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Do you know of any other online forums around that don't concentrate so much on Apsergers, but more on other types of PDD?

I think this is a GREAT site with great information, but I'd also like to find a site that is more targeted towards parents of children more similar to mine.

Thanks.

I think there is one on Delphi forms called "Across the Spectrum" and it's for parents and most of them have children who are more severely affected. http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/mes ... msg=7703.1 AOL used to have two seperate forums, one for AS and one for autism. Delphi has several autism fourms that I am aware of.

No but wish I could find one. The Autistic parent support group is http://www.ianproject.org/

I think it's rare for any two spectrum children to be all that similar, honestly. There are similar cores, but that seems to be the end of it.

Good information found here keep posting variety of post.



Smith Alan

You can try here, I am a member.

http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/default.asp

You can find my page on Facebook by copying & pasting this and searching it: "Autism - Day to Day, A Place to Share". Be sure to copy and paste just like that and you'll find my page.

ABOUT US:
Our son Jorden has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS and ADHD. We wanted a place to share, learn, celebrate, and vent with others in the Autism Community.

DESCRIPTION:
A little about us... I'm A and my husband is J and we're the parents of Jorden, our almost 8 year old son with PDD-NOS and ADHD, who has the attention span of a goldfish, limitless energy, and who is always teaching us. We live in Washington State (USA).

J and I have been together for almost 4 years now and we married 2 years ago. Jorden is his child from a previous relationship. Jorden's other mom has Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar and was unable to care for Jorden as a result. He wasn't getting the attention he needed, but we don't blame her. It's out of her control. Although she loves him, she rarely sees him due to her illness. We never say a negative word about her to him. Everything is kept positive and when he asks questions, we explain it in a way he can understand. "We have dreams when we sleep, sometimes they're scary and sometimes they're funny. Your other mommy has dreams all the time, even when she's awake, which a lot of people don't have. Sometimes those dreams are scary and sometimes they're funny. Sometimes she feels pretty good, but sometimes she likes to be alone, but she always loves you and thinks about you." It's a little scary for us knowing that Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar Disorder, and forms of Autism share the same gene. We do our best to keep Jorden's life free from stressful situations that could increase the likelihood of him developing Schizophrenia himself, as the risk factors are already present. Anyway, my husband got full custody right after we first started dating. Jorden has been with us full-time ever since. We just explain to Jorden that he has two mom's and twice the love. He loves that! Jor also has another big sister that he shares his other mom with that he loves with all his heart. We're one big, blended family.

I also have 2 grown children. My oldest son is 21 and out of the home. Our daughter iis 18, just graduated high school, and is still at home with us. I have awesome kids. All 3 of them unique and gifted in their individual ways. We don't use the words "step son", "step sister", "step daughter", "step brother", "step mom", or "step dad" in our house. We're all just family. It's that simple. Jorden is my son. I love him just as much as if I'd given birth to him myself. My 2 older children feel the same way. Jorden is just their little brother. They're both great with him. Jor calls me "Mom", "Mama" and "Mommy". He started calling me mom all on his own. He says, "Daddy found you because he knew I needed a mommy to take care of me". His own words and soooo sweet. He just told me this in the past year when he started putting the pieces together, I think. As for my husband and I, we have a great relationship, are best friends, and our first priority is our family.

I knew right away that there were things with Jorden than weren't quite right. At 4 years old, he wasn't talking at all. By 5 years old, after spending lots of time working with him, he was talking a bit. We noticed there were problems with his Auditory Processing. It was as though he heard things out of order, much like a person with Dyslexia sees words or letters out of order. He would try to repeat back a 3 or 4 word sentence and mix up the order of the words. He would also draw out the words he was learning, with long pronunciated sounds. In addition to that, he loved to walk on his tip toes (or so we thought) because he liked to act like a dinosaur. He also had Pica and loved to eat paper towels leading to bowel obstructions. In hind-site, these were all tell-tale signs. I didn't know much about Autism. I thought someone with Autism was just like Dustin Hoffman's character in Rainman. I don't beat myself up. I looked for answers and I've learned so much. If I can help someone with what I've learned, that's great. I am still learning so much from others myself.

Jorden was only diagnosed within the past year. As he didn't get a lot of attention from his other mother, we thought maybe that in itself caused his developmental delays in the beginning. That's part of what led to his late diagnosis. He's verbal, but his developmental delays with speech and everything else puts him between the age of 3 - 5 years old, depending on the area (speech, milestones, academically, etc.). He can be such a fun child, so creative and so sweet one moment and yet the next, just like the unpredictable ocean. We can't turn our backs on him for even a second or he's into something. He was potty trained at 4 years old, but by 5 years old had regressed in that area. He still has trouble with Kindergarten site words and the school wanted to push him into 2nd grade this year. They've main-streamed him with only an IEP in Speech and Language. We are pushing for more and also working to hold him back to 1st grade again this year. He's not ready socially or academically to go into the 2nd grade and we're not about to allow it to happen just so that the school can get their funding. We're here to champion for him and do what is in HIS best interest. Every day brings something new. Ups... downs... It is what it is, so we roll with it.

I'm a stay-home mom. My husband J works full-time. I was hoping to start school this Fall for nursing, to become an RN, but with Jorden's regression and special needs, I don't see that happening just yet. It's been tough for me. I've had to realize that God's plan for me is more important than the plans I had for myself. I know that Jorden needs me more. That's what's most important. Whether you're religious or not doesn't make a difference to me. Just be you. I'll just be me. We all share a common ground. It's just nice to not feel alone. Before we had answers, we felt that way all the time and it was an awful feeling.

Autism is tough. Tough for our kids, tough for us as parents, tough on our relationships (spouses, significant others, families, friends), tough for a lot of us financially, tough in general. I wanted a place to information share with others who are in this club that none of us asked to be a part of. There are a lot of support groups out there. I love the ones that are all positive and try to avoid negative posts and rants. They help, too, and I am a part of them. At the same time, I wanted a place to not only celebrate the good times, but to also rant, free from judgement of those who don't understand. I'm a straight talker, even though it feels a little awkward to be so personal with strangers. When it comes down to it, if you found this page, you get it and we all need each other. Even if you're here not to share, but just to read through the posts of myself and others so that you don't feel alone, that's okay. Take what you need from it. Hopefully, I can help you laugh at times, too.

Feel free to share whatever you need to. The good, the bad, even the ugly. Sometimes you just have to get it out. I think it makes us better parents when we can talk about our stresses and get the heavy load off of our shoulders. I don't want to feel like I have to censor my feelings and I don't want you to feel like you have to either.

Let's share information on school, IEP's, laws that can help & protect or children, ways to help each other find financial assistance if it's needed, potty training, behavior issues, learning strategies... whatever helps. Only we can speak from experience. The outside world will never get us in a way that we all get each other.

Who knows what causes Autism. Jorden didn't have any immunizations until he was 5 years old and all the signs of Autism (in hind-sight) were already present. We do know from studies that it shares the same genes as someone with Schizophrenia or Bi-Polar. Then again, Autism affects people who have or haven't had immunizations, or who do or don't have a family member with Schizophrenia or Bi-Polar. It's one big mystery. I didn't start this page to debate the cause. We're all here because someone we love is affected by Autism, for whatever reason.

Finally, thanks for being here and taking the time to find out a little about our family & Jorden. It means you care and that means so much to us. Let's all support and care about each other. Please share this page with whoever you feel that it will help, so that we can grow a community, learn from each other's experiences, and pool our resources.

NOTE: I don't endorse any of the services or resources on this page. I share what might interest our families. It's every person's responsibility to research all resources and or services.

I am not sure what you mean by "other types of PDD" and "more similar to mine" There are many parents on here and many adults with many different diagnoses and many different severities/needs/differences. Some parents on here have more than one child with one having more severe problems. Also, the input from adults with AS is invaluable. Some of them have come from being children who were considered autistic or more severe. Some of them would still be viewed by society as moderate or severe in that some may not hold a job or need support staff/family to help them with daily life stuff. They offer a unique point of view and an insight that has been a blessing to many a parent here to see things better from what it must look like from their child's point of view.

For example, my DS age 11 is diagnosed with PDD-NOS, ADHD and Anxiety. He was not diagnosed until last year, although there were signs of problems all along. I just thought he was a very sensitive, gifted boy, who had asynchronous development. He reached the limit of his coping skills in 5th grade when he changed to the intermediate school (ran like a middle school with changing classes, different teachers, and lockers). He is now doing very well in a self-contained classroom with two (soon to be three) regular classes and learning to cope with the stressors of intermediate school with lots of support one class at a time.