Progress!

Now that Dub has been on this treatment course for well over a month I see some very marked changes in him. On November 21 he reciprocated a smile with me from across the room for the first time. Usually when I smile at him for no reason he gets very angry at me. His OT mentioned later that day that she saw an improvement in his attention span. The following day as I was picking him up from school he initiated a wave to me for the first time ever. Generally he just stares at me while I wave at him. On Dec. 8th he looked at me and said "I'm dancing" which is a really big deal b/c I always have to make him say the pronoun I. He usually calls himself Wilder. (He still has not used any other pronouns such as him, her, them, or you.) He has done numerous other surprising things like actually answering questions! It shocks me every time he does it, although he is only about 50% consistent with it now. The other half of the time he just echoes the question that I asked or appears not to hear me even though I’m sitting right beside him.

At the beginning of December we went to my mom's house to play one morning with about 5 of his cousins (approx his same age). Wilder would usually continually turn his back on them to shut them out or beg me to get on the computer in order to get lost in his own little world. This time was different. He happily sat on the kitchen counter and named each one of them while he pointed them out. Wilder described aloud with perfect eye contact, much emotion and enthusiasm what each cousin was doing. At the end of his speech he was grinning from ear to ear. He proceeded to sit at a little table and play dominoes with three little cousins on the front porch after that. For those of you who know him, you can understand what a big deal this was! The desire to interact was there, and what a beautiful sight it was.

While all of this has been very exciting and encouraging, Wilder gave me the day I had been long awaiting on December 12. He took three very important steps in this single day. The first one was that as I was picking him up from school with Waker in my arms he looked at his teacher, pointed to him, and said "Waker!" with a big, proud smile. He was proud of something! It was a wonderful moment. Since then he has done more showing off of his brother in this same manner, but I have not yet seen his new emotion of pride extend to any other thing he owns or has done.

Secondly, He called my name, Mama. He has long since labeled me mama (like pointing to a picture....there's mama), but never calls out to me from another room to get my attention. This day he said from around the corner, "Mama! Come on!" It is great because now I know that he can imagine/picture me there without actually seeing me. It’s a developmental milestone that he skipped as a baby: imaginative play. For example, he is able to tell me the color of my car as long as he is looking directly at it. If we are in my living room and I ask him, he can’t tell me because he cannot imagine it. Being able to call out to me when I’m not in his sight is the first step to that!

The third thing that he did that day was that he began answering "yes" to a question!!! It is a HUGE turning point for our relationship. If ever before I asked him a yes-or-no question such as 'Wilder, do you want this?' he would simply repeat 'want this?’ Now we don't have to go in verbal circles for hours just to find out if he wants a sandwich or not! Life has gotten a lot easier since then; it has been a consistent skill since that day. It has dramatically diminished much frustration for both of us! (Thank you M.D. - what a great day!)

The biggest overall change that I notice in him since we began this treatment is simply that he is so happy now. He experiences less of a just barely there existence and more of an interactive son. It's not even like he was particularly unhappy all the time before. I simply feel that he has more awareness (and more importantly, an opinion!) about what is taking place around him. It’s almost like a fog has lifted. I'm not saying that we have experienced a miracle yet, but I am absolutely saying that our lives have definitely changed for the better in a very noticeable way, and he is making monumental progress in the areas of development that he skipped as a baby/toddler. I know in my heart that the miracle is still to come. I truly believe that the child that I grieved the loss of so intensely will come back to us completely very soon. We begin chelation therapy in a few weeks, and my level of anticipation is unprecedented.