Now we're getting somewhere

So sorry for slacking on this blog. There's just so much going on right now. My husband, Steve, was in a car accident on Thursday. Steve is mostly OK, though he's having some back pain and had to take some time off work. The car is toast. We were really hoping to get another couple of years out of Steve's car, so that we wouldn't have to be making 2 car payments, but God/fate/karma/whatever had other plans. I'm sure we'll get through, but we've been really busy trying to get all of this straightened out.

In the meantime, Jesse is doing really well. His language is really coming along. His list of words, both imitated and spontaneous, grows daily. His SLP is really happy with his progress. I also have a book I'm reading that is giving me some great ideas on how to help this along at home as well. It's called Motivate to Communicate. It's written for kids on the spectrum, but I have a feeling it would really work well for kids with a "simple" speech delay as well. I'm not that far into it yet, but I'm hoping to have it finished by the weekend, and can give you a review of it.

We've also been assigned a senior therapist! Yay!!! She's actually still training, so her supervisor will be coming along with her and helping her, which is great. They both paid us a visit this morning. We mostly just went over Jesse's history and what our main concerns were. They also gave us a bit of an overview of what the next few weeks will consist of. On April 12th, they'll return and do Jesse's evaluations, and then on April 19th (tentatively) we'll have Jesse's ISSP (Individualized Supports and Services Plan...I think that's what it stands for). That's when we'll come up with the plan of attack for Jesse. It's only when we have the ISSP that we get funding for the home therapist. (Speaking of which, we still haven't hired anyone yet. I have about 40 resumes here, though, to look through.)

I also keep meaning to do a little book report, of sorts, on the book I just finished a couple of days ago. It's called Changing the Course of Autism: A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physicians. It's not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination. There's a lot of anatomy and physiology and immunology knowledge needed to understand it well. It did challenge me to recall a lot of what I learned in my B.Sc. and my B.N. I think it's worth reading though, for any parent who has a child on the spectrum. (And for any doctor treating a child on the spectrum.) Jesse's waking up from his nap, so I can't get into it now, but I will definitely give a review of this book later.