Sunday, January 24, 2010

A Very Good Week

Good news is rolling in.

First, a few weeks ago, Jack's PT at Children's told me she thinks he'll be discontinued from physical therapy after his next evaluation, which will be in late February. She thinks he's closed the gap. Yippy!

Last Tuesday, Jack's SLP told me he is doing GREAT! He's still got a long way to go, but since we moved therapy to Tuesday from 5:00 on Friday evening, he's at least able to focus better.

Friday, Jack's TEACCH teacher sent a note home saying that Jack got ALL the first grade Dolch sight words right. The few he didn't know immediately, he sounded out until he got them. She was amazed and so am I!

Also on Friday, his private OT told me that she expects to reduce service to Jack, going from 30 minutes every week to 30 minutes every other week. He's made so much gap-closing progress since his last evaluation (which showed him as much as four years delayed in some areas of fine motor development) that weekly sessions are probably no longer indicated.

At home, we're seeing across-the-board improvements in speech, social skills, and sensory tolerance. He actually sat through Avatar yesterday! Well, he spent the final fight scene on the floor "taking a nap" with his eyes open, but still. This is huge improvement.

We're also seeing tons of stimming at the same time, which has been a pattern for him during periods of progress. Playing with cars and trains, making noises, and blurting out movie lines are all going strong, almost but not quite constant when he's not actively engaged.

But that's okay. I'll take what I'm getting and be hugely grateful for it!

Please share a bit of good news about your child/patient/student, even if you have to think hard about it. Because I really believe what gets us through this with our sanity intact is looking for the good news with an eagle eye and always keeping it in mind. It's the knot in the end of our rope when we need it to be!

2 comments:

Diane (fionna51) said...

Susan...
Because of a few "situations" in my life, I have begun investigating homeopathy. I wanted to know more about what my kids were "into" and find out if it was a good route for me. As a result, I am reading a book called "Impossible Cure" by Amy Lansky. (a PhD who used to be with NASA, and more recently becoming a homeopathic doctor) Her experience was with her autistic son who they got homeopathic help for. (is my grammar correct?) The title of the book tells it all-her son was cured of autism. Good reading...it is helping me to understand the practice of homeopathy, which is actually an older practice than our current medical profession. And I'm liking what I am reading. (I know, sentence fragment!) I'd recommend checking it out (I got mine on interlibrary loan).
Website: www.impossiblecure.com THere is a "button" for autism on the left.

JoLynn said...

My son will be going to Kindergarten... and I really didn't think he had the skills until his teacher told me how he was performing at school. Such great news!