Changes

Over the past year and half Ashlyn has attended the Lincoln Early Childhood Center, where I feel she has progressed by leaps and bounds. 

Ashlyn's story: When Ashlyn was six months old, we began to notice odd behaviors. She threw uncontrollable tantrums in which she would bang her head against the wall. She began echoing everything she heard and was not making progress in her language development. The only way she would fall asleep was when I held her extremely close and rubbed her back or arms. After her first birthday I began to notice more of her repetitive behaviors, such as staking blocks in perfect lines, cutting paper into almost identical little pieces, and self stimulation. Adjustments were incredibly difficult for her and it took hours sometimes to calm her down. I also noticed she became incredibly focused on learning her shapes and colors. She would almost instantly hum back tunes she heard, all around 18 months. I automatically assumed she had autism. I turned to my mother, who is a speech-language-pathologist, autism specialist and an Intensive Behavior Intervention (IBI) trainer. She reiterated to me just how important early intervention was (which I am of course a strong advocate for, don't wait) for children like Ashlyn. She helped me find appropriate services and gave me ideas how we could help Ashlyn at home. We became dedicated to helping our child. 

Ashlyn has come so far, she really is not the same child. During a recent psych evaluation we discovered that Ashlyn now has a mild form of PDD-NOS. I am quite aware of how unique our situation is, I thank my Heavenly Father for blessing us! I am also more than grateful to all of Ashlyn's teachers for realizing our little girl's potential and helping her reach her goals. She no longer qualifies for the The Lincoln Center and will be moving on to a new school in the fall. We are excited for the change and look forward to a fun summer.