Keeping Up

Feb. 6, 2006 - Alphabet

I haven't had any posts about the little guy in a while. DS22months is growing by leaps and bounds. It's interesting how much more intense they were from DS4--since that is all we had to focus on! A is now singing the alphabet, and knows most of the letters by sight (out of order), too. He is also rote counting to 10, and can count objects at least up to 5. He knows his shapes and colors. He's building with Duplo blocks.

E learned the alphabet all at once at 21 months. I have always kind of figured A was "behind" that--still smart, of course, but not quite as intense about it. However, he is only one month older than that.

He loves reading books, and playing anything that E likes playing. When E plays blocks, he wants to play alone, but A won't let him. He's going to be so good for E's social development!

On that note, we had E's evaluation with the school district last Thursday. It was a very nice evaluation. They loved E--he had them completely charmed. He clearly meets the criteria for Asperger's Syndrome, which was nice (we're all in agreement--us and the psychiatrist). He will hopefully get into a social skills group, a small group that meets once a week for 45 minutes. I was concerned they would recommend the autism class, which is a 5 day a week preschool, and have no other option for us. They agreed, however, that it would not be an appropriate placement for him.

They were also very complimentary of all the work we've done with him at home. It was great to have that affirmation, as we're taking a different path than most in working with the Asperger Syndrome. Since it is primarily a deficit in social language and social interaction skills, most people outside of the homeschooling community are not so supportive of homeschooling a child like E. But these professionals felt that we were doing great. They saw how we seek out good social situations for him, how we teach him the skills he needs, and how he has learned them so well.

We also learned some new areas on which we can work. Specifically continuing in imaginative play. And of course, answering questions. Always answering questions. He was able to use his words, though, instead of screaming. "I don't want to answer that question," was a frequent response from him.

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Feb. 6, 2006 - Good for you!

Posted by Adrienne

I am sure that you are doing a great job with E! That is good if he is charming people at school, sounds like a good social thing to me! My Joshua is getting ABA therapy, something usually reserved for autistic spectrum children and it's working really well for him. The therapist says that she is doing many things differently with Joshua than she does her autistic clients because he doesn't need so much social work as they do, but he does need a lot of help with engaging for longer periods of time. It's helping!

Good luck with your little guy, there has to be someone close to you that is doing the same thing, there are so many homeschoolers out there and so many children with PPD. I hope you will find someone close to you that you can share with!

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