We've finished the evaluations by our public school system. The consensus there is...they don't think he has Asperger's at all. Soooo....our OT doesn't think he has it, the 4 professionals who evaluated him for the school system don't think he has it, his dad and I don't think he has it, his pediatrician doesn't think he has it...but one psychologist says he does. After reading the Misdiagnosed book, I really think he is a very gifted child who suffers from some social problems. I don't think it's a case of the school system not wanting to give him that dx so they don't have to serve him...because regardless of the label, he's not delayed enough to receive services anyway. And regardless of the label, he's eligible for some of their social skills groups anyway. Same with the sensory stuff...which I do believe he has...they don't see any signs of it, but looking through is OT chart, whatever he was having problems with wouldn't have made him eligible for services anyway. So there we are.

Disney!

So, we just spent a full 7 days in Orlando. It was wild! We had a great time, but it was anything but restful or relaxing, lol.

First off, we stayed at Sheraton Vistana Resort, which is mostly a timeshare location but they also rent by the night/week. We had a 2-bedroom villa, with 2 full baths, a full kitchen, living room, dining area, screened in porch and right next to one of the pools (kid pool and hot tub too!). The master bedroom had a king bed in a good sized room, and that bathroom had a HUGE whirpool bath and separate shower, double sinks with granite counters and all tiled. The other bedroom had two queen beds, plus there was a queen sleeper in the family room. Three TV's! Kitchen had microwave, stove/oven, full fridge/freezer, dishwashwer and all amenities. Oh..I almost forgot...it had a (mini) washer and dryer too...so we only packed 3 sets of clothing each and one pr of PJ's..and we came home with all clean clothes in our suitcases!! It was a GREAT place to stay with kids, I'd highly recommend it. The only negative part is the pressure to attend a "sales presentation", but you can avoid answering the phone and not deal with that! Here's what it's like:

http://www.starwoodvacationownership.com/sheraton_vistana_resort/photos.jsp

If you page down to the "Springs Villas", that was exactly where we stayed and it looks exactly like our rooms! And it was reasonably priced, I think we had a special that was $158 per night, which is much less than we'd have paid to stay just about anywhere else with 6 people. It was just about 10 minutes door to door to the Disney parks too. We'd typically have breakfast at the villa, then pickup lunch on the way back from the parks, and then eat dinner out.

The place was huge, too. There are 7 pools there, plus a mini-golf setup and rec rooms all over. An adults-only exercise room, a food market, even a Starbucks! It's gated, too, and you have to have a parking pass to get into the resort plus they ask for ID after 8pm, so we felt very safe. We will definitely stay there again if we ever head back to Orlando!

I'll be posting more about the trip later...

Update...

The public school assessment ball is rolling. Ryan had a speech/language assessment yesterday and an OT assessment today. The speech person said she got what she needed from him, that he scored well and we'd talk more about it during the final meeting. The OT said that she sees no sign of sensory issues with him now...which is HUGE. She said his posture is good, he has good core strength and his fine motor skills are age appropriate. So he has come a long way since September with his weekly OT! I took that info back to his personal OT and she said she's been considering releasing us...so she did! He's done with OT for the time being, and we can start back up in the fall once we see how he handles being back in school. DH said that he's noticed that Ryan doesn't seem to bump into people/things anymore and we've both noticed that he's less likely to use his hands and body to express himself. We briefly met the psychologist that will be doing his assessment and he is the sweetest, most compassionate man. He was on his way out of the building when the OT called him over and introduced us, he realized we were a part of his caseload so he chatted with me for a few minutes. Then the OT asked me a question, and the psychologist noticed Ryan playing with my keychain, and he sat down next to Ryan and just chatted away with him.

Oh, and another big thing...everyone who has assessed Ryan (besides his private psychologist) has highly questioned the Asperger's diagnosis. Even the psychologist today only spent a few minutes with Ryan in the hallway and said that while it is a hard thing to diagnose at this age, he just doesn't see it (although he was quick to point out that he hasn't spent enough time with Ryan yet and totally defers to his psychologist).

My child, the conundrum.

Update...

not much of an update, but here it is. We finally got the doctors to sign off on his food allergy and yeast overgrowth testing. We'll get that done in the next week or so, hopefully, but I don't know how long it will take to get the results.

I tried to get an appointment with the child psychology group that his OT recommends, but they aren't taking new patients until the end of summer. They take our insurance (our current one doesn't) so I was really looking forward to that bonus, plus they also hold social skills groups for boys his age periodically. I'm on the wait list so when they start taking new patients, they'll give me a call. We'll be heading back to the one we currently use, I guess.

Ryan's had some really big rages lately.

Still around!

Ryan's been away from school for a little over a week, and I've gone from having no time to having NOOOO TIME. He's adjusted pretty well, he's really resilient like that. Nothing new to report. Took him off the dietary restrictions while we wait for his ped to OK several tests that might point us more closely to what his sensitivities might be. He's had some pretty wild days, but also some really good ones. We've determined that he was probably supposed to be an only child. We have so few problems with him when he's the only one around, he's like a totally different child. :-) He's finally learned to tie his shoes and of course promptly lost all interest in doing it. We're staying busy!

A Glimpse...

of how hard it can be to be the mom of a child like Ryan.

We went to McDonald's today, with the play area. We haven't been in a long time...well before Christmas. Ryan had had a good day so far, but I was still keeping a close eye on him...as close as I could with him crawling around in enclosed tubes. At about the 25 minute mark, I was searching for Ryan to check in on him (as I'd been doing every few minutes), and I noticed a girl crying and an angry looking mom. I found Ryan and as I was checking in with him, the mom came up to me and asked me if Ryan was my son. I said yes, and she angrily told me that Ryan had hit her daughter for no reason and made her cry. "She's just little, and he's obviously big enough to know better. " (For the record, her neice as it turned out, was nearly 5). I apologized profusely and explained to her that we would be leaving and that Ryan has Asperger's...and her very angry reply was that he shouldn't be allowed to play with other kids if that was the case.

Yeah, I know that I shouldn't care what other people think, but when faced with these kinds of comments I can't help NOT care. How can I NOT help but project these kinds of reactions onto other moms of kids that Ryan might hurt, when these comments aren't rare to begin with?

My heart is breaking. I have to pick up Ryan from school for the last time in a few minutes. I'm so sad. I've gotten a couple of very heart-felt emails from his teacher's aide and from a couple of moms, and they've had me in tears all morning. It was easier when I was just plain angry.

I just have to keep telling myself that I'm doing the right thing.