Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Some amazing happenings!!!

Just real quick because I'm entranced by the 121212 concert-benefit for Hurricane Sandy, but Jeremy made a few VERY big steps today.

He requested a show on DVD, VERBALLY. This is very big. And quite amazing.

He had a poopy diaper that he DIDN'T play with. I'm not sure if he came into the living room to tell me or to bring me somewhere but there was no poop on his hands! These "poopy" incidents are occurring less and less and that makes me ECSTATIC!

The most recent step, just about 30 min ago, our Jer Bear had his teeth brushed without any fussing, crying, kicking or screaming. It was amazing. I couldn't stop praising him.

These little steps every day make all of the work the therapists and us do every day so worth it. I was starting to think that he would never develop these skills. So so so so awesome!!! Yay Jeremy!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

A new blog for a special person

Since Jeremy's "journey" in my blog  has taken on a life of it's own, I thought I would start a blog totally dedicated to his progress.
Last week I had a meeting with the service coordinator and the lead therapist. We discussed his review and his recent autism diagnosis. The regional center has approved the increase of hours for therapy. This makes me ecstatic, especially because we have seen so many super cool improvements already. The increase in hours (up to 15 a week including an hour or more of parent training) will mean their ability to work on self-help skills...including learning to use the potty!!
He is imitating all the time. He is more verbal than ever. His tantrums are still the same as well as the biting but we know how to deal with them better and we know where they are coming from so we know how to avoid them, for the most part. We make as many opportunities for him to request what he wants and he is very open to this. There are so many good things that I can only be positive about his future instead of scared straight!
The next step is preparing for his first IEP with the school district. I'm hoping to find lots of information about how to prepare for this. We need to ensure that he gets what he REALLY needs and not what the school THINKS he may need.

So for now we just continue therapy for the next month, enjoy Christmas in California and try to stay positive!