This subject is about my 5 year old Step Sister (she will be 6 this April). My Step Sister apparently has Epilepsy but I sometimes wonder if in fact she has Epilepsy or not. She has almost been on every single Epileptic medication avaliable and each one has seemed to made her worse, both in terms of increased seizures and gone from just having staring turns to having bad convulsions then a drop seizure which started just 2 days ago. Also her behaviour is strange for her age, she is quiet, withdrawn, being smothered my her Mum (Not my real Mum) and Dad (My Dad) but he didn't smother me, so thats how I turned out ok, I guess lol, Anyway getting back to the subject. She doesn't have a good grasp on language, she will repeat the word "rather" if she doesn't know what to say or can't tell you what she is thinking and it's irritating and sad really, it's a habit. I think my Step Sister says Rather because her Mum says to her, "I rather you brush your teeth now". Dad's partner says she gets it from playschool but bull shit. Could she have Autism or something else besides or instead of Epileptic seizures ? she has most of the sympoms of Autism but I'm just trying to make sense of it all. I read on a website that Autism and Epiletic seizures are related and I wonder why that is ? She is still in the Bananas in PJs stage and still watches Playschool and that is all she wants to watch. She should be watching Dora or something educational and not so boring and repeatative She also says sometimes "..... Inserts Her Name ......... wants to say something", Instead of saying "I need to go to the toilet." When she talks it's just about her teddy bear and you have to drag stuff out of her like her Mother really. This " 3 years behind her age that she is thing" cannot be explained from Epileptic medication, could it ? I wouldn't have thought so !!!!!!! I think thats all for now, the brain is a very complicated thing indeed.
Medication often does more harm than good, and the impact on a six year old must be the worst. I'd say it's very possible that her medication is not only making her seizures worse, but giving her autistic habits that she probably wouldn't have had before hand. Also, this has a lot to do with how she was raised. Either way, I feel really bad for her - No kid should have to deal with that and what it may cause later in life.
Seizures suck bad! I had one once under the influence of many illegal substances, and it wasn't pretty. Help the poor child!
my cousin is Autistic and I have grown up with her since she was 3. She is now 19 and still reads child books and loves child movies, she has never had convulsions or seizures but has had "severe" tantrums where she will kick and scream and be violent when she is frustrated or upset. She talks to herself all the time, rocks against chairs, and taps her foot. She also repeats sentences over and over, like if she read a book about a boy who was rude to his mom, she would say "Alex, what would you say if you were the mom?? Huh? Wouldnt you say 'Stop being so rude!' ? and then she will repeat "Stop being so Rude!" like 5 times over, shell asks questions she knows the answer to, and wil say the answer before you can and repeat it several times. She will sometimes put herself in 3rd person, but usually in reference to stories, (her name is Eleanor) and shell be like "Alex, what if I broke your Ipod wouldnt you be mad? What would you say? You'd say "Hey Eleanor! Why'd you do that?" Right?...so she might possible have Autism, my cousin is more of a low functioning, she can do small math, but still likes childish things, is repetive and displays actions that are severe ADHD (rocking, tapping, self talk) and has poor motor skills, but each autistic case is different, thats why is so difficult to study, so id look into it if youre really considered, she may be high functioning autistic, but I really cant say.
There can be cases of brain damage in epileptics. However, as 1love776 suggested she could be Autistic also. The link between Autism and epilepsy is not really understood because the causes of Autism are not really known. Do your parents do any type of therapy with her? That might help with the behavior and with the seizures as well. In some cases physical play and activity has been know to decrease the instance of seizure in epileptics. Just a suggestion that your dad smothers her because of her illness, that happens allot with parents of sick children.
yeah, there are alot of different therapies offered for speech and other things, maybe reccomend to ur dad that she try one out because that doesnt sound like something a child would pick up at playschool
Of course Dad smothers her but it doesn't make me feel any better that they can hug and kiss her and play round and round the garden path on her hands but then when it comes time to tell her to get off the table, they don't know how to talk to her. Just an update, her seizures have stopped completely in the last week, no convulsions, no dropping, no staring, nothing. But she is still saying rather but yes I agree it is how she is being brought up and both Dad and his girlfriend doesn't listen to me or Mum ( My Grandmother ), they think their always fucking right, so I have to suffer to like Helen because there is no getting your point across to them. Dad's girlfriend use to go to Psychologist but we think it was for her but you tell me when a child is screaming and crying and their Mother tells them to jump up and down on the spot, You tell me when that will ever work ? Never Ever thats when. I was sexually abused but you don't see him smothering me, he distances himself from how I feel and so I do right back to him and I'm just afraid that if Helen doesn't want hugs and kisses and smothering at 10 years old than they will have the same communication break down like Dad and I have. Does that make sense ?
Also she could have got some brain damage from the Lamictal overdose she was having for 4 weeks. What kind of parents let their kid suffer like that !!!! meaning shaking all over and constantly sick and sulky all day for 4 weeks and sleeping only a few hours a night for a few weeks. She looked she was was overdosing too. Desert Nightmare, How on earth do I help someone who can't help themselves ? There is no helping these people, I get more conversation from a parrot.
Also 1 more thing she is in Reception (not kindy or playschool), she should go into Year 1 this year or next year but probably won't. She hides her face from Mum and I, she only talks about her 3 teddy bears that she carries everywhere and fits 5 rathers into the sentence. But her Mum contributes to that, she doesn't give her confidence to stand up for herself or communicate for herself either, she'll talk for her if she has the chance to.
Actually there is helping "these people" It is not easy at all it is alot of work and there will alot of struggle on all of the famlies part but it is worth it. http://www.autismprograms.com/ This website will help alot just ask your Dad to look at it. You don't need to say anything else. Also your Dad seems to connect more with your little sister because she has had problems her while life. He also disconnects from you because he may feel guilty that he was not able to protect you from being hurt and he is ashamed of that fact. It is very hard when a family member has problems like your little sister but the more you educate yourself the better you will feel and the situation and you can deal with it better.
