Kristen

This morning, as 11:30am approached, the anxiety that I had been feeling since last night heightened. It became far less general and much more acute. I was almost panic-stricken. A woman, Kristen, was about to walk through my door and it felt like she held our future in her hands. This is not entirely, or even remotely accurate, but it's how it felt in the moment. The Specialty Services that Oliver is to receive from the May Institute are funded by the Department of Public Heath until a child is 3 years old. That means that with our Autism diagnosis in hand, we are golden until Oliver turns 3. When he turns 3, he is no longer eligible for Early Intervention services and responsibility for his education is transferred to the public school system. Also at that time, any services he may continue to receive from the May Institute will then be billed to health insurance. This ultimately means that we have 18 months to work with Kristen. Eighteen months for her to work miracles with Oliver. To get him to look at us, respond, and engage consistently. To teach him how to imitate so he can learn to point, gesture, sign, repeat sounds and words and participate in an infinite amount games and activities. So, you see, this woman is relatively important. I didn't realize until that panic-stricken moment that what I was most anxious about was her, and how she would mesh with us. I did not want to waste any precious time with somebody that wasn't 100% on our side and there to help.

When the moment arrived that she actually did walk through my door, most of my worries abated. She turned out to be everything I could hope for in a therapist for Oliver. She is kind, understanding, patient, energetic but not hyper. It was obvious that she thoroughly enjoyed playing with Oliver, even when her attempts to get his attention failed. I could see her observing him, making mental notes of his likes and dislikes, what his strengths and weaknesses were, thinking of what areas we might work on first. It was apparent to me that she genuinely wanted to be there. I have been disappointed before by support people who have worked with Oliver and I have learned that having the right person is key. One specialist Oliver saw even told me that she didn't really like kids.

Today's initial session was scheduled for 2 hours. I wasn't confidant that Oliver would last 15 minutes, nevermind the entire 2 hours, but he surprised us all by being relatively engaged for 1.5 hours before he took my hand to pull me out of the room as if to say, "I'm done now." At first, I sat down with Corinne, the lead therapist who will come periodically to monitor things, and did paperwork. Oliver was in his bedroom playing with Kristen. He's not fond of separating from me, so inevitably he came out to get me several times. We decided it might just be easier to do the paperwork in his room so I'd be within easy reach. We all sat on the floor with him and he became much more comfortable and playful. During that 1.5 hours, he looked at books, played with his farm animals, played playdough, climbed, rolled, got tickled, played with several of Kristen's toys (she came with 2 bags of toys!) and by the end, he was smiling, clapping and squeaking out a "Yay!" in response to Kristen and Corrine's claps and Yays. I really don't think I could have asked for a better first session, and I now look forward to Thursday's with much more excitement than trepidation.

A very big thumbs up for Kristen.