The Thomas Family

With Sean's injury, he now missed summer camp last week.  Aidan is turning three next month and recently completed his battery of tests and evaluations through the school district.  He has been identified as a child with autism and possibly having an auditory processing issue as well.  With the diagnosis comes a receptive and pragmatic speech and language disorder.  He has qualified for school district services and will start summer services mid July.  Aidan, like his older brother was only offered a part time program through the school district.  He will go to a school program that is 2 hours and 45 minutes a day.  Their theory for not putting him in a full day program was his age.  They say, they hope to get him compliant enough (in his behavior) that in January they will try to push for him to be in a full day program.  

The good news is, I have learned a lot on my autism journey.  I will be able to use my understanding of visual supports, redirection, distraction to help myself to help Aidan.  The difficult part is I now have two on the spectrum and there is no rhyme or reason to autism.  Even the most consistant mother's struggle with the non compliance, tantrums, and behavioral challenges that come with it.  I think one of the biggest challenges I face is friends and family and the opinions that come with it.  From the outside the kids look like the normal neighborhood kid, it's mothers of autistic children that truly know and understand that challenges and it hurts me when I hear people tell me, you just need to do this....   doing what works for the typical child, doesn't always work for the autistic child.  The best support anyone can give me is to read and understand about the behavioral challenges of a child with autism.  I also get a lot of comments that there is nothing wrong with Sean, well.. that's good news to hear.  I gave up my full time career to stay at home with him and dedicated all of my time and energy to help him get where he is today. My husband also works on redirecting their difficult behaviors with positive distractions. While Sean still has behaviors that are autistic in nature, he has come a long so far with his speech  that we are very hopeful for him.  I hope to dedicate the same amount of time and energy with Aidan.   The struggles of having two on the spectrum and a newborn, is I cannot take all three out in public.  It is physically impossible for me to keep up with them since Aidan will run and never look back.  At 3 years old, Aidan is 40 lbs and the only way to keep him from a tantruming situation is to physically remove him, which makes it impossible to handle the baby.  While I don't like to be stuck at the house, I am thankful Ian works from home often, because it does allow me a couple times a week to sneak out when the baby is sleeping with Aidan or Sean.  

I have learned a lot about Autism since Aidan's diagnosis (which was not a surprise to me), this go around I am actually going to utilize our private insurance to supplement Aidan's care.  I am going to see if I can get him qualified for private ABA Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy.  The kicker in getting all of this approved by insurance is not to have his coded with Autism.  Once that is coded on him, our insurance will automatically decline these valuable services.   My reason for the supplemental care, is I cannot trust our local school district to get it done. Since he will be in a half day program and Sean will be going to kindergarten full time in the fall, I will have some time before Aidan's half day program that starts around noon to give him supplemental services.

I ask for prayers of support for myself and my husband. Prayers that we stay strong and steadfast.  We've been strong, but at times we have our breaking points.  We don't get many breaks from the children which can make things difficult as well.