Checking in with an update

JenGK

Hi ladies-

I haven't been on as much because two kids and lots of private therapy has been keeping me busy.  Zach has therapy every day of the week.  I feel like I've spent most of my maternity leave in the car, in a waiting room, or killing time at Barnes and Noble.  We're actually seeing results from the therapy, so it is all worth it.  We've enrolled Zach in a three day a week "Interaction Group", which is a Floortime program staffed by an OT, an SLP, and aides.  He actually has someone working one-on-one with him all the time.  It's been three weeks, and the changes have been amazing.  He is seeking me out and initiating back-and-forth play activities with me.  Before he was content to lie on the floor and roll his trains in front of his face.  Now he comes up to me, gets my attention by saying "Mama" and looking me in the face, and says "push" (as in, push the trains with me).  Tonight I was in the kitchen, and he grabbed a ball, signed for me to sit on the floor, and then went to the other side of the room, and started a game of rolling the ball back and forth across the floor.  The next step will be to work on interactive peer play, but we're thrilled with how far he's come.  Even his SLP and OT who he had been seeing before this summer have noticed a difference, commenting on his increased levels of interaction.

As for Adam -- well, he couldn't be more different than his brother.  He sleeps.  He lets me put him down.  He is fascinated with people, looking around at people who are talking and getting mad when we don't pay attention to him.  He loves his Baby Faces book and is particularly fond of one baby in the book who looks like him.  And he's a tank -- weighing in at ~18 lbs at 4 months and wearing 12 month onesies.  I'm comparing and looking back now and realizing some of Zach's atypicalities that just went right over my head.

I head back to work in a week, which is when the real craziness of two kids will begin, I'm sure!

Pierce3252

Yay I'm so glad to hear that your therapies are working so well!!!!  Yay for Zach!

Love the siggie picture!!

Lion&Hokie

That's awesome progress! Yay Zach!

skittles_123

What great news for Zach! Glad to hear things are going so well! Yeah, everyday I look at my dd and think about ds at her age, and what a huge difference there is between them. I was so naive, but is quite common I guess if your first born has ASD. I didn't have a clue, I didn't know what was normal development was. And it didn't help the professionals didn't want to recognize at first either.