Update on Ben's speech and school OT for Liam

Today was step 3 in Ben's developmental evaluation process.  We met with a SLP for a speech evaluation.  I had alot of anxiety going into this appointment and had 2 seperate nightmares about it last night.  Ben talked young and if you have been following us, you might have noted how advanced I used to talk about his speech being.  Sometime this year his speech development stalled out.  I was in denial for a long time, but at 2.5, he isn't regularly combing words and is relying on delayed echolalia and memorized pat phrases alot.  I just didn't want my fears confirmed.

This smiling little boy was NOT the Ben the SLP met today:

Ben really does not like coinfined spaces and when he saw the therapy room, he freaked out.  It resulted in a 30 minute screaming, crashing, flailing, flopping meltdown.  He eventually stopped and began to explore the room, but then he would see the door and start crying or screaming again.  The SLP asked me if I knew about behavior therapy and started explaining ABA to me. 

The end result is that Ben has an expressive language delay and needs more speech therapy. 

Our last appointment is next week and by the afternoon, we will know if Ben has a diagnosis.

In answering the questions for the SLP, the OT, and the psychologist about Ben's development, all 3 pointed out that I have structured his environment as if he were on the autism spectrum.  Because of Liam's needs, we do alot of visual schedules, transition activities/songs, and I limit the boys to situation that I know will be difficult for them.  I wonder how much worse his behavior would be if I didn't do these things.  Ben has attended therapy with Liam almost his whole life and I wonder whether he has benefited from it.  H is higher functioning than Liam, but is it because he was raised and benefited from the changes I made for Liam?

Speaking of Liam, I finally heard back from the school OT.  She is going to work with Liam on handwriting skills for 6 weeks and if he doesn't improve than she'll do a full assessment and add OT into his IEP.  She told me that Liam has alot of strengths, mainly his problem solving skills are extremely advanced.  She also pointed out the areas where it was clear that ABA has taught him skills....mainly in his execution of play skills and his ability to deal with change.  It was good to hear that as Liam appears so high functioning that I know people question why I have him in so many hours of therapy.  But the school OT confirmed that he blends in so well because he was taught skills through ABA that he wouldn't have figured out on his own.

In other fun news, Ben now climbs out of his crib, and climbs out as soon as he is put down for a nap.