June

June began with his diagnosis. Things got worse for us (his parents) for about a week or so... We thought that the knowledge would bring relief, but we dealt with it so differently that we didn't talk about it much. It hurt dad really bad....he thought about the things he thought his son would never do, he mourned over something being 'wrong' with his child and then he finally came around to realize that for our son, its really not that bad. He's mild. He's super-smart. He's verbal. Our pediatrician said that it almost looks like a switch turns on and off & I do agree to some extent. However, being the primary person who is with him 24/7... I tend to see the situations that really send him into that fragile state of frustration. I think of it less as a switch, and more as 'triggers'. I dealt with it by reading, scouring the internet, scouring the library, talking, telling a very few choice people, and of course prayer. I'll admit, part of me was relieved to not feel so CRAZY anymore. I felt like I was analyzing every thing he did before the diagnosis. I felt like that if I would admit we needed the evaluation and then they said 'Nope... there's nothing wrong... he's normal as normal can be' then I would be that crazy mom who just thinks her son has everything plastered on the news. Well, thats about as far from the truth as you can get. Everyone was super-nice. I was right to question - even if the Autism diagnosis were to be changed in the future... he has what he needs to overcome the difficulties he is facing right now in his development. The best thing anyone said to me so far was 'You know, your son was created by God as who he is, and God knew that. He also created you as his mother, and God knew that too. So, really, you should look at it as a compliment that God knew you could handle it' We had some time to deal with our initial reaction. We came to terms with it & also decided that we had a lot to be thankful for. There are a lot of autistic children out there who are totally non-verbal. There are some Mommies and Daddies who never heard 'I love you' uttered out of their child's mouth. That is not the case for us. So, What happened then? Well, they came out to do the evaluation in a group of 3. They already knew they were evaluating him with concerns of HFA (High Functioning Autism), so they brought along the Service Coordinator, a Psychologist, and a Speech-Language Pathologist. They work together to complete a full developmental assessment with certain tests, tools, and games. After that, they recommend the plan of therapy - called an IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan). They went ahead and told me that they would be suggesting SLP (Speech-Language Pathology), DT (Developmental Therapy), and OT (Occupational Therapy), which I will explain in another post. The formal report was mailed to us about a week later. They sent us this very detailed form explaining each area of development - what is falling within normal ranges, what isn't, and why they have a concern. I was quite impressed at the amount of detail they went into, as well as how well they listened to us. So, along about a week later... we were given a list of SLP and DT therapists to choose from. I was determined to pick the best of the best, but really had no clue what I was doing. So, we finally settled on a couple people who had good credentials and experience. Near the end of June, we began therapy.