as most of you may know, xander started going to pre-school the beginning of march. he has "severe" speech delay (according to the speech pathologist's assessment) and qualified for funding from the alberta government to start going to school. he has his own aide (Mrs. N) who guides him in the activities to center more around his speech. he goes twice a week for about 6 hours total time, and he LOVES it!
well, he's been going for 3 weeks now and the speech pathologist has had a couple opportunities to observe him in the classroom to gain a better assessment. so yesterday we met with the speech pathologist and his teachers. everything was really encouraging!
- xander knows all his shapes, colors, numbers and letters, which academically speaking puts him right where he needs to be (even ahead of some of his classmates)
- his fine and gross motor skills are extremely well developed
- xander has excellent recall and memory skills
- he loves music and responds to that best
- words said alone are regularly said correctly, it is only when put into sentences that things get muddled
- when he does use complete sentences the proper syntax is typically being used, but it is just very difficult to understand
- in just 3 weeks xander has made leaps and bounds, and to say the teachers and speech pathologist were very pleased would be an understatement
we have been so happy to have xander in pre-school and have even noticed a difference at home. he is happier and trying harder to say what's on his mind. and we're even able to understand him a bit better (there is still a long way to go).
now while this is all great news, there were still some concerns with the speech pathologist. as she does her speech assessments she is always looking out for other markers or red flags that may be showing. after the few weeks he's been doing school the pathologist expressed her pleasure and confidence that his speech would soon catch up. she did express a concern about his social development and interactions though. some of his compulsions with putting this back exactly where they came from, lining up toys and organizing them in a not typical "playing" way, his extreme singular focus on an object he is playing with, never giving eye contact when expressing if he wants something. she suggested that perhaps his behavior problems (which he has) isn't stemming from his speech but that it was possible it was coming from a social deficiency. all these examples she observed while in the pre-school environment rang true to us. he has some compulsive behaviors at home and the never giving eye contact has been something he's ALWAYS done. since he was a toddler he would almost never look at you in the eye. i could go into great detail about all the indicators, but its not super important.
all in all, it is possible that the behaviors observed in xander and the red flags may fall into the autism spectrum. we can't know for sure unless he gets further testing (which will be done at the alberta children's hospital if needed). the speech pathologist was being very frank about her observations (which was appreciated). she can't say for sure if it is autism, but from 20 years experience i believe she would know the indicators. she is very good about not putting labels on kids and expressed her belief that it may be very likely that xander is just who he is and doesn't have any social deficiencies. time will tell. if he continues to grow the way he has in the last 3 weeks, by june it is likely that there will no longer be a worry for any of this.
so to conclude, are we worried? hell no. until we get him tested xander is just like any other kid with a bratty streak. i am not qualified to say that he has autism, and neither are you. so until a dude in a white coat with 15 phd's on his wall says my son falls somewhere on the autism spectrum there is no use even entertaining it (even though in my mind it is a part of the puzzle that seems to fit). xander is a good kid, smart and loving. he'll survive anything thrown at him.
on another note, for judy's first parent teacher interview she showed the teachers a neat trick: hiding thumb tacks in her mouth! way to go jude!
