Today was a really difficult day for us. At 2:00 this afternoon, I sat in a clinical psychologist's office at Children's Mercy Hospital and learned that E has an autism spectrum disorder. While he meets the criteria for Asperger's syndrome, due to his young age and the implications of placing that significant of a label on him at that age, the clinican felt that a diagnosis of "pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified; rule out Asperger's syndrome" was a better fit for E at this time. On a positive note, his IQ score was 112, which was at an "above average" level, specifically the 79th percentile. He has been determined to be very high-functioning, but is lacking especially in socialization and communication skills.

Next up on the list is beginning behavior modification therapy and possibly medication therapy. He will be seeing a behaviorist as well as a developmental pediatrician at CMH to develop a plan for his therapy and also to complete a thorough neurodevelopmental evaluation. This is the physical/medical component of the treatment plan. He will also be having an occupational therapy consult as well as an extensive speech and language evaluation with specialists through Mercy.

We meet with the School District on Friday morning to discuss the services available to us to help him succeed and develop in the classroom environment. Most likely, at least for now, Ethan will be going into the public school system where there are resources and the knowledge base available to provide E what he needs to start overcoming his challenges. Please keep us in your prayers as we begin to learn how to start living with this diagnosis. We have been seeking answers for a long time, and now that we have a few, it's time to figure out how to make E the best he can be.