Today Was A Fairy Tale

Given the exciting adventures many of my friends experience on a near daily basis, my family's activities of today must seem extremely mundane. We had Pancake Saturday, as we always do. James took the kids to the bank. When they returned home, we all did nothing in particular for around an hour or so before having lunch. Following lunch, we met up at a local park we had never visited with some friends and their little boy, who is Reiss' age. From there, we went to James' office and did some top-secret work. Not really, but at this time, I cannot reveal why we went there.

I know, all of it sounds far from adventurous, however, what made today fairy-tale like was the absence of any serious tantrums by either of our children. And if anyone is still questioning what makes that so special, just imagine dealing with tantrums so often that you forget how peaceful a day can be without them.

Today was not the only good day this week either. The entire week has been pretty positive. A funny thing (as in, ironic, not ha-ha "funny") happened this week and I am sure many other parents can totally relate with their own tales of school system inequities.

For quite some time, we have known there is something about Milla that makes her not quite typical like most children her age, but also not possessing severe autistic traits either. She is one of those children who exhibits extremely high levels of intelligence but will also play on her own and purposely separate herself from other children. She craves sameness and has difficulty transitioning from one activity to another. Often times, she will tell us she wants one thing and then throw a tantrum and tell us she wants the opposite. It can go on like this for minutes when I let my guard down and give in to inconsistencies.

Milla has received speech therapy services for nearly two years through our state's early intervention program called First Steps. After voicing some concerns to our intake coordinator earlier this year, Milla was evaluated and began receiving developmental therapy through them as well. In January, Reiss and Milla both began speech and occupational therapies through a private therapy provider.

With everything we have going on, it can be difficult for me to schedule activities for Milla to get socialization time with other children her age. For that reason, she goes to a daycare one day per week, during which time, I can get a few things done that I am otherwise unable to do during the week. When asked, her daycare teachers and assistants admit to knowing there is something different about Milla.

Now for the irony. Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Milla was evaluated by our local school system to determine her eligibility for services into their developmental preschool program - the same one Reiss attended for one-and-a-half school years. After two mornings of evaluations, the lead member of the evaluating team informed me that she and the team would need to crunch the numbers on paper but that her honest opinion at that time was that Milla would not qualify for services.

On Thursday, Milla had a very different kind of appointment - one with a physician whose specialty is autism. On Thursday, Milla was diagnosed with mild PDD-NOS. For those unaware, that is a form of autism.

So, in other words, our state's early intervention program (who, by the way, has nothing to gain by providing a child with therapy services) feels Milla's developmental delays are enough to warrant providing her with speech and developmental therapies. Private therapists who have evaluated Milla felt her delays were worth providing speech and occupational therapies to her. The people who work with her for around eight hours one day per week, and sometimes two days per week, realize that she is "different" from her peers in her class. And a private physician also diagnosed Milla with PDD-NOS.

Yet, the school feels Milla is moving at full speed ahead right along with her peers and will most likely not provide her with services. Isn't that just typical???