Small Victories

This week has been a whirlwind of activity for us.  Greg has been out-of-town all week and we've had a full schedule of therapy appointments and evaluations.

Andrew's therapy team is finally taking shape.  We added two members to the team on Wednesday as he was evaluated for (and recommended to pursue) Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy.  He is, as we knew, quite delayed in speech - both in receptive and communicative language.  They will work with him to improve both his speech and his tolerance to a greater variety of foods.  The Speech Therapist did comment that he is great at repeating things, which is the basis of building language.  The Occupational Therapist was not overly concerned as his gross motor skills are nearly where they need to be, but his fine motor skills are at the level of a 21-22 month old.  Both therapists stated that he was easy to work with and very compliant, reassuring me that this would be of great benefit to him and us in his therapy.

All in all it was a rocky day for me.  Even though we knew he was delayed because of his autism, it's never easy to hear it.  But it did my mommy heart some good to be told over and over what a delightful boy he is and that he is going to be fun to work with because of his unique qualities (very laid back and easy going).

Thursday I went to pick him up from his preschool program to hear from his teacher that he'd had a bad day.  She said that he was "very sensitive".  It was not good to hear that, but I am thankful that this is not the norm for him, that he mostly has good days at school and even has been participating in class activities.

I was pleased to meet the "final" member of the team this morning, the ABA Therapist who will actually be doing his therapy three days a week for two hours each session.  She was very impressed with how quickly Andrew picks things up and how easy he was to work with.  They played with toys and books while she was here.  She would point out objects in the books and identify emotions that were displayed on the character's faces (happy, sad, etc).  We were shocked and pleased to hear Andrew spontaneously (not repeating her) point out a character as "happy" and also point out and say "moon" spontaneously.  It may seem small, but it was huge for me.  Andrew does a lot of repeating, but we RARELY hear ANY spontaneous language and he's never pointed to something in a book before an named it.

So, we are celebrating the small victories today, with every hope and prayer that the steps forward, though small, will become a consistent part of our life.  I know that there will be more small victories to celebrate and I look forward to looking for them daily.