Here's pictures from a friend's birthday party that we recently attended. We had a good time and we left Mary at home so it could just be mom and Roro. As you can see he loves chocolate cake and balloons. But who doesn't. He's almost 2 years old!
But this post is also about the more recent developmental evaluation we had for Ronin the second week in June. Both of the kids are in the UCSD Autism Study that will help doctors determine which tests are useful in diagnosing autism. Ronin had an evaluation at 13 months and then this past evaluation was at 21 months. At 13 months Ronin seemed to be right on track, developmentally. However, now Ronin has started to show not as much progress as he should. He was put on the spectrum with "severe risk" for autism.
"Severe risk" is used because they don't diagnose autism at this age. Usually they wait until 3 years old to make sure their diagnosis is correct. And even though Mary and Ronin are very different, and their disability shows itself very differently, they do share autism. Rich and I suspected something in April or so. Ronin likes to spin in circles, a lot. He counts everything and like to line up toys. But he only intermittently responds to his name. He labels a lot but does not ask for things he wants. He isn't putting two words together, when other kids his age are starting to say full sentences.
Roro is still very lovable and always an exciting boy to be around. He loves his family and likes to interact with people. Even though the interaction may be a little delayed and sometimes inappropriate he's still our little man.
We always try to keep it fun and exciting. Tune in, in another 6 months to see what other fun stuff is happening!
