# The Unpredictable Minds of Children

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unpredictable-minds-of-children/66414>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 24, 2001, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unpredictable-minds-of-children/66414 "2001-05-24T23:43:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2001, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unpredictable-minds-of-children/66414/21 "2001-05-25T23:59:22Z")

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**ENugent** writes :

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> Did you know ASL already, or are you learning it along with him?

It’s funny, be it seems as if he’s the one who’d teaching it to us. The school he goes to started teaching it to him after being unsuccessful in communicating with him any other way. Every day when he comes home we have to watch out for any “abnormal” hand movements that might indicate a new sign that we’re not familiar with yet.

It’s also turning into a bargaining chip for us. I was going to start a Pit thread about this because it’s really a rather sad situation, but the school systems additude is that they’re only going to give him the minimum that the state legally requires. Currently they’re trying to move him back into the regular special education class rather than the private school that he goes to now.

The sneaky thing they do, though, is that they try to _tell_ the parents that they’re going to move him. However, legally, once he’s in a specific placement, they can’t move him without our okay. What they try to get away with is assuming that parents don’t know their legal rights in the matter and bypass any disagreements. But if a parent _knows_ their rights and wants to keep the child where they are, the school department has to go to court and have a mediator assigned to decide. This is something they rarely do, and once they find out that the parents are ready to go to courtm they back down.

At any rate, what we have on our side now is that the regular school class does not have anyone trained in ASL whereas the private school he’s in has a specialist there full-time to work with him. And it’s already proven to be successful.

**Primaflora** wrote :

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> My older kid has got obsessive compulsive disorder - I tell ya the combo of untoilet trained kid and germ phobic kid was a nightmare. They’re lucky to be alive.

We have the same situation. My older son Sean is autistic also, although high functioning, but with a big OCD component. But when Liam was born, Sean decided that he was _his_ baby and has been _very_protective over him ever since.

**Tequila Mockingbird** wrote :

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> Her method of communication is to put an empty cup in my hand when she wants a drink, or a can of spaghetti-o’s in my hand, or jump up and down while whining in front of the frige when she’s hungry.

That’s exactly where we were with Liam as of about 3 months ago. The trick to teaching ASL is that you physcially have to manipulate the child’s hands into the proper position. The way they started was to give him a bit of food at mealtime, and once he had eaten that, form his hands into the “more” position. Then give him more. Eventually he catches on to the idea that if he forms his hands that way, he’s going to get more. The best thing to do next is to teach him the “eat” sign so he doesn’t confuse “more” with food.

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