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Nate is Our 1 Out of 150 Children

Look at that face! It's beautiful. It's also the face of autism. For those of you that don't know, Nathaniel was diagnosed in October 2006 with PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified), a mild form of autism. You can check out more information at this site. http://www.autism-pdd.net/ To most people, Nathaniel looks like a typical 3.5 year old kid, but it's often when they ask him a question and get no response or a jargoned response, do they realize something's just not right. When Nathaniel was 18 months old, he was evaluated because he still hadn't said his first word yet. That was when we first heard the utterance of autism. Upon having more extensive testing done, it was at first determined that he was NOT autistic. But a year passed and at a checkup with a specialist, it was quite undeniable that he fell on the spectrum somewhere. So beginning in November of 2006, Nathaniel began a very intensive therapy/schooling schedule (the best possible treatment for a child like Nate).

And that brings to me to my reason for posting today. Joe and I had a meeting with Nathaniel's school team yesterday to discuss how he's progressing and the possibility of extending his hours. I was the proudest mother on the planet yesterday when I listened to his improvements just since the start of his ABA therapy (Applied Behavior Analysis). To read more about ABA, visit this link. http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/aba-therapy.htm Here is the list of areas where Nate has improved greatly:

• Using Peer Names
• 2+ Word Utterances
• 2 Attributes to Words (Blue Book, Red Ball, etc.)
• Spontaneous Requests For "Help"
• Spontaneous Greetings to Peers/Adults
• Singing Songs and Doing Appropriate FingerPlays
• Increased Eye Contact
• Decreased Echolalia (The uncontrollable and immediate repetition of words spoken by another person.)
• Answering "wh" and Yes/No Question
• Commenting on His Surroundings (It's cold.)
• Decreased Behavioral Problems (Biting/Hitting)
• Verbalizing Locations Within the School (Saying Gym, Cafeteria, etc. as he walks by.)

Some of the things that they've been working on during his ABA sessions are:

• Do This (Getting him to follow a one-step instruction.)
• Give Me (Having him identify an object and giving it to the teacher.)
• Touch Your... (Body Part Identification)
• What's This? (Where the teacher will point to body part and he has to vocalize the word.)
• Put On/In/Under (Where Nate has to identify if the object is on/in/under another object.)
• Naming and Identifying Seasons
• Naming and Identifying Weather
• Naming and Identifying Animals
• Naming and Identifying Shapes
• Spelling his Name
• Identifying Teachers By Name

He's been doing VERY well with all the above mentioned things. One of the points of ABA therapy is that once you've mastered one skill, you have to be sure to revisit it later to be sure that the original skill wasn't lost. So far, Nathaniel hasn't exhibited any signs of losing any of the information he's learned!

We also found out over the weekend that Nathaniel can spell his own name (vocalizing, not writing). We bought him some Valentine's for his classmates and so I decided we'd practice writing his name - Nate instead of Nathaniel since it's shorter. So we had his little Magnadoodle out and using hand-over-hand instruction, we wrote out an N...and then A...and then T...all the while, Nathaniel would say the letters as we wrote them. When it got to E, we wrote E but he said "H". Joe and I just looked at each other and so I erased the E and put H. I asked him what came next and he said "A". Sure enough, he knew how to spell Nathaniel. And then after the meeting yesterday, we learned that they've been working with him on spelling his name. They use a strip of laminated paper with velcro pieces on it. The letters are velcro as well and he will take the letters and spell out his name.

We are just so proud of him and all the things he's accomplished so far. At the conclusion of the meeting yesterday, we decided to increase his hours to almost 30 hours of school per week. For a child of only 3.5 years old, it may seem like an overabundance but it's really not. Nathaniel LOVES school and never seems to tire of it. And according to the "experts", this rigorous school/therapy will surely benefit him in the long run. Now if we could only get him as excited about potty training as he is about school.

I also want to point out that Nathaniel having autism is not a secret. No one should feel ashamed or that they should hide it from their friends when talking about Nathaniel. Just as he has brown hair or gorgeous green eyes or is right-handed, he's autistic. It's who he is.

I've decided that as we have updates regarding his progress, I'll just include them on here so everyone can keep up! :)