thanks for responding, I did get my 3 1/2 yr old into something similar, I am Ca on the central coast. It's my older one, 10, that I have so much trouble getting help for, because he's so high functioning. Thanks for the advice...

Hi Mickey Mom. This must be a hard time. I do know from experience that our son can 'perservate' on certain situations even if they happen a long time ago or when he gets upset about something he will bring up something he thinks is 'bad' that happened to him. Our son is 14 now. He has a mild form of autism. He seems pretty typical at first but he does have significant learning problems and social interaction problems. Does the social worker KNOW your son is autistic? I am sure you could ask for an 'expert' in autism to interview your child. Some people don't have a clue when it comes to verbal autistic children. We know as parents that some of the stuff they say 'just does not make 'sense'' or is intertwined with other 'stories' or things in their head. I hope that doesn't sound mean, I am not meaning for it to come across that way. Also when it comes to physical stuff, many autistic children have O.T. issues and sensory intergration issues, some things seem like they are more 'rough' than actually is happening. My son actually has a very high threshold for pain. But my friend's child does not, he thinks everyone is actually yelling at him when they are being 'stern' and if you touch him, he thinks your hurting him. The social worker needs to aware of all those underlying issues. I really don't think they can do anything about a situation that happened 2 years ago. He doesn't have any bruises or any other marks on him, right? Do you have a therapist, pediatrician, doctor that can verify that your child receives regular care and/ or therapy? That may help. Two years ago, my neighbor (she has moved since) was (wrongly) reported for child neglect/ abuse and all that happened was she got a home visit from a couple social workers. They observed her in her home with her kids. They asked her for a name of someone that 'saw' her on a regular basis. She asked me if the social worker could talk to me and I said yes. They just asked me if I ever saw her hit her kids or lock them in their rooms and some other stuff. I answered all of them honestly. She said they called her back a couple days later and said nothing would come from that report. I bet that will be same in your case. Maybe you have family or friend(s) that will be able to verify that you and your hubby are appropriate parents? Just in case they want to talk to one of them? I know it is hard but try not to fight with your hubby. God knows that my husband and I have argued over our children so many times. It seems children and money we argue/ disagree the most about! My hubby says the same "you let the kids get away with too much"... I feel it is normal that some parents have different thoughts of parenting but as long as you have similar rules, rewards, consequences and the same goals it works out. Don't let you kids hear you argue. Our kids seem to try to divide and conquer us if they know we are arguing about them. Just having a special needs child adds a lot of stress to our lives for sure, even more so if you have other children- that alone has ended many marriages. Don't let this get the best of you. Hang in there. You will make it through this Hugs, Jenna Mom of Tony (ASD) 14, Nickolas 11, Stephany 11 U.S.A.F. Wife for 15 years to Mike Please e-mail me or post here how things work out

It really is too bad no one ever posts on this board. My son came home today with a card from a county social worker matching the one found on my front door. It seems they pulled him in at lunch time to talk to him about a story he's been telling everyone about a time 2 or 3 years ago when he says his father picked him up and threw him down. It was a school morning when as usual he wouldn't get ready and he was having one of his autistic temper tantrums and my husband picked him up off the floor to talk to him, then dropped him back down to put his shoes on, but to him, every time we raise our voices or loose our tempers with him-we hate him, or he dives under something and acts like we're going to kill him even though we never get physical, other than the occasional swat when he has really earned it. Now I have visions of CPS and cops showing up to check my home and fridge and taking my babies away from me......I am soooooo freaked out, and my husband and I are fighting over it, because he says I let the kids get away with everything, and maybe he should come down even harder on them, but I think that was just him being defensive, since he's the one mainly under fire.

I haven't visited this page for quite some time, but I have a question for any of you out there. I have a problem with my PPO insurance. We have an okay for occupational therapy under the cpt code of lack of coordination, but the evaluation code will not work. My insurance does not cover anything neurological, only medical. Any advice out there? My OT and Doc and I have tried several codes and tries, but any advice would be welcome. I have already paid the $500.00 bill, but would really like to be reimbursed. Isn't it barbaric how they cover the treatment, but not the eval to get the treatment.

I was told by our neuropsychologist at Kennedy Krieger's Center for Autism and Related Disorders (Baltimore, MD) that 70% of children with autism also experience ADHD-type behavior. There is a school of thought out there that says ADHD is on the autism spectrum. Personally I think it is the vaccines that have caused all the damage to these children (there's a study out now by the Geiers claiming a 1:6 rate of behavior issues in kids when the vaccine schedule grew to 20+ shots in the 90's) Sigh. -BJ