Really!? Two Kids With Special Needs!? {Full Contact Special Needs Parenting}

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!