|
|
Post by jenjie on Jun 27, 2019 22:38:42 GMT
No therapies whatsoever. This is the neurologist my sil takes her son to. He has developmental disabilities bc he stopped breathing when he was born. She absolutely loves him. And he was the only one who has given us more than 5 minutes and was willing to say yes there is a problem. Jenjie, do you have a developmental pediatrician in your area? Typically that is a good start for kids who have any type of mental, developmental, and physical condition. Aspergers, Autism, ADD, ADHD, Seizures, CP, etc. Our pediatrician is the one who has sent us out to various private therapies. The PCIT, Floortime, and Play therapy were through our Mental Health portion and I gained access to those. And yes, while for some ABA helps, DIR/Floortime along with play therapy is more sought after now. This is because with ABA a child can become very robotic. As with DIR, Floortime, Play therapy they learn emotions as well. The play therapy worked on anxiety skills as well as play with peer skills thank you!! I’ll look into that next if this doesn’t help. |
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 19:59:22 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2019 22:39:58 GMT
DD has that too. Does he have a chromebook or laptop to use at school? Speak to text? DD has both accommodations as well as oral answers when appropriate. I think he would be allowed to use one at school but he doesn’t want to. Oral answers would be helpful. My friend’s son has that accommodation. I asked for suggested accommodations - which is something else the neurologist did not provide. I feel like he could have helped us so much more. No neurologist will offer those. I know he is private, but here private school kids still have an IEP. The psych, DIS counselor (if your state has them), and others who do assessments should provide a list of appropriate accommodations. An educational IEP advocate could be helpful too |
|
|
|
Post by hop2 on Jun 27, 2019 22:57:34 GMT
I am floored that your neurologist didn’t recommend ABA therapy to help treat his Aspergers. No therapies whatsoever. This is the neurologist my sil takes her son to. He has developmental disabilities bc he stopped breathing when he was born. She absolutely loves him. And he was the only one who has given us more than 5 minutes and was willing to say yes there is a problem. That’s not uncommon for Dr’s to not find anything but the people who deal with the child every day see ‘something’. Everyone ( myself & his teachers ) saw ‘something’ with my DS but the neurologists ( plural ) did not. Lol One said nothing was wrong, go home. The second one, after his preschool wrote him up for I’m not sure what, said he’ll be fine just maybe practice walking to deal with the lack of co-ordination. LOL But he grew up ‘fine’ he’s still a bit different, but who isn’t. He thinks differently and reasons things out differently, and I’m good with that. There were a couple of math teachers here or there that weren’t ok with that, but by the time he got to algebra, if he had the right answer & could explain himself the teacher was fine. He is just himself . Diagnosed with nothing. I’m sort of glad because I think his way of thinking stuff thru might one day solve a problem. Ex wouldn’t ever let me take him to a neurologist again unless the school said something again, which they did not. And the boy who was told to practice walking ended up on snare drum line in high school so must have found co-ordination somehow. Does well in school. Finally found ‘his people’ socially in college, where maybe he doesn’t think differently much at all. But there were some years that were really a struggle. 5th grade was the absolute worst. ( for both of my kids co incidentally ) He had a teacher that just could not reach him, and she was quick to lump him in with others and treat him as if he was stupid. 6th grade was like night & day thank god. 8th grade was another tough rough patch, again I ‘blame’ his English teacher, she might be a great teacher for others but she was not the teacher for him! And unfortunately we can’t opt out here. But that’s ok he learned from it, after all you usually can’t opt out of your boss, so good life lesson learned there. I’m no scientist but both my kids had an easier time when they played an instrument regularly, helped with focus issues. That’s why I asked about the music therapy, I wondered if there was some science behind my mommy anecdotal intuition. Jenn, you do so much to help him that’s so wonderful he has a mom that is so supportively behind him. And he seems like such a light hearted soul when you describe him here. See what it does for him. |
|
|
|
Post by Basket1lady on Jun 27, 2019 23:08:57 GMT
I’ve never heard of this, but will say that it sounds a lot like what we did on our own with DS. He was 12 when he was diagnosed with AS, so obviously he “passed” as neurotypical for quite some time. We were moving and very carefully chose his MS, looking for a small school with a lot of support. He did very well on that environment and really excelled even socially.
When you described how Logan doesn’t look with just his eyes, but his whole body, sounds so much like DS. He would get in trouble time after time for responding to kids bugging him, rather than the other kids being the ones to get into trouble.
One thing that we did was make sure the teachers were catching DS’s attention before giving instructions (for projects, homework, etc.) we asked that the teacher say DS’s name, touch him, or get his attention in some way. Even as an adult, DS has the ability to tune out the world and hyper focus on what he is doing. The great thing is that this allows him to give his all to a task and do it well, but makes it hard for him to transition to another task.
We also asked for support for getting the homework turned in. One thing that did work with DS was that I made him do the work, or redo it, if it didn’t get turned in. For some reason, the act of doing it once didn’t prompt him to turn it in, but the loss of free time (to redo the work) was enough to make him work hard to get his work turned in.
If the program is working for Logan or is giving you some strategies to help him, then it’s good. You know what they say—if you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism. It is a spectrum disorder and varies so much from person to person that it’s not one size fits all. And in my experience, if a kid can “pass” for over a decade, a lot of doctors don’t put a lot of work into helping, as they are obviously getting along somehow. We didn’t have a lot of help from our doctors, but the MS was great and DS went to HS with a lot less support after 2 years of some pretty intense work.
Also consider taking one thing at a time to work on. It can get overwhelming for both of you to “fix” everything at once. But by choosing one thing to work on, DS felt more like he could remember what he was supposed to be doing.
|
|
|
|
Post by refugeepea on Jun 27, 2019 23:23:42 GMT
I have heard of it and looked into. A friend gave it a go for her autistic daughter and the program did nothing. She took out a loan to pay for it. It us VERY expensive. She spent over $10,000 for a year. Anyways, when I was looking into the center, a few things threw me off. They are not doctors. They are people who start the center. The people who work for them are not doctors. Or therapists. At most they have a BS or BA. They lady who started our city center was a teacher. Only 1 "coach" has a masters in education. I just feel, after reading articles and parent notes, that this center is grabbing onto curing Autism and ADD/ADHD to make money. And that is why my friend did it. Another mom I know had her son there for 2 years and he barely made any gains. To me, our kids need medical based centers. We have done PCIT, DIR Floor Time Therapy, Play Therapy, pt, ot, autism slp clinic (that program got my son to read), sensory ot, visual therapy. All of those have done wonders. And it was free! I just would be very leery of that center. I have the same thoughts about these places. Plus there's no way we could afford their prices out of pocket.
I am floored that your neurologist didn’t recommend ABA therapy to help treat his Aspergers. I agree. I would look into finding a pediatrician that specialized in kids with Autism as well. My children's doctor is very cautious about any med changes. He always asks about additional therapies.
There's a new thought on ABA>....some believe it doesn't work. It absolutely helped my daughter who is high functioning. She started out not being able to carry on conversations, very self centered, and frequent tantrums from being overwhelmed. She is now empathetic, a hard worker, and is better with conversations. I was truly at a breaking point with her. There was even a couple of times I called the lead of the team when I was at a loss of how to deal with her. I could not have done it on my own.
And yes, while for some ABA helps, DIR/Floortime along with play therapy is more sought after now. This is because with ABA a child can become very robotic. As with DIR, Floortime, Play therapy they learn emotions as well. The play therapy worked on anxiety skills as well as play with peer skills Unfortunately ABA gets a bad rep because there are places out there who are terrible at training their therapists. I did drop one place because of that and they kept canceling on me for the dumbest reasons. I've been with the same place since my son was around four years old and they've been amazing. The sessions for my son and daughter were very different. He needs lots of structure and my daughter's were less rigid. She's now had two temporary jobs where the employers loved her and she's starting a new job (hopefully permanent!) in July.
ETA: She's also done a couple of social skills group and sees a psychologist. He specializes in adolescents and adults with Autism. I've found not one thing has ever worked for my kids. That's what I don't like about these brain balance centers. It's like they come close to claiming a cure, but don't quite go there.
|
|
|
|
Post by pierkiss on Jun 28, 2019 1:22:28 GMT
I am floored that your neurologist didn’t recommend ABA therapy to help treat his Aspergers. No therapies whatsoever. This is the neurologist my sil takes her son to. He has developmental disabilities bc he stopped breathing when he was born. She absolutely loves him. And he was the only one who has given us more than 5 minutes and was willing to say yes there is a problem. Wow. I am just so surprised that no treatment types were given. I totally understand about finding a dr willing to listen to you though. I’ve been trying to find someone to take me seriously about my own son for almost 9 years. 😔 |
|
|
|
Post by pierkiss on Jun 28, 2019 1:24:40 GMT
I am floored that your neurologist didn’t recommend ABA therapy to help treat his Aspergers. There's a new thought on ABA>....some believe it doesn't work. jenjie Your eyes are wide open and I think that not every program will work for every child. It may help Logan and I truly believe if you think it's not helping, you won't hesitate to stop. Lol. As a BCBA, I can verify that it absolutely works. And we’ve got the data and literature to back up our claims of efficacy. |
|
|
|
Post by jenjie on Jun 28, 2019 2:47:18 GMT
“He thinks differently and reasons things out differently, and I’m good with that.” hop2 yes!!! I love that about Logan too. He just struggles a lot and because of that, our entire household struggles. |
|
|
|
Post by jenjie on Jun 28, 2019 2:51:23 GMT
I’ve never heard of this, but will say that it sounds a lot like what we did on our own with DS. He was 12 when he was diagnosed with AS, so obviously he “passed” as neurotypical for quite some time. We were moving and very carefully chose his MS, looking for a small school with a lot of support. He did very well on that environment and really excelled even socially. When you described how Logan doesn’t look with just his eyes, but his whole body, sounds so much like DS. He would get in trouble time after time for responding to kids bugging him, rather than the other kids being the ones to get into trouble. One thing that we did was make sure the teachers were catching DS’s attention before giving instructions (for projects, homework, etc.) we asked that the teacher say DS’s name, touch him, or get his attention in some way. Even as an adult, DS has the ability to tune out the world and hyper focus on what he is doing. The great thing is that this allows him to give his all to a task and do it well, but makes it hard for him to transition to another task. We also asked for support for getting the homework turned in. One thing that did work with DS was that I made him do the work, or redo it, if it didn’t get turned in. For some reason, the act of doing it once didn’t prompt him to turn it in, but the loss of free time (to redo the work) was enough to make him work hard to get his work turned in. If the program is working for Logan or is giving you some strategies to help him, then it’s good. You know what they say—if you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism. It is a spectrum disorder and varies so much from person to person that it’s not one size fits all. And in my experience, if a kid can “pass” for over a decade, a lot of doctors don’t put a lot of work into helping, as they are obviously getting along somehow. We didn’t have a lot of help from our doctors, but the MS was great and DS went to HS with a lot less support after 2 years of some pretty intense work. Also consider taking one thing at a time to work on. It can get overwhelming for both of you to “fix” everything at once. But by choosing one thing to work on, DS felt more like he could remember what he was supposed to be doing. I’m glad your ds was able to get the help he needs! I’m sorry that wasn’t Logan who can’t move his eyes independently. It was another child whose mom I was talking with at Brain Balance. |
|
|
|
Post by mikklynn on Jun 28, 2019 12:44:25 GMT
I am in awe of the way so many of you are willing to share your struggles and successes. I hope you all find ways to help your children succeed.  |
|
|
|
Post by jenjie on Jun 28, 2019 18:01:41 GMT
What is their music therapy? I only know brain balance from their commercials, I hope it helps Logan with his problem areas cause the things you say about him here he sounds like such a great kid. As moms we gotta do whatever works for our kids right? It’s some weird (to me) instrumentals created for the program. Logan is right brain weak and he listens to it in his left ear. A child who is left brain weak would get a different CD and listen in his right ear. I asked today. The kids who are right brain weak get a CD with low frequency instrumental. The kids who are left brain weak get one with high frequency. They put an earplug in the ear, or listen only with an earbud in the opposite ear, they are weak brained in. She explained it, I think it has to do with the sides of the brain controlling the opposite side of the body. Like today he had some kind of vibrator attached to his right ankle while he was doing his exercises in order to stimulate the right brain. |
|
|
|
Post by hop2 on Jun 28, 2019 18:05:48 GMT
It’s some weird (to me) instrumentals created for the program. Logan is right brain weak and he listens to it in his left ear. A child who is left brain weak would get a different CD and listen in his right ear. I asked today. The kids who are right brain weak get a CD with low frequency instrumental. The kids who are left brain weak get one with high frequency. They put an earplug in the ear, or listen only with an earbud in the opposite ear, they are weak brained in. She explained it, I think it has to do with the sides of the brain controlling the opposite side of the body. Like today he had some kind of vibrator attached to his right ankle while he was doing his exercises in order to stimulate the right brain. thank you |
|
|
|
Post by scrapmaven on Jun 28, 2019 22:09:08 GMT
Writing on a computer is so much easier for dysgraphia. All of my letters are facing the right way and you can read what I'm typing. Plus, it's not on a big curve.
You mentioned pre-algebra. I'll be interested to see how your ds does w/algebra. I failed it 8 times, because it's all about reasoning and spatial relations. Those are impossible w/dysgraphia. I wonder if this place will be able to help w/that? Though, I'm always suspicious of pricey places that promise to fix stuff.
|
|
|
|
Post by jenjie on Jun 29, 2019 2:03:37 GMT
Writing on a computer is so much easier for dysgraphia. All of my letters are facing the right way and you can read what I'm typing. Plus, it's not on a big curve. You mentioned pre-algebra. I'll be interested to see how your ds does w/algebra. I failed it 8 times, because it's all about reasoning and spatial relations. Those are impossible w/dysgraphia. I wonder if this place will be able to help w/that? Though, I'm always suspicious of pricey places that promise to fix stuff. Hmmm I didn’t make that connection between algebra and dysgraphia. Every other session they will be doing some work on math. Specifically pre-algebra since that’s what he just completed. |
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 19:59:22 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2019 2:16:34 GMT
Using a pc or chromebook will also help with geometry and graphing especially with visual processing disorder.
Visual processing disorder can also cause issues with algebra and sequencing and formulas ex. x-9×12÷(4+10)2
|
|
|
|
Post by refugeepea on Jun 29, 2019 2:30:14 GMT
Lol. As a BCBA, I can verify that it absolutely works. And we’ve got the data and literature to back up our claims of efficacy. Yes! I absolutely would not have my son go to six hours of school and do 2.5 hours of therapy after school six days a week during the school year if there wasn't the data to back up his progress and I could not see changes.
Thank you for all that you do! My son now communicates via an Ipad that was done through ABA therapy. TONS of other things, but that is a big one. I have loved all of the therapists and the different special connection each of them had with my son. The recent one; I'm quite certain the boy has a big crush! He tries to sneak kisses on her and he is normally NOT affectionate in that way. 
Then there was the therapist that he wanted to share bacon with; such a feat has never happened again. THAT was truly a miracle.   |
|
|
|
Post by pierkiss on Jun 29, 2019 2:35:53 GMT
Lol. As a BCBA, I can verify that it absolutely works. And we’ve got the data and literature to back up our claims of efficacy. Yes! I absolutely would not have my son go to six hours of school and do 2.5 hours of therapy after school six days a week during the school year if there wasn't the data to back up his progress and I could not see changes.
Thank you for all that you do! My son now communicates via an Ipad that was done through ABA therapy. TONS of other things, but that is a big one. I have loved all of the therapists and the different special connection each of them had with my son. The recent one; I'm quite certain the boy has a big crush! He tries to sneak kisses on her and he is normally NOT affectionate in that way.
Then there was the therapist that he wanted to share bacon with; such a feat has never happened again. THAT was truly a miracle. This post makes me ridiculously happy and gives me the warm fuzzies! I am so happy that your son is making such progress! How amazing that he is now able to communicate with you!!! I love it! I have no doubt that being taught a functional communication method has also help to decrease other behaviors that he might have had. Also, I am so happy that your experiences with your therapists have been positive. THats really great. 😁😁 |
|
|
|
Post by alexa11 on Jun 29, 2019 15:06:47 GMT
This is very interesting. I hope he has much success with it!
|
|
|
|
Post by hopemax on Jun 29, 2019 16:21:34 GMT
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 19:59:22 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2019 19:27:49 GMT
"In February, one day after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Melillo used his public Facebook page to envision a world where Brain Balance had reached the shooter. I can't help but wonder if Brain Balance and Brain Integration could have prevented this tragedy," Melillo wrote in the post alongside a news report in which the shooter's relatives said the teenager had been diagnosed with autism and took medication."
What a f-king a$$hole. Wow. I am not even going to say anything else. This statement just pisses me off
|
|
