Intervention

We started with valley child development sometime around February of 2012 and they were great! Armanno looked forward to these visits, which were in the beginning every 2 weeks. Our behavioral interventionist would come with a huge duffel bag filled with educational games and toys to use with Armanno. She would get him to sit on a special mat while they worked on puzzles, colours, shapes, emotions and all kinds of other cool teaching tools.

After each appointment she would write notes down and we would talk a bit about ways to work on Armanno's behavior, she would always say he did really well but didn't really talk about what could be going on with him. In the beginning I was a bit disappointed because I still wasn't getting the answers I was looking for but that's not what child development does. But as time went on things were being said that I wasn't fully understanding. Our behavioral interventionist was telling me that there were some red flags and some behaviors on the spectrum.

Although I had a degree in psychology and worked with youth, spectrum was a new word as far as behaviors went and I didn't think to connect it with autism. I did not learn about Autism in school and now I'm wondering why? Autism statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identify around 1 in 88 children are diagnosed with autism! Why did I spend 4 yrs studying psychology and not once come across Autism?

Getting sidetracked but I started researching Armanno's behaviors and came across Aspergers! It was a bit sobering as I went down the "checklist" yup, yup, yup, no, no, oh yeah! Even though he did have quite a few of the behaviors there were lots he didn't have. What I later discovered was that no two kids with aspergers were the same, they may share some common behaviors but not all. That's why it's considered a spectrum disorder, there are a wide array of behaviors that a child with aspergers may or may not exhibit and these behaviors are unique to that child.

For Armanno it was his lack of appropriate social interaction, acting as if he doesn't hear you, obsessing, constant sensory seeking, his zoning, his toe walking and hand flapping and other self stimulating behaviors, his lack of emotion at pivotal times, his unconventional ways of playing with toys. I'm sure I'm leaving some out but for me these were the sobering behaviors that matched the checklist.

The more I researched the more I was convinced, I remember getting to the point of calling my husband crying to him that I was convinced Armanno had Aspergers. I remember our behavioral interventionist asking me what I thought was going on with Armanno and if I had been looking into anything? I felt kind of silly saying it because people had me second guessing myself, but I told her that I have been looking into aspergers and Armanno really seems to fit the criteria. Now I knew she was not allowed to give her opinion on it so I wasn't expecting a whole lot back but I remember her saying "oh yeah, my niece has aspergers" and she told me a few of her symptoms, almost comparing Armanno, wether or not she was actually doing this, I ran with it, I was now determined to get answers!