RE: Kids w/ Classic Autism, PDD-NOS & Speech Delays

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When my wife was looking for special school for my son she was at one one day in a classroom being shown around, and while she was present in the room a boy of about 7 was not complying with what he was being told to do. Then he knocked over a plastic bowl containing paper. Clearly that was some type of heinous crime, because two staff members grabbed the boy, dragged him to a chair, and one of the staff members took an adults leather belt and used it to strap him into the chair and restrain him.

Disgusting. Needless to say we didn't let our non-verbal boy go there to be abused like that.

This is quite a drastic measure to say the least! I would also feel concern whether the boy's parents provided consent for restraining harnesses? even if they did there is questionable level of coercion that may (depending on your legal system) breach the human rights of the child.

One major ongoing issue here in Australia is the rights of on-verbal children who are the victims of assault. Currently it's quite difficult to make a legal case for abuse if the child is not able to communicate. When my mother worked as a special needs teacher back in the 1970s she identified non-verbal teenagers (both males and females with various types of diagnosis) as particularly vulnerable to institutional sexual and physical abuse which was rife back in the 70s. Ironically the risk is much lower for this abuse to occur in a mainstream school as the integration aide can't be left alone with the child without a teacher present and vice a versa. In addition the classroom full of NT kids who are also potential witnesses.

If only a few of the parents were involved in making the decision, which was then also implemented for use with the children of those who had never been consulted on the matter, then that principal had it coming.

I think the best way of protecting our nonverbal children is to have every room, corridor, nook and cranny fitted with CCTVs. USUALLY, most people tend to behave themselves if there was the threat of their behavior being caught on tape. Some districts here now even have special ed buses fitted with cameras after parents complained of children being abused by bus drives and bus monitors. If the children cannot speak for themselves or communicate the abuse, then the cameras can and will.

It's the nature of school councils. A few parents on the school council make decisions on behalf of other parents.

I enquired about security vision. In Australia at least there is legislation that purports to protect children from being videoed or photographed via remote cameras without expressed consent from each and every parent. Based on this I doubt any school would put cameras.

I don't understand. Why would any parent of a non-verbal child refuse to let their child's environment be fitted with cameras ? Is that not the one way that they can prevent their child from being mistreated ?

Also, what I heard was that - under usual circumstances - CCTV recordings are stored for about 24 to 48 hours and are over-written once they have been reviewed. So, it isn't as if the recordings are stored for posterity. They are deleted after review, while at the same time providing an added security measure for the kids.

BTW, how is your daughter doing ? Does she have an aide in her class ? And how is the communication coming along ?

Yes, what you say makes sense. The CCTV video footage aren't really going to abused but the legislation makes it difficult or problematic for schools to deploy them. I worked, briefly, with a team of psychologists wanting to employ video capture cameras that only record the last 8 minutes once an aide or teacher presses a button, I thought it could help my daughter, They were already aware of the issues at schools and were hoping to use it in parents homes. I would have thought it's most useful in a school setting though.

My daughter had a terrible day today, her best friend has been sick and she's showing signs of being a little insecure and prone to dramatically severe behavior. A lot of time out

Yes normally she has an aide for half a day, communication is improved but I need ot instill more discipline in her use of language for communicative purposes and propensity to say silly and nonsensical things. Effectively she barely talks in school so no friends and teachers usually claim getting her to express herself is like getting blood out of stone. She's better at home.

Is it the social aspect of communication that is hard for her ? Does she tend to be more social with you and your wife., which is why she is more communicative at home than at school ?

Have you heard of "Intensive Interaction" ? It is the British version of the American "Son Rise". There are groups on Facebook where you can learn more. What I liked and appreciated about II is that "Son Rise" will not permit you to join their FB groups or other forums unless you have actually paid $$$$ and attended one of their many programs. But II does not have any such demands. The founder, Dave Hewett, also has a YouTube channel and there are books on it on Amazon. You may want to google him and learn more about this program.

If you are on Facebook and are interested, let me know and I will pm you the link to the II group.

Yes to both. She is still less comfortable at school due to the unpredictable environment and large numbers of chidren/teachers/parents she does not know. As with many kids on the spectrum their attention is drawn to many variables and in addition absorbing too much.


Not heard of it, I'm rarely on FB these days...

The only reason you would ever need to be on the Facebook group is for the chance to participate in interactive discussions with some of the II consultants there. I would have to pay $$$$ for similar consults with Son Rise practitioners whereas this is free.

Check out Hewett's YouTube channel. It isn't rocket science but I still learned a lot. There is also a book but it costs $40 so I wont be buying it until I have learned the basics and practiced that first, with my son.

I've reviewed intensive interaction and I can see how it's really quite a lot more practical in terms of interacting with the child than say ABA. I'm more interested in the social development side of it.

I would love to discuss speech issues for kids. I have a 10 month old daughter who is experience a developmental delay and according to her pedia, we can expect that she will also experiencing some delays on speech. So as early as now I am doing some research and getting myself ready on this issue. Your insights and advises would definitely help.

Hi Milky rock, welcome on board. I understand your baby is currently 10 months old but may I ask (if you don't mind) how old was she when she was observed or diagnosed with a developmental delay or autism?

You child is very very young for a pediatrician to be making predictions? what criteria did they use (sorry for all the questions but parents on this forum may be able to better help you if you elaborate on your daughter's situation).

An update on my son's toilet training; we are a something like 11 weeks in now and having a reasonable amount of success. He will sometimes independantly take himself to the toilet and we even had two dry days in a row. Then there are other days where he wets himself regularly. The motivation provided by the re-inforcers seem to be a key thing and his preferences change regularly. Anyway there is ongoing progress at least so that is good.

However there has been some positive and un-intentional side effects from all this TTing, in that my son seems to have become increasingly compliant and better at following instructions in other areas at the same time. They have noticed this at his school and we had his IEP yesterday and as a result they are increasing his mainstream hours and extending his academic program (such as it is).

And the same thing happened with the other boy who followed the same TT programme we are doing and who is in the same class at school as my son. The staff are amazed at the change in his demenour (this is a child who required 5 staff to pin him down and do nappy changes), compliance, coping skills etc.

I wonder if this is a result of the process of regularly requiring the child to follow instructions (minimum six trials a day) and so building on and reinforcing 'attending' as a skill in of itself, or maybe the child's self confidence in seeing that they can achieve functional independance, or a bunch of different reasons?

I think it is a combination of both. My son's ABA program - when it was established over a year ago - only ran attending skills and basic self help skills (eating on his own, using an open cup etc) before programs like receptive identification of objects, matching, puzzles etc began.

That is great that he is starting to independently use the potty ! Mine is still being schedule trained. And congratulations on increasing mainstreaming hours ! Very happy for you.