# Need advice on teaching a special needs child



## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

My DS is 13. Although he's not autistic, he does have many autistic traits. He is language delayed. This is both receptive and expressive. Since he struggles so much with language he struggles with reading and only reads at a first grade level. He also struggles with math. He can add and substract simple equations, but has no concept of money or time.

I've been trying to decide what would be the best route forward with him. Since math and language skills are so important to be able to survive in the world, should I concentrate soley on those areas for now? Or do I continue with science, geography, ect? His social skills are ok, which surprises most because of his language skills, but he's so outgoing that most kids don't really care if he always makes sense when he says things. Like many kids who are autistic, he has a tendency to parrot things he has heard trying to find out where they fit in. Makes for some interesting discussions. 

Anyway, I look forward to hearing what advice or suggestions you have for me.


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## ladykena (Jul 12, 2009)

I homeschool two boys. The youngest is 11 and has mild autism. You could have been describing my son. Ben is very challenged with language. I use an interest led method of teaching. Ben hates reading however he loves history and science. He has to read to learn these subjects. I still fight with math. No real advice there. I would use what interest him to encourage more reading, while maintaining a whole curriculum.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

If you can get some read along audio books he might do well with them. 
As for math and science, see what he needs for his level, and do hands on visual stuff.
History can be addressed by letting him watch some history movies, like Drive through History. http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Thru-Hi...BJFS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325606115&sr=8-1

Life of Fred Math is good.  It's approached a totally different way. Explained using every day circumstances. 

Hope this helps.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

Actually, a lot depends on the state you live in and the laws there. Some states have a specific group of subjects that legally must be covered.
But, if it were my child, I would just do some unit studies and center on the language and math. That way you could incorporate all subjects legally required into the log from the unit study. I mean if you are reading the call of the wild, and talk about the snow in the north, its geography. And it is talking to enhance language skills.
Another thing I would do would be to think about either joining HSLDA for the special needs expert there or Hewitt Homeschooling for the special needs people. That way you have professional advice for little money, and nobody can accuse you of neglecting your son's needs. That is just my stay safe from the school piranhas advice.

As far as Mom advice, I would also suggest looking into some ESL supplies that focus on vocabulary and language. They aren't that expensive. There are lots of differnt picture related sets of professions, foods, survival skills, etc. You can look at pictures of different professionals and talk about each one together. Who is this? What does he do for his job? Speaking to each other about simple things can build vocabulary and help with auditory discrimination. I would also have his hearing tested. The health dept should do that for free.
Public schools use survival skills materials to help kids get by in life when they are really having specific problems with language or math. Survival skills math would be things like learning to tell time, learning the calendar, learning to read bus schedules and figure how long between different buses the wait time is, learning to read maps, learning to count money and make change, etc. Survival skills language is similar in that they teach kids to get by in life, to use words they understand and increase vocabulary, to call for help if they need to, to be able to express themselves at a level that society cannot take advantage of them too much.
In the scheme of life, reading Ivanhoe isn't important, but being able to pay for an item at the grocery store is very important. I personally would work on basic survival skills rather than worrying about higher concepts.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

mekasmom, we did the picture thing, I think it was called the PALS program. It was too simple for him. As far as his interests, well, he has some strange ones due to me being involved in children's ministries for so long doing clowing and puppetry. He loves puppets and clowning and illusions. I have used the illusions to teach him science, and he has a stronger grasp on science than most of his peers. We give him chores so he can earn money and are trying to teach him about money in that way, but so far it hasn't clicked. We did buy him an ATM bank for Christmas. It keeps track of what he has and even has a thing that he can set goals on.

My main goal is for him to be able to read and understand money concepts well enough to one day be able to hold a job.

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention, he wants to be a chef and loves cooking.

We have done some thematic units in the past, but he really didn't grasp a lot of it. He's good on the computer and I have a few Reader Rabbit programs that may help. I tried them before, but he wasn't ready for them yet, so may try those again. 

I have never heard of Life with Fred, so will reseach that.


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## r93000 (Mar 9, 2009)

What do you think his comprehension level is for material? 

Sometimes children with language and communication trouble have a better reading level than we realize, but the communication barrier causes issues for us to evaluate where they are. It may be that they can't read well- period. Sometimes they read ok in their head, but have no oral fluency to read aloud and/or are unable to verbally express what they have read even though they understood it. Its that darn communication piece 

Does he have more success memorizing whole words or using phonics? This would be an impact on how you would move forward to teach him. Oftentimes children with communication disorders, prefer to learn to read using memorization methods rather than phonics. Which makes sense if you think about it. Phonics are all based on sounds that are fairly abstract to process.

I would second mekasmom in suggesting you take a look at ELL and ABE materials. They are made to appeal to teens and adults, which would most likely be more interesting to him than the general first grade materials targeted at 5,6, and 7 year olds. Your local library or adult basic education center usually has a pretty good selection of materials to look over and check out. They are generally free to checkout, but sometimes will require a security deposit to ensure they are returned. 

The picture piece also can be adapted to multiple levels. It can be used solely for communication, reading instruction, or combinations of both. I am not familiar with PALS, so could you explain what it entails. I have worked with essentially non-verbal students who are very gifted in areas, but use forms of picture communication systems.

For math, what skill sets does he already have?

Does he know that you give a clerk money and they give you the toy at the store? If you tell him to get out his money, does he get his piggy bank or not know what you mean? If you ask him to give you a quarter, can he choose one from a pile of coins? Can he match coins to pictures or is he at the point of learning to count change?

The same types of questions would occur for time concepts. Can he sequence a set of pictures of a firefighter getting dressed in the correct order? If you ask him what time it is, does he look around for a clock even if he can't read it? Or is he at the point that you are actually teaching him how to read hours or minutes on a judy clock?

Something to tie in with the reading comprehension questions and also the time concepts- If you write down a simple set of instructions on index cards (you could relate it to cooking  ) could he follow them?
Example only: 
1. Get a cup.
2. Get out the milk.
3. Pour in cup.
If he can't read and follow the directions like this. Add pictures cues and see if he can do it then. 
If you gave him the cards out of order said "Lets make a recipe for getting a cup of milk.", could he put them in the order they need to be in? 
I realize that this example is very basic, but you could adapt it to fit his interests and ability level. It would then help judge some basic reading comprehension, language with picture comprehension, and time sequencing concepts.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

My son has Aspergers.

To encourage his reading, I scoured the used book stores-as many used book stores that I could find- to find books that were not only in his interest, but had AWESOME pictures!

DS HATED the books at school! Those books included stories about talking rabbits, and the kid KNEW that rabbits did not talk! He did accept the Thomas the Train series with the talking train, but talking rabbits were simply too silly. Asking him to read about talking rabbits made him angry.

When I went looking for books, I absolutely ignored the age that the books were aimed for: most of the books that I bought were actually books meant for much older kids or adults. What DID matter was that they had absolutely killer pictures, and were on a subject that fascinated him.

I read the good bits to him, he enjoyed looking at the pictures when he was supposed to be sleeping, and after a bit he came to me and he asked me about some of the harder words under the pictures. He wanted to read and re-read them, and it bugged him that he was missing a few words!

He went from reading a year behind to reading two years ahead of his age group.

My brother, who struggled in school and who is now a fairly wealthy man, explained it to me. "For everything that is taken away, something else has been given". Kids with Aspergers will DELIGHT in things that are connected with whatever they are fixating about, and a great deal can be taught to them if you can tap into their fixation. 

My son, who was fascinated by trains, was started by me in phonics and, while he was ignoring the books at the school about talking rabbits, absolutely STUDIED the captions under the pictures of brightly colored antique trains, that gave the names of the trains, what years they were in service, where they took their loads, and so forth. I did have to explain a lot of the concepts, like what a passenger train was, but he liked that also!

I did find an ABC book for trains also, such as "C is for Caboose" and "X is for train crossing", and I got several " Thomas the Tank Engine books, " but most of the books for beginning readers had talking animals in them. And when a small child with delayed speech takes the effort to say that talking animals are stupid, he most certainly does not LIKE! IT!

When DS was in the fifth grade he read all of the Harry Potter books twice: That finished what the train books started. He reads very well, now.

If you can, use what your son loves best to teach him to read better. Ignore the ages the books are designed for: what matters is that the subject fascinated him!!!!!


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Terri said:


> My son has Aspergers.
> 
> To encourage his reading, I scoured the used book stores-as many used book stores that I could find- to find books that were not only in his interest, but had AWESOME pictures!
> 
> ...


gonna agree with this one. My son is an aspie - not reading delayed, but not interested in reading much fiction. Any book of facts on science or math - those books were the ones that got him reading for fun. =0) Also, nothing wrong with reading aloud. They love it, no matter how old they get. It can be a family past-time just like watching tv. =0)
Cindyc.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

r93000 said:


> What do you think his comprehension level is for material?
> 
> Sometimes children with language and communication trouble have a better reading level than we realize, but the communication barrier causes issues for us to evaluate where they are. It may be that they can't read well- period. Sometimes they read ok in their head, but have no oral fluency to read aloud and/or are unable to verbally express what they have read even though they understood it. Its that darn communication piece
> 
> ...


He doesn't do well with phonics. One of the things we were told was that he was a gestalt learner. He doesn't get the parts so he has to be introduced to the whole concept. He's read most of the Dick and Jane books and does well with that, but when I tried to move him up to something a bit more difficult he's not getting it. I worked with him some on explode the code and we see him trying to sound out words, but it's such a struggle for him that he gets too frustrated. He usually does better with larger words than two or three letter words. For instance, he struggles with in, of, the, for, ect. Yet he can read words like wonderful, beautiful, ect.

PALS is a computer program that uses pictures, sort of like ABE. It stands for Progressive Acedemic Learning. 

He does understand that it takes money to buy things, but doesn't understand the concept of how much ect. To him 5 cents would be the same as 20 dollars. I've tried play money and having him earn that money through various activities and I have a treasure chest with small toys bought from Oriental Trading Company that I put price tags on. But that hasn't seemed to work. He does recognize the different coins but has problems translating them to the value of them. 

As for time. He understands that the clock is how you tell time, but he hasn't figured out how to tell what time it is. It's hard to explain, but I can give you an example using days instead of time. He measures everything by the next holiday. For instance, as soon as Halloween was over he asked what came next. I would try to tell him the dates on the calendar but he would keep asking what came next until I told him Thanksgiving. So the day after Halloween he started telling everyone Happy Thanksgiving. He's already telling everyone Happy Valentines day since he knows that's the next holiday. We have calendars that I have him mark off each day and stress the day and the date with him, but he has not grasped the concept.

I have used picture cards for recipes, but he's not able to put them in correct order. Same thing with stories. When he was younger he loved "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". I printed out pictures of each of the characters, laminated them and put them on popcycle sticks and he would take out the characters when I got to that part of the story, but not until I actually said what the character was.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

DS likes Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I've bought the whole series for him and will see him trying to read it, but when I ask what he's reading, or ask him to read it to me he just closes the book or asks me to read it to him. I've been trying to get him to read a couple of pages a day out loud. It's a struggle for him, and he misses more words than he gets. Something else I forgot to mention, he has poor short term memory, which hinders his reading. He'll know a word one day only to lose it the next. So it's a lot of repetition to get it into his long term memory, and that frustrates him.



Terri said:


> My son has Aspergers.
> 
> To encourage his reading, I scoured the used book stores-as many used book stores that I could find- to find books that were not only in his interest, but had AWESOME pictures!
> 
> ...


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Sonshine said:


> DS likes Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I've bought the whole series for him and will see him trying to read it, but when I ask what he's reading, or ask him to read it to me he just closes the book or asks me to read it to him. I've been trying to get him to read a couple of pages a day out loud. It's a struggle for him, and he misses more words than he gets. Something else I forgot to mention, he has poor short term memory, which hinders his reading. He'll know a word one day only to lose it the next. So it's a lot of repetition to get it into his long term memory, and that frustrates him.


We did "tandem reading"... I read a page, and then he read a page, or a paragraph. That would keep the story going, keep it interesting, and help him not feel overwhelmed or embarrassed. That worked pretty well. 

And you know, I have a cousin who is severly "learning disabled". He barely got through high school. But he could take apart a car engine and put it back together with almost no instruction when he was 15. He understands the mechanics of things intuitively. So, now he is a master plumber. He owns his own business, which requires enough math to handle the books and the taxes. He is doing quite well. He actually taught himself to read as an adult after all the stuff people tried to do to help him earlier didn't work because you have pass a test to get that master plumber certification. He is married, has 2 kids... he has done quite well for himself. I have another cousin with a similar story. 

I guess I am saying to look for the thing he excels at - maybe his path is less academic, and maybe that is ok. many people who struggle with academic things go on and do quite well for themselves. The owner of CISCO (computers) has to have his emails read to him, because he won't understand them if he reads them himself... visual processing thing. I am as academic a homeschooler as they come, but schools want you to think that a kids life is over if they don't excel at reading and it is just not true if they find and pursue their passion! =0)

FWIW,
cindyc.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Sonshine said:


> He does understand that it takes money to buy things, but doesn't understand the concept of how much ect. To him 5 cents would be the same as 20 dollars. I've tried play money and having him earn that money through various activities and I have a treasure chest with small toys bought from Oriental Trading Company that I put price tags on. But that hasn't seemed to work. He does recognize the different coins but has problems translating them to the value of them.


This sounds like a problem with basic arithmatic.

I used M&M,s to work with my own DS. 5 M&M's subtract 2 M&M's leaves 3 M&M's. Count them: there are 3 left!

Of course he gets to eat the ones that he subtracted, and the odd snack during addition as well!

My son could not memorize math numbers, but once he understood the concept and he was SOLID on it, he could then do it every time. I used to see him count the numbers on his fingers when he was asked a problem. But, he DID! it and that carried him up to high school math. Graphing is laborious and I suspect that he does not really understand quadratic equations, but he is reasonably good in math. He gets some B's and some F's and his final grade is passing.

DS is a senior this year. He was able to keep up with his classes (with help and tutoring from me and a from a teacher) until this year. He struggled last year but he succeeded, and this year he has been put into several easy classes. That is OK with me, actually. I never cared about grades, but I wanted this kid to get an education so that he could function in this world, and a HS diploma so that he could get a job. He is doing so!


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## r93000 (Mar 9, 2009)

I would like to ask a couple other teachers/therapists that I work with for ideas and then PM you, if that would be ok?


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

He loves cooking, computers, puppets and clowning. Last year for Christmas Angie made him his own costume. He loved it. He even picked out Sugar Pop for his clown name. I do a lot of his schooling on the computer.



cindy-e said:


> We did "tandem reading"... I read a page, and then he read a page, or a paragraph. That would keep the story going, keep it interesting, and help him not feel overwhelmed or embarrassed. That worked pretty well.
> 
> And you know, I have a cousin who is severly "learning disabled". He barely got through high school. But he could take apart a car engine and put it back together with almost no instruction when he was 15. He understands the mechanics of things intuitively. So, now he is a master plumber. He owns his own business, which requires enough math to handle the books and the taxes. He is doing quite well. He actually taught himself to read as an adult after all the stuff people tried to do to help him earlier didn't work because you have pass a test to get that master plumber certification. He is married, has 2 kids... he has done quite well for himself. I have another cousin with a similar story.
> 
> ...


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

He understands basic math such as adding and subtracting, but for some reason it's not transferring over to money and the different denominations.



Terri said:


> This sounds like a problem with basic arithmatic.
> 
> I used M&M,s to work with my own DS. 5 M&M's subtract 2 M&M's leaves 3 M&M's. Count them: there are 3 left!
> 
> ...


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

r93000 said:


> I would like to ask a couple other teachers/therapists that I work with for ideas and then PM you, if that would be ok?


Please do. We hired a tutor a couple of years ago, but that was a disaster. He actually lost ground. All of his doctors have told us that his best chance is for him to be homeschooled because he needs that one on one, but there are days that I really struggle with finding ways to get things across to him. Here's another example of how his mind works. When he was younger I did what most parents do. I taught him the different sounds that animals make. A cow says moo, a pig says oink, ect. One day, and I'm not even sure why I did it, but instead of asking him what a cow says I asked him what says moo. He couldn't answer. For some reason he couldn't transfer the knowledge over when asked in a different way. He's real good at making people think he knows what they are saying to him or asking him, but he generally only picks up on a word or two and forms his opinion from that.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

Sonshine said:


> Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention, he wants to be a chef and loves cooking.


My youngest son has some brain damage from lack of oxygen before birth. He also loved cooking. You know, reading recipes, measuring ingredients, is math and language. My son loved to watch Julia Childs on PBS. Then he would try to make some of her recipes. I counted it as school.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

mekasmom said:


> My youngest son has some brain damage from lack of oxygen before birth. He also loved cooking. You know, reading recipes, measuring ingredients, is math and language. My son loved to watch Julia Childs on PBS. Then he would try to make some of her recipes. I counted it as school.


Cooking is one of his regular classes. He also likes to watch the food network with me. He likes Tyler Florence, because DS's name is Tyler. I have a few children's cookbooks for him, but he likes to make more complicated dishes. He can't read the recipes though. I read them for him and try to get him to read with me, but so far that hasn't gone anywhere.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Sonshine said:


> He understands basic math such as adding and subtracting, but for some reason it's not transferring over to money and the different denominations.


Then I would use pennies, and play "store". He can buy an M&M with each penny, and a nickle will buy 5! Dimes and quarters would be really cool, as he could buy 10 or 25!


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

Terri said:


> Then I would use pennies, and play "store". He can buy an M&M with each penny, and a nickle will buy 5! Dimes and quarters would be really cool, as he could buy 10 or 25!


I do this. I have a treasure chest with small toys we got from Oriental Trading Company. I have placed price tags on each of them. He gets play money for different tasks to spend in the treasure chest, but it's not clicking for some reason. I've wracked my brains trying to find ways to make it connect for him and have done extensive searching online, but nothing seems to work.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Sonshine said:


> I do this. I have a treasure chest with small toys we got from Oriental Trading Company. I have placed price tags on each of them. He gets play money for different tasks to spend in the treasure chest, but it's not clicking for some reason. I've wracked my brains trying to find ways to make it connect for him and have done extensive searching online, but nothing seems to work.


Possibly because it is play money, and when he is done playing the toys go back into the chest? Perhaps it is not real enough?

My son was a whiz at shopping, once he figured out what the price tags meant, so I am a little weak on helping a kid to learn this!


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

If he is not getting therapy, i.e. a DD worker, I cannot recommend that enough. As an aspie with two aspie kids and three who also have ADHD...seeing my kids get the kind of support and help that I didn't is priceless. There is a lot you can do at home, but people who specialize in developmental therapy clue in so much more quickly to stuff and know how to help with it, where it might take me months to figure out exactly what the issue is, and then more time with trial and error to try to get a handle on it. 

And then there's OT...another thing that I cannot say enough good about. 

From what you are writing, it sounds to me as if he may have dyscalculia along with being somewhere on the ASD spectrum. My math disability is mild and it is crippling me in pursuing the things I would love to do... If he can be evaluated for a learning disability and have that worked on, it may well mean the difference between being able to live independently or not.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

Terri said:


> Possibly because it is play money, and when he is done playing the toys go back into the chest? Perhaps it is not real enough?
> 
> My son was a whiz at shopping, once he figured out what the price tags meant, so I am a little weak on helping a kid to learn this!


The toys he buys with the play money don't go back into the treasure chest. Those are for sale only and DS can't play with them until he's bought them. The play money looks just like real money, but I guess I could try it with real money to make a connection. One of the reasons we bought him the ATM bank was to try to help him with money issues. He puts money he's earned into and has an ATM card, complete with his own pin number. It also has a function for him to set goals, such as a new video game. It tells him how much he has and how much he still needs to reach his goal. Not sure how well this is going to work yet though.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

chamoisee said:


> If he is not getting therapy, i.e. a DD worker, I cannot recommend that enough. As an aspie with two aspie kids and three who also have ADHD...seeing my kids get the kind of support and help that I didn't is priceless. There is a lot you can do at home, but people who specialize in developmental therapy clue in so much more quickly to stuff and know how to help with it, where it might take me months to figure out exactly what the issue is, and then more time with trial and error to try to get a handle on it.
> 
> And then there's OT...another thing that I cannot say enough good about.
> 
> From what you are writing, it sounds to me as if he may have dyscalculia along with being somewhere on the ASD spectrum. My math disability is mild and it is crippling me in pursuing the things I would love to do... If he can be evaluated for a learning disability and have that worked on, it may well mean the difference between being able to live independently or not.


He has been diagnosed at Vanderbilt University from Dr Stephen Camarata and his team. The problem is, he's gestalt, which is very rare and there is no therapist trained to help him. I was told that although his symptoms are similar to autism, the treatments are not the same and if he was given the same type of treatments as a person on the spectrum it could do more harm than good. He has a developmental specialist that works with us, but it's more trial and error than anything else. This is why it's so hard to explain my DS's disabilities. It doesn't fit into the disabilities that most people are familiar with. The Camarata's had been diagnosing kids for over 20 yrs when we took our DS to see them. In that time our DS was only the 4th child they had found with is LDs. Since his diagnosis they have found one other with it. I am in contact with another parent who's child is gestalt. She lives in MA and in her case it's her daughter who is gestalt, although not as severe as DS. They basically call it upside down brilliance because the things that are difficult for most comes easy to them, but the things that are easy is difficult for them. Before finding the Camarata's DS had been tested by 7 different specialist and we got 7 different diagnosis. I found the Camarata's by reasearching all these various dx's we were given. They were doing research on late talking children and asked us to send them of a video of DS interacting with us and others. They accepted him as part of their research group.


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

Um....no offense at all intended...really and truly. However, I do not think that Gestalt is a diagnosis in the DSM. It can describe ways of learning, etc... I don't know. If it were me I might consider getting a second opinion, preferably from people who specialize in autism spectrum disorders, because they will have the most in depth experience with what is and is not an ASD. 

And now, I am going to say something very unpopular: there are a lot of mental/developmental specialists out there, a lot of experts. There are highly educated people who have specialized in autism for their entire careers. The majority of them do not truly understand autism, despite all their credentials, etc, because the majority of them are not on the autism spectrum. When you get an expert who *is* on the spectrum, then you have a real gem who is nearly irreplaceable. I saw one such person yesterday, Temple Grandin would be another, and I am sure there are more. Nobody likes to hear it, but the truth is that it takes an aspie/autie to understand and really help one. I'm not saying other people cannot help, but it's sort of like the difference between using single squares of toilet paper to clean up a mess, as opposed to a mop. If you can find someone like this and have them look at your son, they will not only know fairly quickly whether he's on the spectrum (probably within the first visit), they will know how to help him, REALLY help him, if he is. 

That's just my opinion....and I know that I am blunt...but it is meant in the most inoffensive way possible.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

chamoisee said:


> Um....no offense at all intended...really and truly. However, I do not think that Gestalt is a diagnosis in the DSM. It can describe ways of learning, etc... I don't know. If it were me I might consider getting a second opinion, preferably from people who specialize in autism spectrum disorders, because they will have the most in depth experience with what is and is not an ASD.
> 
> And now, I am going to say something very unpopular: there are a lot of mental/developmental specialists out there, a lot of experts. There are highly educated people who have specialized in autism for their entire careers. The majority of them do not truly understand autism, despite all their credentials, etc, because the majority of them are not on the autism spectrum. When you get an expert who *is* on the spectrum, then you have a real gem who is nearly irreplaceable. I saw one such person yesterday, Temple Grandin would be another, and I am sure there are more. Nobody likes to hear it, but the truth is that it takes an aspie/autie to understand and really help one. I'm not saying other people cannot help, but it's sort of like the difference between using single squares of toilet paper to clean up a mess, as opposed to a mop. If you can find someone like this and have them look at your son, they will not only know fairly quickly whether he's on the spectrum (probably within the first visit), they will know how to help him, REALLY help him, if he is.
> 
> That's just my opinion....and I know that I am blunt...but it is meant in the most inoffensive way possible.


Sorry, but I did a lot of research before taking his to Vanderbilt University and Dr Camarata. Gestalt is a learning style, but it's also a rare diagnosis. As I stated, we took him to several specialist. He does not fit autism or aspengers or any of the other spectrum dx's. It's hard to describe him, but people who have children with autism can tell the difference.


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## reluctantpatriot (Mar 9, 2003)

I work with gifted high school students, and while they are at the other end of the special education spectrum, we do have one woman who has Aspergers. Crowds and noisy environments overwhelm her and she can get emotionally and mentally overwhelmed which causes physical manifestations of panic. She is a very bright, creative, caring gal who does well at math, making stuffed animals and is a creative writer. Granted, she likes writing stories with serial killers in them, but she does intensive detailed research on things so she can be authentic in her writing. Were she any other person I might be concerned, but she also has an interest in forensic science so I see where the interest comes from.

I have done reading on learning disabilities, not just because of her, but also because even gifted students can have things they struggle with. Autism and Aspergers are interconnected and can blend together or be separate. They can affect people throughout the full range of cognitive function. I explain this because after doing a quick internet search I think that you are either misunderstanding the diagnosis or cannot grasp the information properly. Gestalt is a German word meaning shape or form and in psychology it is generally used to mean a totality of something, somewhat like the theme or embodiment of something, like the big picture versus details. I am not a special education expert on the level of a psychologist, but I read enough to understand things as needed to be a better mentor to my students. In this case it sounds like your son can grasp concepts within his worldview of metrics, like holidays, but other concepts such as the meaning of individual days, calendars, the value of money sounds exactly like he can grasp a larger view of things but not focus on or process as well the details.

Going only on what I see your initial post, it seems that whatever your son has, it is something that is very hard to clearly diagnose. Not that learning disabilities are generally easy to diagnose in the first place. With my new job just understanding the gamut of disabilities, techniques to overcome them and such is complex, especially if you are not trained as a psychologist. It is even harder when you are as sometimes it takes a good deal of testing to get enough data to work with which will help narrow down the possibilities. It also does not help that Gestalt is also part of a name for a specific psychological testing process for autism/Aspergers, which could also be where you are getting confused.

Regardless, the difficulties you are facing are not going to get better until you obtain proper treatment for your son. Homeschooling him is only going to make things worse if you do not get help. Socialization, teaching coping skills and stimulating learning are high priorities for all people, special education level or not. You are going to be facing major problems down the road if you do not accept that you are in over your head soon.

The fact that you had seven different diagnosis opinions from seven different experts before this to me sounds like there could either be multiple issues beyond whatever you are calling Gestalt or the issue is just very obscure. I know you said it was a very rare condition already, but I cannot find anything discussing a condition called Gestalt given what you have shared. I am giving you a professional response here. You need to talk to an educational psychologist at a local school to see if there is something they could suggest. Or perhaps they could provide some extra inputs to augment what you are doing. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be later.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Sonshine, I also did some on-line research because, since my son is a gestalt LEARNER (Not diagnosis) I thought that if I had a better understanding of yous son's diagnosis that I might be able to help a little more.

With my son, who is a gestalt learner, he learns best if, instead of just hearing a lesson, he hears/touches/feels/moves/sees the lesson, so that he can fit the lesson into his view of the world. That was why I was teaching arithmetic and having him add, subtract, multiply, and divide by moving around groups of candies and having him subtract (or take away) groups of candies by physically moving the candies and eating them. Those candies are GONE, so there can be no misunderstandings. It would be very much like the kid to still count the items that were taken away, because they had only been moved a little!

His short term memory is well below average, but his story memory is GOOD and once he fits new information into his view of the world, he retains it and uses it quite well. And, as a gesalt learner, if he has trouble with a concept he does best if I can involve as many senses as possible to help him over the hump. 

For him, it works.

As the Mother of a child who is older than yours, and who has seen her child go over the hump that is stumping yours right now, I might be able to give better advice if I knew what a gestalt diagnosis was. 

It sounds slightly like my son being a gestalt learner: are they similar? For my DS, data does not stand alone or it is not remembered: he must somehow connect it with what he knows of the world or it will not be retained. Also he learns best if he uses more than one sense, which is why he sometimes has trouble if he just hears a lecture. 

Is a gestalt diagnosis similar? There is so much on line about the gestalt tests that I could not find anything else. 

That does not mean that it isn't there: I also did not find anything about the gestalt learning style which is what I was told my son has.


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