Sorry this is coming in the morning rather than last night. I feel really bad, like I am in school again and I am falling behind LOL It is good though because this is the kind of pressure I need to continue this. It is so easy in my chaotic life to just give up on something when it becomes too time consuming but this has been healing for me and very much a rewarding experience, so I am determined to keep going. Yesterday, My Husband gave me an afternoon to myself and I decided to spend some time with girlfriends laying around the pool. I can not say the last time I did that and it was nice. And then as if that was not relaxing enough the girls spoiled me with making dinner for me! Anyway, I am not sure what it was but when I got home, I had the worst tummy ache...my guess is dehydration, not drinking enough water yesterday and then laying out in the warm but it was pretty uncomfortable so as soon as the kids were sleeping I was laying on my bed not moving for the rest of the night. I still feel kind of yuck this morning but I feel better enough to move around.
I am slowly working my way through The Autism Sourcebook and it is a big book but the way she presents the material is very user friendly. It presents a common question and then she provides the answer and all the questions are divided in to sections and then sub-sections. I am really quite enjoying it.
My Non-Biblical Study for Day 5 was a subsection of the "Diagnosis" section called "Who diagnosis my Child? Going beyond your pediatrician" It was all about the different modes of diagnosis you can take if you have suspicions that something needs to be looked at with your child. I think mine just fell into my lap, I really didn't have a choice...but I will go over what I have gathered from talking to other Moms; what I have been through so far and also what the book had to say.
My "Diagnosis Process" technically started off rocky. I had my concerns about my son and I voiced them to the pediatrician every time we went to the Dr but usually it was just one symptom here or there. Like his lack of talking or his fear of the vacuum or fear of stickers. But I never put them all out there in one appt so maybe it is my fault that no red flags were raised but I think I just assumed that he was making notes when I raised my concerns but I kind of think now he probably wasn't and if he was he was not referring back at each subsequent visit. It wasn't until we saw a new pediatrician for the first time after we moved that this pediatrician saw one of his relentless tantrums and inability to discipline that concerns were raised quickly and the Doc was pretty persistent that I have him evaluated sooner than later. So, I called the school district and they said they could not evaluate him until Aug (this was in May 2010 that I called) because of summer break. So then I sat there thinking now what? I can't spend all summer not know what to do and wondering, I will be a crazy person! SO my amazing sister found me a non-profit organization here that does these evaluations for free or a very small co-pay. They have interning therapists do the evaluations and then consult with an seasoned therapist to get a proper diagnosis and if needed the seasoned Therapist will come in to evaluate as well. Our diagnosis process with them was three part. First they sent me a packet of papers called an Intake Packet (I think). It was basically 30+ pages of forms for me to fill out about EVERYTHING! Every milestone, every behavior, every cold, flu, everything you can think of. I think the thing that caught me off guard was some of the questions felt like they were just for my Son...things I had not thought about as symptoms until then. They asked about the OCD behaviors that I thought were so cute and funny at the time. His fear of basic grooming tasks, like brushing teeth, cutting nails, hair cuts. It was crazy to me how many of these things I never even thought about were being asked and then I started to freak! What does all this mean? I filled out this packet before our first appt and I sent it back to them for them to look over and then they called to schedule his first evaluation. The first appt was going over some of the red flags that were in my paperwork, observing Monkey while I talked to the therapist and then handing me another smaller stack of questionnaires to fill out before the next appt. The smaller stack was more detailed, yes or no questions and scale 1-5 type questions. Those were a little less scary because I just answered the questions and didn't really know what the results meant because there were formulas for calculations and they were a little more complex so I just filled them out and brought them back to his next appt. The second appt was them observing him alone and interacting with him without me in the room. After that appt the interning therapist meets with her superior and goes over her notes and the questionnaires I filled out. From there they call us back to go over the results and discuss the next step. At the final appt they diagnosed him with Sensory Processing Disorder and falling somewhere on the Autism Spectrum they were just not entirely clear where on the spectrum he fell. He is so high functioning and he is ok with communicating now but his social skills were obviously delayed. They referred us to a Neurologist and to a therapy place to begin his OT for the Sensory issues. So while we were working out the kinks for getting these services in place (insurance issues and finding a Pediatrician we liked) August was upon us and we were ready for our eval with the School District. It was frustrating because I guess they misunderstood what I was there to have evaluated because the check list they had for him included everything except behaviors checked off...figures and I don't know if they were not equipped to evaluate him for that that day or what but they didn't. They were evaluating his intellectual level and he is within normal range for his intellectual level so they didn't do anything for him at that point. Now that we have received the medical backing of a neurologist it looks like we will be going through another evaluation with the School District to get him set up with proper therapies to prepare him for Kindergarten. That evaluation is in just a couple weeks. I will give you the info on that evaluation after we are through it :)
The Autism Sourcebook asked a lot of good questions that I have not thought of before. One that struck me is they say in an ideal situation you should have your child evaluated and diagnosed by both a specialist in ASD and the School. It is the best way to get a well rounded look at your child's needs. Another thing brought up in the book that I had not thought about, because our state covers nearly all early intervention services through the school district, is that for different ages you need to seek state help in different places for diagnosis. "From birth to age three, your child can be evaluated by a state agency through their Early Intervention program-at no cost to you. Each state has a lead agency in charge of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with special need. They will provide your with a list of approved evaluation sites where you can bring your child. In some cases, the evaluators will come to your home to administer the evaluations. If your child is between the ages of three and five years old, the state agency will still pay for your child's evaluations, which will be administer by the preschool evaluators. When your child turns five, he or she can be evaluated by the school district-again at not cost to you." I thought that was good info to share because I don't think many people realize all this diagnosis is required to be covered by the state. My Husband and I are starting our law course this week so I am hoping that will have even more info that is helpful to others. I know the financials are always one of the scariest parts of all this because those of us that are middle class America in this economy don't often have the extra money to pay for the "best", so any help we can get is great!
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