Alphabet Soup

Well today was the "review of findings" for all the testing that Thomas went through last week. (He was being tested for Autism Spectrum Disorder.) It turns out that he is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. The doctor even presented Thomas' case to the diagnostic board at the autism clinic because he falls into an unusual diagnostic category. He falls under "has ASD and doesn't have ASD" so he shows some strong characteristics, but he shows enough non-ASD characteristics that they cancel each other out. It's very confusing. Thomas will need to be reevaluated in 12 months.

All of this might have left us right where we were, but it hasn't. Thomas did indeed have his alphabet soup added to. Not only does my sweet kid have SPD, but today we added ADHD and Anxiety Disorder NOS. (not otherwise specified) 

The part of this that is so reassuring is that the doctor we've been working with has been so great! He is knowledgable, helpful, fantastic with Thomas, and amazingly receptive to anything My husband or I have to say. Included in the 30 page report on all the evaluation results is a road map of where we go from here, suggestions for treatment, suggestions for Thomas' IEP and specific ideas on how to help Thomas meet his treatment goals both in school and at home. He has even offered to attend Thomas' IEP meeting if needed.

The first step will be enrolling Thomas in a social skills class at the ASD clinic since besides attention span, social skills is where he struggles the most. Because his vocabulary skills are so advanced, he will be put into a social skills class with slightly older kids. I think this will be great. 

We will also be discussing therapy for Thomas to help him deal with his anxiety problems, and possible medications if needed for the ADHD (though we plan on trying behavior modification first.) 

Also, there is another possible round of testing to go through, but we are waiting to hear about that.

All in all, I think Josh and I are comfortable with the information that we have, and the help that Thomas will receive because of it. We find ourselves back at the beginning in terms of new diagnoses, but one look at my kiddo reminded me that he is the same boy, no matter what his alphabet soup says.