week 23.

Emmett had another good week. He is adjusting to his headphones well and we are only seeing positive results! There was no speech therapy this week. Zena is on vacation for two weeks. Emmett will miss her. Teanna worked with Emmett on gross motor skills. She had him climb up a pile of matts. Teanna noticed that when Emmett climbs, he doesn't curl his toes forward to use them for pushing upward. He tries to climb with the tops of his feet. I had never noticed this before. So they worked on climbing the correct way. They also played in the bean pit with objects. 

Emmett is also prepping for preschool. We have been taking him to visit his classroom to make the transition easier. I am really nervous and worried about how he will act around the other kids. I hope he doesn't get too overwhelmed and become aggressive. I know he wants to behave and get along with others. 

week 22.

This week was a big one for Emmett. :) He started using his new therapeutic listening system and has been really cooperative! We are so grateful to be able to have this system for Emmett to use at home. It is a blessing to be able to take advantage of such technology. We think it will greatly benefit him and help him to utilize all the parts of his brain. It's a pretty slick system; after it came in the mail we took it to Teanna and she set everything up for us. She assigned two playlists for him to listen to each day. In 2-3 weeks she will assign new playlists. Each playlist has different auditory exercises that help the neurodevelopment of his brain. It essentially "wakes up" the areas of his brain that he is unable to use. 

I feel like I am already noticing differences in him. One of the playlists causes him to talk to us nonstop! It's pretty funny. We have also noticed him singing more in front of people (he normally never sings in front of us). So some wheels are starting to turn in that brain of his that weren't turning before...

Emmett is still adjusting wearing the headphones outside of therapy. I think he was pretty confused at first because he associates the headphones with Teanna. He has to wear them for 30 minutes during each session, which is hard for him. Sometimes he gets frustrated and pulls them off, but if we set a visual timer that he can look at, he does better. He can watch and see how much time he has left. 

This week in speech therapy, Zena wanted to try the session without me in the room. It went really well. Emmett has been getting frustrated and shutting down early during speech. When he does this he buries his face in my lap and wants to give up. This time he lasted the entire hour and was focused and happy. I was a bit sad because I like to observe the session, but I can see how that can be distracting for him. 

We went and visited Emmett's school and were able to talk to his teachers as well. We are meeting with them again, along with the special ed team, on September 2nd for a welcome meeting. Emmett seemed pretty comfortable in his classroom, but that may change when the 20 other kids are are in there. We are going to visit the school a few more times before he officially starts so he can make the transition easier. 

weeks 20 & 21.

We have been noticing great improvements in Emmett's speech. Both family members and friends have noticed as well. He is speaking much better full sentences and makes more of an effort to describe things. :) We are proud of him! He always speaks the most with Ethnie. I love listening to them have a conversation. Ethnie makes him talk to her and loves to correct him (imagine that), but he doesn't seem to mind when she is the one doing it.
Next week at speech therapy Zena wants to try having Emmett in the room alone with her. The past two weeks he has been losing interest and it may be because I am there. Zena thinks if I stay in the lobby he might stay focused longer. I admit, I'd rather be in there so I can take notes on the session, but I understand.
OT has been going pretty well. Teanna is trying to get Emmett to sit on a different therapy swing, but he won't do it. He wants to use the same one every time. Change is hard for him AND he is stubborn; it's a bad combination. Hmph. Teanna is also working with Emmett to copy what she draws. We are trying to get him to draw the basic symbols he needs to start writing letters.
Yesterday, Emmett had a bad meltdown at a party we were at. We pushed him too far and didn't pay attention to the signs he was giving us, trying to tell us he needed to leave. He ended up having an ugly meltdown in front of everyone, which ended up in Matt carrying him to the car screaming, kicking, hitting and flailing. Yikes. However, he hasn't had a bad meltdown like that in a while. We are getting better at recognizing his triggers.
Good news - We are able to get Emmett a therapeutic listening system, which just might come in the mail tomorrow! We are so grateful to be getting one of these and can't wait to get Emmett started on it. I think it will really help with overstimulation.

week 19.

This week wasn't the best as far as Emmett's progress is concerned. Ten minutes into his speech therapy session he shut down and didn't want to do anything Zena offered him. He kept burying his face in my lap and shut his surroundings out. Zena said this happens with many of her patients where they become tired of therapy and "hit a wall" in progress. Some kids need a week or two break. Hopefully, Emmett just had a bad morning and will be back to his cooperative self next week. Because of his shut down in speech, OT did not start out well. Teanna had to dim the lights and calm him down with a massage. He responds very well to this. It's like hitting the reset button for him. Emmett spent the majority of the session on the therapy swing. He really relaxed and even let go with both hands while swinging. This is a good sign because it means his brain is processing what his body is doing while moving through space (proprioceptive skills).
I feel like Emmett has been fighting me lately on the things he needs help with. He hasn't been cooperating while I try to brush him and do joint compressions. He has also been asking me to put a diaper on him instead of wanting to go pee on the potty. I do not know why he is doing this. Structured eating times have been difficult as well. I have read a lot of material on autism in the past four months and many times I have read that I will want to give up trying with my child. However, immediately following that statement, the statement that always follows is DO NOT GIVE UP ON YOUR CHILD. Some days are harder than others and I need to keep repeating that statement in my mind each day. I cannot give up on my child.

weeks 17 & 18.

I have been a bit behind on everything lately. Stress combined with a busy schedule does that to me.
Last week therapy was very successful! Emmett was happy and compliant the whole time. He was dishing out full sentences left and right with Zena and didn't throw a thing! He loved the games they played together and she didn't need to prompt him very much. She was very pleased with him and the session.
OT went great as well. Teanna gave Emmett a massage and dimmed the lights again. She also had him do more therapeutic listening. He was very cooperative. She worked on motor skills by having Emmett clap the bubbles as she blew them. She wanted him to clap his hands evenly together. Then she had him work on a Light Bright toy (loved those as a kid!), which was great for fine motor skills. I was also able to talk with a financial counselor about options for us through Children's after our insurance stops.

This week Matt had to take Emmett to therapy on his own because I was in South Dakota. So I am documenting based on what he told me. Emmett did not do as well this week in therapy. Matt thought it could have been because I was gone or because he had to go pee and it was bothering him. Speech went okay, but he only made it through half of OT before having a meltdown. He became overstimulated trying a new activity where he had to blow through a straw to move a golf ball across the floor. He also wasn't as tolerant of the therapeutic listening.
We may have an opportunity to get our own therapeutic listening system to have at home. This would be very beneficial for Emmett and would be a big blessing for him. We are working with Teanna to have her write up a grant to get approval for one.
Matt also took Emmett to his appointment at Fraser. They ran a short diagnostic on him, asked a ton of questions and made Matt fill out another long questionnaire. These never end. The appointment went well and now we have to wait until there is some availability at Fraser for Emmett to have a spot there.    

We received the psychology assessment report in the mail this week. Dr. Mary did diagnose Emmett with autism like we expected. The report describes in detail why she made this diagnosis and gave us his IQ test results. This is hard to look at, as it was when he had an IQ test through special ed. I am trying not to focus on the numbers right now.

week 16.

A quick story from last weekend (4th of July weekend):
On Saturday morning, one of Matt's friends from high school was in town and asked if we could watch their four kids for a couple of hours. That means we had six kids in our rather small home. It was definitely overwhelming, but they all played really well together. The reason why I am sharing this story is because their 6-year-old daughter is also autistic (something Matt casually mentioned to me 10 minutes before they walked in the door. Yikes!). So we had the opportunity to have two kids on the spectrum in our house. Kira is much different from Emmett. I would say she has great language development for her age. She also didn't seem to have any sensory issues. No eating issues either. She was also potty trained. The only thing her mom told me not to do was to wind up a music box. That seems to be the only thing that causes her to melt down. One major difference between her and Emmett is that she cannot stay still and snoops and digs through everything. She has to know what's in every drawer, behind every door, and under every chair. We had to keep a close eye on her! We didn't want her to get into anything that could hurt her. The other thing is - she runs. We took the kids outside to play and Kira ran off into the street many times! Matt had to run after her down the block a few times and guide her back to our house. I think she is just so curious about everything. Kira is a very sweet girl and I'm glad I had the chance to get to know her a bit.

This week has been devastating. On Monday Matt lost his job. The college he worked at closed 12 locations nationwide due to a funding freeze. I've been sick about it. So our insurance ends at the end of July. I am so scared that Matt isn't going to find a job by then and Emmett will have to stop therapy. I don't want him to lose all of the progress he's made. Of course, I'm also worried about money. I anyone is reading this, please keep us in your prayers. Pray that we will be guided in the right direction.
Therapy went very well on Wednesday. Zena is continuing to work with Emmett on using verbs and describe objects. He cooperated the entire time. She also worked with him on names of food. They put together a food puzzle, which Emmett really likes.
Teanna blew me away this week. She is working on ways that work to calm Emmett's body down. This week she did a deep pressure massage on Emmett while he was sitting in a bean bag. She also turned off the florescent lights and turned on some soft yellow light. This combination worked like a miracle. Emmett sat quiet as a mouse in that bean bag while Teanna massaged his arms and legs. She also tried massaging his face, but he did not like that. After the massage, she went on to doing an activity with aqua sand in water, which is a cool sand/putty mixture. Emmett is normally has a very difficult time controlling his excitement while playing in water, but this time he was much calmer. That massage helped to calm his body down so he could play in the water and not get too overstimulated. By the way, he wouldn't touch the aqua sand with his hands, only with a spoon. So Teanna wants us to try massages at home before we take him out to overwhelming places. I think this will work really well, as long as I can pull it off like she did!

week 15.

It has been just over three months since Emmett's diagnosis. Although Emmett hasn't had much medically evident progress with his autism symptoms, I know he has learned many new things and has started to get used to the "new normal" in his little life. He has had a lot of adjusting to do and is cooperating nicely. Unfortunately, the adjustments have just begun and he will have many more once fall hits.
Personally, I have learned more about my son in the past three months than I have in the past three years. I have been reading, listening, watching, thinking constantly about him and his needs. I have also learned much more about myself as a mother. My understanding has stretched farther than ever before and the love I have for my kids grows deeper each day. It amazes me how my heart is able to keep opening up more and more and pour out more love for them.
This week was different from our usual schedule. Emmett had his first feeding therapy appointment at Children's. The team consisted of a dietitian, a nurse practitioner, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, and a student volunteer. Just having that many people in the room was overwhelming enough. It took almost two hours and was a bit stressful for him because the team pushed him to do things with food that was uncomfortable for him. They didn't force him to eat anything; just pushed him a bit, then backed off. They tried to get him to try some new snacks and observed how he eats and how much he can tolerate having foods he doesn't like near him. The dietitian talked about what Emmett needs in his diet and how we can better get him those nutrients he is lacking. She also recommended ways we can help him become more comfortable with new foods. What they didn't explain to me is how to get Emmett to stop gagging on foods with texture. Maybe that will come at the next appointment ?
Feeding therapy will not happen each week. The nurse said she will most likely have Emmett come back for another appointment in three months or so. In the meantime, I am suppose to communicate his feeding needs with his two therapists. Because the feeding clinic involves a speech and occupational therapist, we could not see his regular therapists this week. Insurance would not allow all three in one week. Lame. However, Emmett did get to chat with them for a few minutes.