And Now a Few Words From Our Expert.....

Met with our new developmenta pediatrician at
Vanderbilt's Center for Child Development. We had a nice long meeting with Dr. Robert Couch who spent a couple of hours getting to know Sam and assessing his present situation. Lots of questions, drawing, a minor physical exam to check for balance, muscle tone, control, etc. Sam's sensory problems came out in full-swing as the doctor dared to try to lift him from the floor--you'd have thought that he was trying to skin him alive. It was panic-enducing. After about 15 minutes, at least, Sam was comfortable enough with him and the idea to let him pick him up (with arms straight at his side) about three inches from the floor and the "drop" him. He never would relax enough to lie in the doctor's lap on his stomach and "fly" across--we did see that he had the trunk strength to hold himself, but that was as far as we got. He was absolutely petrified to be suspended in that manner, which was actually new to me. I'll be looking at things we can do to work on that.

There was nothing earthshattering discovered at the appointment. He agreed with the dx and also agreed that Sam is very mild. So mild, in fact, that he might not even qualify for a couple of studies that are going on at Vanderbilt now (one is a sleep study and one is a gene study) or in the future, but he gave me information on both of them. He agreed with me that Sam's best bet for achievement in the classroom and beyond will be to give him a high-dose of interventions NOW while he is so malleable. He also pointed out that I should stress to the IEP team that an assistant in the classroom will be for the TEACHER to help teach Sam, NOT to do Sam's work for him. I've got to remember to make that disctinction.

He was impressed with Sam's vocabulary and imagination and discussions as most people are, but said at this point any further testing was needless since we have the dx and the services are being given. If, at some point, we are denied services that I think are needed due to his clearly flawed IQ score (since IQ isn't even valid at this age), then he said we might address it then. He also said that the only other reason to really delve into Sam's brain right now would be to try to look for causation, but in 90% or more of the kids with Autism Spectrum, there wasn't anything to single out, so that was generally a waste of time AND it wasn't as if things were going to be "healed" when we found them, so why go through it? We did agree that since my oldest son is very similar to Sam in a number of ways that this is probably a genetic thing (I'm seriously thinkning of having #1 tested on the Gilliam's scale).

As for any types of "treatments", he wrote scrips for Planguage therapy and OT in addition to whatever the school offers, warning me to keep in mind that they only have to offer what is "educationally necessary". He briefly mentioned that some children who are as, uh, "chatty" as Sam end up using some meds for ADHD, but he didn't think that it was appropriate to consider that yet since Sam was so young and we'd not had a chance to work on his classroom goals via behavioral methods yet. He also gave me the name of some resources at Vandy that I may need to use for the school and/or Sam's teacher--they offer training and even come to the schools for inservices or observations if our system is a client (I'm going to find out about that, too). He showed me some books that one of their educator uses that incorporate Visual Strategies in a number of ways. There are some great ideas for the classroom as well as at home. I'm going to purchase one of them for myself and then have a catalog with me for the teacher.

We go back in the spring. I want to check in with him and the educator to see where Sam is after half a year of kindergarten or so. I'll bring his IEP and ask them to look at it with me and see if they have any suggestions, additions, etc. I told Dr. Couch that my biggest fear was that I wasn't going to be able to get Sam the education that he needed and that he would miss out because we weren't dealing with him in the best way. I'm terrified that he'll just go to school and either flounder or roll along at his own pace, but in either situation, never realize his maximum potential. Of all my kids, he's the one whom I feel will be the most challenging to educate, not just because of the Aspergers, but also because of what I think is inside that head of his and I don't want a second rate education and lack of enrichment to be the difference between an adult who is able to realize a career with no limits and an adult who is miserable and can't hold a job or be happy doing anything.