June has been "drag Noah to the doctor" month. Oh yes, he loves me for this. OT evals and speech groups and developmental ped appointments. Yay fun.
Today we went back for a follow up with the developmental ped and she gave Noah four dx's.
Sensory Integration Disorder, which I already knew.
Inhalant Allergies, which I could have told you any of the millions of times he's played with his cat and then turned into an allergy ball.
The other two were new, though.
She diagnosed him with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Yes, of course I knew he was on the spectrum, but the interesting twist here is that she DIDN'T want to give him an Asperger's diagnosis (the label he's had for two years). While he does have some of the defining characteristics of Asperger's, there's other stuff that is beyond Asperger's. This distinction she's made is super cool: it means Noah can potentially get services now that he's classified with autism. Phew.
Last but not least, Developmental Dyspraxia. This is the one I had to Google. Basically, it relates to both his motor planning issues and his language difficulties. He has difficulty planning a sequence of coordinated movements and executing plans.
The ped gave me pages of new homework assignments. I need to schedule appointments with speech specialists and allergy specialists and endocrinologists. I need to get computer-based math programs. I need to buy chewlery. I need to record descriptions of Noah's bowel movements in a stool log. I need to start him on a bunch of new suppliments. The list goes on and on. Good thing I don't have a new job starting or comps to prepare for or a fall course to plan or anything like that.
I may have a bunch of new things to learn and do, but I am excited for Noah. Answers, even partial ones, are wonderful things.
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