God must have heard my prayers yesterday because not long after I blogged, I got a call from Commonwealth Autism Services that they had a last minute clinic cancellation for this morning if we were able to make it. Sometimes, it is so so nice to be stay-at-home. Adam was able to take the morning off so we took the whole gang in. I have to say that I am extremely proud of both boys, Bug handled the evaluations and transitions really well and Wiggle did great for being woken up so we could go.
The first part of the evaluation was an assessment of Bug's social and play skills. It was just Bug, me and the evaluator and I was mostly there as an observer and only offered comfort to Bug as needed. The other specialists and Adam sat behind a one-way mirror. A couple of times the evaluator had me try to interact with Bug, but mostly I stayed out of the way. Bug was not real cooperative with the tasks and wasn't real interested in games suggested. He did enjoy watching bubbles being blown, a little rocket launch toy and surprised me when he helped put "candles" into a playdough "cake". Overall, we felt like he was pretty well represented with the activities.
After that assessment, he went with a speech therapist and an occupational therapist into their "sensory" room while Adam and I were interviewed by the clinical psychologist. Basically a lot of questions about whether Bug does certain behaviors and such. This part is always hard for me because there is so much that Bug doesn't do that developmentally, he should.
Once we finished our interview, we met with the whole team to discuss how things went and where we should go from here. It was A LOT of info to digest (especially while trying to keep two littles happy) but we'll get a report from them in a month or so.
We got to hear from the ST and OT about his evaluation with them. They said that initially he was really really uncomfortable and has a lot of anxiety when he's not with us in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. They quickly realized that they weren't going to be able to work with him together, so they did one-on-one while the other observed. Verbally, Bug has a lot of the building blocks he needs, but he mostly relies on reciting phrases he has learned "I want ____" etc. or using nouns. The ST noted that he enjoys sing-song and rhythmic talking and that he seems to "read" stories using his jargon with a few real words intermingled. One thing she said that I had to laugh at was about knowing how hard to push him without going too far. Didn't I just say that yesterday? She said one of the biggest things is meeting him where he's at, pushing a little but stopping once you have success. He is intelligent and once you show him (model) what you want, he will do it, so you leave him alone. The OT noted Bug's anxiety levels were pretty high, although he kept himself together with no tantrums (big progress on this!). She said that anyone who works with Bug needs to respect his anxiety and give him a little bit of time to adjust to the environment rather than trying to pull him to task right away. Agreeing with how Geri evaluated Bug and our notes, she says he's a high arousal kid. He is constantly moving and really enjoys tactile stimulation (like touching, hugs, etc) She said that they had some good success when she put on some "zen" type music, had him swing for a bit and then he was able to sit for tasks better. She said that he couldn't handle a long time in the swing but would keep coming back to it.
Ultimately, the team agrees that Bug has a lot of the typical autism signs, although not really any of the negative (behavioral) symptoms (mostly the anxiety). They suggested that we look into Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy and that would really help bring the social abilities up. They also really encouraged us to get the ball rolling to get into the public school system. They said that there are a lot of options for us even if we don't want him in a classroom. Developing and maintaining an IEP for him would allow us to access services as we felt we needed them. We are a little bit more nervous about this aspect, just from all the stories we've heard from friends and such, but they sound super supportive about making sure we know what we're doing and helping us through the process. Unfortunately, I can't say a whole lot else about the "bottom line" stuff until I have the report.
I'm glad the evaluation is done and that Bug didn't seem too bothered by it. Personally (and this is all still very fresh, as we just got back 4 hours ago) I have A LOT of emotions about it, kind of all over the board. It is always gratifying to have others note the issues we notice and offer suggestions for support. I'm not surprised being told that he is on the autism spectrum. I'm a little sad, because I know that this is a lifelong thing, he's not really going to snap out of it--but I do have full confidence that we can make a lot of headway. I feel lost too, because now we have to make all kind of decisions about therapy and schools. We have a ton to learn. I need to learn how to encourage him and teach him in ways that work for him. To some extent, I feel like I need a crash course in OT/speech/teaching techniques so I know what the heck I'm doing with him. I'm freaked out by the prospect of putting him in school and into such a structured environment because I really don't feel like little kids belong in super structured environments. And then I feel guilty because everyone else seems to disagree with me on that. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, because I'm not really. I love Bug so much and I promised him and myself that I will always always fight for him. He forgives me for making mistakes, probably more quickly than I forgive myself. I guess we just have a steep climb of learning ahead of us.
Thank you to those who said prayers for us and thought of us today. We would really appreciate continued prayers as we learn to accept our diagnosis and plan for therapy and education for Bug and for the family. <3
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