PTC update! Sorry so late.

I meant to update the very day of Ben's PT Conference. I mean to update the next day, but life with it's frenetic pace usually has a way of slipping through our fingers... as is OH so common here. I know I'm saying this sort of thing all the time, but life with 6 kids is so often comletely outof hand! LOL!

So the amazing, wonderful, incredible, joyful, completely awesome news... Ben's PT Conference went so great it was unreal. I walked out bouncing and skipping, feeling like God was smiling down at me and shining joy straight into my brain. Seriously. Just wow. Actually I was so completely high after his conference that as we rushed across town to go to Tessa's PT Conf. at a school that both Emi and Gregory have been through already I missed the turn! Ed, sitting beside me with a huge grin on his face, chuckled quietly and said "Hard to read the street signs from up there on cloud 9 huh?" Oh he was so right.

Basically I'll try to give you the gist of it a full month late. Ben's teachers all simply adore him. They say he is the sweetest and most loving little boy they've ever met in all their years (and most of them have been teaching SN kids for 20+ years). They said that he's actually TALKING in class more and more often and his volume is starting to go up to a regular level instead of whispering everything. They said he's playing with more toys and venturing out on his own more and just in general seems to be feeling much more secure, enough so that he's venturing out of his comfort zone and doing more. It's a great sign that he's more comfortable and at ease and feeling safe enough to do new things and try new things. It's huge. He's working on his coloring and getting better at using scissors. He can drink out of a "big boy cup" better than a lot of the kids in his class, even some of the typical ones. He's just doing wonderfully.

His PT, OT, and ST that all came to Ben's conference were awesome too. It was great to sit down with ALL of them and talk and touch base. They are all thrilled with Ben's progress. We talked about the fact that he can jump all by himself now and what a huge thing that has been for him and how proud of himself he is. We talked about the games they play with him and the activities they do and how it's all helping him.

His ST does this game with him when she picks him up at his class as they walk to the ST room Ben will yell "STOP" or "GO" as they go getting louder and louder (because they've been trying very hard to get him to talk more loudly in school so the teachers can understand him) and she said he's doing great with that and that now by the time they get to the ST room he's YELLING stop and go as loud as he can and that's actually a good thing.

His PT and his OT both said he still has a great deal of trouble with fine motor skills, but that's neither surprising nor upsetting because we know this about Ben (heck Gregory's fine motor skills were crap for years and he's perfectly typical. LOL!). He's doing great with their activities though and he's loving it. Every Friday in school they have an obstacle course that the PT does with the entire class, even the typicals, and she has found that if she introduces Ben to it early in the week and lets him get some practice in he can actually be the one to show the other kids in his class how it's done and do it first so they can watch HIM do it. I mean..... WOW!! I have to admit I got tears in my eyes over that one. His OT also lets him do the course once or twice during their visits during the week and that's just helping his confidence and self assurance. It's ALL good.

The one thing that blew my mind was that near the end I mentioned how I know that Ben is well behind his peers developmentally but that we're all so proud of him and think he's doing great and know that it's becuase of his teachers and therapists hard work and dedication. Then Ben's main teacher said "He's doing great. He just does things in Ben Time" and that got me too because that is a phrase I use myself ALL the time. Ben doesn't do things when typical kids do them, he does them in Ben time and that's just perfect for Ben, so to hear someone else say the same exact thing was just... gosh... I don't even know the word to use... validating.

So all in all Ben is in a great place with some of the most loving and giving women I have ever met in my life. I don't know that I can ever thank any of them enough. Ben is coming out of his shell and learning that while maybe he doesn't talk as well as the other kids it's OKAY for him to talk in the way he does and that's just fine and people will listen and they WANT to hear what he has to say. He's learning that he can do more than he thought and that he is an amazing little boy. I just couldn't be happier with where he is and how he's doing. Ben may not ever be like the other kids, like everyone else.... but who needs to be like everyone else right? He's better than that, he's extraordinary.