Jeffrey

Today I (Brian) went with Jeffrey to his appointment with the clinical child psychologist, Dr Kauffman.  He has over 20 years of experience with children on the "autistic spectrum".  He has given Jeffrey a diagnosis of high-functioning autism v. Asperger's.  Asperger's is the least-severe form of autism; high-functioning autism is the next down the line.  If your child had to have a form of autism, you'd want them to have Asperger's because these kids don't have problems with speaking while those with autism do.  He can't tell right now which one Jeffrey has because Jeffrey doesn't voluntarily speak much for him.  The next year of development will tell...

For those of you like me who have only recently come to understand what it means to be autistic, I will give a very simple explanation.  Kids with autism have difficulty regulating their brains the way we do.  This results in problems with how they behave and how they process sensory and language information from the world around them.

The two main things with their behaviors are 1) inattention and hyperactivity, and 2) obsessions/compulsions.  For Jeffrey, inattention means he often seems "spaced-out" like he's not listening or paying attention, and it is difficult to keep him on task.  His obsessions/compulsions are seen when he spends hours spinning the wheels of his trains or opening and shutting doors.

The problems with processing sensory information mean that they often feel "overloaded" by all the lights, sounds, and actions around them.  While you and I can walk into a grocery store and "tune out" the various other sounds and happenings around us in order to focus on the task at hand, the child with autism experiences all of these things as an overwhelming barrage of information.  Often, when Jeffrey is overstimulated, he will spin around in circles, flap his hands (Ben does this too), or bang his head on things.  It's just his way of saying, "I need to chill right now".

Anyway, to wrap it up, we are getting official confirmation for things we have known for a long time now.  It feels sad on the one hand to have that sense of finality about it, but hopeful on the other because an official diagnosis opens the door to better understanding by all who love Jeffrey.  We will be able to get great support for him in Ohio; there is a special Academy specializing in meeting the special needs of these children that Jeffrey will be eligible starting in kindergarten.  Until then, we will be able to have him enrolled in a Pre-K program with these services as well.

So that's our story.  Please feel free to call or write us; we'd love to talk about it.  It's a time when we feel the need to draw close to our family members and help them understand.  We love you all.

Sincerely,

Brian.