apraxia

apraxia is (if i have this right) the brains inability to organize information so that a person can do certain things. this includes speech.

the silent prince is called so because at almost 5 years old he still doesn't talk. he makes lots of noise and babbles. sometimes the babble even sounds like he is trying to say something...

last friday hubby and i took him to see a developmental pediatrician. we've been waiting for this appointment for over a year now. when he was diagnosed with severe autism and mental retardation last summer we were told by that doctor to keep the appointment as a follow-up. we are really glad we did.

while he is autistic, the doctor used some other words to describe him too. apraxia is one of those words and it means that we have a new focus on helping him to speak. it also means that his babbling might also be his trying to actually say something. as hubby has said for awhile, "he knows what he's saying... we just don't understand him."

she also mentioned the possibility of some type of attention deficit disorder. we often described this part of his personality as short attention span. what the doctor told us is that he doesn't even get to this point. his attention is so short-lived that he doesn't process information for memory unless he is put in a position to be more organized.

the lead is also a factor... how much of one, we might never be certain, but she talked to us about the possibility of using medications to help him focus his attention once all the lead is out of his system and thus help him to learn better. (this might take a long time because his levels are being stubborn and refuse to move to treatable levels.)

when we asked her about IQ testing (in regards to mental retardation) she talked us out of it, at least for right now. without verbal skills it is difficult to test IQ though possible. the problem is that she believes his IQ would still test much lower than it actually is... "no need to break your hearts" was her comment.

while all this sounds overwhelming it is really good news. the more issues there are the easier it is to chip away at each thing a little at a time... and as we go along the severity of his autism diagnosis might lessen in level.

in the meantime his new favorite food is a clementine... i've had to hide them so that he doesn't eat the whole case grandmom got him at once. he's learning how to dribble a ball (and if he grows as tall as daddy i won't rule out the NBA). he's incredibly proud of himself every time he pee-pees on the potty and the movie dumbo absolutely hypnotizes him. and he is still the happiest little boy i know.

God's peace y'all.