Well, I've been doing a lot of research the last week or so on ADHD and Autism and such, because I have a meeting with the principal of his school next week (is it principal or principle?), AND the guidance counselor, AND my husband, AND his teacher, AND some other teacher/ intervention specialist who I don't know. I asked for this meeting, because I want to figure out some intervention strategies for Greg. Although he is going to pass first grade, and we get half good/ half bad behavior reports from his teachers, I really think we could be educating him better. I found him a couple weeks ago, running in circles around the kitchen, banging himself in the head. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was "getting the dumb out."
WAKE UP CALL!!!
Even though he's going to pass and he doesn't get in as much trouble as he did last year, he is not happy with himself. He is working way below potential and he knows it. I think the only reason that he is getting along "ok" is because he tries so hard and is naturally smart. But unless we do something he is going to fall further and further behind. If he was just ornery, or just had to work really hard to get C's, I'd be ok with it. But that's not it - there is a disconnect between the way he wants to behave and the way he behaves.
So, I woke up the other morning with the thought that I needed to read Jenny McCarthy's book about autism (it's called Louder than Words). I know, I saw her in those MTV shows too, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have something to say when it comes to her son, right? So, I picked it up at the library. And I couldn't put it down. The first thing that shocked me in the book was that her son was diagnosed by a neurologist with autism because of two behaviors: 1. flapping his arms (called stims) 2. lining up his toys symmetrically instead of playing with them. Hello - my son has both of these behaviors. Plus, my son was emotionally distant as a baby, which is another sign. Her son had other health issues as well, whereas my son does not. There is something called the autism spectrum which includes a variety of conditions, like Ausberger's. ADHD isn't officially on it, but maybe it should be.
The second thing I got out of the book is that she saw the best improvement in her son when she put him on a gluten-free (wheat), casein-free (dairy) diet. I grabbed a bunch of books about that, and read about it online, and the theory is that the kids are essentially allergic to those foods, in that their bodies don't process the food like it should, and often a large amount of yeast gets built up in their bodies, which causes strange behavior, like hyperactivity, inattention, and problems processing auditory commands. So, I'm going to try it, what do I have to lose?
