Yesterday, we got the rough draft of the report from Early Start (from the Tuesday meeting).   More details will follow, but it roughly followed what we expected – generally good in the motor skills, but not so good in the social and language side.  Worse than anticipated in the language side, actually.

Tristan’s medical assessment also got bumped to today (instead of May 12th) – we got a call asking if we wanted to take the place of a cancelled appointment yesterday afternoon – a little schedule juggling later, we were set for a 9 am today.  We’re not usually all up that early, but we figured saving a month was sort of worth it.

We headed down to Santa Teresa to Kaiser’s ASD assessment and diagnosis clinic to meet with two doctors who would be performing the assessment.    Very similar to the Tuesday setup, we sat at a table with one, answer questions,  while the other went through a battery of tests revolving around playing with various toys, and seeing what he could or could not do.   Given that this was about the 5th time (literally) we had answered roughly the same set of questions, so the question part went by pretty quickly, and the latter half involved us watching them play (or try to play) with Tristan.

They did a few batteries of tests, which were much the same as the ones they did at Early Start – stacking things, pretend play, peekaboo, imitating the play of another, etc.    Tristan seemed a little less cooperative (he’s had a cold for a couple of days, and coupled with the shortened sleep I don’t think he was feeling his best), but pretty much performed the same here as he did at early start.   Strong in motor skills, weak in language/social skills.  More details on that forthcoming.

Ultimately, at the end, they sent us off to get a snack while they conferred, and afterward, the  short answer was that we now have an official diagnosis of “Autistic Disorder” –  which is the technical term for what most people will think of as “Autism” (the other possibilities on the Autistic Spectrum being Asperger’s, which is sort of “Autism spectrum, but with language skills” or PDD-NOS, which is “Autism spectrum, but doesn’t really fit all the criteria for the other diagnoses)  We still have to go back Tuesday for a physical exam, as well, to check on more tangible things related.

More importantly, Wednesday morning we meet with our Case Manager from Early Start to go over the report they sent – after that, I believe we set up one more meeting to actually set up the IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan) – basically “What goals are we working on, and what services we’ll be getting to help work on them” – we already have documented goals (from the draft) but it’s still up in the air as to what services we’ll be getting (might be some form of pre-school, in home training/therapy, parent training, etc.)

The good part, though, is really that we have the diagnosis now, and not at 3 years, or 5, or 7.    Below 3 years, it’s handled by the County Office of Education, and from everything we’re hearing, the services are supposed to be good, and hopefully effective  After 3 years old, the responsibility shifts to the local school district, and everyone says to expect a dip in the quality of service.  Additionally, at that point, the focus shifts solely onto  Tristan – until then, it will be a  combined focus of teaching Tristan, and teaching us how to teach Tristan – generally a comprehensive plan to help him out the best we can.

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On a cheerier note, Tristan really does have a lot of new tricks up his sleeves.  In the past month or so, some of the more interesting things he’s done:

• Learned to bring us his shoes so we’ll put them on him.  Generally as part of trying to get us to go out – although the latter part he doesn’t always follow through on – he’ll try to get us going, but then lose interest half way.
• Learned to put his lego blocks away in their container.
• Figured out how to climb onto our living room table, and as of today managed to climb up into one of our kitchen chairs and sit.  And stay sitting for a while!
• Brought a diaper from his diaper bag, and walked over to the door (when he very much needed a diaper change)
• While playing Peekaboo with the doctor (Melanie) today, repeated “Mellie” when the doc was saying “Where’s Mellie?”

So while it’s true that he may be behind in some areas, he’s certainly learning some new tricks along the way.