Signs

The boy loves signs.

He posts them all over the house.
They seem to tell you a lot about him and his interests.
What's his favorite day of the week?Which animals does he think are "extinct"?
Where do animals live that is REALLY cold?
What time is it?What's your favorite movie?
Can Rhiannon play in your room?

Being Fair?

The boy has been breezing through this year with high marks in all areas ... with the occasional lapse in good judgement when it comes to "hand placement". As in "not keeping them to himself".
My official stance on it has to kind of just take it easy in that area. I mean, I've seen the other boys in his class, we've gone to a party where all the boys in his class attended. Brogan was by far NOT the worst behaved. Infact, he gives them PLENTY of opportunities to back off before his hands start flying.

One of the E.A.'s in his class commented that I'd hope it'd be fair when it came to punishment and wasn't it a shame that it's not?

All I could do was snort and tell her since the day I discovered Brogan is Autistic all thoughts of "Fair" have been far from my mind.

I'm realistic. I know people look at "special needs" kids differently.

I could easily have been blamed for such things myself.

They recently tested all the kindergartners in their math skills.

The results made me cringe.

The "test" had 18 questions on it.

He scored 6/18.

ONE MORE than he needed in order to get tutored.

Great. Just great.

They're all concerned because he doesn't understand the meaning and placement of words such as "more" and "equal to".

Word concepts elude him

Give him a simple number equation and he'll get the numbers right every time.

But he needs to do more than grasp the concept of numbers.

He needs to know how WORDS work with it.

Great.

Yet ... they won't actually DO anything to help me.

Just bring the problem to me and say, "Fix it, or he'll fall behind."

Well, scr*w you.

They have the resources. They have the experts.

But I have a whole lot more determination than you do.We're going to make you all look like a bunch of baffoons.

Just see that he doesn't.

'Bout Time

The other day my dad called me for an update on Brogan.

I know if he's calling for an update it's been a LONG time since I updated his blog.

First of all: Thank you.

Thank you Mom, Pat, Kari, Tina, Dawn, Jenie, Dad, Sarah and Curtis for donating to out cause. You all rock. With your donations we met and exceeded my goal by almost 100%. Next year I'll remember to up my goal.

We didn't actually walk in the walk as the amount of people absolutely pushed Brogan past his endurance point. He started chanting, "We've gotta go. We gotta get outta here." Over and over again as we were milling through the people waiting for the walk to start. Then started struggling to get away from me when I tried to calm him down. So instead of doing the walk we wandered through the exhibits. It was actually a really good way to do things. We still got to participate, meet new people and find more resources ... but didn't have to deal with the crush of people.In accordance with my desire to get more involved and more proactive, I also agreed to allow Brogan to get involved with a sleep study the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston is conducting.

In order to do this I had to take Brogan off his liquid Melatonin for two months for a "complete wash out" to give them true readings. I only did it because I hope with the results of these studies other parents will have questions answered sooner than mine were and get "good" sleep a whole lot earlier than I did.

We went down for a full evaluation of Brogan in late November. They obviously don't want children who are not Autistic participating in the study, so they have to screen the children for "real" candidates.

We met with a child physcologist who specializes in Autism. She put him through a battery of tests that were trying for me and a bit frustrating for Brogan. Not harmful in anyway, just hard for me to sit back and not help him out.

I guess you'd say he "passed the test" as he was admitted into the study. Woohoo (?)

The study itself went ... well. We were put into a dark (the only light being a tv) hospital room for 25 hours and his Melatonin levels were monitored through his saliva and urine. I think it can safely be said that HIS melatonin levels are zip while MINE are working just fine.
We played games, drew pictures, read books, watched tv, ate ... I have never been more thoroughly bored in my entire life.

Brogan put up with it way better than I did.

I was stir crazy by the time they released us.