5/07

We just had Jacobs drs appt at the Melmed Center a few days ago. The Melmed center is a place that has pych and developmental ped  there. Basically for kids who have brain issues...lol and developmental problems. We go here once ever 3 months for Jakes "therapy" for his autism and ADHD. Well when we went we finally got the official diagnosis for severe ADHD. She told us that he is as bad as they get...he cant get any worse than what he is. It was pretty hard to hear because I really didnt think he was that bad. So we decided to put him on meds. Hes only 4 and we really didnt want to do it but she said that its the only thing thats going to help him. And if we dont put him on meds then he wont get any better and we will just hurt him more than putting him on meds. She told me of the side effects and I felt like that was a good decision. The first day that we had him on them, I have noticed a BIG difference. It is making him very sleepy. Which is fine by me, but I dont think he likes being on them. When he comes off of it he gets very cranky and will usually just cry for about 45 min while hes coming off of them. And then he will get REALLY hyper. I can usually tell when hes coming off of them. I think its too strong for him and so we are supposed to go back in 4 weeks for the follow up and I am going to see if she has anything different we can try him on.

When we had Jacobs K transition meeting, we decided to put him in the intergraded kindergarten  Its kinda like normal K but they dont sit at tables...they do centers and learn like that. I had requested to go in and observe the class that is going on now just to make sure that is the class I want him to be in. I know that he can not be in normal K even with his meds. He just cant sit and concentrate that much right now so we had to figure something else out. Plus he is going to have speech and OT during school time and its easier if he is in a class where everyone needs it as well. We had to choose between the Autism class or this IK class. We didnt go with the Autism one because most of the kids that are in that class are severe and we dont want him to start to model those behaviors that the more severe kids do. But with the IK class we can have what he needs to help his autism. Like he will have his own picture schedule for the whole day. We use that at home and he also uses that at school right now and that has helped so much! He has to be on a schedule and he does very well with pictures since he can see what it is instead of trying to read it. Also we will have his therapys. I am going to try to get Physical Therapy to start at school too that way we dont have to do any therapy at home and after school. Well I go and observe the class on Thursday! I am excited to go and see what he is going to be doing next year. i am getting kinda sad about him going to all day kindergarden. I am sure he will do fine but its going to be a big adjustment for him. Its probably going to be a rough few days as he adjusts to it but im sure in the long run it will be the best for us.