School Nos What are the chances of my PDD-NOS preschooler eventually joining the mainstream?
Our daughter, 3.5, has been in therapy for developmental delays since the age of 14 months; we got a diagnosis of PDD-NOS about a year ago. She currently attends a special needs preschool. She is verbal, but her speech is stilted: she cannot have a conversation, and all utterances are either requests or narration. She does not ask any questions yet, and her social skills are extremely delayed, as are her fine motor skills. Gross motor is delayed but not as badly. Focus and attention to task is very hard for her; sensory issues cause her to be in near-constant movement.
In addition to the SN school setting, she receives speech therapy, PT, OT, play therapy, and 10 hours of ABA. We have not tried any biomedical interventions aside from fish oil supplements, as per her developmental pediatrician. We expect her to be in special education for the foreseeable future, but it gnaws at me constantly to think that she may not be able to live independently or someday join the mainstream.
My response to your question is a composite of my own thinking and experience, and research in the field of autism/PDD.
Continuing with effective and intensive intervention programs can make a huge difference in the outcome for your daughter.
The current thinking in the autistic community is that autism is a puzzle to which we do not yet have all the pieces. Our children are also like the pieces of a puzzle which need to be connected together to make a fully integrated, unified child.
YOu are already using ABA to help create structure and meaning and build upon your daughter's strengths and abilities. The highest levels of success with ABA are achieved when a child receives at least 30 hours a week of one-on-one therapy. ABA- type therapies have been statistically shown to improve the prognosis of virtually all autistic children, so if you can increase ABA I would do it, making sure, of course, that the therapist is a very good one. (I did not really believe in the benefits of ABA until my daughter started working with children and youth with autism.)
Additionally speech therapy is of utmost importance - continue with as much as possible. Prognosis is markedly better for individuals who develop some meaningful verbal language before the age of 5 years.
Keep your daughter as engaged in the outside world and stimulated as much as possible during the day in activities that provide an external structure for building meaning, comprehension and organization. Provide ample opportunities for her to use new behviors she learns in real life situations.
As you know PPD-NOS is a life-long disability. There are no cures, and even those individuals who proclaim themselves "recovered" continue to have difficulties with subtle social processes. The most accurate predictor of outcome is the amount of progress over a period of about 1 year from early diagnosis. However, with advances in education, early intervention, and research, today individuals with Autism/PDD have a greatly expanded range of outcomes as adults. Current trends, based on increased knowledge of how to educate children with Autism and the importance of early education, emphasize building skills and abilities in order to prepare young adults with Autism/PDD to work, to live in the community, and in some cases, to pursue higher education. Outcome appears to depend on both degree of overall impairment and intensity of educational interventions.
Systematic and intensive educational programming can make a huge difference. You will have to specifically teach your daughter many of the things other kids may learn vicariously. But most likely she can learn many of these skills. Unfortunately not enough is known about PDD to accurately predict yet how individual children will progress. As your daughter gets older better prediction will be possible.
Before your child reaches school age search out the best schools to address her needs, as not all schools deal with your daughter's type of issues well. Try to make sure when she starts school that she is placed in the highest functioning environment possible so that her skills will be enhanced. Continue to focus strongly on the language and social issues.
I am not aware of any findings that suggest biomedical interventions make a difference.
If you are in the US become very familiar with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to be sure you understand your rights and your daughter's rights.
Your daughter is very fortunate that she has had such early intervention and a wealth of it.
I have included some links which you may already be aware of. I hope these thoughts are of some help to you. YOu sound like you are an excellent advocate for your daughter. That will make an immense difference to her progress and her life.
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This book builds on the basic philosophy offered in THINKING ABOUT YOU THINKING ABOUT ME. Created at the request of educators, therapists and parents to learn more about how to teach students with weak social cognition and related social skills (Asperger's Syndrome, PDD-NOS, High Functioning Autism, ADHD, NLD, Hyperlexia) and those with murky social abilities...
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Miss Understood : Sporting Clays Article From the Paragon School of Sporting
I’ve just come home from the outstanding NC State shoot at Hunters Pointe where Chuck Frazier perpetrated on us some of his best, most well thought out target presentations. Standing in the box, I distinctly remember telling myself not to shoot that target right there. Did I remember to follow those instructions? Actually, to tell you the truth, well, I just forgot. It looked so good right there I couldn’t help myself. See, here’s what happened. After stomping the first bird, I moved the gun to intercept the second bird. And there it was, right on schedule. So I mosey up to it with my “never-fail” move and watched myself shoot right over the top of it! Chuck ambushed me. Twice! X0X0. It’s enough to make a person feel daffy. I did adjust the last 2 pairs, XXXX. Couldn’t get those lost birds back though.
And that’s what I want to take a look at, minimizing our misses.
In my opinion, sporting clays competition has become a precision sport. Never before have so many demands been placed on the competitor’s shoulders to guide the gun properly. Mistakes in the swing are rarely forgiven by today’s more creative and deceptive match presentations. While ours is not a game of perfect, scores are climbing. That’s why knowing where we missed and why is so critical. As scores continue to climb, there is less and less margin for missing, putting the emphasis squarely on better strategies and error free swing execution. Miss management.
Top shooters have good form. While their shooting styles may differ, the style each one uses is consistent, making it dependable, at the target and on the score sheet. But there’s more going on there than meets the eye.
Let’s start with a target presentation you like, a favorite of yours. Maybe it’s a left to right crossing target, medium speed at about 25 yards. This is a target that you rarely miss. Confidence on this bird is very high as you walk into the shooting box. Why? Because you know this shot. From the set up through the break you know every aspect of this shot cold. Swing feel and sight pictures are very familiar to you. I’m not inferring you can take the target for granted. I am saying you feel very secure, putting a lot of trust in your move on this bird. You know how to break it and it will break. So it’s safe to say you have this shot, any time, anywhere.
Now stand beside me at Hunters Pointe on Sunday at the state shoot, 15 yards to the left and under the 60 foot tower. Both traps are on the top. True pairs, the birds leave from behind us, on our right, overhead and away. The first thing we notice is the line on each bird is somewhat awkward, so putting the gun on the line will be touchy. To compound matters, the targets are fast, meaning time is limited and we’ll have to make good use of the time we have. The margin for swing errors is small indeed and swing mistakes, careless or otherwise, won’t be forgiven here. Like so many of Chuck’s well thought out presentations, precision will be at a premium......
*** This Sporting Clays Article was previously published in Sporting Clays Magazine by Dan Schindler in January 2006.
The Paragon School of Sporting is now making available the remainder of this article as well as numerous others, available for download on The Paragon School of Sporting Website.
Sporting clays continues to be an elegant sport born of long tradition, fulfilling our wingshooting passion to experience the wing and shot. Feather and clay, inescapably tied, grants us so many learning opportunities to hone our skills, a path of personal growth that affords us a refreshing, unbiased look at ourselves. Time and again, my students have learned how entirely more capable they are than once thought. The American sporting clays shooter can honestly and proudly say, in a very short period, he has indeed advanced to take his rightful place among the best in the world. And, let's not forget, no one is having more fun out here than you and I are.
The events, times, places and persons in my articles are all true. While I changed a name here and there, 100% of the information came from my experiences with you. Each tournament, each lesson, each experience with you generated the material for my work. I am grateful.
We hope you enjoyed the first part of the article and will visit us online to browse the numerous collection that is available. Until then, happy Sporting!
The Paragon School of Sporting, established by Dan Schindler in 1994, is a prominent Sporting Clays Shooting and Wing Shooting school specializing in Sporting Clays instruction, Sporting Clays instructor training, lessons for the Wing Shooter, and Corporate Special Events.
