So Much Going On Around Us

AHHHH it has been a whirlwind lately.

We changed Zach's IEP - this is good and I'm happy with the added goals. We've changed Zach's feeds at school and the past 2 days he has decided he'd rather be quiet. What we are left to figure out was the feeding schedule enough to throw off his SPD and put him into his minor shut down mode OR is this something more. We've had some issues with his gastroparesis flaring this past weekend - YUCK the mess in the middle of the night is never fun! I was thankful it had been so long we'd forgot - guess someone thought we needed a reminder of how sick Zach is.

I had a nice long talk yesterday with his new SLP (Ms. Andrea), his OT, and another SLP who works at our therapy place and also our school district. They've come up with a couple different things.....one, let's see how he does the rest of the week.....two, lets get him on a visual schedule while at school....three, is this a possibility he is having issues with selective mutism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_mutism).... and fourth, if Zach is refusing to talk he must at least acknowledge the person with an eye glance, wave, smile --- something more socially acceptable. We don't know what is going on and I guess this is another moment in life we take a semi lets wait and see stance.

Yesterday Ms. Andrea and I also had a talk about what is going on with Zach from her stand point. He has been showing many more signs of his dyspraxia during his sessions with her, so next week she is going to do another test for apraxia --- it has been a while since one was given. She wants to do it to see just how bad it is right now. He is also having a VERY VERY rough time with his articulation....when we notice and try to fix what was said wrong at home and at therapy - he stops talking for us. This is something we must worry about and something we don't want to happen --- this is where Zach may really be showing signs of selective mutism. Ms. Andrea said that if you take a child like Zach who has the dyspraxia, has the major articulation issues that these kids are the ones more likely to just stop talking altogether simply because they are frustrated and they feel no one understands them anyway. She is also worried about him because of how nasally he sounds and wants that looked at by his ENT.

Next Tuesday we do have a scheduled appointment with his ENT, so that couldn't come at a better time. I know the ENT had said at this appointment Zach must have his hearing checked again. I told Ms. Andrea and she was happy about that because some of his articulation issues can come from not hearing right.

I don't know anymore, I swear if it isn't one thing it is another these days. Heck, if we didn't have the Life's Struggles that we do -- life may be just too boring for us.