And then there were TWO...

On April 7th, we had Sydney tested for autism. She has been in occupational and speech therapy for a year, and although she is making great progress, we still had a few concerns about her development. We were suspicious that she would qualify for a PDD-NOS diagnosis (pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified...the "lightest" diagnosis on the spectrum).

The shock to us all...family, therapists, regional center...is that she was diagnosed with autism. Not PDD-NOS. Autism. Thankfully, there is good news. The testing psychologist said that although she "technically" qualifies for an autism diagnosis, she seems to function more like a child with PDD-NOS. Her IQ is also normal, which means that she is more able to compensate for the areas where autism would foil her.

The main areas of her impairment are with her social interaction (she loves to be with people, but tends to engage in parallel play), language delay, and sensory issues. She does engage in repetitive behaviors (mildly) - right now it's mostly counting and talking about faces over and over and over. And there is some face squinting, looking out of the corners of her eyes, and the love of spinning.

All said, though, she and Jacob are on different planets for the most part. We have no concerns about her being able to function in the world when she is older, get married, have a job, etc. She does need some help, though, and this diagnosis will afford her that. She has already been approved for in-home ABA therapy (applied behavioral analysis) and is going through assessments for that next week. She will continue her weekly OT and speech, and we have also added a weely visit with a feeding specialist since her eating is beyond picky right now.

Please keep Sydney in your prayers as she works through this. We know she will. :)