"Words and Sounds" March Progress Brendan 22 months

                     Brendan has made so much progress in the last 2 weeks. He is really starting to imatate sounds. He is saying, "momma" and it just melts my heart. He is saying. "go" a lot. He is starting to say, "baba" for bounce. However with his apraxia unfortunately what happens is when he learns a new sound a current sound or word will disappear. For me as a mom it is really hard because I am so afraid when the day ends and new day starts what he will not say and not do what he has learned. On Friday for example I couldn't get him to say, "momma" at all. Every time I said, "momma" to him he would say, "baba". Thank goodness the next day he was back to saying, "momma" but then he was no longer saying, "baba". This is what is hard. He is doing amazing with the PECS the picture cards. He will bring me a picture of chips at 6:30am and yup thats right he gets chips. This is still so new for him so we are honoring the picture exchange no matter what. Haley doesn't think it is fair but I think now she is ok with it. The picture exchange has made it easy for him to communicate and I believe this is why he has started to make sounds.

                                               Brendan doing ABA therapy with Katie

Brendan saying,"go & ba" (bounce)

                       Last week we had our first appointment with Dr Raun Melmed himself. I was really nervous going into the appointment and I am not sure really why. He first observed and played with Brendan. Of course he did the main autism test and called him by his name lots of times and Brendan never turned around. Then we chatted about what services Brendan is getting. Then we started to talk about apraxia. His doctor previously at the Melmed center is the one who wanted us to meet Dr Melmed because she had never had a child as you as Brendan with apraxia. Dr Melmed did his own assessment with Brendan and then told us he definitely has apraxia. But then he told us we are doing everything right for him. He has all the right therapy and to continue fighting because it makes all the difference. In the autism world here in phoenix there is nobody higher to see then Dr Melmed. It really made me feel great listening to him tell us that.
                              Brendan being silly trying to put Haley's American girl glasses on

                       Monday is April 1st and April is Autism Awareness month. I am so excited to spread awareness in any way that I can. April 2nd is national Light it up Blue day. We will be lighting our house blue for the whole month of April. Then April 6th is our big bowling tournament and Team Brendan has close to 50 people who are going to bowl. I am so excited to get our friends and family together to raise money and awareness.

March 12th It has been 1 year since Brendan's "AT Risk of Autism" diagnoses Brendan 22 months

   

   Today marks the date a year ago when Brendan was 10 months old and he got his "at risk of autism" diagnoses. I honestly can't believe it has been a year already. A year ago we were so terrified, finding out that your child could have autism was extremely overwhelming. But the progress he has made since then gives me such hope for his future. In the last week Brendan has made HUGE progress in his social skills. I shouldn't say just the last week because the last 6 months he has made progress but I got to watch his progress. This weekend we were around lost of house guests. When someone walked into the room he was in, I watched him look up to see who it was!!! When another child his size came up to him I watched him lean into them and try and give them a kiss. He would run up someone and want to be picked up! You all have no idea how much this makes me smile. I was extremely emotional watching him this weekend. These are huge steps of progress. I can only hope he keeps making progress like this in all areas.

   I just wanted to give you all a quick update on my appeal. After receiving my appeal denial I found out that I could request a meeting with my new team. I have had my new team of speech, occupational and developmental specialist for the last 2 months. They have been really good with Brendan, they seem to be more on the same page with what Brendan's needs are. I have the opportunity to dismiss my appeal and to take the chance with my new team to decide on what hours and therapy he needs. As scared as I was I felt I needed to give my team a chance. We had a meeting thursday and my new team and I got to decide on the hours for Brendan only for the ext 6 weeks. In the end my team had his best interest so we are trying out more hours but shorter sessions. We have another meeting in 6 weeks and at that time we will decide on the hours he will get for 90 days. Things are starting to look up, thank you to my new team for fighting for my son with me.

This is a video of Brendan discovering his own Shadow!

This is Brendan trying to imatate leaning over like a tea pot!

April is Autism Awareness Month - Team Brendan Shirts!

The month of April is Autism Awareness Month! April 2nd is World Autism Awareness day and I would love for everyone to wear their Team Brendan shirts and spread awareness. I am placing another order for Team Brendan shirts so if you haven't purchased your shirt yet please help support Team Brendan.

We have men's, ladies, children and toddler sizes. The adult shirts are $20 and the kids shirts are $15. If you would like to purchase a shirt please email me at Brendanslifewithautism@gmail.com with your size and choice of shirt. If you would like me to ship it to you please include your address. I will send you an invoice with the options of how to pay.

Mens sizes
Small,medium,large,X-large,XX-Large,XXX-large, 4XL, 5XL

Womens sizes
X-small, small, medium, large,X-Large,XXL, 3XL
 *ladies if you don't want this fitted ladies shirt you can order the men's shirt

Youth sizes
X-Small(2-4),small(6-8),medium(10-12),large(14-16)

Toddler sizes
2T,3T,4T

Amazing Progress with PECS finishing out February/Start of March 2014! Brendan 21/22 months

         In the last 2 weeks Brendan has made such amazing progress. It is so fun to watch him learn and accomplish new things everyday. One of his habilatation therapist who works with him 4 days a week said to me today that he keeps changing every time she works with him. He is tackling so many new things. We have now been doing the PECS(picture exchange card system) for the last 2 weeks. He is responding so well to it. He knows that if he wants the tv on, a snack and or his milk he will get the picture of the card and bring it to you. He gets so excited when it works for him. His face just lights up! It makes me tear up with joy every time. His therapist have told me that the progress he has made so far is extremely fast. I am so glad to hear this. This makes me think that he can do anything we challenge him with. I might be jumping a little ahead but I can dream big right? We are starting to get adjusted to his crazy therapy schedule. But I would take this crazy schedule anytime if he keeps up the progress he is making. He has learned to say "go". He is starting to wave "bye bye". He knows where is his "head" and "eyes" are.  He has mastered a lot of object imitation which he struggled with the first week. He has learned to do the big floor puzzles that are recommended for ages 4 and up. His love and ability of puzzles amazes me. He can also do some of the hardest puzzles on the iPad. He loves the one where the vehicles are moving and he has to match them up. It is even hard for me. lol. Since he has learned to give kisses he will try and use his kissing giving to get him something he wants. I LOVE IT!!!!! We all give kisses all the time. But unfortunately Haley was sick, two of his therapist have been sick and then Brendan was sick 2 weekends ago. So this kissing is spreading a lot of germs around.

             

       
         The dreaded appeal decision came on Thursday. As I suspected they denied me everything. I wasn't shocked by the decision however I was shocked that they told me the reason of the denial was because his previous team (Sunrise) never submitted quarterly reports. So like I said before they didn't like me and this was proof because now they were sabotaging me. This is what made me really ANGRY. Those papers were out of my control. To my understanding they had to submit reports. So my next move was to get a hold of Brendan's file that the state has for him and find out what was submitted and what is missing. The state is so shady and has had the reputation of tampering with files so I was going to have to show up there unannounced in order to make sure nothing in his file was tampered with. That is what I did, friday afternoon I made my way to the states office where his file is located. I asked for his support coordinator and she wasn't in for another 30 minutes so then I asked for her boss. She came out and asked me what she could help me with. I asked her if I could get a copy of my sons file. She said that I need to go through the legal department and it has to be in writing and that I need permission for his file to be released. She handed me the phone number of the person I needed to contact so I stood there and called while she was in my presents. The lady on the phone confirmed that is what I needed to do. Which was fine so I left and stood in the front of the building and made a call to my parent mentor Trisha(Autism Society of Greater Phoenix) and she immediately told me not leave and she will find out exactly what my next move is. She then got 2 other women from the Autism Society group on the phone to help us. They told me that in the Early Intervention law it states that as a parent I have the right to see my child's file at anytime. So they said I needed to go back in and tell them I need to see the file. That is what I did. I asked for my supper coordinators boss again and told her that I wanted to see my son's file. She immediately gave me the same response as she did prior. I then began to read her the law, she started to tell me that I was reading the Early Intervention part of the law and they were DDD and they have different laws and they could not show me his file. She then said well we don't have all his file here and start telling me where all the different places his file was located. At this time I knew she was completely lying so I asked her to go and get her DDD law book and show me in writing where it says exactly what she was telling me. She disappeared for 25 minutes and when she returned guess what she had,"Brendan's file."  So once again I called them out on this game they love to play. It seriously makes my blood boil the non sense they try and pull. I sat there and went through every page in his file. I found out we were missing reports from Sunrise from November 17th-January 15th. So I asked them to write an email demanding these files. They did do so and copied me on the request so we will see what happens. In the meantime I will write another appeal to the state telling them I disagree with the decision and from there they will assign me a court date. We will go to court and a judge will decide what services Brendan will get.  
                 This year we are honored to be part of the Marriott Photography Spring for Charity Event. For the last 3 years I have participated with Haley and then last year with both kids. I LOVE the kids pictures with the bunnies and chicks. Picking out spring Easter clothes is a blast. This year the charity they have chosen is Autism of Greater Phoenix. I have told you all before about my parent mentor Trisha who is on the board of the Autism Society. She has been my rock the last 6 months. She has helped me become the fighter I need to be. If you have kids I hope you participate. You get the benefits of having adorable easter pictures and then you get to give to an amazing group. Here is the link to find out more information.
http://marriottphoto.com/blog/6th-annual-spring-for-charity/  

Here is last year Spring for Charity Easter picture!