Marcus' Big Eval

It's been a long time in coming and I've been super stressed about it, but I'm very encouraged after going!

He's extremely smart. He may not be able to talk very well, but he sure is one smart little boy. They were very impressed with his ability to write his name (though he randomly wrote it backwards for the first time ever, lol) and knowing the names of a bunch of colors and shapes that are above his grade level (like grey, peach, hexagon and octagon).

He's very behind in speech, though that was pretty obvious. They were impressed by his improvements just the 2 months since they saw him last which makes me very happy!

They tested him for autism because he's has a hard time in a school like setting. I'm so happy to report that he doesn't have autism! He use to do a lot of things that were signs of it but he doesn't do them anymore now that he can talk better so they think his issues are all just because of his language barrier rather than him having autism or something like it.

They told me about some classes that I think will really benefit him. He'd start them with the new school year. He'll be in a normal size class with about 5 kids that are in the STEPs program (like him). They'll have a regular teacher and her aide as well as a STEPs teacher and her aide. With 4 teachers in there, there's a lot less of a chance for him to get left behind or not be able to do something because he doesn't understand what he's supposed to be doing. I'm very encouraged by this! It's EXACTLY what he needs! I was thinking of homeschooling him for awhile there just because I was so afraid that with only one teacher, nobody would notice that he wasn't following along, but this class makes me feel so much better. He'll get a lot more out of interacting with a class of kids and learning from someone else than learning from me and only seeing kids a few times a week with homeschooling programs.

All in all it was a great eval! I already knew he was very behind in speech so that was nothing new and it was very encouraging to have them tell me he's ahead in almost everything else and the things he's not ahead in, he's right where he needs to be. My special little man!

Now on to Jamesen...

I've been thinking he might have autism for a little bit now. It's been really hard to admit that, but I have to admit that there is also something going on with him. I called a local program here called Babies Can't Wait and they evaluated him yesterday to see if he qualified. He's behind in speech as well so he qualifies for that. I'm waiting on some more extensive testing for him and I'm going to be getting him tested for Autism as well.

They gave me a questionnaire with Marcus to test him for Autism and while most of the answers for Marcus were "no" or "he use to but doesn't anymore", a lot of the questions made me think yes for Jamesen. I'm a bit discouraged by that but at the same time encouraged by the fact that even 6 months to a year ago, some of those questions would have been yes for Marcus. Jamesen has pretty good eye contact and shows empathy so I'm hopeful that if he is Autistic, that it's high functioning, but it might just be like Marcus and the speech barrier is causing the issues rather than Autism.

When I brought up that Jamesen has a delay in speech as well, the 3 ladies evaluating Marcus said that if J's anything like M, they're both probably just very visual with learning rather than oral.

Overall I'm very encouraged about Marcus. I'm concerned about Jamesen but I have to wait before I have anymore answers on him.