Is there really a recovery from asd/AS/autism???

[Blossomhill]

I was watching Oprah Winfrey with Jenny Mccarthy last weekend and I was so impressed with how well her ds had come on since all the therapies and dietary changes. Jenny described it that her ds was recovering. I am sceptical but also intrigued and was wondering if anyone has a similar story??

My dd is 8 and has Aspergers/Adhd. Thanks x

Yes he can match to pictures. Also he follows signs correctly whilst out and about (eg toilet- just the word no picture). He can type a few words independently as well. Although he struggles with the attention to complete the whole task. Is very good on first letters.

I'm not sure about VB and speech tbh. I think it falls down when a child doesn't develop speech/language and I don't get the impression it has a back up for that. I mean I think a child needs a certain amount of 'natural development' as well. I could be wrong though. Just my experience.

I have a PECS books of just words, but ds1 actually uses PECS faster with pics so I have that around as an option but don't force it to be used. We're hopefully starting this new programme soon anyway (just waiting to hear whether ds1 is compliant enough- I think he will be). Because it's distance she wants a certain level of compliance (ability to work for about 10 mins without kicking off) because otherwise very little progress is made and it's a waste of money/time.

He really needs the language teaching as well. If you go to Autism One and look at last year's conferece, there's a presentation by Marion Blank. It tells you all about it there.

You've been reading about Jenny's crystal children then and her 'indigo' mom techniques then. I am more inclined towards the 'autism acceptance' too though I don't agree that all interventions are wrong. ABA has a good track record and all ASD children will benefit from appropriate educational and behavourial therapies.

I mean have you combined the pic. and word on one card?

Actually Leonie
my son has made advances well aside from growing up and learning.
So thanks for the cracked and full of crap line.
Nice .

And faded the pics? They do that a bit at school. (I can never work out how to get the pic to fade).

His PECS have always had words and pics on (thought they always did tbh).

yurt - I know on do2learn site (so presumably as well on boardmaker) they have pecs with just the pictures and not the words, as well as with both, not sure if they have it the other way round though...

Not always.
In my palces of work we also have the challllenge of Welsh/English.

Fade pics by photocopying on a light setting.
Or make actual pics. smaller.

TBH I think children with lots of biomedical issues are more likely to "recover" than those without.

Oh yes of course welsh/english.

TBH PECS has got to the stage where it's holding him back (sacrilege I know- and I do love PECS) - we need to move away from "I want" (after 9 years causing behavioural problems) and onto something more complicated.

Aren't you doing I see/hear/It's a ??????

I have a kid who has graduated onto a Chat PC but tbh I think PECS better fro him as he can scan faster.

He does I see, but I find I see a bit crap tbh. He comments on everything he sees anyway - doesn't need PECS.

When I say more complicated I mean a lot more complicated. Proper sentences using different tenses and not stuck in a very simple language structure.

Like the girl in Canada that was linked to on here recently. Had some further info from her Mum. Lots of work went into getting her to that stage (ABA based).

Yes,that is the challenge for us all I think.

I have found picture calenders very useful for providing an incentive for reflecting on the past and projecting to the future, in terms of comprehension if not necessarily in terms of expression but hey, we have to start somewhere.

Developing tacts a key aspect of language thoguh (which I knew even before getting into ABA) Communication for pleasure and not just fulfilling of physical needs.

He comments all the time. Something he's always done is share interests.

I think a lot of programmes aren't ultimately designed for children who don't develop speech at all. Find this one exciting because it's the first one I've come across that does. And thatr seems to take into account all ds1's issues. (motor, planning, attention, language, executive function).

It's not remotely a 'cure' but it has the potential to very dramatically change his life (although he will always be severely autistic).

If we get accepted I'll report back on my blog and here on how I find it.

Will look out for your feedback.

Best of luck

Thanks. From what I've seen and heard so far it looks very professionally run. I think it's ds1's best chance of developing his reading/writing into something useful (and independent). Certainly some children have done very well with it. Although it's hard work.

Fingers crossed.

There's probably more to Jenny than was presented on the Oprah show, but I hate the way this was portrayed as if a mother who fights hard enough will get her child out of autism.Oprah should have probed harder. And Jenny should have a bit more humility and compassion for other mums.

I watched the other links and I will say this for America - they seem to be much more up on there being a window of opportunity when ASD children are young and getting in there early to see the most improvement. I thank God that we got an early recognition of ds's ASD and that I'm trying to work with it now. Some children are still not getting diagnosed until well into primary school.

Oh I loathe that when people do that nikos. I remember a Radio 4 programme that did that once. 'If you do this then your child will talk' when really it's not that simple. It should be about optimising your child's chances of accessing the world, and trying to help them reach *their" potential.

And she looked totally stunning! Most of us haven't even got time to brush our hair .

I read a book last year by Cheri Florance (?) about her autistic son who was non verbal til he was about 6 or 7. She is a speech therapist and invented her own version of PECS with words to teach her son to read/write and then talk. It was very interesting although she does sort of give the impression that he was misdiagnosed with autism and you can't prove that one way or the other. They are very advanced with diagnosis in the US, I wish I had known that the signs of autism are so obvious in infancy whereas we are told it is some obscure disorder that can't be diagnosed til 4 or even 5.

I spoke to Cheri Florence a few years ago. We were thinking of trying her method but I decided it wasn't the right thing for ds1. Think I had a thread on here at the time.