New to Group- Hello!

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Laurie, and my husband and I live in Twinsburg with our

19 month old son, Cameron. I am a pediatric nurse, and have been a

stay at home mom since Cameron was born. My husband is an

optometrist. Cameron was born healthy, and met his milestones as he

should have until about 10-11 months old, when I felt he was lacking

in some of his social communication; no pointing, not always

responding to his name, not playing peek-a-boo, and not waving or

clapping. Our pediatrican told us to keep on eye on him, since

testing couldn't be done until around 18 months old. At 17 months

old, I couldn't wait anymore. We went to a developmental

pediatrician who basically asked us a bunch of questions and told us

Cameron needed speech and OT. She did no testing with him. So, we

found another developmental pediatrician who met with us for an

hour, and scheduled two 1-hour testing sessions with Cameron. We've

had 1 testing session so far, and go back this week for the 2nd. She

already told us that based on her findings so far, that Cameron

falls in the PDD-NOS category for diagnosis. This was not a surprise

to us, but still difficult to actually hear the words. She said to

continue with the speech and OT, and recommended some home-based

intervention through the Monarch school or Cleveland Clinic Center

for Autism. Because of Cameron's age and less severe diagnosis, we

chose the Monarch school. They are coming out Monday to discuss

their services.

I have great friends who love us like family, but they can't truly

understand what we are going through. We certainly know that things

could be a lot worse, and we are grateful that Cameron is fuctionig

at the level he is, but it is still hard to watch him try to

communicate, and not be able to. It is hard to see all of my

friend's kids talking and playing with toys appropriately, while

Cameron still makes baby noises and would rather open and close

cabinet doors than play. At his age, he can still get away with

some of the abormal behaviors and speech because people still think

it's " cute. " But as he gets older, it becomes more apparent that he

is differnt than other kids. My husband and I find ourselves

feeling the need to " explain " what he has, so that other people

understand, and not just think, " what is wrong with that kid? " When

people know, they seem much more understanding and accepting of him.

We aren't sure that is the best way to handle this, but it's our way

and it seems to work for us. How did you all handle it when your

child was first diagnosed? Did you tell people, to help " explain "

the behaviors your kids were displaying, or did you wait for people

to ask, or did you just not say anything?

Other than speech and OT, we are involved in Kindermusik and My Gym,

and have lots of play dates with our friends. Some days we are so

busy, I don't even have time to think about what we are going

through. Some days are bad, and it's all I can think about. So I

hope this group is a way to share those hard days, as well as the

triumphs we will have along the way.

Thanks for reading this, and I hope to get to know you all soon!

Laurie