How Our Journey Began (pt 2)

Once the shock of hearing the word Autism wore off I became diligent in my quest for knowledge about Autism and spectrum disorders.
It blew my mind all things I was reading, but I was fascinated at the same time.
So much of what I was reading made since and for the first time I could better understand what was going on with my son. I equipped myself with the knowledge and tools that we would need to work with our son.

Before we ever got an official diagnosis I knew that my son in fact had High Functioning Autism. After all the research and hours of reading I did we decided to not wait on the official diagnosis and start being proactive to help Sammy in every way possible. I found what interested him and went from there. I came up with a lot of teaching tools and put a lot of things together that helped him greatly. The therapists were impressed by us being so proactive and involved instead expecting the teachers and therapist to do it all while we sat back and watched.
I spent countless hours and many many dollars creating teaching aids for him.
I found that by creating teaching aids that catered to his particular interests and needs worked for him and us. That's what I continued and still continue to do.

The waiting list to have your child tested for Autism is long wherever you go. It isn't something you can have diagnosed through your doctor or pediatrician. You're put on a waiting list and wait for your turn.
It was 8 months from the day we started in home therapy that we got the official diagnosis of High Functioning Autism from Glennwood out of Birmingham, Al.
Even though you suspect the diagnosis and you prepare yourself for it, seeing it in writing started our grieving process over. Grieving is a topic I will touch on at some point while doing this blog. I have so much I want to talk about here.

We basically had to learn to be parents all over again. We had to completely change the way we did everything with Sammy and that was hard.
We had to change the way we communicated with him, the way we disciplined him the way we dressed him, everything needed changing.

I think the most frustrating part for us and Sammy was the communication barrier. That's where sign language came in very handy and he picked up on it in no time. We also started a system with him known as the Picture Exchange Communication System, PECS for short.
I got a huge magnetic dry erase board and kept it in the dinning room. We had laminated words and pictures for nearly every word he needed. He was already reading a lot of words at this point and was easily able to recognize most of the words and symbols. Whenever he wanted or needed something he would bring us the PECS card for whatever it was that he wanted and sometimes he would even form sentences with the cards.
For the next several months PECS and sign language became our main forms of communication with him.
Once he was better able to communicate with us his tantrums decreased and we settled into somewhat of a normal routine.

When Sammy turned 3 EI was no longer provided services and it was up to the school system at that point to make a determination as to rather or not he fit the criteria for the Pre-k program.
After being assessed and discussing with us Sammy's needs he was approved for the Pre-K program. This program incorporates typical children with A typical children. There are 12 kids to a class and they try to divide them equally.
This program has been wonderful for Sammy and having had the same teacher the past few years really helps.