my singing, humming, dancing autistic cherub

Each morning every since our little girl could make a sound, she would

hum. Most people, whenever we were out in public, was

amazed that a little baby just 6months and on, could and would, make humming sounds as she fell off to sleep. It was as if she was born with her own little built-in

lullaby. Even at home it seemed as soon as she was sleepy, we supposed, she would hum until she went to sleep.

Mind you, when she was in the NICU, naked and placed under the hot lights, my baby was the only preemie {4pounds} who could

booty-boogie. Whenever she was placed on her stomach with knees cured up to the tummy, she looked like a cute little naked Cornish hen

. In this position she would shimmy and rock her rump, and I don?t mean shaking cause she?s cold. I supposed the nurse noticed my eyes glancing around the NICU

trying to figure out what was going on with my baby, and why she seemed to be doing the new-born-boogie. Yeah, rockin her rump until even the nurses were

amused and laughed as they explained to me that they could hardly

keep a diaper on her teeny bottom, so they laid an open one under her, and laid the other on top of her behind in an effort to catch some of her urine in the diaper, and not in her incubator

.

just months old

what was she humming? ?Oh pleeease, her dad and I had not a clue. In fact we both noticed and thought it was a relief

that she preferred not to be held, and that she had her own little lullaby that kicked in just months later when dozing off to sleep. If we had known then that she was autistic, and that for the next four years {thus far} she sings, dances about, hums songs known and unknown to anyone in this world, we may have had it a little easier, maybe. Having her tested we just got a word for her ways, which means we found out that she is autistic

...

I noticed right off when she was two, and still not talking that something was

wrong. Yeah, not talking, however singing songs with words not of this world, dancing about to music nobody could hear but her, and her temperament stuck on joy-joy was coming into great concerns for me.

Now at age four she continues to sing pre-school songs known and other songs still unknown. Some words we understand, and some words we still don?t understand.

Our little

darling is always cheezing from ear-to-ear, and is a real

Kodak moment around the clock, even though her smiles toward others are ?scripted? and at times obviously mechanical. Ninety percent of her smiles are from within her own autistic world. Rarely does she meltdown, but when she does, let me tell

ya, it?s chock-full, and totally equals her joy-joy life to the fat-full force

.

Whenever we are out in public,

which is rare, if someone in the restaurant sneezes, or cough, or burst into laughter, our little girl loops that same behavior out loud. Most thinks it?s cute to have this little tiny voice mimicking their laughter, or sneeze, or their slap-knee gesture or something, but my husband and I are then trying desperately to find her ?Off Switch? without others knowing that she?s stuck

in the loop of echoing what she?s just heard.

It?s things like this that tells me deep inside that if she doesn?t come up in her social, language and self-help skills, that home schooling is gonna be the only way to ensure she doesn?t fall any further behind than her development already is.

She is in a great school that meets her needs now, but when it?s time for kindergarten my child just can't afford to be passed over

for any one thing in class. Her needs are great and when I brought my son through school, he?s

?normal? and it was a boatload of work

, sooo what say you then to a special needs child

? Seems like doing it at home is the only way my child will have a real fair shot at getting what she needs.

Anybody in here home schooling his or her special needs child? Autistic, or other wise? Tell me anything that could help me have some

idea of just how much research, money and time I?m gonna have to spend doing this. I need idea's about how to find groups to engage my child in social esperience. I?m open to all opinions, suggestion, and experience.

really I am. if you think home schooling is bad then share why you think so. anyways, I thank the IVAN family in advance for everything.....[nodding "yes"]...I'm new here...[crooked smile]...can't you tell?

ok....[blushing]....I've said enough I suppose.[scooting off to wait for your responce]...[waving bye]

Hi havenG8ts, and welcome to the IAN Discussion Forum.

It is so interesting how your daughter was humming to herself at such a young age. I wonder if the sound was soothing to her, and perhaps a form of "stimming" - repeating again and again a behavior that somehow seems to soothe.

To read more about such behaviors, see our sections on:

Repetitive Behaviors: http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/challenging_behavior/challenging_behaviors_stimming

You were asking about school settings. We did do a report recently on what families participating in IAN Research have told us about their children and school.

Back to School Report: http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/ian_research_reports/back_to_school_2008

You can see in this report that a small number, about 3%, report home schooling their children.

The only thing I might say from a research perspective is that there is more and more evidence that intensive early intervention, usually including Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) or some similar behavioral technique, can help children with autism improve, in a minority of cases even to the point of moving off the spectrum.

See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19009353?dopt=abstract

So one question to consider would be what is available as far as early intensive intervention, and if it can be duplicated in the home.

If you are going to do home school places to look to get her that social interaction would be the library, YMCA, parks, any type of gymnastic, or set-up play dates with other children her age, talk to the parents she goes to school with at the moment, asked them if they would like to set-up a play date. If you want to keep her in public school push for a para, someone the school provides to assisted her with her needs, they could communicate what to work on at home, what she is doing well at and what she is having trouble with. Most schools write the children a IPP, well they call it something different but it is a set of goal that are realistic for your child that will provide goals from speech, OT,PT, and the teachers goals. There is nothing wrong with do home school, just make sure you have her engage with children her own age as much as possible. Social engagement is huge. Have you looked into a in-home ABA therapist, that can help you set up goals, and teach you how to run the programs on your own. Its just nice to have help sometimes. She sounds adorable, good luck hope you get all the information you need.