Pre-School Update!

I could not have hoped for this to go any better! In fact, i didn't dare hope that what did happen, could have happened.

We went in, talked to the psychologist, and she sat and played w/him for about 30-45 minutes. When they where done, we talked about the things that concerned me (not necessarily things he did while he played) and the things that she saw. Her main concern, was the echolalia. You can't really have a conversation w/Mason. He'll ask/answer questions, but that's about it. If you try to engage him conversation, he will mostly just repeat back to you what you said to him (echolalia). This is very normal and common in very young kids, as they learn to talk, but at 3.5, he shouldn't be doing it (or doing it as much as he does....it wasn't clear to me.) He played normally w/all the toys and was happy to show off his knowledge of colors and the various other objects there :). He was very cute w/her. She made a comment about him not having good eye contact. I didn't even know that was an isssue, as he makes good eye contact w/us all the time. The longer we where there, the better his contact w/her got, so apparently, it's something he does w/people he doesn't know well, or is uncomfortable w/. I was totally shocked to hear that. It's something I'm going to have to keep an eye on when we are out.

She is, at this point, recommending for him to go to Westlake (sp. ed. pre-school) in the fall. We won't get an "official" recommendation until she observes him in the class for a couple days, but that won't happen until the fall. She did say, that if we wanted, to keep him enrolled at DNS (typical pre-school he's registered at) and let him go to Westlake also. The thought behind that is, that at DNS he'll be surrounded by 'typical' peers. Having peer role models is the best way to learn to interact w/other kids (fortunatelly, since they are only a year apart, Hayley is considered a peer too). He won't need to be at Westlake 5 days a week (probably 2 days), so he can spend 2 days at DNS, and 2 days at Westlake getting the therapy that he needs. I need to call Donna from DNS to run this by her, but it's probably what we will do. We will also keep him in the Group Behavior Therapy at Wee Care that starts this month. It can do nothing but help him.

I saved the best news for last......She doesn't think he's PDD!!! She can't say for sure, but at this point, she believes he just has some developmental delays, and w/therapy, he will do awesome! She thinks if he does get a PDD DX, that it will be mild, and he will be very high functioning. He definately has some autistic characteristics, but it may not be enough for a DX. And, w/therapy, hopefully most of these things will resolve themselves. I don't see how they can resolve the sensory issues, so he may just end up being a bit quirky about certain things. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to ask about that at the time. I was just so happy and shocked to hear she didn't think he's PDD! I was so relieved, I just sat there and cried! I never thought I would be so happy to hear my kid is developmentally delayed.

Hmmmm.....I think that's it.
If there's more, I'll come back and update later.
Peace out, ya'll.