He's Come a Long Way

Here's Griffin around 16-18 months right after he had begun his early intervention and if he is 18 months then it is after he has been officially diagnosed with autism. But anyhow he has his pressure vest on, which helped keep him calm, and has lined up his little chess pieces over at his early interventionist's house, Sheila, who is still to this day a very dear friend. Griffin didn't line up things much after this photo, he was never really into that much like lots of other autistic kiddos are. He did however like his spoons and went everywhere with them usually one in each hand but always at least one.

Now he is in third grade and is in a mainstream classroom and is doing an excellent job I might add! I spoke with his resource teacher and she bragged on him saying that he is participating in class very well and asking questions raising his hand appropriately which is wonderful! She said that she is working on finding the balance between helping him and figuring out when to pull back and letting him do his own work but that so far he has shown her that he can keep up with the class quite well with little prompting.

He has come a long way since lining up those chess pieces and I am so very proud of him, he does still have his share of meltdowns but they are short lived and not as intense as they used to be....thank goodness. Griffin has really grown up and matured and become quite an independent young man and it is so bittersweet for me that he is growing up so fast. I love that he is becoming his own person and doing things on his own but at the same time it breaks my heart that my little boy is growing before my eyes and I know that one day those kisses and hugs might not be so plentiful but for now they are and I am so very grateful!

We tried the Intuniv yesterday and it had the opposite effect on him. It was supposed to make him sleepy by the end of the day and by the end of the day he was revved up and couldn't sleep despite the medication (Phenegran and Melatonin) that I tried. I finally had to call the doctor on call and ended up giving him an entire dose of Attivan to get him to sleep after trying a half dose which didn't work! That is, the same dose that I would take....that is how revved up he was! So out with the Intuniv no hope there.