My Gabriel has been changing so much, he deserves a post. J
Back in October, I went through that whole "potential seizure/could be autistic" thing with him. It was overwhelming and depressing, but Michael and I pushed through. Test results didn't show anything abnormal, which means he didn’t have a seizure during the EEG, and if he was having them at all, then the MRI didn't show brain damage. It did show a bad sinus infection that antibiotics were unable to clear out on their own, but another round of antibiotics was able to knock it out without resulting to steroids.
What does all that mean?
It means that as of now, we treat and act like Gabriel is normal and isn't having any problems. But we keep an eye on him. There is a lot about his behavior that is suspect--he doesn't seem to take pleasure from social interactions, and that's why he's not talking, why he doesn't like making eye contact. Why he doesn't play with other kids. He doesn't want to communicate with us. That could be autism, or Asperger’s. It could be that he's just an unsocial butthole.
Why freak ourselves out over something that could or could not be true? Early detection gives him the best chances for this to not interfere with his life. Worst case scenario, Gabriel spends the next couple of years in Speech therapy learning how to communicate. He isn't losing anything from us being cautious and neither are we, so we are just being aware.
As it is, he has been in speech therapy for about six months now, and he is finally warming up to Cassie (the speech therapist) and Tammy (who pays attention to his social development). Since then, he has started greeting them at the door with smiles, allows them to talk to him, interact with him, and he seems happy to see them. At school, he is participating more in class, and his smiling and laughing, which his teachers never saw before. He seems less stressed and is zoning out less, and he is starting to use signs to try and get what he wants. Sometimes he even makes eye contact.
At home, he is using more and more signs, and even the correct signs (more, food, drink, please, thank you, on, etc) for the thing that he wants. He is still searching for that cure-all sign that he can use no matter what and get what he want, but that is expected--we are all a little lazy. He is happy to see people that come over and pulls heads in for kisses, offers hugs. He still would rather give up a toy and never play with it again than have to share it with someone, but that is actually not horrible--in these situations, normally the kid is frustrated and angry because he doesn't have the words to stop the other kid from taking his toy, so he becomes aggressive and hits. But not my Gaby =-) He is patient and practical, knowing there are other toys in the world.
Through all of this, we have learned a lot about our little guy:
One, Gabriel just takes a long time to warm up to people, He is cautious of strangers, which is a commendable trait and one that I don't want him to abandon. The more he sees of a person, the more he warms up to them, wants to interact with them.
Two, Gabriel is a very patient little boy. He's not stubborn, which is what we originally thought...he just knows what he wants to do, wants to try, wants to explore, and he sees anything preventing him from doing that (i.e. me and Michael) are just obstacles he has to overcome. Which means that it is about as useful as banging our heads against the wall trying to punish him until he stops--our better bet is finding a way to allow him to explore and experiment like he was wanting, but in a more appropriate fashion. (Like setting up bowls of water for him to splash in outside when he won't stay out of the toilet bowl).
And three, Gabriel could give a rat's *** if we spank him. Physical discipline like swats, hand swatting, spankings, time outs....don't even faze him. He is more concerned with Mom or Dad being mad at him and scolding him. Don't know why--most of the time, he couldn't care less about what we think....but maybe that's his cool guy act, lol.
We are definitely seeing progress =-) Might there still be something wrong? Yeah. But maybe he is just reacting to our more casual parenting. With Emerald, we encouraged her to hit milestones before it was time so she was always ahead of the curve. But Gabriel we let develop at his own pace, discover things as he was ready. Or maybe this is just who Gabriel is. But like I said--it never hurts to be aware =)
--Andie
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