5/1/2011, 20 Rounds:
We have made it through 20 rounds! My 3 yr old has made great strides! The most noticeable change is his speech. He talks all the time now, describing what we’re doing, what he’s doing, what he wants to do, things he sees. The biggest thing for me is that he’ll joke with us. He’ll do things like point to my mom and say, “That’s Bandit! Nooo, it’s Grandma.” Or “The truck is red; nooo, it’s yellow.” Prior to chelation, he would only label when prompted and did not put words together. Here is a list of some of his issues and how he is doing so far.
Inhaled allergies: No more constantly runny/ stuffy nose! This cleared up within the first 3 months of chelation.
Eye contact: Great! He will move my head or get right in my face and say, “Mommy, look at me” to get my attention. No more sideways glancing; that resolved long ago with extra vitamin A.
Receptive/ Responds to name: Yes! Also, of note is that he does not wander away anymore, but stays right with us.
Receptive/ Follows directions: He is able to follow most of what I ask of him, sometimes gets a little stubborn/ cranky when told, “no,” but that seems typical of his age group. Sometimes, it feels like “terrible two’s,” but it’s better to have him engaged with us and cranky than not at all.
Lining up objects: He doesn’t line up all the family pictures and knick-knacks in the family room anymore, but he will make a line of books and use it as a road for his cars or he will line up his brother’s Transformers. He still also lines up cars. So, I still see it a little bit, but it’s nowhere near what it used to be.
Expressive: Prior to chelation, he would label objects when I asked him; now he’ll describe things he sees and he’ll also give me some nice long sentences like: “I made a big mess, down in the basement.” My response: “Great talking, R---!” Not your typical mom answer, right?
Pronunciation: More people are able to understand him. He is now able to pronounce things like: helicopter, which, last fall was: “googiecopter,” now it’s “helicopter” and fire truck used to be: “googie truck,” now it’s “hire truck.”
Jargon: This is my son’s biggest “tell.” It has gotten better; sometimes a few days go by and I don’t hear it. We were at a playground a few months ago and I had to laugh when I overheard a 5 yr old say to his sister, “Don’t bother talking to him; he doesn’t speak English.” I would have thought with all his talking that the jargon would be gone by now, but I have to remember that talking is still rather new to him, only starting within the past 6 months. I have to remind myself how far we have come. Sometimes it seems that the faster he progresses, the faster my expectations grow, sometimes outpacing him. I have to remember all the milestones he missed and all the time that we have to make up for. He can only learn so fast, even with all this intervention.
Limited interests: He has progressed from just playing trains and cars to wanting to dress up as Spiderman, and playing things like Transformers and Batman with his brother and he’ll play games like Candyland and Zingo.
Sharing: Recently, this has become a problem, although I view it as part of his progress. He is at a stage where he doesn’t want to share, so when he sees something of particular interest while we are out, it belongs to him. At the playground sand box, there are a lot of trucks- apparently all his- and he gets really mad when any other kid plays with any of them! This has lead to some irate moms telling me off; hopefully this phase will pass sooner than later!
Potty Training: This is progressing, we are up to 1.5 hours of dryness before potty breaks. (We’re following his teacher’s method.)
Fine motor: Not sure yet, but he enjoys drawing. He is starting to write letters by himself and then proudly labeling them after he’s finished. This is promising!
I was so happy with his IEP annual review. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one seeing progress, so it was nice to hear his teacher say how much he has progressed and his speech therapist went so far as to talk about “prognosis” saying that she sees his personality shining through and that from what she has seen, it’s a good sign at his age.
His teacher said that during his ABA time, he gets a look on his face and she knows he’s going to give her the wrong answer, and she says: “I’ll have to mark this as wrong, if you don’t stop being silly!” His speech therapist said that sometimes when she asks him questions like, “where is the dog,” he’ll give her a funny look, like she should know where the dog is!
I am open with the school that my goal for him is recovery. I haven’t said exactly what I am doing, but if asked, I would. It’s important to me to spread the word that autism is treatable and recovery is possible through biomed. I feel like I have to keep myself in check, because I want to get the message out, but I don’t want to be preachy.
