Aspie Awesome

Last week I took Roo to the Neurologist after a long inner debate on whether or not I thought we needed to. Well it took almost two months for the appointment to roll around so it gave me even longer to make the decision that it needed to be done. Part of it was courage given to me by one my friend, whose son had recently been diagnosed similarly, to gather the cajones to make the call. I made the decision part to the dismay of family members and even the skepticism of Roo's Dad. But sometimes a mom does know what is best for their child. I got confirmation of the diagnosis I had thought was heading our way. Asperger Syndrome. I wanted a diagnosis to be able to get Roo the intervention he needs to be the most successful that he can. That is really the job of any parent. It also was almost a sigh of relief to know that some his behaviors were not just to piss us off, but literally because he did not know any different. Now for the technical portion of our program... Asperger Syndrome (as it applies to ROO!) is High Functioning Autism without the language component. He does not have any intellectual delays, he has issues with social situations, and sensory issues, intense interest or focus on subjects (for Roo it is SNAKES), repetitive behaviors (food cannot touch, he will repeat words until you verbally acknowledge that you heard him),he is clumsy, strict adherence to a schedule, there aremore quirks but that's about all from the top of my head right now. Let me reiterate, this is as Aspergers applies to Roo, not other children on the spectrum or other children with Aspergers. He will not be in special education classes, infact he excels in math, he will need occupational therapy and applied behavior analysis therapy to address some of the above issues. We need to work with him on social situations and things to do and not do, like if you want to make friends you don't walk away from people when they are talking to you because you only want to talk about snakes. The best person right now to compare him to is Sheldon on the BIG BANG THEORY. Please do not let this make you think differently about Roo. He is an amazing child whose quirks make him who he is. He is a brilliant, affectionate, caring, rambunctious little boy, who will make you smile all day long if you give him the chance to. I would change the name of this blog if I could. It is a long road ahead of us as J and I learn how to navigate our lives with the added bumps, but Roo is worth every single second of the journey. Prayers and questions Welcomed~Kimmy