Wow!! Are we really coming to the end of 2012? This year has been such a whirlwind of emotions, ups and downs, and many triumphs - I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us and Mr. Cade!
As a mother of a child who has Autism or any delays your heart sinks a little bit every time you see a neurotypical child around the same age or even younger doing and saying things your child should have done months ago. The older my child gets the more painfully obvious his gaps become. Don't get me wrong, therapy has helped us so much and who knows where he would be without it -- but I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't make me feel a little sad when I see kids much much younger doing so much more. It makes all of our hard work and progress seem insignificant! Oh Cade can do this, this, and this now. "Oh myyyy child was doing that a year ago." Yeah well walk a day in my shoes and you'll understand why I work SO dang hard for every word, sign, piece of progress we make -- and drill it over and over again so it sticks! I have to remind myself of this too, even when parents are sweet and say things like he's made a lot of progress, your doing a good job, any progress still puts him behind where he should be and makes me feel like I'm not doing enough for him. Thats just a leo mommy thing I think! Thankfully Cade is still young enough where a lot of people see him and say oh he seems normal to me? (Thanks, I didn't know my child wasn't normal by the way.) But then get strange looks when we have a melt down at sears because I wont let him play with the display carseats and strollers and the huge meltdown it becomes. (Trust me, the times we've let him play with them no time limit is enough, its easier to walk away or avoid it all together!) This is acceptable behavior being a little under three but what about when he's four, five, six... or god forbid that 8 year old I saw wailing on the floor because he was too tired to walk -- is that what we have to look forward to?
Anyways, This post is supposed to really be about how far we've come and a wrap up of our year. It's easy to get caught up in the frustrations and struggles of the autism roller coaster but we really do have things to be thankful for this year. At the beginning of 2012 when we were first getting our diagnosis and undergoing all of the medical testing Cade could only say mama, would really only play with thomas the train, couldn't make a mark on a piece of paper with a crayon, anything involving fine motor activities seemed impossible to accomplish. (Even stacking more than 2 blocks, doing simple shape puzzles, or being ale to communicate when he was hungry were all daily challenges!)
Now Mr Cade has 24 signs and can communicate WHAT he wants with us and trust me he knows what he wants! While he still really does like thomas the train, he is beginning to love other things. He is really into calliou and zooboomafo, and even starting to really like bob the builder! He can color and is begining to try and trace, and even use scissors. (He's not great but even knowing what scissors do and trying to find a way to get them to work is progress!) He LOVES playing baseball and hockey which is irritating to my husband who has a collection of hockey sticks on the walls in the basement that "aren't toys!" One of his therapists at the center must be playing baseball with him because he has this cutest little baseball stance! I see t-ball in our future! :)
He is also adapting so well to all of his new found wooden toys that we've gotten him and will play endlessly with them! We trying to focus more on toys that he has to manipulate to get to work -- because lets be honest hot wheels, trains, and trucks are super cool and we still love those, but all you really have to do is move them back and forth and occasionally crash them! We got him a whole bunch of new toys that really inspire imagination, creativity, or that you have to interact with to get to work (some melissa and doug food cutting sets where they stick together with velcro and you have to chop them apart really working on that fine motor and muscle control, some new chef toys, a wooden castle "dollhouse", interactive drill toys that will actually design a picture when you drill in the pegs, snap matching toys that you really have to press to get into place, ect. The one battery operated toy that santa told me he was bringing him is this glow in the dark race track that you can build SO many different ways. I see countless hours of building and creativity ahead! He must be playing with similar toys at ABA therapy because at his occupational therapy appointment she had a new puzzle for him that had 3 large shapes and he did that puzzle so DANG fast I did a double take. That is definitely a new skill. Matching objects and shapes is super challenging for him due to some visual processing issues he has. Thankfully this looks like its getting MUCH MUCH better!
He has been doing so incredibly well since he has started ABA therapy he really needs that structure. While a lot of people don't understand how matching puzzle shapes, similar color bears, and signing can shape and impact his future its been clearly obvious to us. As soon as he has some of those basic skills down it makes everything else so much simpler! It's like trying to do algebra before you know how to subtract, minus, and multiply. Math makes a lot more sense when you have those basic skills down! Two months of ABA therapy has made SO much progress with what he is able to do and how he is able to communicate with us -- his vocalization is getting so much better too! He still can't say a whole lot for actual words but you can start to tell yep he's trying to say ball, spoon, bowl, ect. I can't wait to see where we are after 6 more months of therapy!
In the new year his schedule will look something like this:
Monday 8:30-2 therapy
Tuesday 8:30-12 therapy 12:15-1:15 occupational therapy
Weds 8:30-12 therapy, 2:00-3:00 early childhood therapies
Thursday 9-12 therapy 1:15-2:15 speech therapy
Friday 9-2 therapy
Come summer, I am going to have to figure out where to fit preschool into this schedule. It is a lot for a little boy but the progress he's made is so worth it!
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