Early Intervention
Well, we went to the early intervention center that was recommended to us. Zoë's already on the waiting list, which is fairly long. It's likely that she'll be able to start in the new year (February, when the normal school year starts). There may be a chance for her to start earlier, but it's not at all likely and we're not counting on it.
In the meantime, she'll continue private speech therapy and pre-school, and she'll probably be able to get occupational therapy through the public system. We're also looking into some other things that we can do at home to help her.
As for the center, it's quite impressive. They have all manner of recreational items, including a trampoline (Zoë got a giggle out of that, although she can't really jump very well, and she did bounce on it for a bit), a fully-equipped gymnasium, two small heated swimming pools, and a room full of colored balls that the kids can play in (Zoë saw that and just helped herself to joining in for a few minutes).
There are also, of course, many rooms with toys and instructional items, and lots of pictures around to help language-disabled kids find things, make decisions, and basically learn language in ways that help.
Zoë quite enjoyed her visit. I think she'll do well there. I'm a little concerned that she's not going to be able to get in sooner, but the diagnosis is quite recent, so there's not much to be done about that, unfortunately. The best we can do is take advantage of the services that are available and go from there.
Oh, it was also amusing to see that there was only one other little girl there today. Autism Spectrum Disorder affects far more boys than girls, and it certainly shows at the early intervention center!
Team Assessment
We went for Zoë to have a "team assessment" for Zoë today in our ongoing diagnosis process. We saw a nutitionist, a psychologist, and an occupational therapist, all pretty much at the same time. For Zoë, it mostly meant playing with various things. For us, it meant answering a lot of questions and so forth.
Well, it seems that she's got very strong visio-spatial skills (i.e., puzzles and drawing), to the point of being perhaps a bit gifted in that area. The occupational therapist was particularly impressed with Zo&eum;'s ability to do jigsaw puzzles that she'd never seen before, and that she can do a 24-piece puzzle she has at home.
Basically. her coordination and other physical abilities all appear to be perfectly normal, which is what we expected.
As for her diet, no surprises there, she's probably low on iron and needs to eat more vegetables. How we're going to accomplish that is a mystery to me, but apparently the dietician has some tips and ways to work new foods into Zoë's diet. We need to fill out a diet journal for a few days and then send that to the dietician, who can analyze it and make recommendations (which, I'm sure, will include "more red meat" and "more vegetables"), and also ways in which we might convince Zoë to actually eat the food she needs.
Since we've got an appointment next week to meet with the director at the early intervention center that was recommended to us, we'll just sort of wait and see how that goes before we proceed with further assessment or make further plans for occupational therapy or whatever. And of course, she's still seeing her private speech therapist regularly.
This week and next, she gets the formal speech assessment (in two parts), next week we see the intervetion center and also the peditrician again. Whew.
New word and other matters
Well, Zoë's got a new word that she uses regularly. Lately things are "nice". Last night at dinner she had some lemonade to drink and she took a sip and said, "Nice drink." She told me yesterday that her cereal was "nice", as well. Then, today, I was getting her dressed for preschool and I put on her sparkly pink sweater and said to her, "Do you like that?" and she cuddled into it and gave herself a little hug and said, "Nice!"
On other matters, she's rather stridently resisting using the toilet. I'm not sure why. She's just gotten it into her head that she does NOT want to go on the potty. I'm pretty sure she's aware when she's dirtying her pants, because she'll very deliberately go in another room or go out of my line of sight (and where I can't smell her) and then return when she's done. I'm pretty sure she's doing this specifically to avoid being noticed so she won't be placed on the potty.
Well, we've just gotten the book we ordered, which specializes in toilet training for autistic persons. I haven't had much chance to read it yet, but I hope it'll have some hints and strategies in it that will work. At the moment all I can think of is setting Zoë on a toilet schedule, but I don't know how well that will actually work (she's not a schedule sort of girl, if you get what I mean).
Anyway, with the speech and general behavior, she's doing quite well, and that's very encouraging.
Very good progress
We had a speech therapy session today. Zoë wasn't very cooperative as far as the actual exercises, but she was very, very communicative and friendly with Anna (the therapist). Anna commented on how dramatically Zoë's sociability and communication skills have improved, and I definitely agree. Her eye contact, alone, has improved about a thousand percent.
She's saying all kinds of things now. Not frequently, and her vocabulary is still quite small, but she seems to have caught on to the concept that communication is useful and helpful. It's like the light has come on.
Last night, she said, "Yum!" when I gave her cheese on toast for dinner. She also spontaneously said, "pussycat" when she saw me petting the cat. She's also (and this is a big step) learned what we mean by telling her to "say" something. We'll say, "Say bye," and she'll do just that (when she feels like cooperating).
It's not so much the specific words that she's saying, but more that she seems to finally understand the purpose of speech, and even when she's not actually talking, she's very communicative in other ways.
Her temper tantrums have also noticibly lessened, which is such a relief. She can still be as stubborn as a goat, but the thrashing around and screaming and so forth has gone to a minimum. Now when she's angry she'll sometimes sit down on the floor and kick her feet a bit and cry, but it's a gentle breeze compared to the hurricane she used to have. I don't know if this is because she's so much better at communicating and understanding us, or if she's just matured somewhat and gotten past that stage, or if it's the vitamins she's been taking, or some of all of the above. Whatever it is, I'm happy for it.
So the outlook for Zoë is looking very, very good. Her social skills have improved in direct response to her communication skills improving (which is precisely what I always thought would happen).
Hearing Test and some Interesting Information
Zoë had her hearing test yesterday. She passed it well enough, but she'll have to go back to be re-assessed because there was one test she couldn't do because she couldn't really understand how to play the game. It is pretty clear she can hear, though. Not that we had any doubt of this, of course.
Someone pointed me toward this story: Mozart as good medicine?, which is about a program for autistic children that involves music therapy. Reading the title made me smile because Zoë's nanna, the music teacher, always says that listening to Mozart improves your IQ. And, heck, we've got plenty of Mozart around here to listen to.
I'm looking into more information on this. We'll see what I come up with.
Oh, and the book we ordered has arrived. It's a book about toilet training autistic children. I hope we'll get some strategies to better help Zoë understand what we need of her. The whole toilet training experience has been frustrating for all of us.
Owww
I took Zoë to the potty tonight. She didn't ask to go. In fact, lately, she fights us when we take her to the potty. We don't know why, but she's just got it in her head that she doesn't want to sit on the potty for some reason known only to herself.
Anyway, I knew she needed to go by her body language and other signs I won't bother to mention, so I took her in. She had a fit, as usual. I put the potty insert seat on and she was thrashing around trying to take it off, and I bent over to get her when she managed to bounce up and smash me in the face with her hard little head.
I don't think I saw stars, but I did go black for a minute. I managed to scream/shout. Zoë started to cry. I called out for Andrew, and he came in (for some reason, my initial bloodcurdling shriek didn't rouse him from his television show). He asked what was wrong and I told him to get Zoë on the potty, but she'd already gotten on by herself, although she was crying. I was on my knees with my hands over my face.
When I finally took my hands away I found that both eyes were watering fiercely and my vision was blurry on the right side. Zoë had managed to crash into the ridge of my eyebrow, near the bridge of my nose. I'm actually kind of surprised I didn't pass out.
To end the story on a happy note, Zoë did her poo on the potty and got a little treat (a couple of mini M&Ms; no, we're not above bribery). I took some heavy duty pain reliever and had a cup of tea and although there's still a lump, the headache and nausea eventually passed. I also called Zoë over for a cuddle and told her I wasn't mad at her and hadn't been, I just had a big, big owie (she knows that word).
And I was reminded of the time a couple of years ago when a bouncing toddler Zoë managed to smash her hard head into my mouth so hard I saw stars and one of my top teeth actually moved from its socket (it did eventually go back, but it's never really been the same). This kid is gonna be the death of me...
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