A Season Of Change

Our family has undergone a good deal of change in the past few months, but none moreso than our sweet Nolan. Since right around last Christmas, when Nolan was 2 years and 3 months, I noticed that his communication skills weren’t on par with other kids his age. I chalked it up to the fact that 1) he’s not a chatty girl, 2) he wasn’t in preschool, and 3) that he didn’t have an older sibling to “keep up with.” During the spring, when his communication didn’t worsen but also didn’t improve, I began to think I should pay closer attention to what he said and was able to respond to. I noticed that he never used the words “I” or “mine” which are a huge part of “standard” two year old vocabulary. He also was not using more than three words at a time, would not say “yes” to questions I knew “yes” would be his answer to, and would not talk to or socialize with his peers. This summer, to “err on the side of caution,” I completed paperwork for Nolan to have a speech evaluation with the school district. Four days after his third birthday we went to meet with a speech and language pathologist and our family has not been the same since.

The speech therapist was wonderfully sweet but very firm with Nolan as she proceeded with her evaluation. Nolan was belligerent, unable to follow directions and had difficulty completing the tasks she wanted to see him perform. I sat and watched with a heavy heart as Nolan could not respond in the appropriate manner to her requests. About a half hour through our one hour evaluation she stopped and said “Charla, I think there’s more going on here than just speech and language issues. I think it would be best for Nolan to have a thorough evaluation by our school psychologist and special ed team.”

My heart sunk thinking that my precious little boy was something less than “whole.” Todd and I grieved and prayed and grieved some more as we waited to hear what the next steps would be. Since mid October Nolan has had three additional evaluations and we are awaiting our “IEP” meeting on December 2. At the IEP we will not receive a diagnosis per se, but rather an educational plan to help Nolan through his issues. He does meet the educational criteria for autism and will be placed in a special ed preschool. We know he will also receive some occupational therapy and attend the school district’s Center For The Early Intervention Of Autism (CEIA.) From talking with other parents, we know that this program is pretty hard core and difficult on kids, but that it unequivocally works. We should expect to see progress quickly with the ultimate goal being that Nolan would attend Kindergarten in a mainstream class.

We have so many questions and so few answers at this point. Gratefully, our sadness has been replaced with great hope that Nolan will make huge strides and be able to function well…just with more guidance and molding than other kids his age. We feel so blessed that we live in the school district we do. If we lived even one town over the resources wouldn’t be there and we’d have to find other (much more expensive!) ways to help our son. Our journey is just beginning and we know it will be a bumpy ride with many potholes, unexpected detours and break downs, but we have hope that we will reach our final destination—Nolan’s complete wellness.