First Day Of School
When we left the doctor's office last week after the 5+ hours of talking, sitting, waiting, & the unbelievable amount of paperwork I didn't feel any closer to knowing what was going on in my 5 year old's head. After leaving Jayden's appointment we pretty much knew what was to come & after three weeks we had it on paper in front of us. With Zion it was very different! With the meltdowns, the selective mutism, the rituals, & all the other ticks that make up this enigma of a kid I just didn't know what to think & to be honest with you it really didn't even seem like the doctor did either!Once we got back to the office the next week we sat down & waited for...who freakin' knows what! Some areas he was tested in were really low, some average, & how do you test a kid successfully when the poor lady spent the first hour & a half just trying to get him to open up & say one word to her! After she got him to open up a bit he talked with her & she was able to get a good assessment. What we came out with was....drum roll please....Generalized Anxiety Disorder & Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder. I mean really, what the heck is that anyway! The best I could do was to flip-flop the Receptive-Expressive part so I could abbreviate it MERLD & say Zion had just been MERLD by the doctor! For the most part that's just how I roll! Stressed? Confused? Make fun of the whole situation, that will make it better! :)
Hanging Our In Our Photography Studio!
After reading the 15 page report & reading up on MRELD(the real acronym) I started to understand & see why Zion does some of the things he does. This kid can cut off his arm & be fine but if you don't blow him kisses he is shaking & screaming unable to control himself. From the time he was a baby of about 3 or 4 months old he has had meltdowns at the drop of a hat. Staying up til 5AM trying to calm him from a non-stop screaming fit. As he got older we would be asleep & in would walk Zion wide awake only sleeping an hour or less a night. We are constantly getting more set & strict in our routine & that helps so much for both but if you throw a monkey wrench in that in any way the whole house comes falling down! I'm happy we know whats going on now & while we already have a set of things we do to try & make life chill & workable, we are pretty much changing/re-working the way we do EVERYTHING to try and find a balance between Asperger's - Anxiety - & Parental Sanity! We can now start some speech therapy for him. Has anyone ever done any kind of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or any kind of behavioral therapy for anxiety. Or ANY suggestions you all might have for kiddos with severe anxiety we would love to hear them!So, this starts a new chapter in our life! All lumped into Adventures in Aspergers, why? Because a second blog called Adventures In Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder just doesn't have the same ring to it!