Son Struggling @ School

S.,

What you are describing is Autistic logic. He will always have trouble with generalization issues, he can apply a concept to the novel way it was taught, and it will take a great deal of time for him to learn to then apply that to something else. It does not mean that he is not learning. Ask your childs teacher about this, and if he has a continuing issue with generalization, you may want to address this with an IEP goal, most probably in his speech IEP. I bet, if you look at his evaluation, and you look at his IEP, this is addressed, but you just have not ever thought about the reality of AS in this way.

You will be dealing with generalization issues for a very long time...I know this is frustrating, and not what you want to hear. Keep plugging away. You have the expectation that he will make progress with his IEP, but there are some realities that cannot be overcome so easily. What you want to be sure that you have is measurable goals, goals that are reasonably calcuated for him to make progress. It is likely that you could do better with his IEP goals (most only have the appearance of measurablity.) My adivice is that you go to www.wrightslaw.com and read about smart IEP goals, read the article "Tests and Measurments for Parents and Advocates" and start off on this early road to getting what your child needs from the IEP, based on numbers you understand and can use to request measurable, meaningful IEP goals that get your son to the place you want him to be (within a reasonable margin, given his challenges.)

M.

When I worked in a 8-3-1 preschool classroom (as an aide not a teacher) we had a bridges program and after a child would complete his/her discrete trials goals (in our case many children's goals were much simpler than letters and numbers, some we were just looking for eye contact upon heaing their own name, only a couple were advanced enough for ABCs 123s), they would move on to generalization.
Here we would take the child out of our classroom with their new skill to learn to 'apply' it elsewhere. In your case we would look for the letter D in other areas of school if he were on just sight recognition, or ask another teacher to ask him Look Dylan! How Many Fingers?!
Of course, this was preschool, with children who were much less functioning (hate that word) than yours.

But you can certainly apply the technique anyway, on your daily travels with him, not neccessarily sitting down at a table. You don't always need to ask HIM to give YOU an answer, it will help if you just say to him when you go to Wholefoods, Look Dylan! I see a D like in your name!! and point.

Btw, I think YOUR answers are always beautifully written and so carefully thought out! It's a real treat to answer one of your questions!
Have a great day!
:)

My son is 13 and in 7th grade. He also has PDD-NOS and ADHD (and Tourettes and anxiety and sensory issues). Learning in a school setting has ALWAYS been an enormous struggle for him. They just learn differently and since we can't understand how they think, it's hard for us to teach them. From K through now, I've had to spend homework time with him pretty much teaching him what he DIDN'T learn that day at school. We also spent $$$$ sending him to Sylvan to learn how to read. I think the school taught him some social skills and some academics, but I really believe that he mostly learned from me and his tutoring in one-on-one sessions. My son has a super hard time with Math. He's in 7th grade, doesn't know is multiplication tables and still uses his fingers to do simple addition or subtraction. I'll ask him what 4 + 5 is and he'll count his fingers to get 9 (ok, great, he got it right), but then I'll ask him what 5 + 4 is and he'll need to count all over again because in his head 4 + 5 is DIFFERENT from 5 + 4. And when I ask him what's 9 - 4, he needs to once again, figure it out because he doesn't understand that since 4 + 5 = 9, then 9 - 4 must equal 5. Can you imagine how hard mult/division is for him? He can do long division, but it takes him FOREVER. I know he's capable of learning, it's just going to take him 10 times longer with 10 times more effort than other kids. That's just his reality. Other than keeping in constant contact with his teachers and working closely with them to master his IEP goals, helping him at home when he needs it, practically homeschooling him during the summer so he doesn't forget EVERYTHING he learned the previous school year, making sure he eats healthy and sleeps well, and giving him all the support I possibly can, there's not much else I can do. Your son WILL learn his letters and numbers, and, yes, even long division and fractions, but it may take lots and lots of effort on his and your part. Keep at it and he'll make you proud with his hard work!

Have you asked the PPCD teacher what progress they're expecting to see at school?
You can try some creative ideas for practicing with him at home, to build on what he's got so far. Like starting with buttons that have numbers drawn on them. Or being able to point out the individual letters in his printed name. Or learning toys like bath foam alphabet letters or the talking magnetic aphabet letters. Sometimes the OTs will have lists of this type of activity.

Draw the fingers on the flash cards or paper. Use this along with real fingers for a while. Then put buttons on the fingers that are drawn on the paper. After this is accomplished for a period of time put the buttons on the table with no fingers. Do this with different things so that his brain will connect the differences and the likeness of them. The thing with “D” is just the one is auditory and one is visual. He is simply more auditory right now. Just keep up the repletion with the D card and the sound together. Also he can use sensory things like sand and cool whip to write letters and count things. When the brain is occupied by senses children that are developmentally disabled can learn a whole lot easier

Seems he is learning from repetition... so maybe keep reteaching the counting and flash cards and show him that it can be for more than just one thing... 10 buttoms, 10 fingers, 10 pennies, etc.

If he is counting with fingers thats great! if he isnt counting with buttons or other things thats ok . he might do it for someone else. let him count things on his own. asking him to do flash cards might make him feel out of controll or being controlled. you start counting things and see if he picks up on it. like count his toy blocks as you put them up or just play. dont suggest he count. same with the letters flash card situation always made me feel like i was in trouble. instead while your driving around town spell store signs like dough nut or toys r us. get on a kid level and say things like i love spelling then start spelling words/signs. you can reward him sometimes if he spells one right like big lots and stop in to buy a toy, book, snack or stickers. this way he is rewarded and its more of a game setting. it dose not have to be this just think outside of the box. it could be magnet letters he responds to better.