Update by Kirsten

OK, so I am a blogging slacker!!!!!! I promise I will get better (don't quote me on that:)). I will give a little update on where things stand with JC and our lovely ASD world:)

1. We had a parent/teacher (preschool) conference a couple of days ago. The good news is that it was all good news! Yay!!! I had feared that we would go through school never having a positive conference. Since my husband and I both work in public schools, we know the drill. Well, according to the teacher, JC has made a huge social leap in the past month or 2. When he started the school year, the other kids were basically pieces of furniture in the room to him. He would occasionally acknowledge them (when it suited his purposes), but was content to do his own thing. Now, only 5 months later, he has
1. run to greet kids when they come into the room
2. asked a friend to pretend with him (granted, it was some really bizarre game about making a goat colony, but who's complaining?;))
3. made silly jokes with friends
4. been asked on a playdate!
5. looked around & shown interest in what other kids are doing
6. joined kids who are playing something at a table

These may seem like small things to a parent of an NT (neurotypical) kid, but for us, this is HUGE!!!!

2. We decided to go back to our local DAN doctor for a check-in & to order more testing. We just don't have the $$$ right now to go to the big-wig DAN that we saw in July. He said he thinks that JC is going great. We are going to test some levels & do the dreaded poop test (it's soooooo gross!!!). We have poop issues too, and it really sucks! JC has been potty trained for a while, but he still goes 5-7 days between poops sometimes. I really think poop rules our world sometimes. He is a different kid when he is constipated. It sucks. So, we'll do more testing & then figure out where to go from there.

3. We are starting private OT again. We had done this in the past, but our insurance ran out. Now we switched insurance & we have unlimited sessions! Yay! We are going to the same person as Rachel and Jen (shocker!). She is awesome & hopefully this will help. Our main OT issue is self-help skills. If we can get this kid to put on his own clothes, socks & shoes, life will be great:)

4. Speech - we scheduled a private eval. It is expensive, but she is supposed to be great! We have no idea where he stands & that is what we need to know.

I will update again soon!