Nick was around 22 months old when we were finally able to get in on a cancellation to see Dr. Hoffman, the Developmental Pediatrician. He spent a couple hours with Nick during which he asked us lots of questions and evaluated Nick with different tests. Allen was eager to show the Dr. that Nick was a "normal" child. His views on Nick's behavior were very far from the actuality of the situation. As an example, he told the Dr. that Nick responded to his name about 80% of the time. I told the Dr. that I thought it was more like 10-20%. I noticed the Dr. say Nick's name over and over during the evaluation....Nick turned his head in response once or twice.
At the end of the evaluation, the Dr. told us that he does not diagnose children who are younger than 2 years old. He advised us to come for a return visit in several months, but told us that we should expect a diagnosis of Autism unless something drastically changed. I saw the shocked look on Allen's face....we left the office feeling numb. We cried and talked on the whole drive back from the doctor's office. My mom and my best friend called as Allen dropped me off at work....they knew it was an important day. I could barely manage to tell them what the doctor said....I just didn't want to talk about it anymore. I remember my mom's exact words were, "I'm sorry sister" and Ellee said, "I guess your mother's intuition was right."
Nick continued therapy with his Speech therapist, ECSE and was eventually also given an Occupational therapist to work on his sensory issues. We returned to Dr. Hoffman when Nick was about 27 months old. He was diagnosed with Autism PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Delay-Not Otherwise Specified). It's mainly the catch all for, "your child is on the Autism spectrum and we don't know why." At this time, I was pregnant with what would become our youngest child, Max. We were glad to hear that siblings are generally good for kids with Autism, but frightened that another boy might also be affected. Allen and I set up a therapy room, bought lots of therapy toys, and endured various therapists going in and out of our home 2-3 times a week for the next year and a half.
Nick entered the school district in Nov. 2008 and was placed in an Early Childhood Preschool class. This classroom had several peer models as well as other children who were delayed for various reasons. Nick was subsequently placed for summer school and the 2009 school year in the Communications Preschool Class in his school district. This is a class with 1:1 support, a teacher who has a very strong background in Autism and a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Special Education and the class is focused on meeting the kid's sensory needs and teaching them in ways that make sense for Autism. Nick has really flourished in this classroom and is doing things that at times, I was afraid he might never do. This blog is meant to give some insight into the day to day life of a mom who is trying to survive raising two little boys, one with Autism.
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