Productive Day

Elise had 4 hours of therapy today. She spent 2 hours with her Speech Therapist (ST). 1 of those hours was co-taught with her floor-time specialist. In the evening, her floor-time specialist came to the house and played with all the kids for another hour. Elise was having another great day. We heard several words, she followed simple instructions fairly well and she communicated her needs and wants well. Her eye contact is drastically better and she greeted and acknowledged her therapist's hello and goodbye today. She's recently showing a lot of great progress.

Yesterday, Elise spent the morning at school with her floor-time specialist. She did well and even joined circle time. Her therapist had her sit and participate instead of wandering away like she's inclined to do when left on her own. Now that she's seen her at school, her therapist has a similar conclusion to what we were thinking. The school is good for her in that she interacts and sees typically developing peers. Until a more intensive program is available for her, this is not a bad place for her to be. However, the school is not equipped to handle a child with special needs and she really needs one-on-one instruction for right now. This is a decent temporary solution until her special education starts.

Today was also very productive in moving forward on Elise's treatment. Her service coordinator e-mailed to say that she had passed off the ABA request to her supervisor already. The ABA provider called to see when/if we are ready to start services for Elise. The answer is a definite YES!, but we are unable to do so until we get some funding worked out with EI services and our insurance provider. It's not something we can afford on our own. The dietician returned my call, but it went to my voicemail. I'll call her back tomorrow. Her message was very cheerful! Carlos' colleague offered to provide us with lots of good autism information. He has 2 autistic children. His oldest is very high-functioning and is now in college. His youngest is much more severe, but has made great strides. We're hoping he'll have some helpful insight into navigating Carlos' insurance for coverage for Elise since he has the same insurance and his family has received good services. Another good thing is that my friend K provided me the number of her friend who has an autistic child and lives in a very nearby neighborhood. Her son is 6 and she offered to speak with us to tell us her experiences of the good, bad and ugly of various treatments and education opportunities. Anyway, we're making it through this maze slowly but surely. It's amazing to me how much people can rally to help when you are in a time of need. When I told K about Elise, she actually had tears in her eyes. She's turned out to be such a wonderful and unexpected friend.

I hope this upswing continues for a long time. Things are going really well right now.

I forgot to mention how well Elise did during her ST. She was jumping on the trampoline when another boy, probably autistic also, entered the room. They jumped together and Elise spent a lot of time trying to engage him to play. She was so happy to have a child to jump with her and she laughed a lot. Her social ability is so much better. She's more like how she used to be when she was 1.

Tomorrow will be difficult because Elise will be undergoing a 2 hour evaluation with the local school district. She'll see a psychologist, a speech therapist and an occupational therapist. Poor Elise, it must be so hard to be evaluated over and over again. Unfortunately it's a necessary evil to get her the help she needs.