Appointment!

We have an appointment with Dr. Berger in Tampa finally although it is a ways away from now - September 7th! Yup, September, which is to be expected. There were only a few availabilities for Sept. and then the rest in November. We are on the waiting list for any possible cancellations or openings, but I am not counting on any.

Adam and I have been busy researching and reading. We have been kicking around beginning GFCF diet full force instead of what we have tried in the past and looking into all aspects of that.

We are also kicking around starting Jake on a program called Fast ForWord for reading and comprehension as well as cognitive development. It is supposed to have wonderful results with children with Autism as well as be a really excellent accompaniment to an ABA program. This program looks to have fantastic benefits and is very suitable towards Jake's current areas of deficit as well as something that interests him completely - computer games! :) Unfortunately the program runs about $500 per month when you use a host program through a clinic in your own home. I can't imagine how much the program is to buy, but I have seen some crazy licensing prices. The good thing would be that most children use the program for 2-6 months. So we are only talking $1000-$3000..... ugh.

Its probably my imagination but Jake seems to really be opening up with more focus during our "home therapy sessions" He is able to identify his flash cards for color words with just a regular black type on a white card (we have progressed from colored cards with a white word for the color, the color word in its own color, matching the color word using a black and white flash card to a picture of the color, etc) We were thrilled with his progress. This weekend we will be starting our touch point math.

Hoping for more news to follow soon on his developments!

Updates

So, as we have been researching more and more on Biomedical Intervention fro Jake, Adam and I have come to the conclusion that we will need some further assistance on our approaches to this. We have found a wonderful and highly recommended DAN! Doctor, Dr. David Berger in Tampa (roughly 2 hours north of us)that we are now waiting for an appointment with after completing our registration as a new patient. DAN! doctors certainly are not cheap ($180 for 30 minutes) so we will be using his consultation and services as wisely as we can, going in with an array of info and ideas and hoping to come out with answers and a plan. We feel it will be worth it at this point.

On another note, Adam and I did call to remove ESY services for Jake this year. ESY is the extended school year services provided by our district for the ESE kids qualified for more "instruction" towards their FAPE. Yeah, well this program is from 9:30am-12:30pm Monday through Friday for a little over 3 weeks. He would be on a bus at about 7:45am to get to this school he was assigned to that neither we nor he have ever been to or even know anything about it, to be picked up by a teacher he has never met and who does not know him. Then he can sit almost another two hours home again on the bus. Now, for children who thrive on routine and familiarity, this situation is far less than ideal since by the time Jake becomes remotely comfortable with this teacher, ESY will be just about over so he is wasting his time there and we are putting him through an experience that will no doubt cause him some anxiety for nothing. So we called for him to be removed from the attendance for the summer.

Instead, Adam and I are drawing up our own curriculum & ABA model therapy sessions to do at home with help from others as well as training manuals, DVDs and more. It seems like it will be a ton of work and so far is proving to be both exhausting and expensive. We know he still won't get the amount of ABA he needs, but it is a start and something should be better than nothing.

Tomorrow is our last day of school and the boys are certainly rowdy tonight! Summer is just around the corner!!! :)