EEG

Friday, October 8th - Isaiah's Early Childhood Special Education teacher, Barb A, called to talk with me about some concerns she and Isaiah's other teachers have about absence seizures.

Monday, October 11th - We took Isaiah to see Dr. Hunt, a pediatrician at Dr. Henry's office. (Dr. Henry is still on maternity leave, so we could not see our regular doctor.) The only way to know for sure is to have an EEG.

Monday, October 18th - I took the morning off work so that Tim and I could both be with Isaiah for his EEG. The prep was NOT fun. We were to keep him awake until midnight, if possible. Yeah, that didn't happen. Our child, who usually does NOT want to go to sleep was asking to go night-night at 7:50. Are you kidding?! We managed to keep him awake until 10:30 on Sunday night. The next step was to wake him up at 5:00. Yeah. He was NOT happy about that one.

Isaiah was quite squirmy throughout most of the 40 minute test. (He was still for maybe 1o minutes of it.) Next step - wait for a call from the pediatrician's office after a neurologist has had a chance to read the EEG. Hopefully, he was still long enough for the doctor to even be able to read the EEG.

Thursday, October 21st - Dr. Hunt called me herself. I always get nervous, but appreciate it at the same time, when the DOCTOR takes the time to call me. Isaiah has spiking at regular intervals in his left temporal lobe. (I have no idea what this means.) She explained as best she could, but I remained kind of fixed on the part of our conversation when she wanted to be sure that I understood that 1/3 of children with autism have seizures, but this is NOT that kind of seizure.

We could be looking at an entirely new issue. Yikes.

Now, we wait again. We wait for a pediatric neurologist's office to call us with an appointment. I let a week go by, but still had not heard anything. I called and left a message, but I am still waiting on a returned phone call.

I would bet money that if this were there child, they wouldn't have wanted this appointment made a lot sooner than it is taking for us to get our child in to see the neurologist.

- becky

More Cars Vitamins

Isaiah has never really been a fan of gummy fruit snacks. I think it's a texture thing. I was a little worried when I purchased him some Cars Multi-Vitamins. Unlike when I was a child, vitamins for kids are now the same texture as fruit snacks.

Well, Isaiah loves his Cars Vitamins. In fact, he even asks for them, reminding us to give them to him each day!

Here's the rub - we bought him some Cars fruit snacks, thinking he will now eat these. He does...kind of. I'll open a package for him, and he will only eat the red snacks. He leaves the purple, blue, and orange snacks - refusing to eat them. Wondering why? His vitamins only come in red.

- becky

Progress Communicating

Isaiah is continuing to make progress with his communication skills. He has learned how to tell us, "I can't do it," when he is having trouble with something and needs our help.

Funny story - last night, Mallory decided to sit on the Elmo potty. (She didn't go, but it was exciting that she wanted to try it out.) Well, Isaiah saw this happening, and he walked up to me, put his hand on my arm to get my attention and said, "I have to go potty." WOW! We rushed him in and he never did go, but we were ecstatic that he talked about it. I really think that they will both get trained at the same time. I think his watching Mallory go through it will be really good for his learning. For now, we will just be patient.

- becky

Current Services

Isaiah's tranistion back into day care has come with its share of challenges. Numbers are down, so he no longer has two teachers in the room. With only one teacher, he doesn't receive the same level of support from the day care that he had last year. It's only natural that he be expected to "blend in" with the rest of the class, but still frustrating, as he does need more support and assistance than some of the others in his room.

We are excited for the return of Isaiah Early Childhood and Speech Itinerant Teachers. Mrs. Barb will be with him primarily on Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:30-9:30. Mrs. Marion will work on speech for one hour each week. I haven't yet heard when she will go in to work with Isaiah, but we're hoping for twice each week for 30 minutes at a time. (I'm a fan of more frequent sessions for shorter blocks of time. Toddler attention span and all...)

To break down Isaiah's curret services...well, his services that will be up and running again with the return of the school year:

• 2 hours/week - Early Childhood Special Education
• 1 hour/week - Speech & Language
• 1 hour/week - Play & Behavior/Social Skills Therapy with a private counselor in Green Bay (Mr. James)
• 1 hour/week - Floortime Therapy

5 hours/week is a great start!

- becky

A Diagnosis

In August 2009, Isaiah began working with Outagamie County's Birth to 3 Early Intervention Program. We learned in October 2009 that he was to be classified as SDD - Significant Developmental Delay. He began receiving services through the Appleton Area School District around the time of his 3rd birthday (November 21, 2009) in the areas of speech/language and early childhood.

I spoke with one of Isaiah's Birth to 3 teachers during his last week of services regarding signs of Autism. At that time, we made an appointment with his pediatrician, Dr. Henry, who referred us to a developmental pediatrician out of the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I promptly called that office to make an appointment...for 8 months later. That's right! It really does take that long to get in to see the doctor.

Isaiah's appointment in Madison was on June 29th. I had filled out a great deal of paperwork and sent it thru the mail several months ago, and we spent the first 45 minutes or so of the appointment discussing its contents and answering some questions about Isaiah that Dr. Iyama had. Dr. Iyama then played with Isaiah for the next 45 minutes or so before we filled out a behavioral checklist with the doctor, similar to the M-CHAT. Once everything was taken into consideration, it was determined that Isaiah does fall on the spectrum. His official diagnosis is ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone informed of Isaiah's appointments, therapies, and progress. I will do my best to update this regularly. You might want to subscribe to the RSS feed, so that you are aware of when it is updated. My first post is loaded with extra links. As I use terminology that is new to us (so maybe to you, too), I will insert links so that you can learn with us.

- becky