New here, Mum to 3 boys

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Hi I am new here, I had a friend looking for a forum for me that had other mothers with children with Autism.

To tell you a little about me; I am a Mum to 3 boys aged 5 (Josh), 3 (Sam) and 9 months (Michael) and also a wife to a darling husband (Darrel). Josh was diagnosed with Autism 2 1/2 years ago and Verbal Dyspraxia recently and know they are thinking he may have Dyspraxi in general

Most days I am completly overwhelmed with Sam just completly ignoring me and Josh just being too rough etc. Because Josh is my eldest I also find it difficult knowing what is typical 5 year old behaviour and what is Autism so dont even know what to discipline and what not too. Hence why I ams o overwhelmed most days.

Welcome to wrongplanet.

Here a good line for knowing what to discipline or not, if it doesn't hurt anyone or damage anything it not worth to get angry at, just ask why he doing so, it might just be a defensive mechanism (for he cannot think of a better solution) or simply an unusual way of thinking (not playing with his toy in a way that would be considered "normal" for example).
Getting angry for something that doesn't cause damage or direct disturbance is really not worth risking to cause him to go into overload, which might leave him defenseless to further stress and/or make him shut himself to outside world.


There more I wanted to say on that point but getting late here and having hard time to translate thought into word, so if you have question on that point just post. =)

Welcome to WrongPlanet

Wow, you do seem to have your work cut out!

To WrongPlanet!! !

Nice to meet you, rachall - and welcome greetings to the Wrong Planet neighborhood.

Thanks for all your welcomes

The problem with is that he is for the most part non-verbal.

Have you tried to make him learn to write ? Once he know how to write might be easier for him to communicate, until then maybe try to assemble a catalog of picture from which he could make out simple sentence in a easier to understand fashion by simply pointing them.

Build it into different section, one been subject, put picture of himself, you, other people he know (including the animal if you have any), one of the whole family and some more general representation of people (one been a man, one a women, one a boy, one a girl, one been a group of kid and one been a group of adult). Other been emotion, action and object. If he like drawing you maybe can ask to draw a few image for it so it simply easier for him to identify them.

I think such a thing is worth a try, maybe communicate with an orthopedagogue, specialized education educator or a pediatrician they might have tool like that already made that they could make available to lend (to test out if it work before buying a copy or to get idea how to make your own) or sell.

No, he cant even draw other than scribble so not sure if he will be able to write yet as he also has low muscle tone.

Welcome to WrongPlanet.