It is hard to believe that a year has already passed! Looking back from last year around the holiday season time it is amazing to see how far we have come. Dylon was just diagnosed with autism last December. At that point he was not pointing, talking, making eye contact, and he had some inappropriate behaviors (spinning and hand flapping). It is with great pleasure that we can say he is starting to point, using 2-3 word phrases to request things, making eye contact, greeting people when they come in somewhere, learning names, and starting to play appropriately. He still has some hand flapping and he still spins but all of this will hopefully fade out. It is interesting to see how far Michael and I have come in our knowledge of autism. I have joked with people and told them that I am now brain washed in trying to figure out ways to help and think like Dylon. We have also had to teach him things that would normally come natural (e.g. how to play with peers, how to point, etc.). Dylon is doing great and continuing to make progress.

He was placed in class the week after his birthday. At first he didn't cry when we left him but after a couple weeks he started to cry. There are 5 children, including Dylon, with a teacher and 3 aids who are all wonderful. It is a very structured setting. First thing in the morning we walk him in and he hangs his bag and coat. Then they have table time where an activity of interest is picked out for each child and they have to work on that until they finish. They go to the gym and play working on gross motor skills. A big part of the morning is spent working on each child's goals on the IEP. So from my understanding because I have never witnessed this part, three of the teachers will sit at separate tables and pull a child over with them to work on their goals. The other two children will be in another part of the room having structured free time with the 4th adult (watching a video, singing, jumping). The kids take an hour nap, eat a snack and lunch, and go outside and play throughout the day also. Before you know it six hours is gone and it is time to pick him up. I can tell he really likes school, even though he cries, because he has come home singing a couple of the songs they sing in class. His teachers are amazing women and we have been very blessed with the people placed in Dylon's life to help him. He also received speech (two 30 minute sessions) and OT (one 30 minute session) during the week at school on top of the hour of each therapy we get at Vanderbilt each week.

Well, here is the latest update on our little man. We are all doing well and Santa was very good to us. We hope the rest of the holiday season finds you all in good spirits.
Happy New Year!!!

Happy Holidays to all!!! We hope all is well with you. Sorry we haven't updated the page in a few months but we have been very busy. Here is the scoop. Dylon is now 3 so he is no longer entitled the services we were getting before that the state paid for...TIPS, speech, and OT. We will not be discontinuing our services with Bill Wilkerson -speech and OT. We are now going to cover what the insurance doesn't pick up; but, it is totatlly worth it for Dylon to get as much therapy as he can.

We have had a couple of meetings with the school system, one of which was an IEP (individualized education plan) meeting. In this particular meeting we set up goals that Dylon will achieve in a year in his pre-K class which he should be starting in the next week or so (hopefully! :>). Some of Dylon's goals are: following directions, identifying objects/pictures that are the same or different, requesting things appropriatly, gaining attention appropriatly (in a classroom setting by raising his hand), knowing colors and shapes well, identifying body parts on himself, increase attention span, participate in play with peers, share toys, imitate others, expand on fine motor limitations (help him with sensory/hand issues) and then feeding and self help skills. The class that we have decided would be best for Dylon is a Preschool Inclusive class. All the children in his class will have an IEP so they will all be somewhere on the autism spectrum. The good thing with this class for Dylon is there is a low student: adult ratio. This will enable him to learn the routine of a class and get familiar with peers. Depending on how he does in this class he can always move to another class that is blended (has children with IEP's and typically developing children). He will go Monday - Friday 8 to 2 (meaning pray that mom(me) doesn't go bazerk with him gone all week!);>

I think this will be a great transformation for Dylon and we will still be able to see progress, if not more. Michael is...Michael. :> He is doing well but very busy! We are just in a routine...school, work, church, family time. Now that the holidays are here we are looking forward to good food and fellowship!!!!!:> I promise not to wait 2 1/2 months to update his page again!

For those who have started school I hope all is well with that! Another month has yet gone by so I figured it was update time again. All therapy is still going well. We are still going to individual speech therapy twice a week and have TIPS once a week. We were going to add group speech therapy to Dylon's list but, to make a long story short, we have decided not to since he will be starting school in about 2 months. His therapist and I talked and she said she would rather us keep his individual times and have this "intense" one on one therapy and let him get his group/social interactions when he starts school. OT will be starting soon- they called and said they were going to send the request through our insurance.

We had our initial visit with the school district earlier this week to talk about Dylon starting school in November. The representative from Davidson County told us about the different classes they have available for when Dylon starts so we would have an idea what is instore for us. Classes will be Monday- Friday 8 to 2. If we think Dylon will not make it everyday then they will work with us on a schedule but they like to start them everyday. They do take naps and Michael and I have to keep in mind that all of Dylon's therapies will be given while in school. I still need to talk with our insurance company but if they continue to pay for so many speech therapy visits a year, which I think it was like 60, we will keep one of the appointments with Bill Wilkerson (where Dylon gets speech now). We don't think that it will hinder Dylon in any way to have that extra session with Bill Wilkerson once a week. Some schools have extended school hours in the summer where we can take Dylon, I guess if they it would be beneficial, but Bill Wilkerson also has some more class type therapy sessions start in the summer for this particular purpose. It is hard to think of our little man going to school 5 days a week for 6 hours. I don't know what I am going to do with myself!

Michael has offically had a week and 1/2 of teaching his classes and seems to be doing well with that. Not only is he teaching a freshmen and junior Bible class but they have added a class, service learning, to his schedule. In this class they are doing service projects and different things like that (fundraisers, meals on wheels, window cleaning, etc.). We are just continuing to pray that God will use Michael to help others see the workings of Christ in a life and God will grant Michael wisdom and understanding working with teenagers. He is still working on his masters degree. He had his first class Thursday...Greek. He came home and said it would be a lot of studying with flash cards and that I would need to help him but I had to explain to him that..."It would all be Greek to me!" I know, I know, it's sad but I had to say it at least once :>. He is taking another class but I don't remember what it is just that he will go once a month on a Friday and Saturday.

I have been the normal busy with work, church, Dylon, Michael, and trying to have some fun relaxing days. Work is going well. I haven't told very many people but I did a staff driven education day at the hospital called "Care of the Autistic Child". It identified and defined some of the diagnosis on the spectrum plus developmental delay and sensory integration, common characteristics in children with autism, quick facts, and ideas that hosptial staff could take into consideration when taking care of a child with autism. My main objective was/ is to get this information out to people to help them understand and respect a child and family dealing with autism. I also believe it would help people with the stress load if they have a little knowledge about what they are dealing with. My class had 4 people out of the whole hospital but after talking with the PCCU management team and the head doctor of the PCCU I am hoping to get this information to more people. God has opened the doors this far and I am just trusting in Him to do the rest.

That about does it for an update on all the family. New York was a blast and a good get-a-away! We missed Dylon but I don't think he knew we were gone for a week therefore not missing us. :> Hope you all have a wonderful week.

It is time to update you again on Dylon's progress. It is with great news that I tell you Dylon has officially said 'mommy' and 'daddy'. I came home one day from work and Michael asked Dylon "Who is that?" and Dylon said...'mommy' as he was jumping up and down. He has said 'mommy' and 'daddy' when we ask the question " Who is that?" and point as of recently. Therapies are still going great for us. Dylon is still making great strides in speech therapy. His therapist has been using the picture exchange system with him, which she always has, but she has been letting him pick what toy he wants to play with next. She will point and label the pictures (e.g. shapes and cars) and he will pick what he wants and say whatever it is. He still attends very well and can stay seated (strapped in like a highchair) for the whole time most days. She does give him breaks when he initiates that he needs one but she likes the interaction she gets with him and they really do have a good time. Some of his favorite toys are things with balls, a Magna doodle, and he LOVES Mr. Potato Head right now. They use Mr. Potato Head to label facial features (e.g. eyes, ears, nose) and after they are done he likes to sing (we don't know what song) to him. TIPS is still going well. We had an update meeting on July 17th which went very well. Dylon has met some of his goals that we set up six months ago and has met part of others. We made one new goal for him and refined the rest. The one new goal has to do with fine motor skills, which we will hopefully be adding OT to his list of therapies, and the ability to eat different textures of food and use a utensil to eat properly. Right now most of his foods are finger foods. We had an OT evaluation in mid- June in which they thought Dylon could definately benefit from OT. He has some fine motor issues (e.g. holding a spoon or fork, drinking from an open ended cup, etc.), sensory issues (e.g. textures of food, sticky things, and movement (the need to always be moving/running)). He is on the waiting list for OT and at this time we have not heard anything else from them. On another good note, Dylon has recently been able to recognize different letters of the alphabet. He has a fridge phonics that when you place a letter of the alphabet in it or a number (1-10) and push on it the thing will sing the sounds of the letter or count to whatever number is in it. We have just randomly pulled letters and numbers and asked Dylon "What this?" and he will tell you what the letter is properly. He is making such strides that Michael and I cannot help but be proud.

Things are going well for Michael and me. For those of you who do not know, Michael has accepted a part time job at White House Christian Academy teaching Bible to freshmen and juniors. He is a little overwhelmed right now because of the 'unknown'. He doesn't know what they will cover this year as far what he is teaching over or the lesson plan. He will know some things in the next few weeks, but he is very excited. We leave for New York City in 5 days!!! We are excited but a little sad to be leaving Dylon for 5 days; but, he will be in good hands and I think whether Michael or I want to admit it a couple of those days away will be good for us. That is about all the excitement we can stand right now. I will send another update in late August to give you another update. Hope all is well with everyone. God Bless!

Happy Summer! We are officially through with TRIAD as of right now. Our 10 sessions went fine. The only thing that we weren't really keen about was the fact that we spent so much time in the book instead of actually implementing the interventions. We did get some hands on practice but we would have liked to have more with them. It did go very well though. They gave us a lot of pictures to use for requesting things and to help with his schedule. Dylon loves books and music so TRIAD had this awesome idea of making a book to the rhyme of "Brown Bear Brown Bear" but they used people instead. We just made a book of people who Dylon sees every week - therapist, Michael, me, teachers (in Sunday morning and Wednesday night classes) and babysitters. The book is very simple. You go through and it says "Daddy, daddy who do you see... I see (whoever is on the next page)... looking at me". In one of our first sessions with TRIAD they taped him doing a list of functions. For example, they taped him sitting at the table attending to a task (however long it lasted), putting away toys, having something taken from him that he was wanting, and things like that. They taped him again doing these things at the end of our sessions to show the interventions he had this time after their classes. Well, as I said before Dylon loves music. We have some Veggie Tale cds that he listens to. One of his new things is to sing KUM BY YA. He was singing this as they were fumbling for their video camera and of course, like any other child, he stopped singing as soon as they got the camera ready. Out of no where Dylon looks right at the camera and around the room and starts singing GOD IS SO GOOD. I have never before this time heard him sing this song. I actually didn't know he knew this song. He sang two more verses which were "I love him so" and "He answers prayers". It was one of the most precious things I have seen. They did get this on tape and they are going to send me a copy.

Speech is still going well. We have officially added another hour of speech therapy so we go on Mondays at 3:00 and Wednesdays at 11:00. The biggest thing we are working on now is trying to get Dylon to just say what we prompt him by signing. For example, we will sign 'my turn' and he will say "My turn, okay". After he started doing this we noticed that he was just imitating what we were saying to him. He would say 'my turn' and we would say 'my turn, okay'.

Everybody is doing well. Michael is busy with teaching a Wednesday night class at church, work, and shuffling our schedules so one of us can take Dylon to speech. I am busy with work and family. Hope this finds you all doing well. God Bless!

Update

Hello again! Since it has been almost a month now since the last update I thought I should do another one. Dylon has been doing great with all of his therapies. We have offically started our 10 sessions with TRIAD. We have gone through our "education" book and will now hopefully start enforcing some of the things that we have discussed. To give you an idea of a couple: making a picture schedule for Dylon for the day and introducing PECS (picture exchange communication (I forgot what the 's' stands for)). With the schedule idea we will have pictures of things we do in a days time or could do in a days time (grocery story, outside, reading, ect.). This way Dylon can see what the day holds and know what to expect (when we will be leaving the house to go somewhere, when he can expect to go outside, ect.). TRIAD made a good point in saying that this schedule will not make him "more autistic like" in the sense that some kids don't handle changes in their routines well. In this process we will introduce an "OOPS" card to Dylon so he can see that we were supposed to go outside and it rained we can use the oops card. PECS is a form of communication through pictures. We can have pictues of things like books, favorite toys, sippy cups, food, and people. He will be able to get one of these pictures, which will be on a card, and come and give it to Michael or me. Then, he will get what he asked for. For example, if Dylon was thirsty and wanted a drink he could go pull his sippy cup card and bring it to Michael or me to let us know what he wanted. Just like with the sign language we will be using the pictures paired with verbal communication. Once he has this avenue to communicate through pictures we will expect him to communicate verbally and slowly fade the PECS way out.

Speech therapy is going great. He loves going!!! The last two times we have gone he has taken our hand and led us down the hallway looking for his room. We normally wait in the waiting room until his therapist comes out to get us. Once he has seen her he will take her by the hand and walk with her. Michael and I don't go in the room we watch in the observation room. We are going to add another hour of individual speech therapy which I think will happen on Wednesdays at 11:00. Right now we go Mondays at 3:00.

We are going to be taking Dylon to swim lessons for this summer. He loves water and the pool so much we thought this would be a good thing for him.

Other than that we are all doing well. Michael has finished classes this semester and is looking at next semester. He said that he will not take a full load of master courses because of this past semester and all the papers he has had to write. School for me will be postponed probably until we get Dylon situated in his school this next year and see what that holds and how long he will be in his class and things of that nature.

Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed week.

What is this?

Here is the beginning of a new way to keep the family and some friends updated on Dylon and the therapies he is receiving. So just check this website out to read up on what is happening.

We have had three weeks of speech therapy, as of right now, and he is doing well with them. Some things we are working on with him that overflows from speech therapy is : my turn, help, and more. We are working with Dylon on verbally expressing and signing these terms to use in the proper situations. Some children take to sign language faster than speaking so we are just trying a variety of ways to just open the door of communication for him to us and visa versa. If he picks up on the sign language we will then expect him to give us the verbal cues- so he is not just going to sign, he will talk. There is another form of communication that we might try which is PECS (picture exchange communication system) and this involves exactly what it says- using pictures of things to communicate with another person. This form of communication has not yet been a success; for Dylon likes the pictures and doesn't understand the concept yet! :> He has adjusted to the time well and his speech therapist is very nice.

One more thing. I believe in the very first letter I sent out I may have been misleading in the letter. I had misinterpreted what the difference of PDD and Autism was. PDD is the "umbrella" term used whereas autism is an actual diagnosis. Hopefully this will help clear some things ups if you were confused. Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day.