This week has been INSANELY busy...and it's not even over yet! To start Monday morning Devin had OT in Bountiful, then that afternoon had his first appointment for setting up his preschool evaluations to see if he qualifies for and for what level of the developmental preschool. There's almost no question that he qualifies, it's more a matter of in how many areas, as it is they're evaluating him for speech(pronunciation mostly), behavior, sensory and social delays, and if he qualifies for all four areas he could be going to preschool 4 days a week, for 10 hours a week! But ultimately the choice is up to us and we can always opt to just go with the traditional 2 days, about 4 hours a week program if we feel that would better suit him(which I think it will honestly). The good news is he'll most likely end up at one of two very close elementary schools! They'll do the official evaluation about a month before he turns three. He hid in the corner in his "house" the entire time and wouldn't even let her take a picture of him for his file....she ended up just taking a picture of a picture I had hanging on the wall! Tuesday morning the kids each had a dentist appointment in Farmington(the dentist Elizabeth has been going to recently opened an office there...yay for us!) It was Devin's first visit and he was a champ!! Elizabeth went first for the x-rays and Devin insisted on having a turn as well, and even though I think he hated having to hold something in his mouth he sat perfectly still(he couldn't be showed up by his sister!). Most surprising to me was that he let the hygienist clean his teeth! Having the movie Cars on the ceiling definitely helped! With his headphones on staring up at the show he didn't seem to really mind that she was in his mouth. He whined a little and had a couple restless moments but she did everything she needed to so I called it a success! Elizabeth was a pro at getting her x-rays done, they were very impressed! She was still hesitant about letting the hygienist use the cleaning tools on her teeth, but softened up a bit after watching Devin, she agreed to feel it on her finger, then just one tooth, and then realized it didn't hurt at all, just tickled a little, and so finally at her third visit she got her teeth actually cleaned!! They were both very excited about picking their new toothbrushes, and neither of them had any cavities or anything close! The dentist did note Elizabeth's cross bite and that there's a possibility that there may not be space for her 6 year molars, and if that ends up being the case she'll need some simple spacers. So I guess we'll see what happens. The dentist was surprised when asked if he wanted to look over Devin's x-rays, and told me they've never gotten x-rays on a two year old before! Go buddy! In the end it was a great visit and their teeth look great! YAY! They picked their little prize and we headed home a little while before Mary came to watch Elizabeth while I took Devin to music group. He had a bit of a hard time, but we made it. That evening was piano and tumbling and Devin didn't want to go, which is weird because he LOVES tumbling, he was just off, so I ended up sitting with him for the first part of class, then made the excuse I had to go potty and he got upset that I left but eventually sat with the teacher and calmed down. He gave me some pretty mean scowls through the window though! Wednesday Tony stayed home as our sitter fell through and Elizabeth still had a bit of a runny nose, and the couple people we tried had prior commitments or sick kids themselves. I took Devin to the Department for Children With Special Needs, to finish up his testing to get an official diagnosis. His doctor had planned on using a newly developed test on him but she said the more she looked into it the less she liked it so she found a way to get by using the old testing system(similar to the test he had at 16 months). It took about 5 seconds for Devin to score points(points in this case aren't a good thing, the more points you have the higher up on the spectrum you are), you see among the several toys set out for him to play with the first thing he interacted with was a piece of yarn(the only non-play item there)he had a good ol' time with it too, until his doctor took it away to continue on with the test. It was surprising how Autistic Devin seemed during that test, but then again that is what it's meant to do. He left us out of most of his play, he didn't share emotion(surprise, excitement ect.)with us, he kept getting caught up in repetitive play, seeming to loose all sense that anyone else was in the room with him. At one point he wouldn't even respond to the doctor calling his name, it took 4 times of me calling his name for him to turn towards me, though he failed to make eye contact with me. He failed to make and maintain eye contact a lot actually. Just over half way through a surge of fear rushed through me as I saw my little boy doing the exact things you see in the videos of young Autistic children, and I realized how distant my beautiful boy was from me. I knew then that he was NOT testing off the spectrum. In the end he has been officially diagnosed with: moderate to sever Aspergers Syndrome, Sensory Processing Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and developing OCD. Oh ya and he's two....all that AND having to be two. Sometimes I feel so bad for my little buddy, as it seems like everything is working against him, then I sit and listen to him recite the entire Pledge of Allegiance, or count to 20, or identify letters and I realize, yes he's got A LOT working against him at a very young age....but he has a WHOLE LOT going for him at such a young age as well! Even his doctor was thrilled with all the early intervention he's been and continues to receive, it's obviously helping. He'll most likely have an OT most of his life, and probably a form of behavioral therapist as well, but I'm so grateful to live in a time when the help he needs is so readily available. I feel so blessed, by being chosen to be this very special little boy's mommy, and pray everyday to be the kind of mommy he deserves(and some days are better than others). Devin is an amazing little boy with amazing struggles, doing amazing things and I can't wait to watch him grow up!
He fell asleep on the way home so I left him in the car with Tony while I got Elizabeth ready, then we headed down to Thanksgiving Point for their Cornbelly's attraction, which was endless fun! The kids had a blast!! Devin was way done by the end though(Elizabeth could have stayed forever!). It was a good way to end the day! Thursday Devin had home OT which didn't go well, he was a mess and we didn't really get anywhere with him...but it happens sometimes(seems like a lot with him but). That afternoon Ketty and Johnny met me at UTA to take and watch Devin while I took Elizabeth to the doctor to test for a UTI. Then we came home I got Elizabeth ready for tumbling and off we went. That night we had some Halloween fun with our scouts. Friday I dropped the kids off at Bravo daycare for "playgroup" and came home to have 4 hours to myself, and after the week I'd had I desperately needed it! I didn't get a whole lot done but I did manage to get the kids "winter" clothes put up in their closets and their "summer" clothes folded up. Devin didn't fare quite so well at "playgroup" this week and they had to call and talk to me about him a couple times, because they couldn't get him calmed down. He did eat(his packed) lunch for them this week though. Elizabeth was having such a good time she didn't want to come home! After we got home I put Devin down for a nap, and Elizabeth went upstairs to do a Spanish lesson with my mom, she's doing so great! We are constantly seeing growth and improvement, she's also really excelling in sign language, thanks to the movies "Signing Time", she absolutely loves those shows and really gets a lot out of them! That afternoon we just took it easy. This was the first week that school didn't really happen, but we were just so busy, and Elizabeth just couldn't stay focused when we did manage to find time. But that's another thing I like about homeschool, we don't have to be done by a certain date so it doesn't matter that we had a slow week this week. And I really don't feel too bad because yesterday afternoon Elizabeth wanted me to buy a full version of an app she's fallen in love with on the ipad, so I told her if she could pass my pop quiz I'd buy it. I had her count to 100 by 2's, 5's and 10's(which she did perfectly!), I had her solve some simple addition and subtraction equations(even some with missing addends! ex:3+_=8), quizzed her on all 24 of her spelling words up to this point(she spelled them all correctly!), had her define noun, adjective, verb, pronoun, singular and plural noun(all of which she could do without any prompting from me!). We reviewed some gospel principles we've learned about in family school, and she could even tell me the 5 eras of classical music, and about 5 elements of art! I'd say she well deserved the break from school and most definitely earned her app! It hasn't even been two months since we started this school year and she's learned so much already, I'm loving it!! And this is where I'll leave you until the next few posts about all the Halloween fun we've had this week! Sorry no pictures, but the next few posts will be mostly all pictures so....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment