Blankenbehlers

Bobby took Timo and Jared out sledding in the moonlight tonight and Jared is asleep so that gives me few minutes to write something here. Today was a cold day so the kids are bundled with snow pants and have several layers :)

Last few months have been quite crazy over here. My life has never has been a piece of cake, but again we have come over few more obstacles. So, I finally had Matthew tested for autism last fall, and the results came back that he has pdd.nos which I had never heard about myself, and the easiest way that I describe to people that he is mildly autistic. When we moved to Wisconsin Matthew had an IEP for school (individualized Education Plan) that he got from Michigan, but he had to be reevaluated when we moved here in May. Matthew fell in the normal range with all the tests they gave him (in the lower range in some areas but still within the average range) I knew that he did need extra help, but being June and school out like the following week I didn't feel like fighting, and I guess I thought..hmm maybe he is doing better and he won't need extra help when he starts kindergarten. Previously I had been hesitant of having him labeled and that's why I thought I could wait to have him tested for autism. Things were quite different in Wisconsin though, you needed to have a label in order to get any extra help. In our ward we had someone who had worked with some special therapy for autistic kids, so I contacted the organization and set up an appointment to have Matthew evaluated. Only thing was that the wait time was 3 months. I set the appointment, but thought I'd look for someone else so I can get things moving along faster. I found an other doctor that could see Matthew in 3 weeks. Interesting thought that every time I was going to go and see her some thing happened and I had to reschedule. The person was really nice and willing though to work with me. On my second attempt when I tried to see her, somehow I had the wrong address by one block and I asked around and no one was able to help me. For some reason I wasn't suppose to see that particular doctor, because things weren't working out. I finally realized that I should go ahead with the original one and I had a lot better feeling about that. Finally in September after Kindergarten had started Matthew got his diagnoses. The place I took him is called Wisconsin Early Autism Project and they are awesome. The best thing that I am aware of for kids on the autism spectrum is ABA therapy (in-home extensive therapy) I had a friend from Colorado that also had a son with autism and she had a very good experience with the therapy. As I was contemplating if this was good for Matthew since he was just "mildly autistic" after talking to her and she said that when her in-laws had seen her son after about 4 months of therapy they couldn't believe that the difference between her son was like a night and day. I decided that it would be a good idea, but it would mean about 20-25 hours of one on one therapy at our home. The whole process of getting things started took a while and finally beginning this January it started. I am finally getting used to having people here all the time. The good news is that it's going very well and that Matthew loves it. Matthew was having some hard time in kindergarten this fall, and they did some additional testings and he qualified for special stuff under autism and speech and language delay (this was a long and eventful experience, but it turned out ok). Matthew is very smart, and academically is where he is suppose to be and beyond but socially he is very delayed. I believe that this therapy is going to be life changing for him. In our school district they only have full day kindergarten, but I was able to have it just a half day for him since he was having such a hard time there, and then it works good that he has the therapy in the afternoon. He gets to do all kind of fun stuff and when he works for goals he gets lots of rewards.

I have definitely learned a lot in the last few months and keep learning. In Michigan seemed like there was nearly not that much support for autistic children, but here there is a lot more opportunities. The therapy is super expensive..like $40 000 /year or something, and there is a law in WI that therapy for autism must be covered by insurance. We don't have the best insurance (I didn't want to pay too much every month) and we first have to meet our family deductible which is $5000, but that is a lot better that 40 000, plus if anything else happens this year it will be covered 100 % after the deductible. There is medical waiver program for autism, but the waiting list is a year long, so hopefully we get it for next year. I can't really think of anything better that I can spent that 5000 dollars for.

OK, the boys are back so I better wrap this up. I will be excited to see the progress Matthew will be making. I am also glad that Matthew has a great teacher in school that works patiently with Matthew. Matthew is special little boy, and he will do great things.