Happy New Year

Happy New Year. It has been about 1 year since we started worrying that something was wrong with Nora. She was having seizures (looking back at it, we now know that was what her "head bob" was), she didn't respond to her name, didn't make eye contact, wasn't crawling or walking, didn't have any sounds and didn't play with any toys appropriately. I thought she had autism for sure.

Today we found out she does NOT have autism. We had her evaluated at the UW Autism Center and had our results meeting today. She has very good social skills for her "developmental age" and is starting to have some communication skills. She is very developmentally delayed still, about 9-12 months behind in most areas. That means she is just starting to do the things she was supposed to do a year ago. She is basically a 1 year old in a very big 2 year old's body. She does not have the repetitive behaviors of an autistic child and is more social than an autistic child.

We do need to work on her speech and language more than we are. We knew that already but this will give me the push I need to find time for another weekly therapy appt. She gets some time at school but not enough for her delays.

Overall, it was a good outcome. We'll have to have a recheck in a year if we still think she may be autistic. But I hope she'll make huge leaps and bounds by then and I am sure she'll be a whole new girl by then. With the progress she has made in the last year, I hope she can do some catching up. She is such a happy little person and we are very lucky that she is doing so well.

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2008.

Lori