08-07-08 - Update

Tyler's language is still coming on in full force. At day care yesterday, Karen was play with Tyler with an wooden alphabet board and the letter spin. He had pointed to one of them and it was turned in a way that Karen couldn't see the letter so she said "what is it"? On the next one that Tyler pointed to he said "is it"!!! Speech had to cancel on Monday so she made up a session yesterday at daycare (I was at a parent interview at U of M which I'll talk about later) and then we had our normal session with her this morning at our house. Tyler said Yes, Out, Push it, and Lisa!!! he said her name when she was modeling.."bye Lisa" when it was time for her to leave. let me back up a minute, Tyler was eating breakfast when Lisa arrived and he has a clear view of the doorway from his chair. He made very good eye contact with her when she came in and Lisa commented on it and how she has seen significant improvements in him since even she has started to see him. His language is improving every day.

We had to do a parent interview for the first words/toddler project which we began when Tyler was around 15 months I think? It was a very frustrating time for us becuase he hadn't been diagnosed yet and was at the stage where we were going through evaluation, interview, test, more evaluations after evaluations and appts after appt and not feeling like we were doing anything to actually help Tyler. It was very frustrating. So the first time we did the interview which is extensive, I think the first time it took almost 3.5 hours? I think. Anyway, all teh questions were a sharp reminder of just how serious Tyler's condition was and just how frustrated I was that the only therapy he was getting was 1 hour of speech a week. I just so badly wanted someone to tell me how to help him! I cried many times during that first interview. So yesterday's parent interview was such a blessing! Here we are a year later and so many changes! It was actually fun to answer some of those questions. One of them asked how many words he understood, in past interviews I knew he must understand a lot but I had no way of knowing what he understood. Now I know what words he undesrtands, because we have ways to communicate together. I can ask him to get something or touch something or find something or sign something. Or say we are going somewhere and he'll head up the stairs or to the door or to the bathroom. I didn't shed 1 tear, in fact, I left the office feeling so happy that all of our hard work and dedication (including Tyler's cause he has to tolerate it all!!) is really paying off. I can't wait to look back a year from now because he's just doing so great.