Search This Blog

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

A Year On.

Harri recently passed the one year mark since his diagnosis of PDD-NOS, received just before his 2nd birthday. At that time he had the verbal skills of a 9-12 month old, his echolalia yet to appear. He was highly distractable and had next to no capacity to focus on tasks presented. And although seemingly bright had no compulsion to please others, and struggled to find motivation to engage in many of the drills in the initial tests. He did however place toys back where he found them in the assessment room, which is considered unusual for young children. And is particularly odd to me as he sure as hell doesn't clean up around home.

Anyway we just received the results of his follow up assessment. So one year on, with a whole lot of ABA and hard work on his part, where are we today? Firstly, the hunch has always been and remains, that he is in fact Aspie. Although still too young for us to be 100% certain, his profile on the assessment strongly suggests Aspergers Syndrome.

One of the fascinating things about kids, and I suppose all people on the spectrum, is an uneven profile of abilities and disabilities. And Harri is no exception. On the verbal aspects of the tests he performed  above average, and on the non verbal aspects, average. There was quite a spread of skills and difficulties identified but overall his gains over 12 months are remarkable.

Most parents reading will appreciate the word 'average' used in everyday life doesn't indicate anything special, but when it comes to our ASD kids the word has great meaning.

Next year we commence focus on social skills as he begins three year old kindy two days a week. I anticipate socialising, following instructions and compliance will be some of our biggest challenges going forward,  but am excited to note that's the case for many children his age. And few of those other kids will be getting the intensive day to day therapy and guidance Harri is to assist him in developing those abilities.

Well done my little man. 

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome results of above average for verbal and average for non-verbal. ABA must be working well. You should also give yourself a pat on the back for your hard work too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Penny that's nice of you to say so. And you are right that parents should get more credit for their children's progress.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL, same with my son!! WHY DO THEY DO THAT!!! (Behave so well sometimes at school/assessments etc) yet behave so terribly at home!! (Yes, I used exclamation instead of question marks, the situation warrants it! **lol**

    I'm really pleased for his progress. Well done little man!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. With all your work I can see him fitting right in with what I think of as "invisible autism" - Clark Kent on the outside but a lot of scaffolding and planning and support under the suit. Well done and great work Harri

    ReplyDelete
  6. MM I know. His therapists think he is an angel. I need to show them some home video footage.
    LisaMaree I like that analogy. Much better then the 'recovered' concept.

    ReplyDelete