A Lot Has Happened

My dad used to say that “the smallest deed done is better than the greatest intention.” Well – my intention was to maintain a blog as a way to keep family, friends, and even strangers encouraged as they read about life lessons learned from Hudson. My actual deed was posting only one blog in a year! In that year, a lot has happened. To quickly summarize – Hudson has finished his first year (technically 6 months) of pre-k. Once he turned 3 – his Early Intervention Services completed and he became eligible for the autism program offered through the school district. I was extremely hesitant because had my son not been diagnosed – he’d be home with mom baking cookies or finger painting or making couch cushion forts. Not attending all day pre-k! But before he was eligible for the program, the district had to assess his skill levels. After their assessment, they put together an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for him. An IEP is meant to set specific goals for Hudson based on his specific strengths and struggles. These are some of the goals set for Hudson based on his severe language and social delays:

• Hudson will match red, yellow, blue, circle, square, triangle
•  Hudson will identify big and little
•  Hudson will identify 4-6 body parts
•  Hudson will color in a given area
•  Hudson will complete inset puzzles of 3-5 pieces
•  Hudson will indicate the need to use the toilet
•  Hudson will respond to social greetings
•  Hudson will participate in basic turn taking activities
•  Hudson will attend to teacher directed activities
•  Hudson will classify objects by sorting them into categories
•  Hudson will express prepositional locations of objects
•  Hudson will improve his ability to formulate meaningful utterances to request, comment, describe, and answer

By the time we got through all of his goals – I felt like laughing! All I could think was “good luck with those!” It took a long time getting him to sit through and somewhat participate in a 45 minute playgroup. How in the world did they expect him to attend all day pre-k? Well, I figured we could at least give it a shot. And if it didn’t work, then I could pull him out. After all, pre-k isn’t mandatory.

And so his first day of school finally came. We packed his little lunch and pull-ups in his cute little camouflaged backpack that was bigger than him! And as I’m sure all parents do – Sean and I cried after we dropped him off. We cried because we felt cheated out of “normal” toddler years at home. We cried because we were nervous for our boy. We cried as the reality of our son’s autism settled in a layer deeper.

Even as I recall and write this post – I have gotten a little teary eyed. But this time it isn’t fear-based. These are tears of joy. I’m so proud of our boy because not only has he enjoyed school – he has met just about every single one of his goals! His vocabulary has grown. His ability to sit through activities has grown. His awareness of other students has grown. And on top of all of that – he seems to genuinely enjoy school! One of the last meetings we had with his teacher before summer started was to update his IEP. Old goals were met. New goals were set. And this time, instead of laughing in disbelief – I’m laughing in excitement to the new ways that Hudson is going to grow. A lot has happened in a year. But this is just the beginning!

Go Hudson!