Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Benjamin's Big Day

Yesterday we feel like we finally made some progress with the beginning stages of the diagnosis process. We know this could possibly be a small case of Asperger's Syndrome we have on our hands and we feel like we finally started getting somewhere with it yesterday.
As I mentioned before, our insurance has really been a nightmare in this whole thing. So, we sort of went "back to basics" with our pediatrician yesterday and she gave Benjamin a much more in-depth evaluation than she had previously done with just our conversations. Benjamin did a great job and he seemed to really enjoy himself as she visited with him.
We also asked her if it were possible for this to be nothing at all and we should all just forget about it and go back to our normal lives. She said while that scenario was indeed a possibility, she still wanted to move on with the diagnosis process. Dr. A also indicated that Benjamin definitely has some very obsessive tendencies, but it could just be a quirky kid on one hand. But if it is something more, ("a low grade on the autistic scale" is what she indicated to us), we need to be proactive now and get everything in place for treatment possibilities.
We also visited Benjamin's future elementary school yesterday. We are keeping that route in our back pocket if our insurance continues to hold us up through the medical end of it. Benjamin had his hearing and eyes checked (they were impressed that he knew his ABCs by sight so well at his age-- I was so proud of him!). We also filled out all of the paperwork for an evaluation with the school for Asperger's. Even at his age, he could start receiving treatment/therapy options from their end. We will now wait up to 60 days to hear back when/if that evaluation will be scheduled.
The school was very nice. It was great to get to see the inside for a change. We look at it everyday from the backside (it is across the street from our house), so this was a fun little field trip. Daddy joined us, too!
The funniest thing about it was that Benjamin did not want to leave the school. He kept repeating...."no, I need to go to class, now!" It was pretty comforting that he was already so excited about his school!
Thank you all so much for all of the sweet emails, notes, calls and especially prayers. We feel so blessed by your friendship and love.

3 comments:

Lauren said...

So so neat he loved his future school!! Pretty cute he wanted to stay and go to class :)!!

Happy Mama said...

I am so glad that you guys are making some progress. Have you guys had his IQ tested? This may sound strange, but I taught kids with both Aspurgers and highly gifted students and a lot of the time their behaviors were very similiar. If you know anyone who is a diag., they test as early as 4 and 5 years. If you want more info on that, let me know. What a lucky guy to have such amazing parents like you and David. Love you all!

J Stolle said...

Hi there, I agree, have his IQ tested. My nephew my "sister's son" has alot of quirky ways too, but his IQ is off the charts. So don't fret, my nephew is completing his Master's degree in May - in Speech Therapy of all things.

And yes, he still has his quirky ways!! But we love him to pieces.