As Autism Awareness month winds down, I figured now would be a good time to give a little update on Caiden, especially since we have some BIG news to share!
Caiden has made leaps and bounds in his development lately. He has almost met all of his short term goals for OT, such as drawing a circle and straight-ish lines. He has also been showing more signs of sensory seeking instead of avoiding. In PT, he has finally mastered catching a ball, and jumping, managing to get both feet clear off the floor! He is very proud of himself for this, as he should be ;) However, it is ST that he has shown the most progress in recently. Caiden now has more than FIFTY - yes, fifty! - words he can say!! These include "mommy" and "daddy" which he had not said in roughly a year!
While we are extremely excited about how much he's improved lately, we are still keeping a close eye on him. He is prone to regressions, so we're hoping that a lot of his new skills stick around for a while this time.
The developmental pedi gave me some paperwork on IEPs so we can get him enrolled in school this fall. He's going to need a one-on-one aide and still isn't potty trained, so we've got a lot of work ahead of us. I personally think he's going to have a rough few days once he first starts trying to get used to it, but I think after that, he's going to love being in school.
Because Caiden has done so well lately and is showing so much progress, the doctor decided that he doesn't need to go back to see her for a whole entire YEAR!! She still wants us to keep her updated and to go in if something comes up, but as long as he continues to do well, we only have to see her once a year.
Today he weighed in at roughly 45lbs (97th percentile) and is 3'7" (99th percentile) and........ he let them take his blood pressure!! Caiden has only tolerated having it taken ONE other time, and today he didn't really care, just got kinda wiggly. It was a perfect 100/60 too!
Our next big date is in just two weeks when we go back to neurogenetics and meet the new neurologist to go over his last MRI. Hopefully we'll continue to get good news!