Jeremy's progress

Jeremy has come such a long way since my last post. He has been in an Autism program for about a year now and is now in the program full-time. He now uses PECS (picture communication) and has a vocabulary of about 25+ words. His bad behaviors have decreased and he has come out of his shell a bit more. You can see parts of Jeremy come out all the time and we just love every second of it.

We were blessed with an awesome in-home behaviorist in November. I appealed VMRCs decision to not help with paying Kaiser Permanente's co-pays for Behavioral Therapy. In turn they offered a behaviorist to come in and help me with Jeremy. She has been a great source of knowledge and encouragement and I can't thank her enough.

Jeremy's IEP team, which consists of his therapists and teacher, are awesome as well. The most recent IEP meeting was very productive. There were about 10 of us there, including Hal and Ian. It was a family affair. LOL.

My two goals for Jeremy this year, aside from what happens at school and communication-wise, is getting him to the dentist and getting genetic testing. Both of these things are going to take both parents and possibly some sedation!!

I couldn't do all that I do without the superhuman support of my rockstar husband and kids as well as all of my family and friends. I really really appreciate it : )

Therapy for Jer

So the long and short of it is Jer will NOT be receiving applied behavior therapy at home, for now. The regional center saw that Jeremy is not in need (which I guess is a good thing) but that they want to send me to a 1 day parent training course. I however do NOT agree with this as his only option. I should have been sent to this class a long time ago, honestly speaking.

These people upset me. They don't really care, even though they say they do. At the end of the day it's all about money. I'm well aware that there are kids in my area who need these services more than Jer and maybe they aren't also going to school like Jeremy is but at the same time, someone needs to figure out how to get these services to EVERYONE. 

I just don't like how the whole system works. But for now I need to do what I need to do. 

Jeremy is off for now. He returns to school for a summer session starting June 10. The session ends July 18 and then he will be off until mid August I think. 

At this point, school is his only form of therapy. He needs more! 

So frustrated with this whole thing!

The good points are that Jeremy is getting more and more verbal. He (for now) has stopped playing with his feces, his tantrums are less intense and are shorter and he has for the most part stopped biting people. I'm hoping it's not just a phase but that the school is really helping in correcting these behaviors. 

The two things he could use behavior therapy for is running off and potty training but quite honestly I'm feeling that most of that is a 3 year old thing. And the fact that he's so stubborn!  

That's all the news I have for now. 

Hope everyone is having a great week =)

Update!

Hi all. It's been over a month since I've kept in touch about Jeremy. Things have been going along well. The need for more therapy is apparent. And thank goodness for insurance now paying for services! Behavioral therapy should start up again in the next 2 weeks or so. And we are so happy because we saw the most change in him with that therapy.
He had his first speech therapy appointment last Monday and he'll have his first occupational therapy appointment this coming Friday. Each of those is once a week. I'm hoping the regional center will help us cover those co-pays too since Kaiser is suggesting them for his Autism. The regional center is in the process of approving co-pay assistance for the behavioral therapy.

Anyway...there are changes on the horizon that are exciting and that I can't quite speak of yet. So stay tuned.

Also...
Jeremy is coming along awesomely with new words that he imitates. We are working on non-verbal commands and hope that therapy will start to guide us in the right direction so that we can at least start communicating in the simplest ways. We know it's all there...we just have to find the way to get to it in that beautiful brain of his : )

Quick update

-Jer is having a blast in school. Today, however, he had a rough time for about an hour. I got a call from the school at 9am.  His teacher said he wasn't wanting to do any of his normal stuff and was trying to leave with his back pack (cute!) The teacher gave him 20 more minutes to calm down, which he did.  When he came home he had a nice nap on the couch.
-Yesterday I had to vacuum the living room really quick. I usually wait until Jer is at school to vacuum but HAD to right then (long story involving poop). He usually starts freaking out, crys and runs around, almost a full meltdown. Well yesterday all he did was stare at it, run around and then go try to seenit after I put it away! Like Hal said...that's progress!
-One more quick thing: services for Jer (Occupational and speech therapy) are going to start in a few weeks. We have an intial evaluation on Feb 28th. We are very happy this is all coming together. And it's all being paid for by this wonderful state we live in :-)

Till next time!

School!

The first week of school went so well! With the exception of his impatience with how fast we get him on the bus, he is right on schedule with waking up easily at 6am, getting dressed and eating breakfast. Haven't yet incorporated teeth brushing yet because he's usually eating while walking out the door and it's only been 2 months since being okay with getting his teeth brushed. So maybe we'll brush teeth when he gets home!
When he's dropped off at about 12:30p, he's usually asleep and rarely stays asleep once I put him down in his bed unless he's completely out. But he's getting to that age where if he naps more than an hour it takes him longer in the evening to fall asleep which makes for a rough morning.
All in all he's doing quite well with all this change!!
The next juncture is additional services provided by Kaiser which will start in the next few weeks. Don't know how all that will work out but I'm hoping it will involve us meeting other families with our same situation. Been having lots of scheduling conflicts with the local meetup group that I hope will end soon. There are a few events coming up that I hope we can attend.
That's all for now.

Jeremy's 1st day of school!

Today was Jeremy's first day of school. We dropped Ian off at school earlier than we usually do so that we could get Jeremy to school in Manteca by 8am. I was ever so happy to have Hal with me to do this because he hasn't had the opportunity to get that involved with all that has been happening with Jeremy.

When we walked in to the classroom his teacher took him directly to his strip of cards and picked up the first blue card and walked him over to the play area where he was helped to place the card with velcro on the back to another blue strip. This will be the routine every day. Whenever there is something new to do they will direct him back to his own strip where they will take a card and bring it to where he goes next. He barely noticed us leaving and did not cry at all. Although I almost cried, and probably will, eventually. While I'm excited about the extra time I have to myself 3 mornings a week, I am going to miss my Jer Bear when Hal isn't here. My babies are not really babies anymore. Ian is going to start Kindergarten this year and will turn 5 in July!!

Because of this easy transition, we decided that tomorrow he would ride the bus to school and back home. The bus will come through the gate out on the street and greet us at our door, put the car seat on the bus then strap him in and leave and do the same when he comes home. We have to be ready at 6:45am for pick-up. After he's picked up on MWFs I will then drop Ian off at school. For the first time since before Jeremy was born, Ian and I will have time together in the morning to do the things we don't often have an opportunity to do with Jeremy (Zoo, McDonald's play place, bike rides, going to lunch). Jer and I will still have our own time as well which is awesome. All of these new beginnings and changes are good and long over-due. Especially the time I will get with just Hal on the one day a week he will have off where both boys are at school (until summer time for Jeremy)

Jeremy is still improving every day, and still amazes us with his smiles and laughter.

Jan 23-Update

Yesterday we received a call from the school Jeremy will start attending next week, McFall. He is all set to start school next Monday. I will drive him to school and pick him up for the first day to see how he does. On Tuesday he will be picked up by a bus that will transport him to school and back home. He will sit in his car seat on the bus. He tends to go with the flow, which is a great quality for a child with autism, so we aren't too worried about how he will do with it. He has been on a bus with us before and enjoyed it. He tends to enjoy his car rides anyway. It will just be a matter of adjustment to not having us around, which, at some point is something that he has to be okay with. I think he is ready!

Today we have an appointment with the Autism Department of Kaiser in Rancho Cordova. Just Jeremy and I. Not sure what will come of the appointment. If it begins additional services then I'm ready for it. I have all the paperwork I was sent filled out and all the assessments and evaluations that have been conducted over the last few months all ready to go.

Over the last few weeks since Therapy ended, Jeremy's vocabulary has grown so much! There has been so many more words, much more eye contact, less tantrums, more cooperation and lots more playing and laughs!

Now off to get ready for the appointment!