Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Preschool Evaluation

Michael FINALLY had his evaluation today! It went great! They had him visit a ST, OT, and PT. He is delayed in all areas but for the gross motor, he is only slightly delayed so they aren't as concerned in that area.

For speech, they saw that we need to work on the back and forth communication more than picking up actual words so they think he will thrive with a group setting of ST rather than the 1:1 that he currently gets. I agree with this.

For fine motor, the OT said that he is left eye dominant and right handed so it can make some things harder such as reading. He was way ahead in some things such as doing puzzles and stacking blocks. She said that he does puzzles at a 5 year old level! But he has issues with sensory input and some of the instruction so they feel he would highly benefit from OT. I 100% agree with this. So they will also be helping him with self help skills, etc which is awesome!

They said that we had the option of either putting him in the autism class which is 5 days a week for longer periods or the regular special needs class that goes for only 2 days. However, they said that with his skills, they felt the autism class would be too restrictive for him. They felt that for him to build his social skills the regular class would be better. So that is what we are going to do. They said the teacher should call me and we will have a meeting to create his IEP in the next 2 to 4 weeks. Then we start school!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Just lovely

We've been on a waiting list for OT for a few months now. Well, they called with an opening today but I had to tell them to put it on hold until we know what is going on with his preschool. So they are going to call us back in about a month. That's just splendid. ~eyeroll

Now we sit around and WAIT some more! *sigh*

Sunday, September 25, 2011

FINALLY a new appointment!

So after almost 2 weeks of strike, the school district is back in school! Michael's evaluation is rescheduled for this upcoming Wednesday at 10am.

Monday, September 12, 2011

I'm so upset!

So Michael's eval for preschool was finally coming up on Thursday of this week. I got a reminder call earlier today and during the message the lady said "Oh we might be going on strike and if so, the meeting will be cancelled and we will have to reschedule. You'll get a call if we strike to let you know." So of course tonight what do I get? A call stating they are going on strike tomorrow. Effing hell, of course it had to be THIS WEEK that this happens. They haven't had a strike since the 1970's and NOW is the time that it happens again. Go figure. It is MY life after all. Sigh.

Every Morning...

I feel like every morning when I drop Michael off, I'm just waiting for something to set him off. Usually it has something to do with the routine not working out the way he has planned. It can be something so small as he tries to shut the car door and it doesn't go all the way so I help him, or more commonly him needing to ring the doorbell 1 million times before we go inside. Today was no exception to this. He rang the doorbell about 20x and then when I tried to open the door, he didn't want to go in. But since I had opened the door already, it was over. He then kept asking to go back to the car. I didn't have time for that so I went inside to set his stuff down and put Rory down. Well then Rory starting screaming mama and running after me. Michael was still standing outside so I picked him up and brought him inside. He was screaming and tears were coming down his face. I gave him a tight hug and he calmed down for a second until he saw I was going back outside to my car. At that point he freaked out again. He grabbed onto the doorjamb so in order for me to close the door, I had to pry him away. I stuck him on the couch and ran as fast as I could to the door and quickly locked the handle and slammed it shut. I could hear him screaming at the top of his lungs on the other side of the door, all the way to my car. This is so frustrating and breaks my heart at the same time.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Temple Grandin

I got this in the mail yesterday from Netflix and watched it last night. James was sort of half watching it with me. I thought the movie did an amazing job at showing how she viewed the world. While she is more "severe" than Michael, I could see a lot of similarities. When the movie was over, James and I stayed up until nearly 2am talking about Michael. We talked about our hopes for him and the potential we see in him. I was very happy to hear about some of the changes that James has made in his thinking about Autism. By the end of the conversation, I was left feeling pretty hopeful for the future. And really honestly probably for the first time I felt like James and I were on the same page with him. It felt really good. :)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Checkout Lines

So a dear friend of mine who has a daughter with Autism reminded me of something today. We were discussing on a thread how sometimes you are forced to explain your situation because of how your child is acting. You don't want people to think your child is being rude. The scenario she brought up which stuck out to me is in the checkout lines at the store. The people are always trying to talk to/give treats/stickers to Michael. He doesn't take well to direct questions like that so he's always saying "NO WAY!!!" or something similar to them. I know they are just trying to be friendly and they don't understand why my kid is yelling at them. I hate that they may think he's being rude, because he doesn't understand that concept. I normally don't explain the situation, I just smile and say something to Michael to calm him down but I always leave feeling a little bit upset over the whole situation.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Airport...part deux

Oh boy! So this experience was much different and way more stressful than the last! I was really hoping since he was such an angel when we had the last flight that he'd do the same on this one. Well he couldn't have been more opposite! We had the same setup initially with him in the stroller and Rory in the Ergo. He didn't really want to be in the stroller at first but then was okay after a minute. But when we got to security it all went downhill. All my fears of him freaking out happened. He didn't want to take his shoes off to start. Then when I had to take him out of the stroller he about flipped. He was very very upset to see the stroller and his backpack going into the xray. He was like "OH NO MY BACKPACK!!!! MAMA!!!!" Then walking through the security scanner was really fun. By this point he's screaming and crying. I walked through with Rory because they told me he couldn't go with me. He was then on the other side screaming "NO MAMA GO THAT WAY!!!" pointing back to the door. I tried to pull him through and the security man got irritated at me. Then he called on his little walkie talkie "Can we get a male assist or SOMETHING here? This kid won't go through the scanner!" Then he gave me this super annoyed look. Finally someone from security came over and they had gotten the stroller off the xray machine and had me set Rory in it. I went back through and picked him up and carried him, screaming his head off, through the machine.

I left Rory in the stroller for a minute and put his shoes on and tried to have him walk with me. He was still very upset. I figured if we could get something to distract him that would help. I found a Burger King and thought perfect, I'll get some chicken fries! He loves those things. So I get there and he's like "MAMA I NEED DRINK!!" So I grab some OJ and go to the counter to order chicken fries. The guy looks at me like I'm crazy when I ask if they have them. That must not be something they have in Utah. So I ask if they have like a 4 piece nugget. He says yes. So I say I want a 4 piece and he asks me fries or apples? I say oh I don't want a meal just the nuggets. But then he tells me they don't have them separate only with meals. So I say fine fries then. Then he gives me a bag. After I get the OJ into the kids cups, mind you Michael is screaming his head off this entire time, I look into the bag to find that the guy ONLY gave me fries! The whole point was I wanted some chicken nuggets! I growled at the guy and he finally gave me them for free.

I then tried to strap Michael in the stroller because he was not walking. As I took Rory out and put Michael in, Rory ran off and almost went behind the counter of one of the food kiosks. I caught her and ran back to Michael and he FINALLY calmed down. The rest of the plane ride he was pretty good but getting through security...phew! NOT ASD FRIENDLY!!!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Airport

A couple days ago Michael had to go on an airplane with me. I was terrified at how he'd react having to take off his shoes and put all his stuff through security. Also, the fact that he had to get up at 5am to head the airport, I was worried he'd be a grump. But to my surprise, he was a complete angel! He rode in the stroller until we went though security and he walked right through the xray/whatever scanner with no shoes. He was a little concerned about the stuff going through the machine but nothing terrible. After that, I put Rory in the stroller and he just walked next to me, wearing his backpack. He followed me and even ran when I asked him to run. On the plane he was super excited about counting all the planes he saw on the runway. He loved takeoff and landing! He was really well behaved and played with his LeapPad on the plane and even put it away when I asked him to. I was so relieved!