Early Intervention Eval

We had our friends from Early Intervention come out today for a visit.

The speech therapist who sees Dawson once a month ( she does this out of the goodness of her own heart just to make sure he is doing ok) mentioned to the E.I people that maybe Dawson needed to pick back up on his occupational therapy. At one time he was getting this once a week but as of his last two evals... Well he scores to high on his evals to receive services.

So they came out today to have a look see. I told them over the phone before arriving that our main concerns right now were speech and behavioral issues. Well, they show up and they sit in the floor with Dawson and hes going through their little " challenges" one after another at lightning speed. Then I start talking about seizures and meds and the mood swings, and the fits of rage, and Dawson is just sitting there playing and being the SWEETEST thing you have ever seen. Oh he was flirting, giving hugs, giving kisses, jabbering up a storm, smiling, laughing, clapping for himself... Just being a big ham.

I know when those two ladies got in the car to leave ( after Dawson blew them sugar all the way to the door) they must have talked about how absolutely crazy I must be to even mention behavior problems with such a sweet little boy like Dawson........... Gimme a break!! Dawson your a little stinker is what you are!!

The miracle of the thing is this.... There is no telling how many hundreds of seizures Dawson has had over the last two years and yet his fine motor skills are fine, his gross motor skills are fine, his social skills are fine ( usually) cognitive skills are fine... Everything is still fine with the exception of speech. Absolutely mind blowing!! Allison and I were talking the other night about his terrible day at the doctors office and how he must have known before hand that we were going there.. I have said all along that he understands everything we say. To test this, I asked Dawson to go to the kitchen and bring me a bag of chips. He waltzed into the kitchen, I then hear him rummaging around in the pantry, after a few seconds, here he comes with a bag of Doritos... Smart as a whip this kid is!!

With that being said, they did get to see that he is definitely behind in his speech. They are going to start occupational therapy with him regularly as a precaution and we will be amping up the speech therapy full blast now. We only have 7 months before he turns three and then he will be dropped from the E.I program.

Through them, we are also going to meet with the school system and get him started in the special needs preschool. We are very excited about this and know that it will give Dawson a whole new perspective on things. We are so glad to finally be able to get him around some other kids ( because he really is very social) and to know he is in a safe environment with medical supervision gives me a great sense of peace about him going... This will be the first time since he has been born that he has ever been in somebody elses care other than an immediate family member... Exciting , but still frightening.

So pray for us as we get ready to transition into some new stuff in the upcoming months..

Praise to God who shows us daily just how awesome he really is!!

Jeff and Allison