new updates

Sorry it's taken me a long time to post updates. I came to a point where I needed a break from Autism. It was consuming my life (it still does but in a mommy role now.) Now after a few months, I'm feeling more like myself again and ready to share our life experiences about the wonderful world of Autism.

I did get to visit with Curtis from Specialized Autism Tutoring on Dec 17, 2010. We visited his location and we loved it. There is one huge room filled with lots of toys, that Melanie really loved. He also has different setups; for instance a dentist area and a grocery store. Those setups are there to prepare kids/adults for the real world. He also has a smaller room for days when the huge room can be overwhelming. To my surprise he did have an opening available for Mondays, which I immediately took (first appointment was on my birthday Dec 20th.) Curtis's style is unique because he adjusts his personality to fit that of the child. He's pretty much a "big kid" with a college degree. The method he uses is through play and while he is playing, he gets Melanie to talk. At first I thought that he was just a playmate for Melanie because thats what it looks like but somehow Melanie is repeating what he says.  It's been about 4 months now that Melanie has been receiving speech from Curtis and she has made major improvements.

To my other surprise I applied for a grant to help pay for Melanie's therapy and we got it. I was so happy, I couldn't believe it. We are using that money to pay for more Speech Therapy. The person we deceided to see her name is JoEllen. Now she's alot different than Curtis. JoEllen is more serious and structured. It's kind of like going to the doctors office. At first I had mix feelings about her because I kept comparing her to Curtis. Everyone kept telling me to give her a chance and now I'm glad I did. She is great in her own way. I did have to give her a few pointers about Melanie and luckly she has taken my suggestions.  That therapy started on March 9, 2011. Melanie see's her once a week.

I'm so happy to say that with the therapy she is receiving from Early Foundations, Curtis and JoEllen, Melanie now says about 130 words or more. That's a huge accomplishment from when she started in September. She still has a long way to go but we are happy with where she is at now. There are many more words that she knows but she doesn't know how to peronounce them so we haven't counted them. At the same time that she is learning to say words, they are teaching her to combine words. For example when she wants milk she needs to start saying more milk instead of just the word milk.  Eventually the goal will be for her to say I want more milk. She does know how to say some multi words for instance; READY SET GO, ALL DONE, GO AWAY, BYE BYE DADDY and that's all I can think of.

You maybe wondering why we are counting but when you have a child that started with hardly no words at age 2 and can now say 130+ in 7 months, thats exciting news for us all. With a typical kid it's expected that they will talk, make friends, go to a regular school, grow up to be independent adults but with an Autistic child, you don't know what to expect. You take it day by day and you praise every new thing that they accomplish.

On Dec 7, 2010 Melanie went to see a new Pediatrician, Dr. Kombs. I deceided to switch her doctors because I wanted one that was familiar with Autism. At first I had mix feelings about her, but I guess thats expected since I really liked her old Pediatrician and she had seen Melanie since she was born (the old doctor had no clue about Autism). So I deceided to apply for grants to help pay for the services that Melanie needs and part of the application process was a letter from the Dr. explaining about Melanies condition and what type of therapy she needs, well I just have to say that Dr. Kombs did an amazing job. I was so impressed with the letter that I received. Also on March 24, 2011 Melanie went for her 2 1/2 year check up and Dr. Kombs remembered everything that we talked about in Dec. without me having to remind her, now thats impressive. At that visit she also re-tested Melanie on her developement. Developementally she is a little bit below the average 2 year old, which is great (at age 2 she was about a one year old level). Also we did the MCHAT test again and Melanie only missed  2 (when we first took that test she missed 13). So exciting. Therapy works and Melanie is living proof.

Our new challenge now is teaching Melanie to sleep in her own bed. It's going to be a long process but we hope to accomplish is by Memorial Break. We have transitioned her to her own bed but she still needs us by herside to fall asleep and unfortunaltely she still wakes up in the middle of the night. Our goal is for her to go to bed by herself and stay asleep through the night. I am reading a really good book called "Sleep Better! A Guide to Improving Sleep for Children with Special Needs" by V. Mark Durand. This book can be used for typical children and adults.