Stacy Rosenthal's Page

Everything seemed to be a little harder for my middle child, William now 3 1/2.  He cried a bit more, fussed a little more, but he was a sweet baby and toddler who smiled and interacted with us.  When he was not talking at 20 months, we contacted our early intervention services and started with speech therapy.  The talking came, albeit delayed, but we saw progress.  So much progress, that at 31 months he was exhibiting age appropriate speech and was discharged from early intervention services.  As he approached 3 years old, we decided to have him fully evaluated with Child Find through our public school.  Thank goodness we did...his speech delay was hiding other (more serious) delays.  He was classified with a general developmental delay, but the team felt he may be autistic and suggested I take him to a developmental pediatrician.  William was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, is in a special education preschool class, and receives speech and occupational therapy both at school and privately.  What I hope to gather from the site is information from parents going through similar challenges with their children.  What if the gap widens and we miss an opportunity to help our son succeed?  How do I explain to my older son and younger daughter that William hits because he does not know how to express himself?  How do I provide quality time with my other kids, when William takes up such a large portion of my days and nights?  How do I keep calm when everything appears to be out of control?