH. Taking Vegepa and vitamins, fish fingers firmly in place for breakfast and exercises underway. Not much to report yet but I'm so hopeful. We had the first part of his autism assessment this week. Next week we have a play-based session then we get their report wc 18th March. It doesn't help that DH and I don't think he's autistic, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the first part this week. I didn't warm to the person doing it and I don't think DS did either. And it's making us seriously question getting a dx at all. I want to do what's right for him, I just no longer am sure that involves a dx. Do any of you know anything about not getting a dx? I think I'll go start a thread and see if the wider SN collective have any experience too. Sorry to put a downer on the thread but hopefully we'll start to see some positive changes in DS soon, now we've got it all up and running.

Hi lookslikerain.
We were in a similar ish situation last year with tom.
The paed was prepared to dx asd but by the time we had made the appt and he had been seen, we had started TH and were seeing real improvements.
It made us question the benefit of a dx for him at this point
There is no doubt that a dx can help children with complex needs, but to get a dx and SA is not easy and tbh the process is fraught with battles and appeals/tribunals just to get your child the help they need and that has been recommended :(
I know a couple of people on MNSn that have spent years and ££££ fighting the LA and schools and they are unsure whether its been worth it :(
I don't mean to imply you shouldn't continue the process, but, for us, dx seemed less necessary after a few weeks doing TH than it did at the beginning of the year.
Does that make sense?
Not getting a dx is easy :)

Thanks Badvoc. I think you're absolutely right when you say it helps children with complex needs, and were DS a child with complex needs then we wouldn't be questioning for a second. But his needs are not complex and unless he were to change or regress drastically, they never will be. As long as i keep him in fish fingers and peppa pig, he's happy! In fact, we don't even think he's autistic. Unfortunately he failed the mchat and there is no other option for him, so we're left being pushed down the autism path by the nhs. To say we feel a bit railroaded is an understatement. And it totally didn't help that I really didn't like one of them during the assessment. It can be so hard to put personal feelings aside sometimes and remain impartial. I keep feeling my defensive-mummy instinct kicking in! I want to grab my boy, tell them he's perfect give them a poke in the eye and run out the room.

Please don't take this the wrong way but I really do take heart from the fact that Tom was looking at Asd dx. Part of my brain keeps saying Robin might have got it wrong about DS. His books focus so much on the other childhood syndromes that I think I'd convinced myself he wouldn't be able to help DS. I've got all my fingers and toes crossed that we'll see some changes soon.

Well...you do have a choice.
The NHS cannot force you to attend appts/get a dx!
We went down the NHS and private route prior to TH (long story, but the NHS paed was the worst hcp I have ever come across and that's saying something!!)
The private paed was very experienced (is the county head paed) and was happy to dx after 2 appts.
One thing he did do was put ds on 2 months of melatonin which really sorted toms sleep issues out. He hasn't had any since.
I think
If I were you I would continue with the process...which can be long and drawn out as you know.
Then in a few months after you have been doing TH for a while ask to do the mchat again?
Express your doubts about the initial result and that you feel ds has matured etc etc...
How does that sound?

The person who started this thread all those months ago has a son with asd.
She was very very concerned about him and his future. To the point that she felt he would never be able to go to secondary school and she would have to home ed.
He has now been at secondary school since sept and there have been no issues at all.
:)
He started TH about 6 weeks before Tom.
My son starts middle school in sept and although I am worried (as I am sure most of the other parents are too) I am much more positive than I was. He went to an open day last oct and loved it :)
It just takes time.
And you have lots of that :)

Re diagnosis. We had an ASD traits diagnosis for ds when he was 4. At the time I was relieved because it a) meant I wasn't the bad parent I thought I was and b) I was worried ds would be labelled as a naughty child and I knew he couldn't help his poor behaviour.
However, I now believe he was misdiagnosed and actually had developmental delay. The professionals paid no attention to the dyspraxia and ADD symptoms he had, focusing solely on the ASD symptoms. His problems were low level but spread across lots of areas eg he was so hyper sensitive that just a windy day could send him into meltdown.
The diagnosis helped at school in that he wasn't punished for poor behaviour. He also was never challenged to do anything he didn't want to do. He avoided PE, assemblies, music lessons, maths lessons all because he kicked off when asked to do them. Staff allowed this because they believed he couldn't help it.
We moved him to the private prep school he now attends where he has been treated like everyone else, has absolutely no individual support and he has totally risen to the challenge. What with the change of school and Th he is just like all the other children. I wish we hadn't gone down the dx route and had found TH when he was 3.

I would also say wrt to your other thread that most of the child's on there have classic autism as opposed to asd.
Also, they aren't doing TH!! :)
I am very glad we didn't get a dx for ds as things stand at the moment.
Nothing to do with nit wanting a "label" but everything to do with wanting to find out the root cause of toms problems.
X

Child's?
Children!

Thank you for people's advice a while ago re: engaging eyes and DS.

We've been doing whack an alien and target practice, now, for about 3/4 weeks.

I am absolutely amazed that DS, who we've been assured will NEVER see in 3D can actually see the targets now, in 3 D, I am so sure.

He is lining the targets up with the shooter thing, as if he really can see where they are and he says "I knew it" when he does it successfully.

I am writing on here, just to ask people who've done this package with their children ... what kind of changes did you see with your children in real life as a result?

I feel as though the whack an alien game has possibly sped DS's reading up and made him more fluent ...

How did the target practice carry over into your child's actual life?

Thank you.

I Think it's helped his reading a lot. Which it's designed to do, of course.
But also his depth per emotion which helps with all sorts of things...sports etc.
So glad it's helped x

Depth perception rather...

Thank you Badvoc. DS's dad said that DS was kicking the football much more accurately today.

YEs, it will help with all that sort of thing.
Sorry, I can't remember, are you following the TH programme too?
(Diet, exercises etc...)

Well, this week is shaping up to be a corker too!
Ds2 ill with cough and cold.
Tom still not on top form but its assessment week :(
Dh is away from weds....
Sigh.
Ds2 is being very sweet and playing nicely with his trains.
There ill be much cbeebies watching today :)

Hello Badvoc,

No we're not following TH aswell. DS has mild cerebral palsy and we've been doing RRT for about 2 years now. He's doing really well on it, so I don't want to try anything else until we've completed this - its also mixed with occupational therapy which we don't get on the NHS.

I've read Robin's book though and like to look at this thread - so we do a sort of vitamin/diet abbreviation and that's about it for the moment.

I got a phone call from school this morning to say the the Ed Psych was seeing DD in nursery this morning. Going to pick her up in a minute, but doubt I will get much feedback. The last one who saw her heavily hinted at ASD so it will be interesting to see what this one thinks.

We are going back to Robin on Sunday. Our second visit. Can anyone let me know what to expect?