Milestone

I'll give the latest update on Josh's progress. For those who are just stumbling across my blog, Josh was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when he was 3 years old. At first, I was in denial with this label but was determined to get the best possible care for him. We are fortunate to live in a city that offers special education that caters to his needs. Josh receives occupational and speech therapy plus a preschool setting that will prepare him for kindergarten. The city of Torrance includes this in their school district although I'm not sure if other cities do this at all. I watched Larry King Live that addresses autism last night and it seemed that early intervention seems to make the most impact on these children. In a year, we have already seen Josh reach major goals and milestones.
Today Josh's teacher, Miss C called to let us know that Josh reached another milestone. Just yesterday at his evaluation, most of his goals have been reached but we still have lots of hard work ahead for the next set. I was a little overwhelmed by all of it so today's news was great in restoring my hope and energy. A big part of child development is pretend play ie. playing fireman or play cooking and this is something lacking with Joshua. Miss C called and told me how Josh and G played in the kitchen while carrying a conversation so all the teachers were thrilled. They engaged with each other and interacted for over 5 minutes which is incredible for both boys since neither of them had demonstrated pretend play before. Miss C said this is a BIG milesone! Yippee!