Me Bag!

Tonight we put the finishing touches on Alan's "Me Bag".  We decorated the front with pictures of his favorite things.  He drew a self-portrait, stamped the bag with dinosaurs and car stickers.  After we finished his assignment, Alan looked at me and said "Mommy, I am Super excited to show my friends my Me Bag".  It is the little things that just want to make me so thankful for everything we have done for our son.  My goal was for him to eat and he is now eating.  My next goal was for him to talk, and now he will not stop.  My next goal was for him to be fully mainstreamed in Kindergarten and he has made that happen.  He is making friends and socializing.  He is so happy, full of life, and just a joy to my life.  I am so happy to have these moments with him. 

September 27, 2010

Present

It is now September 27, 2010 and my son has been officially at school for 6 weeks.  Not one single behavior, transition, or episode at school.  In the beginning, he was not eating well but that has changed.  He loves school and all ready has friends.  He is in a great class with understanding teachers.  The teacher is using the daily sheet I came up with which is awesome.  I know exactly how his day is going.  He is doing well with drop off and picking up in the car line.  He is truly mainstreamed in every way.  I am so happy he is able to enjoy school.  My dream was for him to attend Kindergarten fully mainstreamed with no support and that has come true.  Now I have to shift my goals and come up with some more.  I know my long term goal for my son is to no longer need ABA, SLP, IEP’s, and any other services.  I want him to totally function as an individual and he is doing it one day at a time. 


He still does 18-22 hours of ABA a week, 2 hours of speech a week, Little Gym class, and now Soccer.  He currently takes multi-vitamins and is still Casein Free.  We added Gluten back to his diet a year ago and he is doing well.  No regression has happened and he continues to make improvements.  

His new skills are:

·        Independent reading

·        Segmenting words

·        Counts to 100, counts by 5s and 10s

·        Can do all parts of a calendar

·        Can draw all parts on the body

·        Can write all letters and numbers

·        Emerging imagination

·        Emerging communication and conversation skills

·        Social skills are excelling

·        Loves and plays with his sister all the time

·        Enjoys camping in our Family Room

·        Learned how to fish

·        Learning how to play a Leapster

·        Computer skills are excellent

January 2010 - July 2010

2010

Alan is doing great in the CD4 (Child Development class for 4 year olds).  He is making friends and listening well.  Had some transition issues but the teachers helped Alan work through them and he is doing remarkably well.  Our IEP (Individualized Education Plan) is due in May.  By March 2010, Alan is talking in sentences, requesting (demanding :-)), eating different foods, listening, awesome eye-contact, and attending well.  He enjoys school so much and I am looking forward to see how he does in Kindergarten.  Well, the end of the year is here and he finished CD4.  He graduated with his class (too cute)!  It has been decided to mainstream Alan into Kindergarten next year full day with little to no support.  I am in full agreement.  I have declined OT for the following year.  I kept his speech at 1.5 hours a week but moved it from individual to group to encourage more conversations with peers.  He no longer needs any type of special education and his IEP is being handled by a case manager now.

May 2010:

·        Counts to 31

·        Knows days of the week and months of the year

·        Knows Upper and Lowercase and sounds for each letter

·        Can write all Upper and Lowercase (needs some find tuning)

·        Can say his first and last name

·        Write and spell is first and last name (if you knew our last name believe me this is a great accomplishment)

·        Write his numbers

·        Social skills are emerging

·        Large Vocabulary

·        Understands "WH" questions

·        Understands Verbs, adjectives, nouns

·        Starting to learn He, She, Him, Her, I, You, and We

·        Rides a big boy bike with training wheels

·        Ride a scooter

·        Reads up to 100 sight words

·        Learning how to swim

·        Drawing and Colorings has improved

·        Attends well in Little Gym Class

·        Loves to act out scenes using favorite characters

·        Knows his age, Birthday, phone number, and address

Summer 2010

Alan went to Camp Good Times again this year and enjoyed it.  I think this will be his last year.  I am thinking of putting him in more sports and other camps that he can learn more social skills.  We declined ESY.  Alan continues to receive ABA.  During the school year, Alan does 18-22 hours of ABA.  During the summer, he did about 24-30 hours of ABA.  We are getting ready for Daddy to come home from deployment.  I have setup a countdown for the kids so they know when Daddy is coming home.  We have planned a big surprise to Disney World.  I am so excited this is our first time going on a family vacation.  Over the summer his language has doubled and his attentiveness and listening skills have improved dramatically.  Behaviors have been eliminated.  I call them “Just being a 4-5 year old”.  Typical tantrum or stubbornness is all I see now.  

August 2010

We went to Disney World and stayed at the best resort ever.  Thank you Uncle Glynn and Aunt Wendy for making our family vacation memorable.  The hotel had a water slide which was Alan’s favorite.  It was this 2 story high water slide and he went down it all by himself.  We enjoyed Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot.  I am looking forward to our future years at Disney.  We did learn a few things:  Epcot is not for us, do not ever go to Disney in August and double check the luggage your husband packs.  Other than that the character dinners were great.  The kids had a blast eating with the Princesses, Mickey Mouse, Donald, Minnie, and many more.  Great times and cannot wait till next year.

Alan starts Kindergarten on August 16, 2010.  I am so nervous about how he will do with no support.  First day of school and my son walks into class and just fit right in.  No “bye, mommy”, “I love you, mommy”, “I will miss you”.  Nothing.  HAPPY DAYS!  His teacher this year understands what Autism is which is great.  There is no need for the endless meetings of explaining why he does some things or if she could change things for him.  Nope she knows and I am so relieved for that.  I was worried in the beginning but all my fears have been settled.

In the beginning of August, I signed Alan up for Soccer.  I was anxious, fearful, and excited all at the same time.  I never thought the day would come where I would get to sign my boy up for a sport.  We bought the cleats, soccer shorts, shin guards, and soccer ball.  First day of practice he did really well.  He had some attention problems but it was his first day.  Each practice after this got better.  He had his off days but he did so much better than I thought.  Our first game, Alan did great.  He stayed with his team while on the field.  He had problems listening to his coach and had to be carried off several times, but I know it will get better.  The second game was so much better.  He listened really well and enjoyed himself.  We had some issues at the end but he was upset that he could not get the ball.  As parents, we talked to him and hopefully he understands that soccer is supposed to be fun.  All we require of him is listen to his coaches, follow directions, no whining or crying, and just try.  I know at his next game it will be much better.  He is doing so well and I am so proud of how far he has come.  

Brief Overview of the Year 2009

2009

By January 2009, Alan was attending a full day program at school and doing 20-25 hours of ABA a week after school.  Alan is now eating almost all snack foods presented to him, freeze dried fruits, grapes, juice, cereals, tater tots and a little bacon inside of chex cereal.  He would drink his milk from a cup with Tara and bottle with me.  He currently signs about 60 items.  Knows his entire upper and lowercase alphabet, knows his numbers 1-10, knows and signs all colors, receptive language is awesome.  It was a very slow process but I feel as if we are moving along and making great strides towards Alan's recovery.  In March 2009, Alan no longer needed the bottle and was attempting to eat table foods.  He started mostly with snack foods, yogurt, puddings, etc.

• Alan can receptively ID over 800 items.
• Alan can sign over 100 words.
• Alan can say bubble, girl, go, papa, bye bye, cookie which everyone who works with him can understand him clearly.
• Alan can do up to 48 piece puzzles with no help.
• Alan can now swing like a big boy (not pumping legs yet) and ride a trike with minimal help.
• Alan can now jump.
• Alan can now blow bubbles and easy whistles. 
• Alan loves playing with his sister, giving her hugs, and blowing her kisses.

In April 2009, we started a new biomedical treatment called HBOT (see entry on HBOT for more information).  By May 2009, Alan was eating some table foods such as chicken nuggets, French Fries, chips, cookies, bacon, pudding, fruits, and many varieties of snack foods.  Over the summer of 2009 Alan attended Camp Good Times for 3 weeks and attended ESY (Extended School Year).  Camp Good Times is for children who have disabilities that require more one-on-one attention.

By July 2009:

• We no longer need OT - YAH!  Alan is where he is suppose to be except for Potty Training.
• Alan has a vocabulary of 25 words (3rd party can understand it)
• Alan has about 150 Vocal approximations.  He will try really hard to repeat the word you say but the Apraxia hinders him.
• Signs over 130 words.
• Alan can do up to 100 piece puzzle with minimal help on newly introduced puzzles.
• Alan can now ride his tricycle up to 1/4 mile.  We are introducing a Big Boy Bike for his birthday.
• Alan can write his First Name and Last Name (with guide) and all the Alphabet Letters and Numbers 1-10. 
• Alan can sight read up to 200 words.  Alan is also reading Beginner Reading books.
• He can draw a stick man and Smiley Face
• He can draw all his shapes/lines - Square, rectangle, circle, X, +, vertical and horizontal lines, triangle
• He recognizes numbers up to 30
• Cutting Individually
• Peels Stickers, Cuts and Pastes
• Coloring has improved a lot.  He stays within the picture region
• Knows his parts & features, adjectives, actions, emotions,
• Understands hurt and sorry
• Recognizes crying 

Alan started back at school full day in the Autism class.  Within 2 weeks we had an IEP meeting to push Alan into a regular education class.  The school agreed to push him in for 3 hours in the morning.  At this time Alan was not fully potty trained.  We gradually increased his time in Regular education class.  By the end of August 2009, Alan was talking in one word utterances.  We just completed his 2nd session of HBOT on August 22, 2009.  The first week in October, Alan was fully potty trained.  Alan was moved into all day regular education class except until 12pm.  His special education teacher worked on rest time with Alan so that he could attend all day in regular education.  After about 3 weeks Alan was ready to attend all day.  Alan showed remarkable progress in his regular education class. 

Brief Overview of the Year 2008

I would like to give a brief overview of what we have done over the last 2.5 years.

Alan was diagnosed February 6, 2008 with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Moderate-Severe) at MUSC.  We were devastated to have our fears confirmed.  Alan didn't need parents who were in denial so we jumped on the bandwagon and ordered books, researched everything about autism, and started Alan's journey to recovery.  He was non-verbal, eating baby foods, drinking from a bottle, lots of sensory issues, no eye-contact, hand-flapping, stimming, hyper-active, non-compliant most times, and did not answer to his name or acknowledge his family.  We started the GFCF Diet early March 2008.  We also started ABA therapy April 1, 2008 with SCEAP (South Carolina Early Autism Project).  SCEAP came in and trained all the people that would be working with Alan.  We started with four college ladies with limited ABA experience and knowledge of Autism.  At this time Alan was receiving Speech and Occupational therapy as well.  After about 2 months Alan's ABA program was up and running with him doing 30-40 hours of ABA therapy a week (7 days a week).  In May 2008, we started Biomedical Treatment with Dr. Kalb in Nashville, TN.  He immediately tested Alan for yeast, bacteria, viruses and heavy metals.  He started Alan on MB12 shots and started a yeast protocol.  We did Nystatin for 3 months along with Antibiotics.  After the first week on the MB12 shots Alan realized he had a sister (8 months old).  He seemed to wake up from his little world and join us.  Eye contact was increasing and vocals were getting stronger.  He still babbled but he was making noises.  It wasn't till July 2008, his new OT (Occupational therapist) Melanie joined our team that Alan started to actually try cookies.  She started him on Brushing and AIT.  We saw lots of improvements with Alan in his body and environmental awareness. Melanie became one of the most important people on Alan's journey.  In August 2008, at age 3, Alan started school.  He attended Goose Creek Primary in Tara’s Autism class until 12pm.  Tara also became another important person during Alan's journey.  In October 2008, Alan was diagnosed with Developmental Apraxia of Speech.  We also started seeing a new Speech therapist at this time.  He received 2 hours of speech at school and 2 hours of private speech.  He continued to receive 1 hour of OT a week with Melanie. He was doing around 30 hours a week of ABA.