River "I Made It"

On January 23, 2007 River was airlifted from St. Mary’s County to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. He did not have the breath- suck- swallow -reflex of a typical newborn. After a couple of weeks he came home and seemed fine. In the next few months it was evident he was not reaching his milestones... there was not much response to his name and no babbling..in fact he replaced any attempt at speech with humming. At a year he still could not sit up. When he began walking he walked on his tippy toes.

River was entered into a special program meeting his needs called "infant and toddlers" that is wonderful. He had a physical therapist who worked on his cognitive and motor skills..and then a speech therapist who helped him with tastes and textures. He had oral sensitivity issues. He continued to hum from the time he opened his eyes at sunrise until he closed his eyes at night. It wasn't a musical hum but a monotone hum. He would take a breathe hum..take a breath..hum. He also began to shuffle his little thumbs across the other four fingers really fast as you do when you are telling someone to give you money. lol. So when you were close to him you would hear little swishing and humming. He continued with the special needs Preschool program.

He had made visits to developmental physicians and his parents were told that he could  possibly be "on the autism spectrum" but they were not sure exactly where at that point. All of the things I have previously listed are typical of a child with autism. So he continued his therapy and was learning sign language to communicate his needs. He picked up the basics quickly and made up a few of his own like "I'm hungry." I guess it was around the summer he was about to turn 4, we would sit on the beach and write ABCs in the sand. I would listen to him hum and wonder if he would ever speak again as he followed my fingers.There are plenty of children who learn to speak later than this but even though there was plenty of encouragement there was always that tiny bit of doubt. It still really tears me to think about it. Even though it all turned out fine it was just that heart wrenching to me.

One day  I was reading him one of his favorite books filled with colorful pictures of vegetables. He would rub his belly when we got to the cauliflower and say mm mm mm..which was funny cuz he would not would  not eat ANYTHING. The therapist was still coming to help him with food textures. lol But on that hot Summer day in August, I got to the page with the bright red apple..and he pointed at it and said.."a ul"...kinda sounding like the word ass hole if you will without the 'ss' lol. I made him do it again. It was his first attempt at a sound! I took him on a walk later that day and he pointed to a tractor and said."a..er" no emphasis on the r.....From then on, he hummed and spoke in vowels until he reached the age of four. Unusual...but bet you can't do it. lol oh yeah..and don't forget the swishing fingers.

Four was huge year for him. Probably the most difficult so far in his life. Just 4 months before he had learned how to talk and he had a lot of catching up to do if he was going to fix stuff. He had a hard row to hoe. No humming, no swishing. He taught himself to read. We thought the school had taught him and they thought he was taught at home. He has worked so hard. Now he is just so smart that he helps the teachers teach the other kids with their work. He reads to the class. We are talking pre-school!

River was taken back to his developmental physician for a review. After spending some time with him he said he wasn't diagnosing him with autism. I still see things left over here or there but I guess he is still working on them......I JUST DON'T GIVE A DAMN EITHER WAY!

Two biggest obstacles right now are:
#1) Making a friend: ...River, just play with them. Don't talk about how happy you are that they are there.

#2) Dealing with Anger: not going so well..although I'd be angry as hell too if I had gone through all this shit!

River graduated from the special needs preschool in the Spring..He was tested in all the different skills and he has been released from all special programs to the regular Elementary School Kindergarten this year. He starts Wednesday August 22, 2012 so PLEASE! PLEASE ......, Rub the belly of Buddha..Pray to Jesus and thank God or...bow to  Alah...or whatever it is that you do, that he IS ok out there in the UNSPECIAL WORLD..because it looks like....he is gonna make it.