Earlier this week we had an Audiology appointment scheduled for our little guy, which is just included in the process of getting him into the Early Intervention program at one of our local schools. Once he turns 3, we loose our Early Steps program, the program we have been getting our therapy services through thus far. I was honestly just anticipating us going into a classroom, sitting with some ear phones, and waiting to see if Colin would somehow know to raise his hand when he heard a “beep”, boy was I wrong. That sounds simple right? Once I learned what the hearing test entailed, I was WISHING we were just doing the headphone “beep” test! Colin has a handful of sensory downfalls, he gets overstimulated easily, and doesn’t like to give up control to someone he doesn’t know. Wait, who am I kidding, the kid doesn’t like to give ANYONE control but, especially strangers. We had never been in a school environment before, he’s only 2, nor had we ever met the counselor we were seeing either. Which right there should tell you, a boy who easily gets overstimulated and doesn’t like strangers is not going to do good in this situation. Once we kind of, sort of, got situated in her office, between myself, my 6 month old, and Col, she guided us into this 6 by 6 box type room, full of tables and wires, and shut the door. She asked that I keep Colin on my lap and after an almost 5 minute struggle, I finally got him there. I looked up wondering how she was going to do the hearing test since she wasn’t in the room with us. Come to find out she was actually across the room from us in another tiny box with a window separating the two rooms, which we could barely see into. Our box wasn’t very lit and had clear acrylic boxes in different places with these creepy looking stuffed animals.
So, let me wrap this whole scenario up for you so far, in a sensory overload filled box with a bow on it….Colin easily gets overstimulated and needs to be in control of his environment, we’re in a place he has never been in before, we’ve seen about 60 kids walking too and from lunch (hello, play time! Can you say simulator?!), and now was just crammed into this little dark box with a lady he doesn’t know looking in on him. Imagine my surprise when he wasn’t cooperating. She started lighting up one of the creepy stuffed animal filled boxes and talking in a high pitch tone to get his attention. Basically, she was trying to see him turn or signal that he heard the sound. This would indicate whether or not he has hearing issues.
After a good ten minutes (15 all together) of me battling him in the box, with a woman I have never met before watching me scold my kid for, really, behavior he couldn’t control, she finally let us get out and said we could reschedule again in 6 months once he is more familiar with the whole “school thing.”
Whew! And that was only at 11 AM! Imagine how the rest of my day went after that!
I hope this helps give everyone a little update on where our guy is at and how much closer we are getting to the next step of our treatment process and education plan! I really wrote this one to let any of you other mommas out there know, who are beginning therapy or moving over into this step of the treatment process, what these little appointments are about and what to expect!
After peeling him off of the floor and bringing him down from a tantrum, I did take him for a nice lunch and to hit up the park for the Captain for practice his skills!
Thanks for reading!
[…] UPDATE: During the time while we were waiting for the test results to come back, Colin was given an Autism diagnosis from his PCP as well as an Individual Education Plan (IEP) from a local public school. We applied, and struggled, to get him into the Special Needs Pre-K program at one of our local public schools for a few months. Let’s face it, the poor kid needed some REAL social interaction and day care would likely kick him out on the first day based on his behaviors. Best scenario would be the teacher going home from his first night at the day care with only a couple bruises on her. So, we needed a place that he could not, would not be kicked out of and that he could learn social skills, proper behaviors, and really, give me a little break. A friend of ours and our AMAZINGGGG behavioral aid helped advocate for us to get him into the program. (See one of the steps HERE.) […]