Woo-hooooooooooooo!!!!

Dylan got accepted for the top choice preschool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My social butterfly :)

Yesterday, I took Dylan to the park to play a little to kill some time while JC and I were washing clothes at the Laundromat. The playground was pretty empty, save for a few kids that would come and go. But anytime Dylan saw a kid, he would run up to them and say “Hi boy!” or “Hi girl!” and try to initiate playing. Every single time, the child would not say anything back and wouldn’t play with Dylan, and would just walk back to his/her parent.


And MY kid has the social/communication disorder?? Ironic, huh?

Here’s a couple of pics from yesterday :)

Developmental pediatrician feedback and the Terrible Twos

Last Friday I met with Dylan's new developmental pediatrician to go over her findings for the report she will send to me for his first IEP meeting. She gave me a lot of great feedback, and I know her report will be instrumental in fighting for services with the district. She said she agrees with his initial diagnosis of mild to moderate autism, and that she recommends he be placed in a 12 month program at a developmental preschool with Speech and OT therapy. She also recommends asking for an after school ABA special instructor for home (that might be far-fetched with the district, but I am sure going to push for it). Because I know the autism diagnosis criteria with the DSM-5 coming out this year will change (instead of different categories of autism such as classic autism, Asperger's and PDD-NOS there will only be Autism Spectrum Disorder; levels 1, 2 and 3 -- 3 being severe), I asked her what level he would fall on. She said she will say a level 2, because he is so young and the new diagnosis criteria is still a little unfamiliar to her, she would rather say he is a 2, leaning towards 1.

She also said she really enjoys "working" with me as a team, and she is very excited to see how Dylan will fare with the next set of services. She said I am doing all of the right things for him, and she has great hopes for him. In fact, she wants to see him in three months because she can't believe how far he has come since the last appointment in February.

She brought in the head doctor who said she is also really happy to see how great Dylan is doing, and she is looking forward to following along with his future. She said Dylan is very high functioning, and he may not even meet the diagnosis criteria in a couple of years. She also said any of the preschools would love to have him as their student.

We are finally done with the CPSE evaluations for preschool as well. Yesterday was the educational observation at Dylan's center-based program. JC said the evaluator kept saying how great he is doing, and she kept running her fingers through his hair while saying how cute he is. Throughout the whole evaluation, she had a huge smile on her face while watching him, so one of the other Moms joked to JC that she must be thinking, "That's right, you're going to OUR school!" LOL. Hopefully that will be the case...fingers crossed that I will get the final word soon! The next step is the CPSE IEP meeting.

Aside from the great progress, I think we have finally entered the Terrible Twos. He has been having meltdowns every.single.time we come home. The issue is, he wants to continue to stay outside, but three nights out of the week we have speech therapy in the evening. We are trying to work through these tantrums, but it hasn't been easy. I know it's just a phase that will pass at some point, so I keep perspective about it. It's been a long winter, he has spring fever and wants to be out and about. We have been using walks with the dog after therapy as a reward, but he still has a meltdown when we first get home. I feel bad for him, but I also know he needs the therapy. I can't wait for speech therapy to be done at school when he starts in the Fall, it will open our evenings back up again...poor kid works hard!

But all in all, life is good. Hectic, but good. :)

Another round down.

So yesterday was the 2nd part of Dylan CPSE evaluation. It was the Speech/OT/Educational eval. I considered it a success! Because Dylan is sick with an ear infection, he is not truly himself and he was cranky yesterday, and just wasn’t into it. He liked some parts of the testing, but overall he kept wanting to come to me and end it. Thankfully they were in love with him, so they didn’t seem to mind, and all three evaluators said they will recommend that he continues getting Speech and OT in a developmental preschool. I am incredibly excited about this because the psychologist for the Social/Cognitive eval was on the fence about him continuing. She kept calling me with different questions about him for a couple of days after we met, and even spoke to Dylan’s speech pathologist to question her as well.


I am so happy with this evaluation team. They are SO thorough, and they absolutely go above and beyond. The final steps in the process is a PT eval next week when Dylan is at my MIL’s home and the Education Evaluator will also be going to Dylan’s current EI center-based program to see how he does in that setting. Once they write up their reports which will also state what type of class they recommend for him, I will be attending the district CPSE IEP meeting with a liason from the evaluation site, my service coordinator, and the district administrators. On April 5th, I have the final appointment with his developmental pediatrician, and I am hoping she will get her report done in time for the meeting so I will have even more back-up to prove why he still needs services. I don’t even know when the meeting will be yet, so it is just a waiting (and praying) game.

I am praying very hard that he will get into the school of my choice, and that the district will grant him the services we are requesting. It will be an INCREDIBLE day for us if that happens, and a big weight off of my shoulders…..

…..Well, until the end of next year, when I have to start applying for….

DUM DUM DUM

….KINDERGARTEN! Agghhhhhhh!!!!   

What the...?!

Dylan melted my heart a couple of days ago when I got him after work. I picked him up, and he gave me a kiss, grabbed my face and said "I love you Mommy".....Sigh......

He also stunned JC and I last night by reading his first word, "house". JC wrote "(Our last name) House" on our chalkboard. While we were cooking, Dylan walked over to it, read the letters out loud and then said "house!". I was shocked since we didn't tell him that and we have never written it for him before. Then, this morning he read another word, "cars"! He is only 28 months old and read two words unprompted!! He is also counting in tens to a hundred! Jeez.....

This morning was the first part of a two part evaluation for special needs preschool, and my top choice school was my chosen evaluation site. It went very well, he made it through the 3 and a half hour appointment. He sailed through most of the testing until getting cranky by the end. She said he did excellent, and especially considering he is one of the youngest kids she has ever evaluated. She kept saying his scores on all levels were either average or high, and kept asking me the same questions over and over. It seemed like she couldn't quite peg him. She did the CARS test which is an autism rating scale. He came out with mild to no symptoms of autism!!!! She said he scored very low on it. I asked her at the end if he will even qualify for CPSE (special needs) preschool, and she said she wasn't sure because of all of his scores. Even his speech was average for his age. She said she will wait until all of the evaluations come in before she decides. I told him I prefer he go to a supportive special needs school for the services and because I don't want him to regress after coming so far. I guess I will find out soon enough, but I can't believe that how far he has come in only 8 months of services! Honestly, I am still in shock.....

Happy Birthday Mom

Today would have been my Mom’s 52nd birthday. I feel her presence every day, so I choose to celebrate this day rather than spend it in grief. I know without a doubt she is still with us, if only in spirit, and it brings me a lot of comfort. I lit a candle for her this morning, and Dylan and I sang happy birthday to her as we looked at her picture. He wanted to sing it again, and it made me cry as he sang while looking at her photo. I bet she was smiling from up there hearing her Grandson sing.

I’ve decided that my gift to her will be to start my diet up again. As you may know, I lost a whole bunch of weight last year, but I fell off the wagon when Dylan was diagnosed. I was just too stressed out to focus on myself. I haven’t gained back ALL of the weight, but way more than I should have. I’ve been eager to get back to my good habits again, so I’ve decided to start back today, for my Mom’s birthday. I know that is the best gift to give her, and to my family and myself. So here we go!

:)

Here's a cute short clip of Dylan saying "hi" to his Aunt Jenn so you can hear his little voice :)

Friday was the first part of a two part evaluation with a developmental pediatrician. I have to go again in April, and then she will draft up a report to submit to CPSE. She LOVED Dylan, and couldn't stop gushing about how handsome he is. She gave him a few "tests", and she said his scores were excellent. She mentioned that there was a big study done on children who lose their autism diagnosis, and she said those children had the same qualities that Dylan has - high cognitive level, and pretty social (I am not going to dwell on that too much, I will just keep focused on the here & now, and getting him the help he needs - while keeping my fingers crossed!). She said that with continuing services like we are doing, there is a big chance he won't need added support in the future. She said she is going to request a language intensive preschool program for him, and will request that they provide him with more speech therapy sessions at school as well. She said he is not really that speech delayed at the moment, based on her initial test his is at 89% of his age level. Overall, it went great, and she even made another doctor come meet Dylan because she wanted her to see how cute he is. Of course, Dylan loved the attention! ;)

My poor little guy is sick AGAIN, so I have to take him to Urgent Care when I pick him up this evening. Another cold/cough. It's been a rough winter for him!