This Wednesday morning has, for the most part, been uneventful. Compared to two weeks ago when I got a flat tire on the way to school--a nice guy in slippers helped me change it in the snow. I took him a giant chocolate bar. When I took the car to the tire store to get the flat fixed I discovered that the tire was ruined and Vince and I decided to get all the tires replaced--they were pretty bald. THEN I had to take the new old car in to get it checked out by the mechanic and I got it to a neighbor's house where I turned it off and knocked on her door so she could give me a ride home from the mechanic's shop and when I got back to the car it wouldn't start. It was totally dead. And blocking her driveway. I figured out that the battery cable was loose, jammed it back on the battery and drove that sucker straight to the shop. That left me with much less time in the day to do what needed to be done but somehow I managed.
So compared to that today is pretty boring although there was a little drama during scripture reading this morning: Ivy and Ethan didn't really want to read. Ivy was angry about something and she is the drama queen so when she's angry her hands are fisted, her face is red, her eyes tend to squint, and everything that comes out of her mouth comes out in very loud (yelling) spurts. We were all doing well and being patient and quietly pretending nothing was out of the ordinary until Ivy read this one verse and Eva and I couldn't help but laugh. Out loud. Which only made Ivy more angry. (We did, however notice that she didn't sound so angry on the next verse.) The verse in question is Alma 14:7. Here's about how Ivy read it:
AND. IT CAME TO PASS THAT. HE BEGAN TO CRY UNTO. THE PEOPLE!!! SAYING!!! (Up until here everyone was keeping a straight disinterested face--she had already read one verse like this.) BEHOLD!!!! I AM GUILTY!!! (And this is where Eva and I started laughing. Can you blame us? It does seem that when one child is in a "mood" they tend to get a verse like this that tickles my funny bone. Vince is so proper that he just kind of frowned at us and I couldn't look at him because I was trying to STOP giggling)
And here is the CDC update. We saw the psychologist this morning for the second round of testing--we also went last Wednesday morning. Last week she gave Nathan an IQ test and today was a less formal test to see if he was on the autism spectrum and if he was where he would be. Nathan did really well! His verbal IQ score is quite low, which is to be expected. His composite (average of verbal and nonverbal) score is low average. His nonverbal IQ is average and he scores pretty high in the spatial part of the test. It all made sense to me and seems to be fairly accurate. For today's asd (autism spectrum disorder) testing the psychologist explained that a "normal" child would score 1-6, a child with PDD-NOS would be 7-11, and scores higher than that would be a more severe autism. Nathan scored a 7. He is very borderline PDD-NOS. He has a hard time with some or all of the following: reading social situations, knowing how to handle situations where he is uncomfortable, understanding concepts and situations that are not concrete,... An example of this is when she asked him to describe one of his good friends. Nathan told her all about the friend's toys and then she asked again, "But what is he LIKE?" Nathan seemed confused by this and started acting a bit goofy. The psychologist explained that there are group classes for kids Nathan's age that help teach through role play and activities how to handle different social situations and stuff like that. She recommends we take him to a class like this in the summer and then bring him back in the fall for a reevaluation. Overall, I felt like the psychologist really understood Nathan and I feel like the class will be really good for him. I think when things are difficult or confusing for Nathan he does one of a few things: disengages (less/no eye contact, stops interacting with people), acts goofy, or just flat out refuses to try. He's very talented at determining which tactic will work in different situation and/or with different individuals. I believe that a lot of that is because he doesn't know when and/or how to say he is uncomfortable, overchallenged, etc. in a way that he is certain will be socially acceptable. If Nathan is unsure whether he will be understood and responded to positively then he chooses not to interact with people--he is often uncomfortable and I don't think he is able to read all situations in a way that make sense to him. A class is a great idea--I had no idea that was an option! Many children with PDD-NOS "outgrow" it. It's possible that Nathan just needs a little more instruction than my other kids on how to read and handle social situations. It really makes sense when you consider that he missed so much interaction due to an inability to communicate all these years! In reality, he continues to miss crucial social interaction (playtime) due to the speech and school demands he is currently under--he just does not have much time to be a kid and playtime is where kids learn most of this stuff!
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