Ahna, when DD received her asd diagnosis was she assessed for adhd? If not, why? I think this is the route you need to go down if you are looking at calming/ focus meds. How would do get that done now? Privately or is there a similar CAMHS system? I had a very long discussion with DSs paediatrician at our last appointment about that exact question. She got quite annoyed and said the lack of focus/ inattention/ movement etc is part of his condition… then said incredulously, do you really think you can medicate that? Those comments followed her saying that the only route would be adhd meds which wd have tried and didn’t work. She was very clear there was nothing else (beyond adhd meds) and implied I was a lunatic for thinking there might be 🙄. But adhd meds MAY work for DD.
@LydiaWickhamsBonnet what was DSs experience of toileting? When did he ‘get’ it? How? What were the challenges (for him?). Any advice? I hope you enjoy your hols, sounds fabulous!!
I am not sure about ABA. I would definitely look at it provided and here is the key proviso it was teaching him the right things. No disrespect to Lydia but being blunt I think it’s easy to warn against it when you have a child who communicates and speaks and is toilet trained and so on. I’m not saying I do (but many will) when you have a child in double digits age who is still unable to communicate that they are in pain or hungry or sick and you are up to your elbows multiple times a day in shit (which is not let’s be honest like changing the nappy of a 3 year old) would you consider a teaching method that may just be able to teach them these things when all other methods have failed? Hmmm let me think about that… 🤔. Not because it would make life easier for you as the parent although it infinitely would make your lives better as a family but because it would make your child’s life better if those skills were attained. If I was told that spinning DS anti clockwise on his head daily would lead to him being able to communicate I’d do it! A zillion times over. Of course there’s the ‘well let’s try other teaching methods first’ and yeah, let’s try them, bring it on, but when there comes a point after years and YEARS that they are clearly not working, what then?? Do nothing? Schools box of tricks only contains so much (as the OT told me this summer…..)
Of course that is different to teaching an asd child to lose stims or appear NT and so on which is clearly wrong. But it’s not the ABA that’s wrong, it’s the attempted outcomes. My view anyway. So I’d look at it Ahna. You can then rule it in or out can’t you.