Brendan's Life with Autism-Diagnosed at 13 months old
This blog explains how Brendan was diagnosed with autism at 13 months and it will also follows his day to day experiences. His journey will explain how and why getting early intervention works. He will go from being non verbal to verbal to not needing any more therapy. He will define the odds and prove that getting diagnosed with autism at such a young age helped him live life like a normal kid. As a parent always listen to your gut!
On June 17, 2013 Brendan was diagnosed with autism at just 13 months old. Our life turned upside down and we didn't know what the future would be for little boy. We started early intervention which consisted of aba therapy(applied behavioral analysis), speech therapy, occupational therapy, feeding therapy, physical therapy and habilitation therapy. This became our new normal. We would have 10 therapist in and out of our house 5-6 a days a week for about 30-40 hours a week for the next 6 years. So much hard work from his team of therapist, Brendan and from us which is why I believe he is thriving today at 9 years old.
Brendan competed his solo this year and did so amazing. I was so proud of all he accomplished this dance season. He has worked so hard and wants to be a star. I told him he can be anything he wants but it all takes hard work. I am so grateful to everyone who has continued to support our family and that help us to continued to educate others that getting diagnosed early is the key!!!!
This is the first time I have decided to do a Vlog(a video log)! I hope you enjoy it. Extra special thanks to Franco Zavala for making this amazing video!
This will be my first post in a year and a half. I'm sincerely sorry for being away for so long. Life just kept getting away from me. Brendan is now 5 1/2 years old and he is currently in pre-K. This will be his second year in school. We had decided when Brendan was about a year into therapy that we would not start him in pre school until he was 4 years old. We thought that keeping him home and continuing his intense therapy would be better than starting school right away. I will say that was the absolute BEST decision we have made. In the fall of 2016 he started pre school at 4 years old. We put him in a typical school but he started school with kids a year younger than him. We did this to make sure he had the best opportunity to succeed with his typical peers in a typical school. He was allowed to have his aba(applied behavior analysis) therapist attend school with him at all times. He had such an amazing year. He is still at the same school in this current year with his typical peers. He still has his aba therapist with him at school, but this year the difference is he pretty much only needs her when some of his peers can't understand his language. His speech has come so far and is improving everyday but with his verbal apraxia sometimes it is hard to understand him. The teachers and principle at his school have been so amazing to Brendan and our family. I am truly grateful for the opportunities they gave Brendan. As a parent I was extremely nervous to have him in a typical school. You just want your child to fit in and they made sure Brendan had all the tools he needed to succeed. His teacher this year has been one of the best teachers either of my kids have had. She is making sure all the kids are ready for Kindergarten.
The summer of 2017 we started introducing more academic lessons. We started with simple math and sight words. From the moment we started this we realized just how smart Brendan was. He went from simple math to adding and subtracting 3-5 numbers in his head within days. He loves anything with numbers. He now can add and subtract multiple double digits numbers in his head faster than I can.lol. It truly blows my mind how smart he is. At the same time we induced some basic sight words. Well within just a couple of weeks he had about 100 sights words he had learned. In a month of starting sight words he had learned to fully read. As his mom I just couldn't believe what he had accomplished. I didn't even know or think he was capable of learning those skills at that level. His aba team had done a years worth of kindergarten curriculum in just 6 weeks. Thats how fast he was learning. His can also write full sentences and all his numbers. This has made school very easy for him but its also given his therapist time to focus on the social and language struggles at school. We are still continuing to teach him his academics at at his current level at home. He is currently doing math and reading at a first grade level and he is only 5 years old and in pre k. I am such a proud mom. This is a moment that I get to brag about the things he is doing at or better than his peers. Something I thought I wouldn't be able to do. Next year he will be attending a private catholic school with again typical peers. His therapist will be able to attend school with him but we are working on finding times that he can be at school alone. He has currently had days this year already that he has attended school without his therapist and he has done really well.
Brendan is extremely social sometimes almost too social. He is the happiest most fun energetic boy. He loves life and he also loves everyone around him. He has had so many amazing first and a lot huge accomplishments over the last year. He is living a very typical life which is something I am so grateful for. He still does close to 35 hours a week of therapy but this is only because it is and has been working so good that I am a bit afraid to scale back. He is most successful when we stay ahead of things and prepare him for everything. He has made so many friends, he gets invited to so many birthday parties because everyone says Brendan is so funny and super fun to be around. That always makes my heart melt and I will never get sick of hearing it.
In my last post a year and half ago I had posted how Brendan started taking dance class. Well last year he continued to take dance and he even added a class so he was taking two classes a week. Dance brings him so much joy. In August when the new season of dance started I signed him up for 2 classes again. He kept telling me he wanted to dance everyday. I would just laugh at him and say, "B you are so funny." Well the first week of classes started and my daughter takes dance 5 days a week 10 classes, she is on the company/competition team. So Brendan and I were there everyday and everyday that first week he would go up to the teachers and say am I in this class and they would say sure Brendan you can dance. Well he ended up trying 6 classes Monday thru Friday and I told him he could pick 3 of them. Well that wasn't what he wanted. He begged me to continue taking all 6 classes. Dance has HELPED him so much through this autism journey. Dance is a place he can go without his therapist and just be a kid. The social, following teacher instructions and performing are all things that are great for him to be exposed to. So I felt, how do I say no to my child that has been told he was going to have so many limitations in life. Well I said yes to all 6 classes. For the last 6 months he has been rocking all 6 classes everything from tap, ballet, hiphop, musical theater, tumbling and stretching class. He even gets to take 2 of his classes with his sister! He was definitely born to be on stage. He shines on that stage and he doesn't have any fears being in front of people showing off his skills.
My 5 year olds weekly schedule is more than most adults can handle. He goes to school for 12 hours a week, has over 30 hours of therapy a week, he takes 6 hours of dance, and he plays baseball once a week. He loves structure and routine plus he has so much energy so keeping busy is the best idea!
I will be posting about all of the adventures we have gone on in the last year. We have had so many that those need their own post. I promise I will be better at keeping up on posts.
The last 4 months have been the greatest months since we started this autism journey. I have so many amazing stories and progress to share so bare with me while I brag about my son. Getting to brag isn't something I am used to but I am going to continue to enjoy every second.
Anxiety has been a big issue for Brendan over the last 2 years. He has refused to get into anybody else's car expect for mine for the last 2 years. This has been such a struggle for us especially my husband because he wouldn't even ride in my husbands car. We have been working on getting him to just touch anther car from the outside to putting his iPad in the car so he would have to get in the car to retrieve it. We have worked on this for over a year. I am happy to share that he has gotten into a couple different cars over the last couple months without an issues. This is a huge win for all of us. Going to a bowling alley has also been a big struggle the last 2 years. Well this kid just walks into bowling like he has done this before. He listened, waited his turn to bowl but the best part is he had so much fun! He had an amazing experience at the dentist and the doctors. He used to kick and scream at both of those. He is starting to understand what is going on and he is realizing that all the things he was so scared of are all ok.
I was asked by AZA United to speak to American Airlines employees to give a parents perspective on flying with a child with special needs. I was able to share all of my own fears I have when flying with Brendan along with his anxiety issues. I wanted them to know that autism can be an invisible disability but their employees still need to be educated. If we are in the air and Brendan starts crying it is not because he didn't get a cookie its because he is terrified. I wasn't even sure if he would get on an airplane since he has anxiety to so much. We are getting ready to leave on a 10 day vacation and I was terrified that it was going to be a disaster flying with him. After my speech was over I had some of the employees approach me and say they wanted to help. They set up a day where we got to go the American Airlines hanger at Sky Harbor airport. They had a plane set out just for him! They had it turned on so he can hear the sound. They let him go into the plane and explore anything he wanted. He was super excited to go into the plane but I wasn't sure if was actually going to go in. But what do know he walked right in with absolutely no issues. American Airlines has gone above and beyond for my family. They made sure our trips next week will be perfect. They have helped me so much. It is one less thing I have to worry about on our trip. Thank you to AZA United for choosing me to represent your company and thank you to American Airlines for making sure Brendan has the best experience flying.
Brendan started taking a tap and ballet combo dance class with 3-5 years old in late March. He loves to dance so much and he is always wanting to join his sister Haley's dance classes. So I thought why not let him try the class. He absolutely loved the class. He picked up on the dances that the other kids in the class had already learned so fast. He showed such natural skills in class. I was blown away. He blended in with the other typical kids. Watching him in the class he didn't show any signs of his autism well maybe a couple non stop spinning episodes but that would be it. After a couple classes I said something to one of the other moms about him having autism and she didn't believe me. I had to try and convince her that no he really does have autism. I said he has made so much progress in the last 3 months that if you had met him 6 months ago you wouldn't be questioning me because it was so much more obvious. This is something I only could of dreamt of. Brendan was able to perform in the big dance recital. Thank you to Adaptive Force Performing Arts owners Amber and Mike Wittmers for allowing Brendan to have some special privileges to insure he had a great experience. I stayed with him at all times and was able to stand on the side of the stage during his performance. The first time he walked on stage in front of a couple hundred people and danced his little heart I was a mess. I stood on the side of the stage crying my eyes out. I just couldn't even believe this was really happening. My little boy who was diagnosed with autism at 13 months old was stage dancing. As a mom you don't get to dream big for your child after the diagnosis. You never think you chid will be able to do what typical kids get to do. This is why this moment was so emotional for me. It is a moment that will stay with me forever. After the first day of his performances were over I think every person who watched him in the audience came up to him and said how amazing he did. It just warmed my heart. I had moms coming up to me with tears in their eyes after watching him. He truly touched every single person in the audience. He proved that even with autism he can do anything. I didn't get to watch him at the recital other than a side view which I couldn't see his face so I am egerly waiting for the recital dvd to arrive. Here is some video of him on the practice days.
In the middle of April started taking swim lessons. We started him in the ISR (infant survival rescue) program. He goes to swim 5 days a week for only 10 minutes. It is supposed to last 6 to 8 weeks. The first day in the water he just goes in with no fear and holds his breath and breaths out his nose like he had done this before. But this was the first time. He has always had floaty's on when he was in the water. The weeks continued and he was catching on so fast to swimming. At about week 5 and 6 he began to struggle a little. He just wanted to swim, he didn't want to do what was asked of him. I really struggled to communicate what he needed to do. But after just talking with him as much as I could it all finally clicked. He finished the program in 7 weeks and is fully swimming on his own. This program is absolutely amazing and I recommend it for everyone. He once a again was able to do what the typical kids were doing. The water has always been very calming for him but it was also an unsafe place because he had no fear. But now I can have some peace of mind and know that he can swim and enjoy himself.
Brendan is now one of the most social little 4 year olds. He will say hi to everyone in the room and he will continue to say hi to you until you answer him. He will say thank you when someone compliments him most of the time as well as he says your welcome. He always wants to play make believe like doctor, house, school and babies. I love that he will play all of these things with his sister. Everyday he is making so much progress. I am not even sure if I have really grasped all of this. This is all proof of why getting early intervention is so important.
I honestly can't believe it has been 3 years since Brendan got his autism diagnosis. He has worked so hard over the last 3 years and he has made more progress than anyone ever expected. He has the most amazing team of therapist. They truly are the dream team. They are all family to us and mean so much to our family. Here is look at how much progress he has made over the last 3 years!
