Saturday, June 14, 2008

Psych Eval

Austin had his psych eval on Thursday. He's been evaluated by a neuro-developmental pediatrician in the past who diagnosed him but the regional center here in San Diego won't provide autism services unless you see the child psychologist. She didn't do any formal testing but did bring out several toys to see what he did with them. She also watched his eye contact with me and noticed that several times when he was signing, there was no eye contact but he did look at me when she was approaching him and he also responded really well to praise. She said that he was stimming a lot - hand flaps, toe walking, running, and climbing. And then he also had a few of his tantrums and even hit the dr. during one. I was dissapointed that he tantrummed while we were there but later realized I'm glad. As much as I would like for him to be the perfect angel during dr. appointments, I know it is important for the dr. to get an accurate (or at least as much as possible in a short time) picture of who he is so they can recommend exactly what he needs. The result of all this is we are getting ABA 2 hours per day and 5 days a week!

In other therapy updates, the therapeutic horseback riding center that I enrolled Austin in called and his first session is July 2nd!

I finally feel like we are getting somewhere now and I have something to look forward to.

2 comments:

Cyndi said...

10 hours per week of ABA...that's awesome! Matthew gets 6 and thankfullly Tricare pays for it.

I want him to also do the hippotherapy but there is a years long waiting list and a 19 page form to fill out...is that insane or what?!

Unknown said...

The 10 is just from the EI program here. I am still hoping to get more from tricare in the very near future!

I can't believe that about the hippotherapy there but I did read that it was becoming more popular as word keeps spreading about it. Maybe it will be less time on the wait; you never know; people move and such.