Never give up

It took us 7.5 years of persisting (never give up on your child) with Dr's, OT specialist, teachers and finally a behavioral therapist that spent the day testing and playing with Logan to officially determine he is extremely gifted and given all the info and traits has Asperger's (official medical diagnosis). With the right direction and resources our (according to the professional) extremely gifted child can do ANYTHING he puts his mind too! It's exciting and over whelming all at once. 

So let's back up....way back....@ four months old Logan went in for a check up, there the pediatrician noticed something wasn't right and off we went to our first ever specialist  for an official diagnosis of torticollis and hypotonia(very mild form of cerebral palsy) now you might be thinking what the heck does this have to do with him being smart?? Well I don't really know but we like to think because he, from the get go, lacked a physical ability like most babies aka being able to hold his own head up learned to cope with life differently he has always been attuned to stuff around him, never showed interest in being a holy terror on 2 feet, he took his sweet time developing physically and was soaring beyond kids his age mentally.

He spent many months doing physical therapy to strengthen his weak muscles to learn to sit up, crawl and finally walk at 18 months, it was all very difficult (WE cried a lot) he would much rather sit and play puzzles or be read to any day. He didn't want to run, jump and play he wanted to LEARN he was accused many times during group therapy play sessions of being autistic he counted before he was 2 read before he was 3 and was usually socially quiet but our plate was so full just getting him to walk or run that the other things went unnoticed or we thought of course he's a genius he's our child ;) but as he learned to run, jump and play we began to wonder if he really was exceptional.

Enter elementary school. Nothing like being smack dab in the middle of a group of your peers to make you stand out! Day one of Kindergarten his teacher knew he was smart. We were blessed to have her to make us realize it too and to be persisitant in his educatoin and to find answers to our questions of why he does certain things that we were told he would out grow and 2 years later FINALLY he was referred to another professional for some REAL answers.

It was scary and real for me to leave him with her knowing she would be picking at every aspect of his very being but we struggle daily to make life good for him. Anyone who knows Logan knows he's a special kid. Sweet, kind, smart but I really know him and I see obstacles in front of him every day, that I don't know how to move. So was this really for him or for us...his parents?? We want to be able to help him just like we help Ava live and thrive everyday and that means ANSWERS so we know what direction to go, so we know how to help him and not hurt or hinder his development. And yes I hate to LABEL my child but hell let's do it - Ava is a DIABETIC and if I didn't seek the answer to that very hard question...well....her future would have been grim!

So please parents no matter what follow your instincts, get Answers and help your child, PLEASE. I am sure after a little time and  lot of resources I will feel better about everything we will be able to help Logan grow and thrive just like we do every day for Ava and heck maybe some day his genius brain will solve some of lifes very complicated issues like disease, war or politics!

Wish us luck on this crazy ride our family calls life because every day it just get's more interesting!

for more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome I read this and my heart sunk deeper and deeper. Just the first paragraph summed it up for me...what I see in him everyday!