april is autism awareness month--an insight to our Caden

Now being in the world of autism, april is IT'S month so in honor of that here are some specific tidbits we've learned about caden in hopes to increase your awareness. at age 2 when all he was doing was jumping while watching spongebob and his language didn't progress we clued in to a possible developmental delay. as his speech plateaud and his nonconformity to social situations increased the signs became clearer. we had some hints from friends and the big A word was mentioned--yeah scary. that opened the door to lots of testing and assessments. just 5 months ago we finally got a diagnosis of HFA (high functioning autism). so now we have a child with an ASD (autism spectrum disorder). every HFA case is totally different, and of course every child is different which makes creating the perfect "TEAM" of therapists and aides crucial. we are still at the beginning stages of this: analyzing which suits caden best: BT (behavioral therapy), SIT (sensory integration therapy), OT (occupational therapy) and he's already receiving Speech Therapy. if you want to learn about autism itself i have my favorite links at the very bottom of my blog. but check out how cute this video is: as his parents we have come to realize that these are a few of his autistic tendencies: when mommy is mad at him he only sees my "angry eyebrows", obsessions with sensory enhancing objects like fans, the moon, he turns up the volume at loud things like crashes on Tom & Jerry cartoons, heartbreaking meltdowns if he's excited about something-tries to share the excitement and its not reciprocated, knowing details of animals like a frog is "a red eyed tree frog that uses it's suction cups to climb". we've come to learn that choosing your battles is the ABSOLUTE KEY to his happiness and ours. we know that infinite patience and repetition will work in teaching him. he's a smart little guy and has the most tender heart out of all of us. he just processes differently, it's actually quite fascinating to learn about and realize why caden does what he does. we love him so much that's for sure, and we thank you for the loving support from all of you.