Now my son, Daniels, disability is a lot more complex.
He has, what they call, Pervasive Developmental
Disorder (P.D.D.), which is, within the World of Autism.
Daniel is considered to be within the higher functioning
realm of the disorder. Daniel has many more needs than Michael.
With Daniel, problems became noticeable very early
on. Guess you can say, that I noticed some things right off the bat. Even
at the age of 4 weeks. For example; he never liked being held close, being
a breast fed baby, made that a problem.
As he began to get older I noticed strong delays
in normal development milestones. Once again, I took my concerns to our
family Pediatrician and once again he stated that he was only a late bloomer.
To say the least I was in total disagreement with him.
Along with the delays I also noticed that Daniel
was exhibiting abnormal traits. One that was very prominent, and lasted
until we was 10 years old, was his preoccupation with his own saliva. He would
allow it to accumulate in his mouth and blow bubbles with it and string
it along from his mouth to his hands and just sit and play with it. At
that time, many said it was a " learned behavior" because everyone laughed
at him when he did it. But even when all stopped laughing and we repeatedly
attempted to get him to stop, he would just continue. Other things that
were noticed were the lack of normal baby behaviors: showed no interest
in toys or playing with them, didn't like to be held close, hardly ever
cried, showed no desires to crawl or to reach for things at normal ages,
etc. All he did was just sit in his little rocking nip-nap and stare off
in space, once in awhile giving us a smile here and there. Any more activity
than that had to be forced out of him. This went on for a total of 8 months. All the time keeping Danny's
doctor up-to-date.
All of a sudden all hell broke loose with Dan. He began getting out of bed in the middle of the night and roaming around the house. One morning at about 3:00 AM
I woke up to blood curdling screams to find him sitting on top of an electric range with all four burners red hot and the
edges of his diaper baring one of their mark. Another, night again at about 3:00 AM, I woke up to Danny's cries to find that he had not only locked himself in the bathroom but had also decided that he wanted to play in the water (one of his favorite things to do even to this day) and that the bathroom needed a bath---he had thrown a washcloth in the sink and had the hot water going full blast. By the time I finally got the door open the bathroom was totally flooded and due to that found that the ceiling in the apartment had collapsed. Thank goodness I had a very understanding landlord =/ These two things happened within one week of each other and because of them I bought a gate and began to gate Danny into his room at night. Well, guess what...that didn't help, guess you can say that he has always been a determined child. NOW for the one thing that finally freaked me out. One day I had a day off from school....daily routine in full swing for Danny...breakfast, bath, playtime....walk around the
neighborhood....and finally nap time. Put Dan down for his nap, grabbed a cup of coffee and went to the
living room to do some studying. I looked in on Danny about 15 minutes or so later and he was laying quietly in bed asleep (so
I thought). My phone rang and it was Danny's Godmother and we were chit chatting and all of a sudden I hear my
neighbor in the apartment building next to mine screaming my name frantically....first thing to come to my mind was Danny. I ran to his room opened his door to find that he had pushed the screen out of the window and
this little body was tittering in the window, oh did I mention we lived in a upper apartment? I didn't make a sound, I was afraid if I did he tip right out of the window. I slowly and quietly got to him and yanked him in and out of the window.
At that time I finally put my foot down with his
doctor, told him that either something was wrong with my child or there was something wrong with me either way someone was going to get a complete mental evaluation either Danny or me and
I was not leaving until it was set up so he had a choice to make. After over a year and a half of testing and questions he was finally
diagnosed as having Pervasive Developmental Disorder. At that time, I was referred to The Committee
on Special Education and immediately and therefore placement process began.
There were a few schools recommended and I had
to visit each one to make sure they were what my son needed. Danny needed
extensive speech and occupation theory, and my concern was that all his
needs be provided "in-house"(provided to him within the same facility),
and that place was found.
Through the years I've had the proud pleasure
of assisting and watching my son blossom. When he entered school he only
had a vocabulary of MAYBE 10-15 words that only "I" could understand, now
I no longer have to interrupt for him and now we can't get him to shut up!
hahahahaha! BUT I WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY!
Update May 2006
Things have been very busy for Dan. This was his first year outside the
private school environment. He was mainstreamed this year into the districts
middle school and has done AWESOME ! He has maintained a 4.0 GPA since the
beginning of the year and is schedule to "Move up" in June. He will be attending
HIGH SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER!! I can't believe how fast he grew up!
Update June 2008
Weeee, what a couple of years it has been! Dan is doing absolutely TERRIFIC! He did pass into High School and did very well his Freshman year. He shocked many people with just how well he did do. He was even chosen to participate in the School Districts Work Experience program with is usually exclusive to Junior and Senior students...that made me extremely proud.
Before His freshman year ended he was interviewed at school for the Mayors Summer Youth Program in our area and was indeed hired and held a summer job. Again Very Very Proud of him.
His Sophomore year is coming to a close , not only has he done well by holding a GPA of 3.4-3.7 throughout the year, he has been SO SO BUSY!
He went on an overnight trip to Cleveland with his class to visit the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Zoo, Science Center and more.
He participated in the Special Olympics Summer Games and brought home a ribbons for Shot Put-Second Place, Running Long Jump-Third Place, Relay-Third Place and 100m Dash-Fifth Place. He was/is so proud of himself, as am I.
He is currently playing Baseball with the
C.A.P.S.
League. He will also be working again with the
Mayor Summers Youth Program.
He is just into everything these days...can't keep him in one
place for long anymore. But I like it that way.
