Awesome News!

Today was Carson's last day of occupational therapy here in Amarillo. Because of this, his therapist Miss Audra, wanted to reevaluate him to see what progress had been made. When we started this in February Carson had a developmental delay in visual of 11 months. And in motor he also had an 11 month delay. For those of you who have never dealt with a child with some of the issues that Carson has, I can't begin to tell you how much better things are for him and us. Carson has a form of Autism called Aspergers Syndrome, and Sensory Integration Disorder. Both really seem to work hand in hand with each other. The biggest issue that we have had in the past with Carson has been complete lack of impulse control. In most instances where there was a reaction from Carson, was in instances where he was overwhelmed by his environment. The best way to describe this is that if we walked into a restaurant or some other place that was real noisy and/or crowded, Carson would become wonky and hyper. Wal Mart is a good example. There is so much going on visually, AND auditory, with intercoms, crowds and rows and rows of stuff to look at that Carson gets really hyper. But he is able in that environment to focus in one minute detail, such as what color the ceiling vents are at the very back right hand corner of the store, and that the light bulb is burned out in the third freezer door still. We have learned that deep pressure massage etc. on his back, calms him right down, almost to a catatonic state. This along with the removal of unnatural food dyes from his diet have made tremendous improvements in our day to day functioning. He has, however, developed a rather smart alecky mouth of sorts lately... I haven't found a cure for that yet.

In five months of therapy, we have gained almost 8 months. This is huge for us for several reasons. First we have learned techniques that help us deal with situations that completely overwhelm him (such as the deep tissue massage) and he is learning to recognize situations that he isn't comfortable in. He has gained confidence and a voice. He no longer gets as frustrated when he is over-stimulated. Impulse control is better... he still has frequent obsessions, currently anything dump tank related. CLICK HERE He has yet to show a dominate hand for writing yet. He is ambidextrous and the therapist was a little baffled that he can write and spell correctly both backwards and forwards. He also will change hands in the middle of a word, if his hands have to cross his field of vision while writing a long word.

This is fantastic because he now tests out at or close to age appropriate in visual and motor development. He is testing at above average in most intelligence areas, he is just slightly lacking in some social areas. We are going to continue therapy once we get to Virginia and hope that we can completely overcome the developmental delays of the past.