Jonathan

Jon has been followed by Early Head Start and Birth to 3 since he was born. With 2 brothers having extensive developmental delays and diagnosed with autism, they decided to keep a close eye on him. During the first year there seemed to be no major concerns. He had some muscle weakness and low tone, and some sensory issues but no major issues. The delays slowly started creeping in. He is now very behind in speech, at the 6-9 month age range in most areas. I've started noticing a lot more stimming behavior. He now runs around aimlessly. His response to his name, sometimes yes, mostly no now. Eye contact has become more sporatic. There is growing concern. The good news is that Jon does make more effort to interact and talk than Eric or Andy do, and he is more willing to touch different things. The feeding resistance is starting to creep in, again not as bad as his brothers but something we have to keep on top of. Yesterday I had the camera out, initially just having fun taking pictures, during Jon's Early Head Start home visit. When the focus is on Jon these behaviors become so much more apparent. Some of this may be hard to see as still images, but I'm sure most will get the idea. Here are pictures taken during that 90 minute visit, in no particular order.












He's shown some of these behaviors in the past, like the running off and lining up stuff. but some of this was new. The thing with his ear, and the stimming by his tummy in particular. The movements were odd, and quite jerky. The family advocate expressed concerns at the end of this meeting, and noted deterioration. We started discussing getting going on evaluations for Jon. I thought about it yesterday. This morning I made the phone call to CHW Child Development Center and got the process going. While I had hope we would not have to go here again, it really don't surprise me that we are. I know the process now, so we can go through this without a lot of delays or surprises. At this point, I'm ready for anything. Either we will be told that there are no issues, or we will be getting him the help he needs as early as possible. There is no way to lose with having the evaluations, although I'm pretty sure I know how this is going to turn out. Yes, I am sad and tired. But I know that we've all made it this far, and with big changes in our lives in the last year to boot. This is a familiar road, I'm informed of the process and sources of help. It will be OK no matter what happens at that eval. It's looking like this will be taking place sometime in January. I'm also going to try to resolved the insurance issues with the genetics clinic, and push for more testing to rule out anything physical, with both Andy and Jon. Three kids with similar issues should say something.

This afternoon the county caseworker for the CLTC waiver (which funds the therapy) was here for recertification for Eric and Andy. It looks like Andy will be starting therapy in February or March. She is also thinks I should qualify for more respite through family support. That would be awesome since I'm burning up most of my 6 hours a month for Jon's speech class and Dr. appointments. We were also told it would be likely that Jon would qualify for some of their programs too. I was told to give her information as the evaluation process continues. It was a long meeting, and a long , emotional day but it's all worth it. I know this is the right decision. We will see where it goes from here.