The Right Decision?

Listening to others talk about their journey through the world that is autism makes me pause on a regular basis. Pause to figure out how we are doing, both individually and together as a family. In the beginning you find yourself comparing where your kiddos are to where their peers are. You learn quickly of course that you can't do that any more than you can compare one of your typical children to the next. Every journey is different, every child has different strengths and weaknesses. The PALS class my boys are in is for preschool and kindergarten, they are the oldest in the class. So it can be discouraging when some of the younger kiddos seem to be ahead of the boys. Then there are those days when they are right where you would expect them to be.

I recently heard of a little one being pulled out of a PALS class to pursue a different path, until they were maybe a little older. This child didn't seem to be progressing, but rather regressing since the beginning of the school year. I thought a lot about what I would do in that position and it made me look back to see if I remembered the boys ever going through that. At first I didn't think they had because both of our kiddos had very distinct and obvious regressions. However, with more reflection, I realized that both our boys have had (small) regressions over the last few years. Most of the time it's during school breaks - Christmas vacation, summer break, etc. Just a week off can cause the boys to lose a bit of what they've recently learned. Sometimes it seems likes it takes months to get what they've lost (colors, numbers, etc.) back.

When these things happen with other kiddos, it makes me reexamine how we are guiding our boys. Do we need to alter something in their schedule, do we need to add or get rid of something in their day? Are we doing everything we can to make sure our kiddos get everything they need in order to thrive? Are the classes and programs they are doing working for them?

On a fairly regular basis I'll find myself looking over all the progress reports from school and ABA to make sure progress is being made. We try to focus on weak spots as often as we see them, hoping we don't miss anything. We have found that we have to keep track of what they've learned (as much as possible) so that we can generalize it in a natural setting. Using the natural environment helps to  reinforce and check information learned. Like what color is the tree? What is that? <a car> , etc.

Not knowing the right direction to take has got to be one of those "hard things" we face as a parent. We can easily over think a situation, constantly trying to make sure we are making the "right" decision. If we are lucky, we find out relatively soon if we've made a mistake and can fix the problem. If we are really lucky, we will make the right decision right off the bat.

From a mother's heart - may we have all the pieces we need to get our kiddos all they need