For those of you who don't know his story, here's the beginning in a nutshell. We had him evaluated at 12 months old for autism, and were told that he most likely had it. At 15 months we went back for another evaluation, and he was given a PDD (pervasive developmental disorder) diagnosis so that we could begin to get him services. They would not be able to give us an actual autism diagnosis until he was at least 18 months old.
We had to do some fighting for services...I was initially told that he couldn't have ABA in-home, that he was too young for it at all...blah-blah-blah. After some investigating and a few phone calls, he was set up with a very intensive in-home ABA program and began at 17 months old. I remember very distinctly that it just about killed me to have to wait through the Easter break to get him started! I was in a panic to start fighting the monster of autism.
So here are a couple of the earliest photos I have of him in ABA, with his IA Jenn. They were taken in May of 2005. She has since left the company, but still checks in on Jacob and helps us out with occasional babysitting. In fact, she was the one who came to watch Jacob & Natalie in the middle of the night when I went into labor with Sydney! And here is is a little video of him in therapy, taken in October of 2005 with his IA Carrie. She has also left the company but keeps updated on his progress! We were blessed with some really fantastic IAs, and still are! I remember the little booster chair we had him sit in for therapy because he was so little and couldn't sit at a table yet. He is an amazing little guy, and one of the hardest workers I've ever known.
He makes us so proud!
2 comments:
I bet he does!
Im so for early interevention.
My son was unofficaly diagnosed before he was 1, so we too had to wait. Very frustrating.
I forget how little he was when we started with him. CRAZY =)
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