Life has done a bit of a lurch lately. Nothing dreadful, but still a lurch...
EJ has been regressing, quite steadily since starting school. Meltdowns are a daily occurrence once more and there are certain "traits" that have been becoming more and more prominent the older he becomes. Daz and I have been worried about him and have been hoping that he would settle back down and go back to his "normal" self. 9 months on and he is not anywhere near back to where he was. We WERE waiting for him to settle down again before taking him to the speech therapist, because he doesn't learn well when over-stimulated. We felt like we couldn't wait much longer so I took EJ to the speech therapist to get him assessed again and to see what speech therapy he will need. It turns out his speech has done very well, and he will only need a handful of sessions. Although he has some short term memory problems (this explains why he never does what I tell him repeatedly to do!) and will promptly forget things very quickly. He needs visual aids to remind him of things. My house is starting to become covered in signs for EJ! LOL
The speech therapist recommended getting him assessed for Aspergers. Suddenly things started making sense. Lack of eye contact, no hand gestures (you have to work hard to get him to point at something) obsessive behaviour, shutting down in social situations, poor social skills..... and the list goes on. I took him to the paediatrician and he strongly recommended assessment for Aspergers. So we are back to square one again, going through assessments and waiting on waiting lists for help. Thankfully with Autism SA, there is only 8-10 weeks to wait.
SPD is very similar to Aspergers, so there shouldn't be a huge adjustment to make - although on the upside there is SOOOO much more support and services available for Aspie kids. That will be good for him.
