The Road To 3: Started at 2

Follow my posts over the next few weeks as we journey to "3" with my youngest son Nash. From transitioning out of his current Speech and Occupational home classes to a possible preschool program through the school. Also as we say goodbye to his first ever experience with preschool at CTC and lots more as we get closer and closer to that special day for Nash in October.

A few weeks ago we started the process of transition out of the Birth to Three program with SKIP. Nash turns 3 October 11th and while I cant believe he is turning 3, I am more in awww (and oh so proud) of how far he has come this past year. This time last year my almost 2 year old had stopped using what few words he did have (including Mommy and Daddy :( ), and he was struggling to try and find his own way to do typical 2 year old things. As parents we were scared and went to his doctor for help. She too was concerned and she sent out referrals to Childrens Therapy Center for a full evaluation and to a neurologist. We had appointments within two or so short weeks. Familiar already with Childrens Therapy Center (Wyatt had gone to them the first year after he was born for Torticollis, I was pleased to be able to get right in with Nash.

I remember that first evaluation, like it was yesterday. Nash wouldn't make eye contact with any of the therapists. He wouldn't engage with them. He spent most of the time hiding behind me as we sat on the floor and I answered questions about him and his development which until that moment I thought was somewhat normal and on the right track. It was agreed at that meeting Nash needed services, we would schedule Speech to start right away and Occupational as needed soon after. I left feeling a mix of hope and sadness. Hope for what was ahead for Nash, for my sweet caring little boy who wanted just desperately to express himself and sadness because you cant help but think "What could I have done better!"

Speech started in September of 2009 and we started right away with sign (photos above are of his first signs he learned and used all the time to communicate please and hungry/thirsty) and it took him a few weeks to open up to Jodi his speech teacher. She came to our house (which was the best thing ever....his home, his terms!) and while it took almost a month for him to even be in the same room with her it was a much faster process I think being at home vrs an office or at the center. We started using pictures for him to communicate with us, he only used these for a few months. He really preferred sign and repeating which he started doing around the same time and still to this day we call him our parrot.

We had a consult with Occupational Therapy but choose to just keep in touch monthly at that point so we could focus on speech 100%. After speech got off the ground (took about 8 months) we would revisit Occupational therapy to then start work on some of his things we soon learned would be related to Sensory Processing Disorder. OT would prove to be harder to work on with Nash that speech, what was of "dire" need to focus on would change often. Why? Because he would swing between one thing and another when it came to "problem" areas. He would hate change, change in routine, change in something as simple as the way we drove to the store. His ridgedness to this day is still problematic, I just know how to help him cope an transition from moment to moment easier to help. Choices were next up as a huge topic of discussion with OT. Choices became problematic due to the fact that he became distraught over making a choice, of any kind. At one point we just stopped giving him choices. That worked for a bit, long enough to give time to work on coping techniques and modeling how to make choices. Older brother Wyatt became key in how to model how to make easy choices. Simple choices, clothing, what to have to drink (milk vrs juice), picking out a movie, a toy you name it he had to LEARN again how to make a choice.

We kept in touch with a Neurologist every 2 -3 months over the past year. While age 1-2 is still very early to look at any clear diagnosis if any. The Neurologist spent the past year keeping track of early intervention progress and signs for possible Autism Spectrum Disorder. Our next appointment is at the end of September for more evaluations and possible diagnosis.

Looking back at Nash's 2nd year I feel overwhelming pride in the hard work he has put into each step, his willingness to *try* each step of the way. I also cant help but feel sadness. I feel like we lost that last year of "babyness" in a way because we needed him to grow up a little more to overcome these hurdles he was facing. We needed to push him harder than a typical 2 year old so we could make sure that he for one thing didn't fall further behind (loosing the few words he did have was a huge red flag) and that we took overwhelming advantage of early intervention which I have now seen right before my eyes WORK.

~ Kristen