mommyof3gr8boys - Acceptance is the Cure!
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City: Harrisburg
State: PA
Country: USA
Member since: Dec 29, 2007
Last logged in: Jul 23, 2008
mommyof3gr8boys's Bio
 

Hi, my name is Christie, I am 28 and have been married to my husband Eric, for over 7 years now  We have been together for almost 12 years (high school sweethearts).  He is an Electrical Engineer and I am a SAHM but also going to school part time for psychology.  We had our first child EJ (Eric Jr) in 2002.  He is dxed with PDDNOS,  Anxiety, Sensory Processing Disorder, Dispraxia, and an articulation disorder.  Quite a lot for a 5 year old boy!  He was just dxed this past May.  Although out sons psychiatrist prepared us about 6 months ahead of time.  They also think he will probably have his dx changed to aspergers when he is a bit older.  EJ is very high functioning he is in a regular classroom most of the day.  He spends 15 min in the morning in an Autism Support Classroom and 30 mins a week in OT, and 30 mins a week in ST.  He also has a TSS with him the entire day (half day k).  Besides in school he goes to out paitent OT once a week for an hour, he also goes to a psychiatrist once a month, and has a mobile therapist who spends 2 hours a week with him.  We are in the process of learning more about the SCERTS model and trying to implement it. 






Our second son Addison is 3.5 he was a premie born a month early, but very healthy!  He is our little joker.  He is ver small for his age but so adorable.  He too has some issues... we are in the process of having him evaluated. His speech evaluation gave him a dx of communication delay and now they are going to be doing and autism eval.  for a long time i thought NO ways Addison doesnt have autism.  Now, i dont know, I really think we might get that diagnosis again..Hopefully we will know more about it soon.  I feel like he has major sensory issues as well and when i do EJs sensory diet, Addison likes to join in.  I feel like he sometimes gets lost in the shuffle being the middle child, we try to give him a little extra when we can. 






Cohen is our baby he was just born this past August (the day after EJs 5th bday!) he is now 4 months old 15lbs, and has several teeth!! He is so health and we are so happy, we tried to get pregant for almost 2 years.  I found out i was going to be having Cohen last christmas eve.  I ended up spending all but my frist trimester on bed rest.  I then went into preterm labor at 25 weeks (around the time of EJs dx) i spend 2 weeks in labor and on all kinds of meds to try and get it to stop.  Finally they were able to and I spend a month in the hospital before being sent home on meds and bed rest for the remaineder of my pregnancy till i had him by c-section.  He was my biggest baby at 7lbs 4.4 oz!!






Well that is a quick glimps into my life :)

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Pittsburgh Sibling Study
by mommyof3gr8boys on 03.13.08 - public - 101 visits

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to start a sibling study in Pittsburgh. The goal of the study is to find ways to dx autism in infancy. We all know how important a discovery like this could potentially be. The study will follow our baby Cohen for three years. They also will preform some testing with EJ which the goal of is to understand how people with autism think. I am SO SO excited about this study. We went yesterday and they were go great. Basically they are tracking Cohen's development as well as doing eye tracking. The eye tracking was really cool to see. you could see what he was looking at on the video (someones face, and object etc) then you could watch as his focus changed to another object. Very cool. At the end of the study they will also do the same testing they are doing with EJ now. This will let us know if Cohen has Autism. That information itself is priceless. especially with how long it takes to get a diagnosis. Although our son Addison does not have a diagnosis currently i expressed my concern for his development and they also offered to do testing on him as well. This program just got a 5 year extension on their grant. If you know anyone who would want to participate let me know I can get you the information. They pay for travel expenses, accommodations and even pay the kids for their participation. Travel expenses include air fare. They do not pay for food while you are there. Next time we go we plan to spend the night at a hotel and they have offered to give us passes to the museums! I cant wait to go back in July!

Comments(5)

shannonj
Posted on Thu, 13 Mar 2008

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing this study. Sounds like it has the potential to help so many families in the future.

janneane7
Posted on Wed, 12 Mar 2008

Awesome!! I am psyched for you!!! The eye tracking is SO COOL. I saw Dr. Ami Klin's presentation on eye tracking with people with Aspergers years ago. It was absolutely facinating!

carmel66
Posted on Wed, 12 Mar 2008

I am soooo excited for you! On top of it - you are helping out families in the future. I'm glad they pay a bulk of expenses. I lived in Pgh for 10 years - it is very family friendly. I saw a visual of the eye tracking in the NYT mag once. One page is how a NT person looks at a picture presented to them (they show the zig zag line) and the other page is how an ASD person looks at the same picture. It was so interesting. Maybe you'll meet some other really cool families there, too.

4muskateers
Posted on Wed, 12 Mar 2008

I say this on a video decumentry 4 years ago. it was pretty interesting. Please send me info on the study to see if we quailify.

roedel
Posted on Wed, 12 Mar 2008

I have never heard of that kind of testing before. the eye tracking sounds really interesting!

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