nysnanna

My grandson Nyran has ASD and ADHD, he is severely allergic to peanuts and has to carry an Epipen everywhere. He is also allergic to horses, cats rabbits and dogs. Not sure about anything else yet. Teresa

You could be talking about my 6 year old ASD grandson. I have often tried to sort out my own feelings about this issue. We have him every weekend and often face these difficulties when out and about. He really does HAVE to have something, because he really NEEDS it. My daughter(his mum) says he's spoilt but I'm not so sure, I can often feel his very real distress. Teresa

Our soon to be 6 year old grandson began Ritalin 4 weeks ago and is now taking 18mg a day slow release. He has been diagnosed with ADHD and ASD. The ritalin was prescribed to try to help with behaviour so that he can begin to learn at school. He is much much calmer and when we have him to stay at the weekends he is able to concentrate for long periods on his Geomag and Knex, which is wasn't able to do before. His autistic side does now though appear to be much worse and he has returned to lots of hand licking, mouth wiping and is looking very pale with dark rings under his eyes. We had heard somewhere that this could hapen but there was another drug mentioned that could be prescribed for ADHD that did not cause the same problems with the autistic side. Does anyone know anything about this or other drugs? We are all still unsure whether medication is the best thing and we are feeling very guilty about it. His new IEP is no different to the one he had at nursery school 2 and a half years ago - concentrating on trying to get him to behave more appropriately, sit still at story time etc. They are talking about reducing his one to one support, he only gets 6 hours a week as it is, and he is still no nearer to having any idea about how to read or even build up simple words. We agreed to the Ritalin to give him some opportunity to learn, but the teacher says that though he calmer he does not appear to be concentrating any better because he is too conerned with the hand licking etc.. WE are not too happy with the school, either with the progress he is making or the amount of support that he gets but we never seem to get anywhere with the headmaster who always says that is all he has been allocated. Not too sure where to go from here as we want him to progress at school but are concerned about the return of more autistic traits. Are some drugs better for ADHD with ASD any advice would be great. Sorry to havve rambled on again. Teresa

Can anyone advise me of a cheap and easy to use desktop publishing type of thing for the computer. After a year at school my 6 year old ASD grandson still has absolutely no idea or interest in learning to read. The school support teacher keeps writing in his reading diary things like 'Nyran read well' etc and moving him on to the next stage. He is either fooling them well or they are more interested in their statistics of children reaching goals. He is unable to pay attention for more than 30 seconds. I have now decided that as I know what interests him and what things may keep his attention, I am going to attempt to write some easy reading books for him myself and personalise them with family photos, and stories about dinosaurs, which he loves. As I intend to do quite a few I think it would be easier with some kind of DT publisher but as I have never used one before I am not sure what kind of thing would be best. Any suggestions/advice would be most welcome as would any advice on teaching reading to an active boy with ASD and ADHD and I think maybe dyslexia. DT publisher would need to be quite easy to use. Thanks a lot. Teresa

Hi I am Teresa, Nysnanna and I have a 5 year old grandson Nyran. He was officially diagnosed at the end of January with ASD and ADHD although we have known about the ADHD for sometime and were aware that he had some autisitic traits. Nyran and his sister Zenia, nearly 3, stay with my husband Woody and myself every weekend and are, along with our other daughters two children Lucie and Dylan, the centre of our universe. Nyrans mother Katrina has always struggled, despite being very bright, and we now realise that she is problably on the autistic spectrum too. She is a single parent, and has another baby due at the end of May. Nyran currently attends mainstream infant school and receives 10 hours support a week. This forum looks really interesting and I am sure that we are going to find it really useful and supportive.