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It’s an odd feeling, when your son fails a hearing test and you momentarily become a bit more hopeful. After promptly going to the pediatrician following the hearing test, my hope was crushed to find out that he failed the hearing test because he had a double ear infection. It broke my heart to realize he was probably experiencing other pain we didn’t know about. So after waiting about 6 months for our appointment – it took the very non-emotional professional about 20 minutes of asking us questions and observing Eric play with a water toy and some plastic farm animals to come to her conclusion.

Every morning for several weeks now the first thing Eric says when he comes downstairs is “No school?” In one way it kind of makes me happy – since I think every teenager feels that way when they wake up. In another way, it makes me sad and worried

* We want to:be reassured that progress will happen. believe that we will be able to have a conversation with our son.see that there will be more happy tears than sad.not be afraid of the future. * believe that we will be able to have a conversation with our son. And I want to believe that I have been able to pass along the same bit of optimism and hope. And I will keep trying to pass that hope onto others who are just starting on their autism journey.

After graduating from middle school in June, we had searched and searched and searched until we found the school that felt right for him. I was further convinced about our decision when, during the meeting, the staff started reading me their comments they completed on a form titled, “IEP Meeting: Someone from the school was in the audience, and I was both grateful and honored that the information was obviously shared back to the school. As a parent, I know we have to hear all the standard data and academic and behavioral stuff at IEP’s -but since many of our kids have such limited communication, I feel it’s so important to be told about some non-academic stuff too