Fri was our part-two of standardized testing for Nate at the Autism Center. This will basically give us a formal diagnosis (on paper)from a Clinical Child Psychologist and "rate" him, formally, on what levels he is currently at so we can set goals on where we CAN HOPE to go. Our private therapists have rated him at a 7 mo old level for Speech and Language, a 10 mo old level for Communication & Social Skills, and he is age-appropriate for Physical skills. We have a long way to go.
Nate fought the testing 90% of the time (which was expected), so who knows the accuracy of the data- although they do base it off questions from Aaron and myself about his skills demonstrated at home also.
I have learned so much about Autism Spectrum disorders, my head just might actually spin off. Kids in Nate's "level" of Autism sometimes remain non-verbal their whole lives (40% of the time), or he could start talking tomorrow, or he might start when he is 8 yrs old. Anything goes with this disorder. ON the positive side, I guess that always gives us HOPE that he might just bust out with words one of these days.
Nate also had his second Little Gym class yesterday. It didn't go so well. He was clearly overwhelmed by the number of kids and parents in the room and had a 20 minute breakdown. It is so hard watching everyone stare at my "disruptive" child and wonder what the hell is wrong with him and why I am not doing anything more than holding him and applying pressure to his body to ground him. I hate feeling like I always have to explain Nate. Lord knows I could care less about what people think of me, but I hate them staring at my child and judging him. One grandmother who was there with her grandson goes, "He is quite the angry child, isn't he?". What the hell does that mean??!! ..and of course I just said" actually he's a great kid" and I carried Nate to the other side of the gym. I loathe stupid people who feel the need to chime in. Hopefully next week will be better. I am not holding my breath. Maybe Aaron can go next week. I might lose it and take down some soccer mom in the Little Gym parking lot.