I can't believe school will be over in 3 1/2 weeks for Brycen! While I know that all parents dread the end of the school year in some ways because they now have to keep their kids occupied all day and every day...in our situation, the end of this school year is a big one. With this being his first year of school, and since Brycen showed huge improvements over the last 8 months, we are not sure what 3 months off from school will do to him. We experienced our fair share of regression when this whole thing started and I really don't think I am strong enough to go through it again:( Even though he showed drastic improvements in many areas in 8 months, he is still functioning around the development of a 1 1/2 yr old in communication and attention span...while his socialization skills are even less I believe. So even though he shows improvement, the gap between his developmental age and chronological age just keeps widening every month. While I hope and pray that I can be patient and organized enough to keep him busy and at least help him maintain where he is now and not go backwards, we are well aware of the effects long breaks have on children with autism. Unfortunately, a few friends have informed me of how hard it is to fight for extended school year in this area. And since we have no proof that he will regress without school, we really have nothing to back us up on this one...besides being his parents and afraid of it happening, the school comes from the financial point of view and sees there is no need until it can be proven. One friend pointed out that he did maintain his skills over the 2 week Christmas break...so that gives me hope that we can do this! I plan to implement some formal speech therapy over the summer to keep that going, though it will consist of having to drive him at least 45 minutes to over an hour to the nearest available speech therapy clinic (there is one clinic in SL, but is either way too busy to fit in more appts or there is not a therapist on staff).
In the meantime, we just keep doing what we are doing...whatever that is anymore!
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
Helen Keller
Friday, April 30, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Autism and Our Family
"Autism"----It's one word that can change the life of a child and family in so many ways. Autism Spectrum Disorders are being diagnosed at a rate of 1 in 68 children currently. If you do not already know someone that has been diagnosed, the statistics say it won't be long before you do.
Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!
Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.
Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.
Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!
Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.
Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.
No comments:
Post a Comment