Since the topic of developmental delays, early intervention & speech therapy has come up with some of my DIS-friends, I thought I'd post an update on what's been going on with us.
As you know, our son, Alex, was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, a form of autism when he was 2. He has received years of intensive therapy, speech, occupational, behavioral, social, educational... He is now 8 and doing well - still involved in a lot of therapy and structured programs. Zachary is 3 years younger, currently 5. Since the origin of autism is unknown, we have kept a close eye on Zachary from early on. We had him evaluated twice through early intervention (in NH early intervention covers children birth to age 3 who have a developmental delay of 33% or more). Each time we were told that he is right on track.
Last year we started noticing some social issues at school - he wasn't exactly fitting in with the other kids. He wasn't always "getting" what the other kids were talking about. We made the decision to give him an extra year of preschool and hoped that what we were seeing was due to his age - he has a September birthday and our school cutoff is September 30th. He was as much as 11 3/4 months younger than his class mates.
Zachary is also an "active" boy with strong opinions. Some might say these are signs of ADHD... He has also shown some signs of obsessing on certain topics. For almost a year, everything was about lizards, then he moved on to space & now all he can talk about is the Wii & Mario. Some might say these are signs of autism... He also has some odd characteristics that we have attributed to learned behavior from his brother.
Just writing all of this down paints a clear picture of a problem... but it's not that simple. None of these things are a glaring problem - they are all very subtle issues. And the school year couldn't have gotten off to a better start - he is very popular with his classmates (a class of "older" 4 year olds who all turn 5 during the first half of the year - Zachary is the oldest). We were feeling pretty good about things...
Until... Alex had an appointment with his psychiatrist. I brought Zachary along, which wasn't unusual. The doctor had gotten to know both of them. One day she turns to me and says, "Have you had him evaluated?".
After that sunk in, I started noticing some more red flags - temper tantums, obsessive interests, missing subtle social cues, not so great eye contact (an issue from early on that had been dismissed)... We were also noticing a lot of complaining.
I called and made an appointment right away at the hospital where Alex was diagnosed. They weren't accepting new patients, but said they would see Zachary - but our old doctor had left so we had to wait to get in with a different one. Luckily we got in with one of the doctors who has been there for a long time. I called in November?? and Zachary's appointment is March 9th.
In the meantime, I got him into one of the social groups where Alex goes (different group for younger kids) and started taking him to a social worker for play therapy. Not only does she work with kids with disabilities, but she also works with siblings of kids who have disabilities. A perfect fit for us!
Since starting therapy, the social worker has diagnosed Zachary with separation anxiety & general anxiety disorder. The poor little guy is stressed out!! This helped explain some of the rigid behavior and temper tantrums we were seeing. Plus much of his complaining was related to not wanting to go to school, not wanting to go to social group, etc. He always has a great time when he's there - he just has a hard time separating.
I feel good that he's getting the support he needs and am hopeful that it will help him. But we still have that appointment ahead of us...
I'm not sure what to expect - it wouldn't surprise me to have the doctor say that nothing is wrong. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that he has ADHD or have a confirmation of his anxiety issues. But it also wouldn't surprise me to hear that he has Asperger's syndrome (a high functioning form of autism).
I'll keep you posted on how things go... I have a meeting with his social worker on Wednesday - she wants to update me on how things are going before our March appointment for the evaluation.
I need a vacation!!!!!
Next: How Alex is keeping us on our toes!
(I'm so happy the banana is back!)
How frustrating to not be able to get an apt. until March! Please continue to keep us posted on everything. 
