My instincts have been right all along!

It certainly has been a long time since I have updated and feeling a bit guilty and ashamed that I have not shared our story in several years.  Please forgive me.  I am going to talk about Ryan in this long post first since he was the reason I started this blog anyway.  Here is where we started in 2008 :  "Do what you gotta do."

Ryan is now in 1st grade and doing wonderful.  Still behind but we are thrilled.  He has a wonderful teacher that gets him.  

Kindergarten was a bit tough even though he had the same teacher Kyle had.  I had become friends with her and could really talk openly with her.  At our first parent/teacher conference in the middle of the year, I shared with her the report from the Camarata's from when he was 3.5 and also told her what happened to us with the school district.  I felt comfortable telling her everything.  While she did see some "red flags" she was open to what the report said.  He also had the same speech teacher in kindergarten from when he was 3.  They both started hinting that "something else was wrong besides MERLD".  My husband and I had already decided that we wanted an updated evaluation from the Camarata's and made the appointment for spring break (in March, 2011).  I told them that we were going back to Nashville.  They went about their business and continued to work with Ryan.  

Our trip was wonderful and they were thrilled to see the progress that they both had made.   Summary was as follows:

• Ryan continued to display a mixed expressive/receptive language disorder, with a challenge in terms of accepting directive; particularly when he is not highly confident that he will be accurate/correct.  As is often noted in children who have this aspect in their temperament and a weak understanding of spoken language, Ryan continues to prefer predictability and certainty.  

• With regard to the slow progress of Ryan's speech and language skills, the good news is that he is progressing.  The less welcome news is that the language gap between him and his peers is not narrowing.  This is a pattern we observe in some late talking children.  We need to stay the course with extra language support and expected the concurrent challenges with attention during heavy language loaded curriculum areas.

I shared the full report with the teacher and SLP.  His SLP was trying to get him more support in 1st grade and suggested some academic testing at our ARD in May, 2011.  She also suggested that the school psychologist do an evaluation.  I hesitated and said that I didn't want to go through what I went through when he was 3.   The principal (who I adore who has seemed to be on my side through all of this) said that the psychologist she uses is very good and if Ryan does or does not have autism or any type of ASD she would know and they trust her 100%.  I agreed to the academic testing and asked to meet the psychologist first.  We had another ARD 2 days later and the psychologist was there also and she said she didn't want to do any testing but wanted to observe him first and then decide if any additional testing was needed.  I then met with her privately after the ARD and felt ease with her.  I went ahead and agreed.  

The academic testing was a waste of time I think.  Nice girl doing the testing but he didn't qualify for extra academic support.  A summary of her report was as follows:

• While Ryan does exhibit academic deficits and corresponding cognitive deficits, he does not meet the specific criteria for a learning disability.  Ryan's reluctance to participate fully in all activities and his below average receptive and expressive language skills cannot be ruled out as the cause of his deficits at this time.  

ARD agreed to keep him monitored through the RTI program.  (Response to Intervention)

As stated, I let the psychologist observe him and holy moly, did she ever observe him.  I believe it was a total of 5-6 hours.  On the playground, in the cafeteria, in speech class, in the library, in art, in music, in the classroom, you name it.  It was during a week span.  Nothing like the ass of a lady that diagnosed him in 20 minutes with PDD-NOS. 

She called me and said that she is not going to suggest any testing on him.  I wanted to jump through the phone and say "I told you so! I told you so!" to all those asswipes I dealt with when he was 3!!!!  She said she would have the report to me the next day.  It was 4 pages long!  Here are a few details from that report.:

• Reason for referral:  Ryan was referred by the ARD committee for a psychological consultation to investigate behaivors such as lack of attention and distractions, as well as "quirky" behaivors seen at the beginning of the year such as growling and tantrums.  Ryan reportedly needs one on one instruction on directions for tasks, and continued prompting and refocusing.

• When the LSSP asked Ryan to read from a book, Ryan expressed discomfort and avoidance by saying "I want to go to my class."  The story was then read to him by the LSSP.  When asked to tell what the story was about at the end, Ryan appeared to retain only the beginning and end of the narrative, but had lost the details in the middle, thereby missing important elements of the story.  

• On the playground, Ryan joined two other boys in a basketball game. Most communication was through gestures an actions rather than words.  When the teacher signaled for the class to line up to go back inside, Ryan was heard saying, "that's not FUNNY!" to another student in an emphatic voice with a midly angry look on his face.  

• On the way to speech therapy, Ryan offered to tie another student's shoelace, and then did so.  The SLP said that leaving to go to speech without problems was progress for Ryan.  

• In summary, Ryan is a student in kindergarten who has been diagnosed with a language disorder.  He exhibited behaivors such as growling, tantrums, inattention, and distractiblity during the first semester of kindergarten.  The growling and tantrums behaivors have disappeared at this time.  Ryan has made great progress in speech as well as the social sphere.  He still continues to have difficulties expressing himself, which appear to be related to his language delay.  Ryan interacts well with other students.

• No additional testing requested at this time but should continue monitoring Ryan's behaivors.

We had our last ARD with all these reports on June 2.  Yes, the 2nd to the last day of school.  Finally, the autism talk is over!!!!  I called the ECI lady (the one that argued with that lame psychologist) and told her it was over, that the recent psychologist said that he didn't have ASD or autism and we actually both shed a few tears on the phone.  I told her to make sure she finds a way to tell the special education lady that screwed me at the ARD when Ryan was 3.  Hahahahahaha.  She said I should write a book.  Yeah, like that will ever happen.

Ryan is now in 1st grade and doing great.  Lots of friends and even had his first date with a classmate.  A little girl in his class got to invite one friend to go see Puss and Boots and she wanted Ryan to come.  (I met her mom at the beginning of the year and we hit it off immediately).  More about Ryan's first half of 1st grade in the next post.  He is struggling in math but we are continuing to work on it. 

It was a tough 3 years but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I learned alot through this process and am stronger for it.  Stick to your gut.  Get a good evaluation and by all means "DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO!!!"