Welcome to the SPED (special education) world, full of acronyms for big, intimidating words. God knew what he was doing when he put on my heart to become a special education teacher. The SPED world of acronyms doesn't intimidate this momma anymore!
I don't think I can accurately put into words how proud I am of Sam. He has worked incredibly hard this year and it has shown in every aspect.
Let's start with physical therapy. We had his evaluation in June and his evaluating therapist looked at me and said, "I have been doing this for 11 years and he is one of three children who have "grown out" of their diagnosis." This is the therapists who pushed me to get Sam tested because he was showing all the signs of autism when she first worked with him. She gave me different neuropsychologists names to contact. She saw the same thing we saw: poor eye contact, no verbal speech, very independent, not meeting milestones for his age, didn't want anything to do with his classmates. To hear her tell us she couldn't believe this was the same child she evaluated a year earlier had me in tears in her therapy room. After this summer, we will go from physical therapy once a week to just evaluations every three months!
Our speech... I mean, Sam just literally looked at me and said, "hydraulics!" (Shoutout to Blaze and the Monster Machines for that BIG word!). He is saying sentences, telling us what he needs/ wants, and is being pretty bossy. "Mommy, you go to kitchen now!" We just got his PLOP (present levels of performance) this past week. *Keep in mind, Sam turned two (24 months) in December of 2016. We were significantly behind in our speech and language.* Since January of 2017, just six months ago, Sam has gone from being at 12 months in receptive language to 22 months! In expressive language he was 16 months and is now at 28 months! Hello! Please, look at this growth. I could not quit smiling and saying "thank you, Jesus" as I was looking over these scores last week.
Sam's social interaction has come so far. He used to just sit and watch everyone else play. Now, his teacher tells me that he brings toys over to other kids who aren't as mobile to play with them. Sam helped a blind friend play in the water at school. His friend kept asking him to pour water on his head so of course Sam did it! He has friends that he asks for by name; "Ben-Bett" is his best friend from school. Sam always wants to go to "BenBett's" mimi's house. He gets to have play dates with "Mommy Cake" at the splash pad and our house. If we put our swim stuff on he knows it's either to play with his "Mommy Cake"or go to his Honey's house. "Kayney" is his friend from church who he loves to sing and dance with. Watching him play with his friends makes my heart so happy.
It's been 8 months since I made the leap of faith to stay at home with Sam. Jovie was born in March and Sam is in love with his sister! He wants to kiss her head or hold her ALL the time. Sometimes, it gets to be too much lovin' for Jo and she lets him know real quick. If she starts crying he looks at me or Matt and says, "baby so sad." The growth that we have seen in Sam has been absolutely incredible. I am so excited to see the growth in the coming six months. God heard our prayers for our baby and he answered them.
I think this fortune Sam picked out the same day we got his present level report speaks volumes. When my mom sent it to me, I couldn't help but cry happy tears for my baby.
Disclaimer: We don't believe in fortunes BUT we do believe in signs from God.
