Receptive Language

At last Monday's speech therapy appointment the SLP tested Jesse's receptive language. What she expected to take 2-3 sessions took all of 20 minutes. His attending was awesome! And it turns out that Jesse is right on target! He scored 50th percentile for 2 - 2 1/2 year olds. I'd always thought that his understanding was pretty normal, and now we know it is.

New look

I've changed up the layout and look of the blog. What once was dark and scary is no longer so. I figured I'd change the look of this blog to reflect the fact that there is so much happiness and hope in our lives right now. Jesse's made so much progress in the past few months that it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell him apart from "normal" kids. We're constantly smiling and laughing at stuff he comes up with. I wish that all of you out there who haven't met Jesse in person could, just so you could understand how awesome this kid is.

Looking forward

Last night at our parents support group the topic of Kindergarten came up. A couple of the parents that were there have kids heading to kindergarten either this year or next. Autism services are reduced for kids when they start kindergarten, and then stopped altogether for kids as they head into grade one. It's a big deal. But honestly, it's not even on my radar screen right now. I said as much and the other parents tried to impress upon me just how close it actually is. It actually *is* still 3 years away, and to tell the truth, I'm not even sure we're going to send Jesse to public school. I'm of the mind right now that home schooling is definitely an option.

But beyond that, I don't see Jesse still having a diagnosis by the time he's five. (No, I didn't mention this to the other parents at the support group.) I may sound like I'm in denial or have my head burried in the sand, but the fact is, some children diagnosed with ASD at a young age eventually move off the spectrum. Jesse's developmental pediatrician has suggested that she thinks this will be the case with Jesse. And with the gains he is making in speech and communication, I'm very hopeful this will be the case.

I've always said that optimism was over-rated, but my views on that might be starting to change. And truly, it's difficult not to be optimistic about Jesse's development. The kid is blowing us away every day.

Racing for Autism

Targa Newfoundland takes place in September of each year. For the last 3 years, the Halleran family from Paradise has entered a team, which they've called Racing for Autism. (Here is their website and here is their Facebook fan page.) They started the team after their daughter was diagnosed with autism. To raise awareness for Autism Spectrum Disorders, they place puzzle piece stickers all over their racing cars. These puzzle pieces that hold the names of children around the world who have been diagnosed with autism. This year, Jesse's name is on the car. And so is his picture. I cannot wait to see the car in person later this year.

For your viewing pleasure...

This picture shows Jesse's puzzle piece (the pink one at the bottom)

And here's his sweet face. 

Many, many thanks to Ray and Julie Halleran for all that they do to raise awareness for all children on the spectrum.

A lesson in futility

Prior to being seen by a developmental pediatrician when there's a significant speech delay and/or other developmental issues, a child should have their hearing tested. This is pretty much a standard thing. Our family doc only suggested this AFTER she heard of Jesse's PDD-NOS diagnosis. So she fills out the referral, we leave the office, and we wait to hear from Audiology. The call never came. I call our doctor's office, and the office staff tell me that they were never passed a referral to send. (See why I want to find a new family doctor for Jesse?) So we head back to the doc a couple months ago, and she refers Jesse to ENT because we can get in to audiology faster that way. (This time I personally handed the referral letter to the secretary.)

We had our ENT appointment yesterday. The ENT looked in Jesse's ears, and didn't see anything troubling. He then sent us straight over to audiology. The first machine they tested Jesse with tested his middle ears. No problems there. The second machine they tested him with tested his inner ears. No problems there either. Then she sends us to this booth where I have to play with Jesse with some Play-Doh and the audiologist in the adjoining room (she could see us through a window) played some sounds at different frequencies and every time Jesse turned to the sound a toy would light up and I'd have to reinforce him. She was really pleased with how well he did, both in terms of learning what he was expected to do, and with the results of the test. No problems with his ears. The audiologist then sent us back to the ENT, and he told me that Jesse had no hearing issues whatsoever.

Which I already knew.