Grant had his evaluation at Vanderbilt. It was a long 3 hours, but I had been waiting so long for these answers. After going through our entire history and a lot of testing, that Grant thought was playing, we got our answers. The psychologist told us she could see how we got there and why we have concerns. It was such a relief that they could actually see what I was talking about. She said that if they only evaluated Autism by a child's behavior then Grant would have failed just about every aspect. Luckily autism is also evaluated on a social scale. This is where Grant shines. As we all know he is a very social kid and loves people. He did not hit any of the markers on that scale.
The dr said that except for autism they don't really give a child a diagnosis at this age because so much can change between age 2 and 3. (Because we are in a study we will go back after his 3rd birthday for another evaluation.) His temper tantrums; his insistence on a rigid routine; things having a specific place; and his daily (for lack of a better word) irritability are the major behavior problems we have. The dr said a lot of this is a sign of anxiety in a young child. What is behind this anxiety? We don't know yet, but dealing with the behaviors are our biggest problems. A problem we alone haven't been able to find a way around. I don't want to change Grant because he's an amazing little boy, but it's hard having someone screaming at you all day.
The problems Grant have are even more compounded with the language delay. Even though on paper testing he comes out average you can tell by listening to him that it takes a lot of work for him to get his words out. He has to think about everything and when he's frustrated he always goes back to nonverbal actions. Even she is a bit worried about him losing speech through the school next year because he might not keep up with the progress he is gaining. Dr said he will probably have some trouble starting kindergarten because of this and his rigidness about his routine.
On the cognitive testing he tested almost a year older than his age and the social was about 6 months above his chronological age. So this is great to hear, even though we know that Grant is one smart little booger.
The dr praised us for our work with the speech and the occupational because she could see how much that has helped him already. She did also suggest that we see a behavioral psychologist to help us work on or at least find a way around the behaviors. It has to be a pain to feel unhappy as much as he is so we are very willing to do this. We will go to Vanderbilt for this and after they get a plan of action together they will try to find someone closer to us to keep working with him. If they can't find one up here we will have to keep traveling to Vanderbilt.
I did ask about the ball obsession. The dr laughed and said he is defiantly atypical with the fondness (or complete love) of balls. She did say that right now we have bigger fish to fry with him and to try and use the balls to our advantage. He may grow out of it, he may not, but we can worry about that later.
There was so much to remember but we will get the written report in about a week, so if I forgot anything I will post it then. So no, the temper tantrums are not a normal 2 year old and he would not have just started talking one day, it's still going to be a lot of work for him. Mommy's always know best!
