I know some people are curious about Logan's improvement in his PPCD class and what we heard when we went to visit the pediatric neurologist last week, so I thought I would try to give a not very long update (its still gonna be long, this is me after all, but hopefully it wont be forever long).
Lets start with the doctors appointment:
- he was diagnosed as autistic, but on the high functioning side of the spectrum (which is what I kinda figured)
- this diagnosis was not just about his speech delay, but that along with his sensory issues and his behavior around his peers, now if we would have looked at this a year ago his behavior with peers would have been much worse than it is now, but his sensory issues would have been better, so he is making progress in areas and not so much in others
- to see if we can a reason for the speech delay he is scheduled for an MRI, and EEG, bloodwork to test for lead, thyroid and fagile X. they could all come back and not show anything and if thats the case we can also do genetic testing. We have amazing insurance so I would guess if these dont shed any light we will probably do that, but right now we are focusing on these.
- the MRI is scheduled for Monday, Lisa is gonna come along to keep him awake on the way there as they say that will help with the sedation that is necessary.
- the bloodwork we just stop in, Lisa is also gonna come to that and we will need additional help from their staff to hold this crazy boy down
- the EEG is not until December 4th, but I am gonna see if there is any chance of getting it moved up, but that is at the neurologists office (the one that took months to get into) so Im thinking thats not gonna happen :)
- since he has a diagnosis now we can get additional private speech therapy (ST) and occupational therapy (OT) and there is no cap from insurance like before he was diagnosed, so we will be adding additoinal therapy to help him continue to improve
- it is very common for children that are high functioning to function normally with therapy and modifications, so thats what we are gonna do
- as for home modifications we basically need him to never play alone (or as little as possible), we need to teach his brain that it is good to be around other people (children more than adults but adults still help) and to interact with them, not just play alone or sit back and watch
- the OT will be needed to help me figure out how to get him to touch certain things or to put on jackets, hats, etc. I am at a loss when it comes to this so I welcome their expertise
- the OT and ST will also be able to help with his horrible eating habits but we are also trying to help too by basically only offering his hot dogs and cheese (2 things he has eating in the past) and if we doesnt eat them after 6 to 8 hours we are to give him something (he loves peanuts so thats been what he have chosen so far) but even in just a week we have gotten him to start eating cheese and french fries again, which is great!!!
I think that covers the bulk of the appointment, lets move onto his PPCD class:
- he is making soooo much progress!!!
- he loves to go to school each morning, he grabs his backpack but still wont wear it, but will hold it
- on the weekends he comes to me in the morning and hands me his backpack, thats how much he loves it there
- he has a few little friends that he likes to play with in the different centers in his room
- he chases some of the pre-k boys around on the playground, his teacher says they dont talk to each other but they interact which is great for him
- he still wont eat breakfast but sits with them each morning and evidently gets excited when there is syrup and also french toast sticks, he picked up a stick the other day but didnt eat it, maybe one day soon he will!!!
- he just gets more and more vocal each day, he used to sit in the corner and watch and now Mrs. P says she has to tell him to use his inside voice cause he runs around screaming
- he loves to play with play doh and the home center (where the toy kitchen and food is), and he is so in love with the water fountain, he thinks it is the coolest thing ever, however, he comes home most days with a very wet shirt :)
- as much fun as he has there, when he comes out and sees me waiting for him he runs into my arms with the biggest smile and gives me a huge hug, it is awesome!!!
Lets cover some of his progress:
- he can count to 20, but after about 12 its hard to understand unless you are me
- he still loves the alphabet, but now he says the letter and then says the sound it makes, except vowels, they all have the same sound (e), he has always had issues with vowels
- he says probably 30 or 40 words now and is actually saying some 2 word phrases, which is great, still nowhere close to sentences but I will take 2 word phrases any day!!
- he is now repeating almost everything we say and a lot of the gestures we make, this is very exciting because his ECI therapist worked on this for a long time and would get so frustrated (not to him) because she couldnt figure out why he wouldnt copy her, she would be so proud of him now
- he has starting brushing his own teeth, but the bad part of that is he no longer lets me anywhere near him with a toothbrush and as you can imagine he does a horrible job, so I try to clean them with a washcloth and last night he bite my finger HARD!!!
- i got him to sit on the actual toliet twice, he wont do anything on it, and wont sit on his potty chair, and now wont sit on the toliet anymore, but its a little bit of progress
- he learned how to pull a pull-up up and down, can take off his shoes and socks, and can almost put on velcro shoes so the self-help skills are staring to improve a bit too
- he can trace his name like nobody's business, this boy is an excellent tracer of letters, but still cant say his name at all
- i can spell about 20 or 30 words and he can read them to me, and its not just from instant recognition, sometimes he stares at it and sounds it out, its just so great to see
Gosh, I am sure there is more but this is pretty long. Bottom line is he is making progress and with the additional therapy he can make even more and hopefully by the time he is ready to start actual kindergarten he wont be behind at all, which is what I want for him. Kids are mean now, and I dont want him to get picked on or bullied, so I have probably 2.5 years, we can do a lot in that time!!!!
