What "interventions" did you have as a child?

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colliegrace
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29 Apr 2023, 4:18 pm

And did they help? Are you thankful for them, or did they cause harm?

Asking because I got into a discussion on another forum and it made me wonder what the broad opinion on childhood "autism intervention" is by those who went through it.

My understanding is that ABA is generally looked down on. I do know someone who had speech therapy and so far as I'm aware there's nothing wrong with speech therapy?


Educate me.


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SharonB
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29 Apr 2023, 6:25 pm

In the 80s there was no help for me. :cry: ---actually, my mom took me to a therapist and that was helpful. I've continued with that on-and-off over the years. I wish there were OT or other resources for me.

I haven't been able to get my daughter diagnosed ASD yet (masking too well, poor evaluator?), but have gotten a couple services for related issues when she was in 5th grade:
* OT (motor planning and binaural-or-something therapy)
* Social skills (learn how the NTs do it)

She is fairly unexpressive and reports that they did no harm nor helped. I'm going to say that means they did little harm and were mostly helpful. The OT helped her with coordination and better establish turn taking. Plus it was clear she loved to swing and we finally put up a swing in the front yard for her (which she uses all the time). Prior to the social skills she felt like a "ghost" at school and afterwards she now has three friend groups. I made sure to point out the ASD perspective: They are teaching how many others communicate (e.g. 20-second turns), we tend to communicate this way (e.g. 2-minute or mute turns) - different styles (not right or wrong).

My 3rd-grade ADHD son is in speech therapy and the school was going to stop it based on his academic improvement levelling off, but he wants to continue, so they will. He also was placed in a school-based anxiety support group when he started have anxiety attacks last month in response to strict standardized testing. He is very expressive and reports that they both are helpful.



IsabellaLinton
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29 Apr 2023, 6:44 pm

I was a child in the 70s but I had 1:1 Speech / Language Pathology support a couple of times a week at school.
My teacher started a yoga program for the whole class to do every day and made me the leader.
The goal was for me to do deep breathing and chill out or meditate to start each day (later dx ADHD).
I was also taught in a small group for some subjects so I could focus better.

In Middle School and High School I had extra time with the school counsellors, especially after a family suicide.

I think my schools did the best they could.

As an adult I've had psychiatry, psychology, OT, PT, and two different speech therapists.



ToughDiamond
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29 Apr 2023, 6:49 pm

None. It was the 1950s and 1960s, so there was no such thing. My parents bought me a bit of private tuition in mathematics because my performance had been slipping very badly, and the one-to-one teaching was more effective that normal classes, not surprisingly.



Joe90
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29 Apr 2023, 8:53 pm

Intervention done nothing but cause stress, anger and humiliation for me as a child. It made me feel singled out, more different from other children than what the disorder itself ever did. I'm not speaking for anyone else here, but for me I know I would have been better off not getting a diagnosis so early in childhood, if at all. Yes, I'm an unusual case, but although it was the 90s when I was growing up, my family had quite old-fashioned views where they worried more about what other people thought than the reality of things. So having social workers and child psychiatrists coming round to the house or having to go and attend appointments to see them made my parents want to hide in shame, because they worried other people might think they were bad parents or that I was a psycho child or something. I don't know.

But I don't blame my parents for how I feel about myself today. It's understandable how they felt about all this. I think it's quite normal for parents to want their children to be healthy, both physically and mentally. Yes I was psychically healthy but mentally I was a f*****g hysterical maniac.


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MagicMeerkat
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29 Apr 2023, 9:15 pm

Joe90 wrote:
Intervention done nothing but cause stress, anger and humiliation for me as a child. It made me feel singled out, more different from other children than what the disorder itself ever did. I'm not speaking for anyone else here, but for me I know I would have been better off not getting a diagnosis so early in childhood, if at all. Yes, I'm an unusual case, but although it was the 90s when I was growing up, my family had quite old-fashioned views where they worried more about what other people thought than the reality of things. So having social workers and child psychiatrists coming round to the house or having to go and attend appointments to see them made my parents want to hide in shame, because they worried other people might think they were bad parents or that I was a psycho child or something. I don't know.

But I don't blame my parents for how I feel about myself today. It's understandable how they felt about all this. I think it's quite normal for parents to want their children to be healthy, both physically and mentally. Yes I was psychically healthy but mentally I was a f*****g hysterical maniac.


Same here. Had a psychiatrist suggest ABAish techniques such as using sweets to motivate me and lock it up so I couldn't get to it when I had not earned it. Now as an adult with an income of my own, I have a binge eating disorder. This is why GOOD therapist say you should never use food in any form as a reward. In ABA, almost all rewards are food. I wonder if some ABA therapists tell parents to basically starve their child so they will be more compliant to get their food rewards like they do with lab animals. I would not put that past some ABA therapists.

Most therapists were invalidating and gaslit me about the bullying at school....and by my mother who probably has Bipolar Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder. The one good therapist I had who would go to the school and talk to the teachers himself I couldn't see when my parents insurance changed but they didn't see me as worthy enough to pay out of pocket.

Best thing that helped was letting me be myself, homeschooling, letting me socialize on my terms (pen pals with a South African zoologist, dogs, a goat and horses) and letting me have my special interests and talk about them whenever I wanted. And my mom getting therapy for her own issues instead of insisting I was the only one that needed therapy and medication.


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colliegrace
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29 Apr 2023, 9:22 pm

MagicMeerkat wrote:
Best thing that helped was letting me be myself, homeschooling, letting me socialize on my terms (pen pals with a South African zoologist, dogs, a goat and horses) and letting me have my special interests and talk about them whenever I wanted. And my mom getting therapy for her own issues instead of insisting I was the only one that needed therapy and medication.

Ooh, I was homeschooled. I was udiagnosed as a kid because my parents refused to believe ADHD was real and I don't think autism was ever considered. I think homeschooling was probably the best outcome for me, the three or four years I did go to a private school my teachers actually suggested that I needed a lot of one-on-one learning such as a homeschooling environment.


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RAADs: 104 | ASQ: 30 | Aspie Quiz: 116/200 (84% probability of being atypical)

Also diagnosed with: seasonal depression, anxiety, OCD


funeralxempire
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29 Apr 2023, 10:42 pm

Would penmanship classes count?


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IsabellaLinton
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29 Apr 2023, 10:46 pm

funeralxempire wrote:
Would penmanship classes count?



Yes, it's a form of OT.



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29 Apr 2023, 10:54 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
funeralxempire wrote:
Would penmanship classes count?



Yes, it's a form of OT.


Ah, it was frustrating to be singled out and to have to leave class to go do them. But, my printing is semi-legible so, maybe it was worthwhile anyways?


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IsabellaLinton
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29 Apr 2023, 10:56 pm

It's a life skill so I'm glad you got help. Did you need a pencil grip?



funeralxempire
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29 Apr 2023, 11:54 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
It's a life skill so I'm glad you got help. Did you need a pencil grip?


I think I used one for awhile but lost it and had to get used to writing without one.

That's the funny triangle of rubber?


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IsabellaLinton
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30 Apr 2023, 12:37 am

:lol: yup ^

I never had one myself but I know they're considered OT.



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30 Apr 2023, 1:15 am

Nothing.
Household was (and is still) too ignorant what to do with me and too poor for it to find out.

Not even with non autism related stuff. Most of those were dismissed as if it's "normal". :roll:
Why bother asking for help if they're helpless?

So I would have to make do with my own for the most part.

After all that reading, which was at least 3 years long; it gave me three conclusions as a teenager:
One, never end up psychologically intolerant of the outside environment. So I got over misophonia without needing to pretend.
I won't live in a life where I'm intolerant of everyday sensations I receive.

Two is never have anxiety and fear based disorders. Then I figured how to overcome this burnout induced agoraphobia and issues around uncertainty.
I certainly wouldn't want to be stuck dealing with mental health and taking meds in long term. I literally cannot afford that.

And three is to never be stuck at masking.
So I get to understand how reputation and expectations works, and how to use people's impressions around than living with the idea of convincing everyone.
Definitely do not want to be judged by "failing" to pass, and definitely don't want to be patronized by being "able".


I was able to figure all three before adulthood.
In fact that took me more or less 4 years. That's me at age 17 going to college.
And no feedback back then -- which now I'm able to consult since age 20 by contacting my Sped teacher if I need to...

And I'm very sure I have plenty of neglected things simply because there's no one to tell me nor convince me.

Now I'm having different goals based on my years of experience. Which traits and skills that I want and prioritize.

I would need different interventions for myself now.
How much I can do it myself and how much I need professional aide is currently be questionable.


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funeralxempire
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30 Apr 2023, 3:31 am

IsabellaLinton wrote:
:lol: yup ^

I never had one myself but I know they're considered OT.


Seriously, they knew I lost writing implements all the time. I couldn't be trusted to be responsible for a pencil grip. :oops:


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"If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. The progress is healing the wound that the blow made... and they won't even admit the knife is there." Malcolm X
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30 Apr 2023, 8:13 am

I was in special education for a year after Kindergarten, because I was already so behind my peers developmentally and academically. They only diagnosed me with "ADD" at that point though, so I got kicked out of SPED once I "caught up enough", and only was taken to these small group math and reading classes for a couple years, which I also got kicked out of once I got "caught up enough" (but was still way behind my peers, and couldn't do the work in a regular class room). I also had some OT after I was out of SPED, but that lasted only a couple years, too.

All of that was helpful, and if I was diagnosed I probably would have been allowed to utilize those things for much longer + would have probably just stayed in SPED for most of elementary school.