Homework

Last night's battle was homework. One of the assignments was pretend you are an explore and write and article. Of course he just fixated on the word pretend. he got very close to a melt down over it. Just keep saying over and over I can't pretend to be someone else. Im not them I don't know what they see or do. I did get him to skip over that assignment and move on to others and come back to it later. When he came back to it we crossed out the pretend part and just had him write a report. He was still stuck on that pretend line and that he can't do it. Hopefully the teacher understands why she got a report instead of a an article. How do you explain to a kid how to pretend when they have never done it in their life.

Dx Day

Diagnosis day was just last week. We went and meet with the neuro-psychologist after he did all of his surveys and testing. Anytime someone starts with your child is very smart you wait for the but... He said what we expected to hear Roger does have Autism. We have been expecting this for over a year so it was no shock.We were actually relieved. We have an answer now and know where to start. 
First we must get the school to reopen sped and get an IEP written. He also had suggested a few different therapist who may be able to help. CBT I don't even know what that is but I know there is a 4 month wait to get in the clinic. 

I kind of stressed out over telling Roger. I didn't think he would care but I also didn't want him to find out from someone else. It happened to be easier than expected. He saw the book the Dr. had given us and pointed out the word autism and asked is this what I have? I said yes and he was like ok what it is. I told him I'm not really sure how to explain it just yet and he said oh well read the book and tell me later. Then he was off to build with his leggos didn't even phase him.

the long journey for answers

Growing up we didn't notice anything different with Roger. Sure he had some strange interests and seemed more interested than others but hey that's just him. Maybe we just paid a little more attention to his sister because she didn't talk until she was 5. He had his quirks never wanted to be affectionate and I don't think he has every once said I Love You to anybody. He went to the same school from preschool until 5th grade. It was a small private school so many of his friendships just kind of happened no one really had to try. Maybe that covered it up. We really do not know why everyone seemed to miss it for years.

At the start of 5th grade his teacher noticed a few things. He didn't seem to be able to get what he wanted to say out, would be upset by writing, just seemed to be struggling this year. Then we moved in the middle of 5th grade and that's when everything became clearer. When he was put in a new situation he couldn't make friends he didn't know how. Its only this year the middle of 6th grade that he is starting to have friends that occasionally come hang out with him or he will call. But let me back up a little.

Last year in Feb Roger had a melt down in class. No one knew what triggered it but the teacher believed it was a seizure so I was called and that began the line of doctors. Neurologist, cardiologist, MRI's, CT scans, EEG's including a overnight stay at children's. Pretty much we have been in every department of Children's National Hospital Looking for answers. This past Dec we finally made it to the neuroscience department and he was diagnosed with Autism which we all expected for a while but it just wasn't official yet.  At least now we have some answers and have an idea of where to go and how to help him.

 The Reson Why. J Ralph