A day with AUTISM in OUR house.

PLEASE forgive the lengthy post.. I just had to get some information out there!!! I thought this was the best way to share my feelings for the day and the last few weeks.. BE prepared it a long post!

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Sometimes it is so hard to explain PDD/NOS. This is what Tanner has OFFICALLY been diagnosised with from a number of Doctors, so it MUST be true... RIGHT?????

PDD/NOS is one of the 5 main diagnosises on the AUTISM SPECTRUM!! And believe me I have fought some pretty good fights with professionals- We will call them teachers (just for fun)-

Well last night I was reading and came across this GREAT explanation of what exactly PDD/NOS is so here you go..... READY!!!!

PDD/NOS is...

just a way of SUGARCOATING a diagnosis of AUTISM.

You can call it what you want, but your son has AUTISM!!!!

There you have it.. Straight from the Doctors mouth.

Now if I could just get the rest of the world to understand.

NO Two Children are the same. Everyone with the diagnosises of AUTISM is different!

I personally know of 5 different children that are all diagnosised with PDD/NOS and everyone of them have differnet traits of the spectrum.

As hard as it was for me to come to the grasp of this with Tanner as it is with all parents I think the hardest part for me was when the Specialist told me he also had MENTAL RETARDATION!

That has not ever been an issue. But to actually have that as a diagnosis made everything so REAL. I had always wanted to be a SPECIAL ED. teacher. STILL DO!!But to have those needs in my house everyday 24/7 was really a shocker.

I watch my boys as they are getiing ready for bed. Tanner is 11 and Tayson is 4.The steps in which it takes to get tanner ready for bed TRIPLE what it takes to get Tayson ready. Everything with him is a process. A process of setting every thing out to actually physically doing it for him. The difference MANY people would never have known had I not shared it with them. Tanner functions at a 2-3 year old with his daily living skills in an 11 year old body. He reads at a beginning preschool level. Math, writing, speech are very well controlled with teachers and people watching out for him. Helping him solve the simplest of problem can cause a meltdown.

I wonder if he will ever be able to care for himself?? I wonder if when I am no longer able to help him--WHO WILL?? I wonder if when he is at school do they know he is unable to wash his face without verbal and sometimes physcial prompts... Do they know these things?? Who will tell them, he can't he doesn't understand....