I asked Susan if I could share this information on Bitches, and she said I could. I think she would welcome support in email, and not everybody here has LiveJournal. It also just seemed relevant to this community. This is what she posted on LJ today.

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Dylan took Annabel to the speech pathologist this morning. I was fully expecting good news--either that it was the tongue tie or something else physical, or that she's obviously a perfectly normal kid of the sort who doesn't speak until she's ready for complete sentences.

That's not the answer we got, however. We have a 20-month-old, and an obviously intelligent one at that, whose communication abilities are on a par with a typical 9-month-old. It's too early to make a definitive diagnosis, but she's showing early warning signs of apraxia (a disorder where children understand speech well, but have trouble mastering and coordinating the motor skills necessary to speak themselves) and/or an autism spectrum disorder (and sometimes the two are correlated).

She's given us some suggestions to try to encourage her to communicate and interact more (that's the big obvious problem--she's just not interactive enough, verbally or otherwise), and she's recommended an early intervention program for us to start as soon as we're back from our holiday travels.

I'm having a hard time not crying my eyes out at work. I may try to finish up one or two urgent things and go home.

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When I emailed her, she added this.

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Please do share the information on Bitches, but stress that this isn't yet a diagnosis--just a case of a knowledgeable specialist seeing enough red flags to recommend intervention now rather than continuing to wait it out. She's known cases of kids presenting with patterns similar to Annabel's where early intervention works beautifully and they catch up and develop normally from there. And that while Annabel does have enough warning signs to make her concerned, she's clearly aware and engaged with the world, just insufficiently engaged with other people. So our job for the next few months is to try to model interaction for her and encourage her to respond to us more, along with taking her to a child development program that can help us along. When we see how she responds to that, we'll move forward from there.

I don't know if Susan even reads here anymore, but as I said in LJ, any problem with your kids is very scary. I wish a quick diagnosis and fantastic care for Annabel and wisdom for her parents. No matter what the diagnosis, I think Annabel will be okay.

Where is everyone this morning? Ellie and I are headed to the gym shortly.

eta: Should I have cake for breakfast? I made one yesterday and it is calling me. I am on my way to the gym, after all.

Stephanie, absolutely have cake for breakfast. It will make me feel less guilty about all the Twizzlers I've eaten since I got up.

Mmmm. Cake and twizzlers for breakfast. I had some yummy tea, celery, and sharp cheddar cheese. Stupid no carbs.

I'll pop in LJ to send my best wishes to Susan. It sounds like they have a good specialist that can help them bring Annabel along.

Should I have cake for breakfast?

Absolutely!

{{Cass and Cass's Grandmother}}

Timelies!

I dragged CJ to work with me again. We wanted to make today different from the upcoming 2 week vacation, so we figured having to be good and quiet and deal with MOM all day at would should do the trick. I did let him bring some books to read and some puzzle books to work on.

Ok, I'll shut up about him now.

MG, sounds like a good way to handle it. I always wondered about the suspending where the kids get to go home. I think at our school they still had to go to school, but they had to sit in a room all day.

I did have cake for breakfast (with cream cheese frosting) and it waws really yummy.

Ellie has developed separation anxiety this week. If she is awake and I'm not within 2 feet of her, she is crying. That's a slight exageration, but not by much. I try to get regular stuff done but it's hard to ignore a screaming baby - especially when she looks at me with these big eyes, saying "I need you!" I alternate between not wanting to give in to her, feeling sorry for her, and being tired of hearing her. I hope this is a short phase.

eta: Where is everyone today? 4 posts while I was at the gym.

In our school system they have "in-school suspension" and then "suspension".

CJ had to do the in-school one once back in first grade. He, and a few other kids, had been messing with a jump rope, tying eachother up. Well, he got caught at it when the rope was around another kid's neck - not tight enough to hurt the kid, but scary enough. We all knew it was an accident and there was no malicious intent, but again, he had already gotten in trouble enough for rough housing, so he got an in-school suspension.

That was probably more traumatic than being sent home cause he had to spend the day in the back of a 5th grade class. It happened to be their DARE day and the DARE officer ended up talking one on one with CJ about how easy it is to choke someone.

oh for the love of- Dear Everyone At This Conference (and I'm Looking At You Too, Hotel Staff): I am not in charge of this event, even though I have a snazzy Powerbook and look official. I can print you a badge and tell you where the breakout sessions are. I can give you an evaluation form and point to the box I put out to collect them. Although, officially, only the badge printing is my actual job. However, I do not have minions to perform your bidding, I do not know when the breaks should end if they started late, I do not know why the organizers failed to provide internet access, I do not know if someone else received your presentation, I do not know anything about meetings that have been arranged off the schedule, I cannot validate your parking, and I am getting very cranky at having to say "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know."

I hate appearing to be the go to person when I have no power and no knowledge.