Please introduce yourself (and please don't respond, think of this as a collective list to search for friends, people in similar situations, etc... more of a contact list).

You can include your name, your child's name, age, diagnosis, problems, any information you would like and you can add to it and edit it at any time. :)

I'm Jamie, DS has Autism, specifically PDD-NOS. He will possibly have a more firm diagnosis in the next few years, he may not. His name is Tristan and he is 5. He was diagnosed just after his third birthday.
We have sleep issues, behavior issues, all kinds of things. He is very smart. He can read on at least a second grade level. He is in special pre-school and will be starting Collaborative Kindergarten in the fall. I'm very excited about that. His teacher told me today that he is ahead of all the kindergarteners in speech, so I'm excited about that. A big accomplishment.

My name is Trey, my son is Riley, he is 2 years old (roughly 2 years 3 months) and was just diagnosed with a provisionary diagnosis of PDD-NOS. He has social problems, communication problems and some problems with motor skills, balance, etc. He has made great progress since starting speech therapy though! He just started occupational therapy, we put him in daycare/preschool for two days a week to work on his interaction with other children, he has group classes once a week, and the state is sending someone out a couple times a week real soon here. He is very smart cognitively... he knows his colors, can count to 15, knows all his numbers up to 20 and knows all his ABC's too. He knows the "sound" of a lot of letters too... so we are trying to remain optimistic and help him as much as we can in these critical years. :)

I also have a brother who is autistic, so we were pretty familiar to start! I have worked with special needs children since I was a kid too, but man being a mommy vs. an outsider is a whole different world!

My name is Christi, and my son Trenton is 6. He was diagnosed with a speech delay while he was in Pre-k. At the time, he was 4 years old but could only speak and understand on a 2 year old level. He was immediately put in speech and even now in Kindergarten he goes to speech 2 times a week He has made wonderful progress and continues to get better everyday.

Everything mentally and physically is normal with him, the speech pathologist calls it a speech atriculation!

Aloha!

I'm Amy I have a 4, almost 5 year old who was dianosed with PDD-NOS when he was 3. Really just a year ago! Since then he's been receiving speech therapy and OT and I've seen a HUGE change in him.

Pre therapies he had a hard time communicating. He had alot of echolaylia, social issues, gross and fine motor skills issues and behavorial issues (which I really think were tied into his communication)

One year after he can hold a conversation (he was never able to hold a conversation before). His fine motor skills are getting better, but he still has issues with them. He's still clumsy and has problems with "motor skill planning" That was a weird thing to come to terms with because he can ride a bike, jump, skip etc, but if he has to do something new it takes a LONG time for him. I didn't even see it until they pointed it out.

Interestingly enough as I was reading trey's post I thought "hey I could have just copied it" because Sean tested very high cognitively and can "get" things faster than other kids in his class. Pretty much her entire post could have been mine.

Sean's doing great and is in special needs preschool and will transition into regular kindergarten next year with speech/ot and an eduacational assistant in the room for him.

My name is Christine. My son is 8 years old and has autism. He was nonverbal until the age of 4-5. His original diagnosis was PDD-NOS, it was changed when he was 6 to ASD. Now, he talks up a storm, I love it!

We have major food issues. He can read, but doesn't understand what he's reading. (hyperlexia) He's in a regular classroom for part of the day and the rest with his special ed. teacher. Homework is modified for him.

My name is Jennifer. my daughter Brooklynn is 5 and she is developmental delays and some medical problems due to having multiple strokes at 6 weeks old.and my daughter Brianna 6 was born 4 weeks early with immature lungs and just has speech problems and my son Clinton 8 has a heart murmur.

Hello :hi

I'm Sarah, and my son Noah(almost 6 yrs old) was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome & PDD/NOS Dec 2006. He has had a lot of therapy since he was 1 1/2 yrs old. Now, the only therapy he needs is speech. Mainly for his articulation. The only difficulty we have with him are his meltdowns. They aren't your average type of kid meltdowns. He is on Risperidone for it, and it works really well. He is main streamed in school, and is extremely smart :happy.

my names christina...my daughter Gabbi is 2 and a couple months and has Microtia. One ear did not develop fully. So far it has not affected her speech. We are not sure how well her learning will be in a classroom setting. Could be fine as long as she sits in certain areas with her good ear out. We are still not sure yet if she is a canidate to open the ear and be able to use it to an extent. In about a year or so we will be able to figure out a more definitive plan..

My name is Katie and my son was diagnosed with a developmental speech delay. Since starting his specialized pre-school in January there have been HUGE changes to his social, motor and speech skills. We still have a road in front of us but my Dh and I remain positive :D He goes to school 5 days a week and love it. We are working on getting him to the same level as his peers and when he hits Kindergarden, enrolling him in a Montessori. But as always, we are taking it day by day!

Hey there! I'm Victoria! My ds is 2 years 8 months. He has an moderate speech delay and is currently enrolled in in-home speech therapy once a week for 45 min sessions. Come Sept., he'll be going to our local elementary school for his sessions. E has been in speech therapy since October. His improvement has been remarkable!!!

:hiya I'm Chrissy! My son Eian (3years) was just diagnosed with social and emotional delays along with adaptive delays. He has a few home visits left before the summer and then come Sept. he'll be in preschool for 2-3days out of the week and working with his teachers, along with home visits again.

Hey I am Cat and my son Robbie (age 5 1/2) was diagnosed last year with what the Dr called severe ADHD but he has been on meds for about a year now and is doing much better but he has some ODD but its on the mild side. I hope to find some other mothers on here that have kids with ADHD.

My name is Sandy. My son Aiden is 5 in May and was born with a Cleft lip and palate. With that he has speech and language problems (not sure if this is the right word). He also has tubes in his ears as he gets ear infections without them and has a retainer in his mouth as he has a gap in his gum and a hole in the roof of his mouth. He has already had 3 opperations and more to come. He also has aggression issues.

Middle ds (10 y/o) has ADHD along with some learning disabilites (auditory and visual processing issues), he is getting speech, OT, and PT.

Weird. I thought I replied to this. I'm Tara. My son Kyle, who is 11, has Autism. He is high functioning. He does go to the special needs classroom some of the day but he's mainly mainstreamed into regular ed. classes. He does get help from an aide though and his curriculum is mostly modified. He gets OT, ST, and PT.

My 7yo daughter was in speech therapy but I'm happy to say, as of a few weeks ago, she no longer qualifies.

My name is Mary, my little girl's name is Caeley. She is 4 yrs old. Her issues are mainly medical in nature, but she does have developmental delays due to a stroke she had after one of her surgeries. She has a tracheostomy, we just weaned her off of her ventilator except for illnesses, and she is 100% tube fed. There are other things, but that is the short list.
She sees several specialists, and gets OT, PT, and ST. She also has a private duty nurse, nursing hours are covered through the "old" ECHO program. She just started preschool at the first of April, so I'm kind of learning my way through the whole special education process, which is pretty interesting at times.
She is very tough, very smart, and very brave. She is learning to walk, (it's hard when you are 4 and a whole lot farther off the ground!) and she is doing awesome with that.
I also have a very mature 7 yr old son, he deals with everything very well, does great in school, and helps out as much as he can.

I'm Lindsey....My son Jamison is 3 and has sever asthma that requires preventative meds and close monitoring....my daughter belle is 18months old and was diagnoised with MSPI (milk/soy protein intollerance) which causes her to stop absorbing nutrients in her GI tract and become malnurished....she also at the moment has a speech delay but the docs think that is due to all the health issues she has had bc her receptive laguage is HUGE for her age and she can get what she wants she's just not verbalizing...we'll re-evaluate in a few months...she's also having nerological issues that are being evaluated it's either migraines or a form of epilepsy....so we shall see...

Hi I'm Amy and my son David has ADHD and possibly ODD. We will be seeing a developmental peds on June 2 for a full evaluation. He is also set up with a child psychologist but unfortunately this lady is not taking new patients until NOVEMBER 2008...so we put ourselves on the waiting list to be put in for ANY last minute appointments....I hope this works out...we werent supposed to see the developmental peds until OCTOBER and we got in for JUNE 2...YEAH..Pray for us!!:D:cp

wow.. I just found this place..
Hi I am Janet.. My daughter Taylor is 10. Her dx is Mild MR, ADHD, anxiety and she also has severe language/speech delay. She lost her hearing when she was an infant due to ear infections and had 4 sets of tubes. When she was born she was they call a "blue baby".. the cord was wrapped around her neck 4 times and she was not breathing for the first 5 mins. When she was 5 months old we found out that she had reflux and then she was dx with failure to thrive.. with meds we were able to correct the reflux.

Right now she is in a self contained room and does very well.. She is receiving speech therapy 3X a week and OT twice a week!

ETA: since we are living in Cali there is a place that she goes to and they are awesome. It's called the regional Center and they provide services to special needs children and their families... here is a link if anyone is California is interested.
http://www.dds.ca.gov/RC/RCList.cfm

Hi my name is Colleen, and my ds Dylan was diagnosed with Autism when he was 3yo. He is now 6yo and is a regular kindergarten class and recieves speech 2X per week. He is going to be rediagnosed in the next year and the diagnosis will probably be High Functioning Autism or PDD-NOS. We have been blessed with some super therapists and excellent teachers!!!

Dylan has some social issues and sensory needs. We are working on getting him some more services but having difficulty with our school district.

Nice to meet everyone!!:D

Hey! I have an 8 1/2 year old son who has a severe case of ODD, and an anxiety disorder which he was diagnosed with a few months ago. He has been in therapy out in town and at home. He has been hospitalized once, and is currently in a treatment center awaiting residential treatment. I just found out today he also has ADHD. Thats not really news to me because usually ODD runs in pairs and they had previously suspected ADHD as well.

I don't know if I count as a special needs mom yet or not, but I'm pregnant with a little girl (Auriana Faith) who has AV Canal Heart Defect and will need surgery within the first year of life. Doctors also suspect down syndrome, but we will not know that for sure until she is born.

hey all my name is tina and my son is 16 months old

he was born with no right hand :- ) other than that we don't know if he will have any other problems..he did have water in the brain and kidneys while in utero but that has cleared up but we shall see when he gets to fully talking amongst other things ^_^

Hi Everyone! Im Brandy... :D
My son Zane has Osteogenesis Imperfecta type 3 (AKA, Brittle Bone Disease)
He was also diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome...
He is 15 months old- he is semi-crawling... No big fractures yet... (He only fractured once in utero, he fractured his tibia)
He does physical therapy once a week, and occupational therapy once a week too...
He has seen more specialists than I can count, and there are SO many more we will have to see in the future...

He is such an AMAZING little boy... I am so blessed to have him as my son :wub

My name is Sandy. My son Aiden is 5 in May and was born with a Cleft lip and palate. With that he has speech and language problems (not sure if this is the right word). He also has tubes in his ears as he gets ear infections without them and has a retainer in his mouth as he has a gap in his gum and a hole in the roof of his mouth. He has already had 3 opperations and more to come. He also has aggression issues.

My names is Jennifer, My oldest son was also born with a Cleft lip and Palate. Had speech problems when he was younger but has since cleared up as he got older. He also had tubes in his ears all the time cause of the ear infections. He has gone thru 3 opperations also and has another one coming up in December to fix a hole that has since reopened in the roof of his mouth that. After that his next surgery will be a bone graft from his skull to fix his top gum that will be at the first of the year.

Where your doctors able to tell you he had the cleft lip and palate before he was born or did you find out when he was born. We didnt find out until he was born and the doc that delivered(was not my doc as he was on vacation) was shocked i didnt know they said they should have informed me at the ultra sound. Anyway ill shoosh now.

My name is Angela. My four year old son Cody was diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, Anxiety issues, speech delay, learning disibilities. He has had two sets of tubes in his ears due to frequent ear infections from 5 months to about 3. My son is going on 5 in November and has the mentally level of a 3 year old.

Hi I'm nikki, My DS Nick was born with a common atrium, small VSD and a cleft mitral valve, malrotation of the bowels, and mild cp. He had hiscorrective Open heart surgery when he was almost two in oct of 07. He was taken in for a second emergency open heart 6 days after the first. He currently has a 5 mm hole in his patch, (that was the purpose of the second surgery) and has PAH as a result of the surgery. He is on multiple meds for the PAH, he recently came off of his apnea moniter and oxygen. He is slightly delayed from his heart issues, but is nearly back on track. You can't even notice he has cp anymore unless he is extremely tired sick or stressed.

Hi everyone. My name is Eboni (Eb), and my son, Malcolm is 7 years old and was diagnosed with autism when he was almost 3. He has some social and behavioral problems, communication problems, and a little trouble with motor skills, such small and detailed tasks as buttoning, zipping, tying his shoes, etc.
We were in California at the time of his diagnosis, and we got the best early intervention for him, with a private teacher coming to work with him every day until he was able to enroll in school on his third birthday--this was all paid for by the school district, as well as 24 hours per month of respite hours, and placement within a large respite agency.
As a harried mother who was still coping with the aftermath of his diagnosis, this was a godsend for me. :)

Over the years, we've seen such a remarkable change in him, and I'm a big advocate of early diagnosis and early education. At 5 years old, he was potty trained, and he can count to 30, he can identify colors and shapes by name, he can spell and write his own name, and he commits all names to memory. This used to be a huge problem for him because his lack of focus, but now, he can identify all relatives and close friends by name, without prompt. A huge achievement for the little guy.

Just yesterday, we took him yesterday for his annual school physical, and he's healthy as a horse. He also cooperated well with the doctors and was able to actually read the eye chart, which was a pleasant shock for both DH and me! The doctor was a good one, and he put in an order for our son to meet with a developmental pediatrician at the NNMC as soon as possible, and our appointment is in October.

We've lived in Riverside County, California, and spent four years in Montgomery County, Maryland. We're now in San Diego County, and if anyone has ANY questions about resources available in any of these areas, please don't hesitate to PM and I will share what I know.

My name is Kathy, my son (almost 11) has a diagnosis of ADHD and Mood Disorder: NOS, combined. He has displayed meltdowns, shut downs, and anxiety. His anxiety is displayed mostly in the large classroom settings and physically. He has picked his face and hands, leaving open sores... and has chewed on his shirts.

We have come a long way since his diagnosis. He has been in therapy since he was 4 years old and special education with an IEP since the first grade. Each year, he hopes that he can fully mainstream... he says that he doesn't belong in the spec ed classroom. He mainstreams for at least 2 - 3 classes each day. He is very bright and intelligent, often scoring in the high 80 percentile to the 100% mark on state standardized tests... however, because of his emotional/ behavioral issues, he is not able to keep up with the "normal" school day with 30+ students to one teacher ratio.

His strengths lay in Math and analytical (he's very literal, too) and his weakness is in his writing.

He has been off Risperdone since December, of which he was on for a 18 months. He went onto it as a last resort before hospitalization. It worked!!! YAY!

The most difficult part, through all of it was, I was a single mom who had to work outside of the home... therefore he was in daycare, and daycare would always label him as a bad child, yes, there are some things within his control... but getting them to understand that some of it was not entirely in his control and within their role/ responsibility to keep things from escalating between the children. Or to not condone taunting behaviors from other children. It was great while we were at his last school, his main teacher would often walk over to the on-site daycare and check on him and have conferences with the director.

The challenge is making sure everyone is on the same page, so that everyone can show consistency for him.

Sorry for babbling.

EDIT: he starts 5th grade next week at a new school. they have accepted his IEP from the previous district, and will have a new IEP written up within 30 days.

Hi. My name is Monica and my DD, Elizabeth(lizzy), is a 19 month old special needs child. She is diagnosed as having cerebral palsy, spastic quadriplegia, cortical blindness, microcephaly, generalized hypertonia and global developmental delays. Lizzy has chronic sinus congestion that causes some feeding and sleeping issues. She has also been diagnosed as anorexic/failure to thrive, at the moment she only drinks 15-20oz of pediasure a day. The dr has her on Periactin for appetite stimulation and Zyrtec for her sinuses. She is currently developmentally at about a 4month old level and most likely will not advance too much beyond that. She was born 5 weeks early, severely small for her gestational age, weighing only 2lbs 9oz. She currently weighs in at 17lbs 3oz and 29 1/4 inches tall. She has in home therapy of Speech 2x a month, PT 2x a month, OT 1x a month, and Vision 1x every 3 months.

My 3 year DS is a little behind in his speech. He has an extreme understanding of just about everything, he has trouble sometimes putting things into words. He is supposed to start speech with the local schools sometime soon, I am waiting to here from them.

My 10 year DS has some anxiety issues, but I am not able to ellaborate on it at this time.

My name is Jessica. My youngest son Alexander, 5, was born with PRS (Pierre Robin Syndrome/Sequence, only cleft palate not lip) and hypospadius. He had his first surgery when he was 5 months old to place the G-tube (before that he was fed via NG-tube, he couldn't take any liquids by mouth due to aspiration.)and put tubes in his ears due to fluid build up behind his ear drums (no infections as of that time though). he had the hypospadius repaired around 8 months. he had his palate repair surgery at 18 months. he saw DT, OT was on a waiting list for months for Speech. he didn't talk until he was about 2 and didn't start speaking clearly until he was almost 3, but we used sign language to get him motivated and he eventually just started talking and stopped signing. He is enrolled in our local developmental preschool for his 3rd year, they have OT and PT and speech work with him. he will start kindergarten next year. he has made so much progress its amazing. he acts like a normal 5 year old now.

I'm Bri. My youngest daughter, Anna's official diagnosis is: Developmentally Delayed. Subcategories: Physical function at 40 months. Self help functions at 34 months. Socially functions at 38 months. Academically functions at 36 months. As well as a moderate speech articulation delay, which means she has an age appropriate vocabulary, she just isn't as understandable as she should be at this age. She also has some fine motor skill delays, caused mostly by weak hand strength.

She has progressed enough with her fine motor skills that she no longer recieves treatment at the rehab center, just at the pre-k. She is in a developmentally delayed/special needs pre-k program at our elementary school here. The staff is wonderful. She was able to attend the last 8 weeks of school last year and is 4 weeks into the new year and she has made such a progress already it make me want to cry. She is also much more confident now that she is not struggling as much to keep up with kids her own age. She still struggles, but for anyone who knew her this time last year, well it is just AMAZING!

My only regret is that I couldn't get the dr.'s in VA and CA to take my concerns about her delays seriously, if I had she would have been on track with kids her own age by now. I knew at 2, she was struggling, it took me 2 years to get anyone to listen to me. Oh well we are handling it now and that is all that matters.

Hi... I did an intro when I was pregnant, but now that she's born we have a better idea. My baby Auriana has Down Syndrome and AV Canal Heart Defect, also she is preemie. She is in NICU right now. She starts PT tomorrow, and I will be signing her up for Babies Can't Wait as soon as I get her social security number. She is such a gift from God, but I am still a little worried about how everything will go once we get her home, with all the schedules and appointments and such. I know I can do whatever I need to do, but it is still going to be much different than what we are used to.

I just realized that I never formally introduced myself. :P I'm Jessica, Mom to Paige (10.5) Christopher (will be 5 in Dec) and Brandon (will be 4 in December). Christopher was diagnosed with Autism or ASD-PDD at age 3. He's had a bit of speech therapy, but due to insurance/funding issues it was not consistant. We're being evaluated for an IEP now, and he just started Occupational Therapy. We're hoping the school system will speed up his eval so he can start speech therapy as well. Myself, I am deaf - profound hearing loss with no speech recognition unless I am reading lips (I do love music and my ipod!) - but I'm verbal, only get interpreters at church or when necessary, and we don't sign much at home at all. I'm waiting for Tri-care to approve 2 bilateral Explorer hearing aids and Aural Therapy which will hopefully help me to learn how to listen and hear without lipreading so I can be a little more independent now that DH is in the Army. Paige and Brandon so far have no issues. :P Chris and I are in the EFMP.

Ok Ok Ok... I'll officially introduce myself.

My name is Robyn, I've got one DD who has ADHD, SID and OCD and she will be tested for depression as well. My DS is in the process of an ADD Dx. My middle DD has SID too...but much more severe than her older sister. To the point that she barely eats a thing because of the tactile issues she deals with daily. So far my youngest DS hasn't shown any symptoms of any of the above, but the more I deal with my 3 mos old, I fear that Sensory Integration Disorder is going to be a problem for her too. I don't know why only my girls, but that's just the way it's presented.

It would be great to have a bunch of you to talk to who go thru the same thing I do on a daily basis. :D Everyone on this site has been super supportive.

I guess I should introduce myself.My name is Megan,i have 3 kids.Mallorie(4) Kaden(2) and Kandice(1). Kaden,has a seizure disorder,of some sort.They have ran an EEG,MRI,and a cat scan on him.Everything is coming back normal. He had his first seizure a week before he turned one,and just had his last ones oct.7th and he was seizuring every 2 hrs.He was on Phenobarbital,then they took him off of it to see what would happen,being off of it for 6 weeks had him seizuring every 2 hrs.We are waiting on a appointment to go to the mayo clinic.He is now on Keprra and phebobarbital after his levels getting toxic on dialantin and was only on it for 4 days.
Kaden,also has speech delays and is getting home therapy and he is also getting OT. It would be nice to have someone to talk to that is going thru something similiar.