What's Up

Holy moley, it's been a long time since I blogged! I need to get back into the habit because I am pretty sure I am going senile and when the ol' memory is completely gone I want to be able to look back and read about Remy learning to talk and what happened on Doctor Who in season 7. So here is what is up!

•  Remy is coming up on  his third birthday and so we are working on making the transition from Early Intervention to pre-school a smooth one.  I took him in for his school district evaluation a couple of weeks ago but they weren't able to come to a consensus on his autism. The speech therapist thought it was a misdiagnosis but the psychologist and nurse were "100% convinced" it was the correct diagnosis. So two school district psychologists are coming out in a couple of weeks to repeat the ADOS and we will see how that goes. The reason the speech therapist doubts autism is because Remy's eye contact and "joint attention" (desire to have those around him notice what he is noticing) are very, very good where usually these are two of the most obvious signs of autism.  It is my personal opinion that the reason Remy is so strong in these areas is because he received special help for these skills before he was two years old, while his mind was still quite flexible. I think if more kids got this training at such a young age they would see similar results.  
•  Remy's speech is blossoming at such an amazing rate. Is this what neuro-typical kids experience when they start to talk? I don't really have a reference point but all I know is that every day he is surprising us with new words, and better and better sentences.  
• Remy loves to sing. He can sing his alphabet really well and gives the good old college try to Twinkle, Twinkle and Row, Row, Row your Boat.  He also loves to dance and drum and has great rhythm.  
• Remy can read many words: cat, dog, dad, mom, vacuum, mop, car, Lorax, Ford, Dodge, Bissell, Hoover, McDonald's, up, upright, dirt, pet, keep, go, toy, stop, duck, moon, kid, on, off, box, shoes, eat, socks, ball, cup, train, truck... And he doesn't just recognize them in familiar forms like a logo or a flash card, I have seen him read many of these words in upper case or lower case, hand written or a variety of fonts. 
• Now that he is talking more, echolalia is becoming evident. This is a common issue with kids on the autism spectrum. While Remy is getting really good at telling others about his interests (vacuum cleaners, cars) or exciting things that happen to him (a boo-boo or a trip to the store) he has a hard time responding to questions or carrying on a back and forth conversaion.  For example yesterday his OT asked him "do you want to kick or crash?" and Remy's response was "kick or crash!" She had to ask him three times before he could indicate kick.  When you say "bye Remy!" he will usually respond "bye Remy!" If you say "is this a ball?" his answer is "ball." I hope that as his fluecy in language increases we will see the echolalia fade. 
• We love the house and the neighborhood, but the HOA? Not so much. Our house is not what I would call shabby but they have sent us violation notices twice now, once for the shutters and once for the eaves, so we have to spend all this money to repaint them when what I really want to do is fix the pool heater so I can use the hot tub for my fibromyalgia. Annoying as heck.  
• We bought a season pass to Springs Preserve so I hope that I will take full advantage of it this year! They have so many great things for Remy to do, and art, gardening and cooking classes for adults as well! 

Well, that's a good update for now, I will try to check in with the blog again soon!