We were finally settling into the new apartment and Armanno was so proud of his room. Every time someone came over it was the first place they would end up. Armanno in a very excited voice jumping up and down would say "come see my rum", " come see my rum". Once they agreed to go to his room, he would do this really funny low based stuttering laugh. It was so funny to see his reactions as people came to visit.
Armanno was transitioning well and his behaviors were slightly declining now that he had his dad back. But there was still the "burning question" in the back of my head. Does he have Aspergers? I had been in contact with the IWK and things were moving, but not fast enough. We were looking at another 5 to 6 months for the diagnosis.
Knowing that early intervention is huge with Autism, I worried we were waisting time! That's when I started looking into our health insurance. We were entitled to coverage for a psychologist. We had to pay upfront and be reimbursed. It would be worth it, with a diagnosis I could get Armanno the resources he needed. So we made the decision to seek out a child psychologist to do an assessment for autism. We were given a name, so I read up on her and set up an appointment. We got in pretty quickly and could have the assessment done and over within a months time. The assessment started the same way as the IWK, filling out a tremendous amount of papers.
The first appointment with the psychologist came after they received all of the completed papers. This was the parent interview, which Armanno was present for. This lasted about 2 hours and Armanno was considerably well behaved. Although he was exhibiting some of his behaviors. I was hoping the psychologist would pick up on them.
Our second appointment was strictly focused on Armanno. She was looking at things like his social interactions, his interactive play, his ability to focus, his cognitive development, etc. This lasted about 2 hrs, we would go back sometime after that for our results/feedback!
I went home still worrying, did she get enough from him in our appointment? Did she pick up on what I was picking up on? Was the assessment thorough enough? Well I guess I would know soon enough!
It was November 9th, the big day, I was going to my feedback appointment. I left the boys at home with my sister and went on my own. Julio was a day away from coming home. He had been on selection for military special forces the week leading up to this point.
I got to the psychologists office and was a bit nervous. I kept thinking where am I going to go from here if she tells me Armanno is a normally developing child. Well needless to say I didn't have to be worrying about that.
I know some of you are asking, why on earth would she be worried about being told her child was normally developing? Well I needed answers, I was afraid the signs would be overlooked. I was afraid he would go undiagnosed and not be provided the resources that come with diagnosis. I was afraid other people wouldn't pick up on it until he was in school. He would spiral out of control and it would be much more difficult to handle at that point.
So the moment arrived she called my name and I prepared for the news. She went through all the different sections, saying that he had rated high on oppositional behavior, had issues with focus, did not interact socially as a normally developing child did. She continued with the fact that there is a good possibility he has ADHD but was a little too young to diagnose. And then the big one Autism, my ears were wide open. She said I have diagnosed Armanno with Autism specifically Aspergers. Aspergers is a high functioning form of Autism Spectrum Disorder. I stared at her and said ok and then started crying. She handed me a tissue and I said, I don't know why I'm crying, I knew all along. Apparently hearing it from a professional who is qualified to diagnose is a lot different then self- diagnosis. It was real now, but it was a type of relief for me. I could now seek the right kind of help for him.
She finished up by saving the best for last. Armanno scored high on cognitive development. For his overall cognitive skills he scored in the 90th pecentile at a 4yr olds level. At the time of assessment Armanno was 3yrs and 3 mths. His verbal skills were in the 90th pecentile, equivalent to a 4 yr 1 mth old. In performance skills he was in the 79th percentile at a 3yr 7mth olds level. But the score that blew me out of the water was his language score! He is in the 99th percentile for his language that is equivalent to a 4 yr 9 month old. No wonder we were shocked at some of the things that came out of his mouth. He was like a little 5 yr old in a 3 yr olds body.
We always knew Armanno was a smart boy and I've always been proud of him, this was just a little added bonus. Now we just had to work on his behaviors so he could be the best he could be.
In the end she asked me what I was expecting to hear from her? I said "to be honest I thought you were going to tell me he was perfectly normal". I told her that I had said to my sister on the way out, "if she tells me he is perfectly normal I'm going to have to go for an assessment because I must be crazy! Well turns out I'm not crazy, at least not when it comes to knowing my own child!
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