Great Week

Things are going really well this week. Elise is making some really significant progress. On Sunday, we went to the Santa Barbara zoo. She really paid attention to the animals and had a great time. She even went on the zoo train with little protest. She was only scared for about 10 seconds. She did run ahead and never look back to make sure someone was following her, but other than that alarming behavior, she was great.

She reportedly had great days in school this week. In the evenings, she was showing more repetitive type behavior than usual, but I attribute that to the leaps she's been making at school. She's spent by the time she's home.

On Wednesday morning, hubby & I met with Elise's new service coordinator for the Regional Center (county funding agency). It was for her IPP (Individualized P??? Plan). There are far too many acronyms in this autism world to keep them all straight. Anyway, it's the plan we'll put in place to determine how to meet her needs for the home and community environment. In January, we'll have her IEP (Individualized Education Plan - I remember this one). That'll be the plan that determines how to meet her educational needs. Whew! We liked the new service coordinator much better than we liked the previous one. Hopefully she'll be a better team member, although I'm sure it'll be necessary to be determined and persistant in order to get what Elise needs with all the budget constraints right now. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, I hope. We were honest about Elise's difficulties, but we painted a bleaker picture by emphasizing her weaknesses and not discussing much of her strengths. Hubby laughed at me because of my clever answer to the direct question about Elise's strengths. I answered that she was very determined, persistant, independent & perseverative. I proceeded to point out how unfortunately these great traits were an impediment to her learning and compliance right now, but that I could see a future where they could be a great benefit to her.

On Tuesday, hubby had a parent training course for Elise's upcoming ABA therapy. Apparently they had written down my name for the training. He was told that usually it's the mother who attends. I wish it was me, but I definitely wouldn't be able to take the time off work. Hubby said that he managed to get in touch with his "inner woman" during the course. Apparently it was a bit touchy feely in discussing the emotions and grieving process we're experiencing. He even had to write a letter to introduce Elise to the doctor. It actually was a beautiful letter, it made me cry. He really did find that "inner woman" I guess - lol. The second class is tomorrow. Since it's Saturday, I'll get to go also. I'm anxious to learn.

On Thursday, hubby met with the ABA provider to begin Elise's assessment process. It was basically filling out a lot of forms and explaining the process. He had to provide a full history. We're expert at doing this now because we've done it so many times.

I took Elise to her research study on Thursday morning. It was our videotaped session. We just played together for 10 minutes. Then, I took her to her class and came back to discuss it with the researcher. Elise is really showing progress and I'm becoming much more confident about how to gain joint attention in our play. We're beginning to have a lot of fun playing together - on both ends. After the research study, I met with the program's social worker again. Hubby met with the care coordinator in the afternoon. They discussed how Elise could do so much more, but something is getting in the way. She asked whether we would be open to medication. He answered that there would have to be a strong medical case made for us to consider that. Basically, we think that they don't really get her. She's so rigid not just because she's autistic, it's because it's who she is. I know that as therapists they know a lot more about autism than I do. However, I do know my own child better than anyone. She is who she is and that is a very determined, strong, fiesty, independent young girl. She will not fall for anything that she considers to be a manipulation. Well, she reminds me of my adult self and of her brother. Hubby and I had a good laugh later that if Elise, who is autistic, is so rigid that she may need medication, they should meet her older brother. He's not even autistic and he puts her to shame in the rigidity department. Seriously though, unless some proven medical reason STRONGLY indicates that medication is needed, we will absolutely not medicate her. We have serious difficulty imagining any reason justifying doing this to her. I love her the way she is, even if she is really difficult to teach. Deep down, I love and admire that aspect of her personality.

Today hubby met with her teacher. It was all good news of positive progress. Yea Elise! She's apparently showing really good receptive language skills. We've noticed the same at home. She understands so much now. We also went to her brothers' Holiday show at school. It was precious and I was really proud of the boys. I wish Elise could have been there and performing with them. Maybe someday...

I've saved the best for last. Elise has done some really significant things this week. She is now putting together sentences with her gestures and her babbling sounds are becoming much louder, constant and varied. She has a beautiful voice and I love hearing it. In research this morning, Elise was looking through these colored blocks that you can see through. I was interacting with her while she did this in order to play. She stopped looking and put it up to my eyes so that I could look through it. Sharing an interest is an awesome development. She also was expanding her play methods by using the various sets of toys together and using them in different ways. She even did a much better job of giving me a toy so that I could take my turn. In class, her abuelos saw that she was doing a matching game perfectly.

Last night, Elise was by herself looking through a toy magazine. She picked it up, still open to a page, and carried it right over to me. She then showed me a picture of a toy. I wasn't sure what she wanted, I was just excited that she brought the magazine for me to see. I turned the page to try to look with her. However that wasn't what she was trying to communicate. Since I didn't immediately "get" what she wanted to communicate, instead of throwing a fit, she returned to the original page, gestured "I want" and then pointed to the picture again. I was SO proud of her. I wanted to run right out to the toy store to buy it for her right then as a reward for sharing that with me. Of course, the problem would be that her brothers would pick up on that technique right away - haha.

Well, I guess I should think about sleep now. Tonight I'm filled with hope for Elise's future.