8.04.2008

DT

Today we met with our new Developemental Therapist. We decided that the best thing for him would be to meet with an individual to see what his DT needs would be and THEN decide if a group DT setting would be helpful. So, she came to the house when he was napping and spent some time filling out paperwork and asking a lot of questions. She seemed quite interested in what his schedule is like, what he does all day, and how he functions. She also wants to get on board with his SLP and both be working on the same goals at the same time. I was quite impressed at her explaination of what DT is supposed to be. Basically her philosophy of DT is getting involved in the everyday schedule, what he chooses to do all day, what he participates in, how he participates, and what he is most interested in, finding ways to get him interested in participating more and allowing him to learn to do things that are more functional. Most times with Autism a root issue is that the child has very high interest in certain things and their focus on that distracts away from being very interactive and social. If left to play alone, with no redirection, our son would choose to spell, write, count, and do anything revolving around those things. Don't get me wrong, he's not one-dimensional. There are other things he does all day... but that would consume the majority of his free time. So, what her plan for him is to see where he participates. Does he help with getting dressed? Does he participate in food choices or cooking? This therapy will help to incorporate him into very mundane daily tasks - using his interests to accomplish this. Most children develop an interest just in their own time - say to undress themselves or dress themselves. Well, this is one of those things that will have to be taught in our case. So, we will get him interested in some way (to be seen) and then help him participate, and then with repetition, he will learn to use his interests to participate in our daily routine and use his large bank of knowledge in a more functional way. Like she says, its not purposeful for him to just sit and label things and yell out numbers... but it WOULD be functional for him to sit in front of some playdoh.. make a car..spell car..and incorporate what he loves into a new game. There are a lot of things that we have already done that are similar to this, we also have some SLP goals that are working on this, and then with an added person helping him develop more functional skills... we will be on a roll. We have already seen a huge improvement in his ability to communicate to us... I am excited. Our first session will be Aug 14 On another note... she was interested in how we even came up with the idea that he needed an evaluation. She said her 10 yr old nephew was just diagnosed with Aspergers, and I then told her that while they won't make his 'label' any more specific at this point, my suspicion is that he will end up with a diagnosis of either Aspergers or PDD-NOS at some point. She saw many parallel's to our son and her nephew and was amazed at how similar they were at this age. She was shocked to see some of the transitions we had figured out on our own and that made me feel a little good, I wont lie. She was very happy about the way we're going about it... just keeping it under hat to those who don't know and love him very much. There are so many people who see a label and either don't understand or can't move past it, that it is not helpful to him right now. What IS helpful is that the 'label' is getting him services. The services will get him the little extra help he needs to function better in our family, in social settings, and in life in general.

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