Our First Appointment with Jamie's Developmental Psychologist

I was nervous going in. I wasn't sure what to expect.

The appointment went really well. Let me just say that I love, love, love this Dr. I told him that I was unsure of what I was seeing. He talked about Asperger's and put everything into perspective and explained things in a way that made more sense to me in relation to Jamie and his behaviors. I swear it was like he had hidden video camera's at my house. He told me what was going on before I told him. Tears welled up in my eyes and I thought I was going to cry. He totally gets Jamie and he's never even met him.

He talked about methods of learning, a little bit about discipline, and explained the reason that Jamie does some things that he does. Obviously, he didn't diagnose Jamie without meeting him.

He's also friends with Jamie's pediatrician so they can be in collaboration about is progress, history, and care. That's really great. They went to Harvard together. How cool is that?

He prepped me for a diagnosis of Asperger's. He will be seeing Jamie on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. He told me about the two therapists in his office and told me their credentials, but that part went in one ear and out the other. There was just so much said that I couldn't retain it all.

He specializes in autism/Asperger's. My friend and I googled the heck out of him last night and what we found was pretty impressive. He said that they would be working on getting Jamie ready to start school next year and that he hoped we would still be with him when Jamie started school and he would be Jamie's advocate.

I wish Matt could have been there. Matt couldn't get off work. He's so worried about them putting a label on Jamie. The doctor said he didn't like labels, either. He spread his arms out and said the spectrum was that wide. If he had his way there would be no labels, but that in order to get the kids everything they need they have to label them. How they obtain a label is to look at specific characteristics and identify where a child falls on the spectrum.

I'm happy with everything he said. I'm excited about going next week.

He gave me a little "homework" to do. He gave me an Asperger's checklist to mark off. He also told me to keep a daily diary of issues that we have. I'm going to try to use this blog as a place to do that. I can copy and paste my posts to a word document later.