White coat number one

since i've been home from Nepal it seems like it's been week after week of appointments for Xander. first the occupational therapist in Pincher Creek (where he had an EPIC meltdown), then another referral from the occupational therapist to Children's Services in Cardston, then an end of year IPP with the school, and finally an appointment with the school district's psychologist. it seems like the farther with get into it my heart breaks just a little bit more for him, but i also become more assured as well. it is a very polarizing feeling.

last week Xander had an appointment with the school district psychologist. i was sort of anxious about it since it was last minute and at one of the last appointments we had i literally... not figuratively... LITERALLY dragged him out of the appointment. Xander has little to no tolerance/patience when it comes to any kind of sit-down testing environment. so when they called that morning for an in-home appointment that afternoon i was worried Xander didn't have enough lead-time in order for me to prep him for the visitor. i won't say who the psychologist is, I'll just call him Mr. B. but he is the son of my family doctor growing up and is one of 14 children. that may narrow it down for some of you.

well the appointment came and luckily judy was down for her nap. the less distractions for Xander the better. Mr. B had his attention right off the bat with a stuffed turtle puppet called Tom the Turtle. Xander introduced himself as "Xander 'Chocolate' Van Orman". he and Mr. B sat across from each other at the kitchen table. i was worried when Mr. B got out his big binder of testing materials. i honestly thought "oh great, once xander see's that it will be all over." but xander actually sat and did the testing! i couldn't believe it!

the testing started with naming object. in the binder where pages with four different (but related) pictures on it. from the four pictures Xander had to identify one. for example, on a page that had a picture of an ear, eye, nose and mouth the tester would ask "show me the nose" then Xander would have to point at it. Xander would point at the object, but then want to name all the other objects as well, which isn't strictly the protocol of the test but Mr. B just rolled with it.

they did A LOT of naming objects. and from what i could tell (i was instructed to leave during the testing), xander pretty much aced it. it wasn't very often that he didn't know the object he was being asked to identify AND the others on the page. then it got a bit more tricky. he was asked to identify more "abstract" things. things like: curly, shaggy, fast, wet, etc. i think he did okay on those. but some i think he just didn't know.

then Mr. B brought out some little red blocks. Mr. B would arrange the blocks a certain way, then ask xander to do the same with his blocks. Mr. B would time him too. Xander liked the blocks a lot and was sad to have them put away. in fact, xander got so upset that he left the table and pouted on the couch. he didn't have a melt down though. just pouted on the couch. so we had a break, he had some ice cream, then he was ready to go again.

Xander then had to answer questions. questions like "what are the colors of the rainbow", "what finger is this", "name me some animals", to which Xander answered by making the animal noise THEN named the animal. for example "oink oink oink, a PIG!" i don't think he got bonus points for knowing the animal sound. he knows all the colors of the rainbow, but wouldn't answer that question. and when asked "what finger is this" he said "one" but the correct answer was "thumb". but i think he should've been given half points since when xander counts on his hands the thumb is always number one.

xander was also asked "how do you stay dry in the rain" to which he kept insisting "you get WET in the rain". the correct answer was obviously "umbrella", but you've got to admit that xander's logic makes sense.

there were also some puzzle type "games" then a interview/questionnaire with me. we covered a lot in the questionnaire. we talked about xander's elephant like memory and how he's been doing in pre-school, etc.

Mr. B asked if the speech pathologist had said anything to me about what she thought might be going on with Xander and I said "yes, ASD" (autism spectrum disorder). he said, okay, and that he was seeing a lot of the same things that would point to that. these are the points that my heart generally breaks a bit. but he also gave me some very reassuring feedback. cognitively xander will likely not have any setbacks, whereas many children with ASD do. many children with ASD are NOT high functioning, whereas xander appears to be very high functioning with no physical or mental disability. Mr. B said not to be surprised by anything in the future for Xander. Mr. B also expressed his thoughts that Xander is absorbing a lot of information and has a lot going on up there (in his head). Mr. B said he needed to tally the test results, but he was fairly certain that xander's vocabulary was better than average too.

so what does it all mean??

i don't know. i'm still trying to figure it all out. and maybe in the long run it will end up meaning nothing.

but this is the way i am seeing it now: every kids grows up with an obstacle, and this one is xander's. but it is only and obstacle, not a dead end. there is a way around every obstacle in life, and this one will be no different. his obstacles will be in the social/behavioural realm.

Xander has made leaps and bounds since he started pre-school. he couldn't have done it without his teachers. i am excited to see what another year of pre-school will do for him!

that is his preschool class on their field trip in waterton. Mrs. N is Xander's aide (holding his hand), then Mrs. F and Mrs. W the pre-school teacher. they have been awesome and Xander loves them so much!

Xander has a Dr's appointment (Dr. Harilal) the second week in August. Mr. B will be there and this one, i guess, will be for diagnosis/prognosis, etc.