Devon is 14 and we have overcome so much, (he has 'classic' autism and I still consider him fairly non verbal) and most of it happened after I just kinda started letting him do his own thing and dropped all therapies outside of school around age 11. (Not saying I recommend that, but school full time since age three with therapy 3 and 4 times a week after school was sucking the life out of him and causing So much stress...I felt he needed a break). So our list of improvements.. Not aggressive to others when frustrated, self injury is 99% decline, he eats so much more and experiments with food on his own, meltdowns down 95%, pica kicks in only when he is mad at me now..(Not all the time), he tries to participate with others he trusts sometimes, he'll let us touch him way more often without freaking out..., he performs all of his hygene routines by himself and it is thorough..(he is pretty much self taught, I guess because he figured out he could do it in a way that suited him better), he doesn't climb impossible trees and bounce or throw himself against objects anymore...so, anyway, even though he is still very classic and only has a max of occasional 3 word sentences, I think he has grown out of a lot of the scary stuff. I still am on constant edge, always observing, pre planning to prevent things that encourage negative behavior and worrying about his lack of understanding of situations around him...but after just letting him be him, he has turned into a very pleasant young man. I know this was lengthy, but I hope it helps. I still have to take meds because my nerves became so shot when he was younger and I never bounced back...but I can enjoy him now instead of being in a constant state of panic. So, it does get better :-)

They don't meltdown after the word "no" as often, it started as a tantrum and ended in a meltdown. They still tantrum at "no" but they have learned to recover before a meltdown ensues. I'm very proud of them for that. We still have to work on it every day or it goes back to meltdown. Also they have gotten used to going to Speech and OT now and they have gotten really good at accepting the transition times there instead of hiding under the table amd swatting when their therapist changes an activity.

When G was younger, the aggressive side effects of stimulant ADHD meds led people to believe he was probably bipolar. At 15, he is on no meds and showing no signs of a mood disorder. That could change as he enters young adulthood, but he is doing great right now.

Still waiting for some behaviors to leave. She used to bite and scratch often, now it's once in a blue moon when I don't pay attention to her usually when driving- she will grab my hand and motion like she is going to bite it.
She still squeals at times - easier to find her in the store - sort of like "Marco polo ". Lol.

My son is more patient now. When he was younger if his bus was 10 minutes late he would ask over and over Last month when ESY started the first day the bus was 2 hours late. My son handled it so well. I'm so proud of him he's come a long way.