As I've said before, I hate them. I should clarify though, its more of a love/hate relationship. I like knowing where we stand by their standards and seeing his growth from the previous testing but the anxiety that comes with the whole process I could do without.
He has truly become a completely different child from the one I lived with last year. When we started sessions, he hated books and would scream at the first sign that you wanted him to sit and read one with you. Now he Loves sitting on the kitchen floor, paging through one of his two dozen books, happily talking to himself about the content. A year ago, he wasn't even talking to himself. He's babble a little but nothing like the nearly constant stream of sounds that come out of his mouth now. While he's had challenges learning "real" words can be used to communicate, he's learned to label like a wiz! I still remember the night we were looking through his communication book together and he just started blurting out the names of the animals on the zoo page. "Giraffe," "whale," "gorilla," not easy words by any means, but they were the first. I nearly cried, I couldn't have been more proud!
Besides his behaviors, most of his issues are centered around his lack of communication skills. Despite loving to chatter, he gets increasingly mad when we aren't psychic and can't anticipate his every want and he's forced to either try to convey it to us or do it himself. More often than not, he choices the latter. He has Incredible problem solving skills, annoyingly good. understanding that he needs to ask for things seems stupid to him when he sees himself as completely capable of doing it by himself, whether he truly is or not. Safety isn't a factor for him, he'd crawl across burning coals if there was a bag of cheerios at the other side. He's also just too clever to be tricked into eating healthier. Doctors think they are uncovering a gold mine of knowledge when they suggest hiding vitamins or veggies in his sandwiches or drinks. Umm, like I haven't thought of that before?! Thanks for the vote of confidence, nope tried it ages ago and big surprise, it didn't work! He will pick out the undesirable item or just give up on the meal altogether.
Xander has made so much progress in a little over a years time that I can't wait to see what the next year hold. I'm giddy at the possibility of holding a conversation with my son, no matter how small. Heck I'd settle for "Mommy?" someday. I know its in there, he's brilliant. And no that's not just my mom pride saying he's brainy, he truly is. With such limited communication, his scores for intelligence are in normal range, so when they can actually talk to him and ask him questions I'm sure it will reveal a much higher score. And really even if it doesn't show up on some test as a score number, he's brilliant. It's undeniable five minutes after meeting him. I truly can't wait to see what the next few years holds for us, challenges yes but the new skills and talents revealed with make them all worth it!
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