Autism Clinic

Yesterday Rob and I attened a full-day conference at the Holiday Inn, Fogelsville.
We were so fortunate to be able to attend this event where Dr. Vincent Carbone, a nationally renowned speaker, author and developer of approaches to teaching children with autism was the keynote speaker. A panel of multi-disciplinary autism experts, including Robby's local Neurologist, Dr. Boo were also featured. be featured. A clinic of this nature is usually expensive to attend but a lot of parents in the Lehigh Valley and surronding areas were able to attend at a very low cost. It was a day of learning and meeting other parents for us. Madison's special ed teacher was even there too!

For Robby we just recieved the Autism diagnosis secondary to the Leukodystrophy and Seizures back in October. It was something we were aware of but it took finding the right doc to diagnose him. Becasue it is secondary to the other ongoing medical issues, we face some different challenges than the other parents. The conferencce was about learning how to teach children alternative ways to speak and vocalize who otherwise do not becasuse of autism. Out of this eight hour day we came to the realization that we have to try to teach Robby sign language again. We tried to do this when he was younger but at the time we did not know how much vision Robby had or just how much he comprehended. Today we realize that, although poor, he does have vision and he can comprehend a lot of things. So we are going to try to teach him signing again. We are going to start with basics and we may never teach him full sentences but just enough to be able to communicate. It is going to be a challenge as all of us need to learn, including Maddy. It may take some coaxing for his teachers, aide, and nurses to work with him but this is what he needs, so they will have to learn too!

I was really happy we could attend and Dr. Carbone was amazing.
For more info on him you can go to his website.
http://www.drcarbone.com/

I wish with all my heart we could send Robby to his clinic, but it is a huge out of pocket expense which we just can't afford. It is great that he is only about 2 hours away from us, north of NYC. So maybe one day  I could send him. We'll have to see.