History

Jake was born at Hutcheson Hospital in Fort Oglethorpe, GA on May 30th 2005. I had a natural birth that was "good" experience (although I hadn't experienced homebirth yet). By the time he was 3 months old I began to realize that he wasn't like other babies. He just didn't "move" like other children. By 6 months Jake was sitting up, but not pushing up on his elbows, and by around 7 months I began to realize that his gross motor development seemed to be a bit behind, although I didn't know how to voice it and mostly listened to others tell me that he was "fine" and that "all babies develop at their own pace" etc. At 10 months Jake wasn't mobile at all. He could sit up, but had to be put in that position by someone else. If he fell over, well, that was it, he was stuck. He never crawled or rolled.

Around 11 months Jake began to scoot on his butt. At least he was mobile! I read and researched and convinced myself that this was normal, because in fact, a lot of kids don't crawl who don't have any other issues. However, when he wa 18 months old and still scooting while showing very little interest in walking, I was worried and called the local Babies Can't Wait program, State program for early intervention.



After a long and worrisome evaluation process, Jake was found to have "no significant delays" by the evaluation team, in fact, they were impressed at his fine motor skills, and pretty much chalked his lack of motor development up to the fact that he was concentrating on his drawing.

Jake has always shown an advanced ability to draw. He loves painting and was drawing recognizable characters by the age of 2. After his evaluation I was relieved and very willing to overlook Jake's other quirks and odd behaviors. Only recently have the signs been too much to ignore.


Here is where it might get hard for me to explain (or maybe that its just hard on my heart to write it down all in one place). Although Jake has a lot of "words" he rarely uses words and phrases appropriately. He parrots phrases from television or that we say ourselves but doesn't seem to know when to say what. For example: His gross motor skills still aren't great and he falls down a lot. When he falls he often says "Oh Jake, are you alright? Are you ok? You're ok, You're alright." For a long time, ever time we would go to change his diaper, Jake would say "Pinky, are you going to make up a story?" a catch-phrase from Pinky Dinky Doo, a favorite TV show.

Jake is obsessed with odd objects. His favorite two are "Sticks and Spatch" which consists of two rhythm sticks from a musical instrument kit, and a plastic kitchen spatula. More recently he has simply begun to collect a ton of little things.. refrigerator magnets, bottle caps, paper wrappers, greeting cards, pictures of family members, screws from his toy toolbox, pieces of fluff from a toy the dog chewed up, scraps of fabric from my sewing, scratch off lottery tickets, and the list goes on. He collects these in his tent (where he sleeps) or in the middle of the floor and uses them for "Stimming" a kind of self-stimulation behavior commonly found in autistic children. I am just now finding out, through reading and researching, that stimming is what he is doing, although I've been aware for months that he enjoyed twirling odd objects in his hands while laying on his back and staring, and more recently, clicking his tongue and making odd breathing noises.

Jake has begun peeling the wallpaper and the covers of board books. Once he gets it into his head that he wants to do this, it becomes and obsession. A boy who is usually not a climber or a fan of heights becomes a daredevil, bringing objects from all over the house so that he can climb on them and be at a height where he can peel the baseball border in his room.

I could keep writing about his symptoms and behaviors, but I'm tired. I will write more about his little quirks (some of which are kinda cool, actually) as time goes on and I think of them. Meanwhile, if you want to know about other signs that Jake shows, THIS PAGE describes his symptoms to a tee.

I have recently begun to pursue diagnosis for Jake. I am having no luck contacting Babies Can't Wait, which is not surprising as he is almost too old for their program. I have contacted Head Start and have been unable to get a return phone call. Next week I have the go-ahead from Steve to take Jake to the pediatrician for a referral so that we can take the private route for diagnosis or treatment.

The thought that we may have a child with a "disability" both terrifies and confuses me. While I wouldn't change anything about my beautiful son, I worry myself to death hoping that he'll be OK, and I deal with the guilt constantly that I could have done things differently to make his life easier. I want to know if Jake will ever be able to carry on a conversation at some point in his life, or if he will be "high functioning" and be able to fall in love and have children one day. I am very very anxious to begin the diagnostic process so that we can have some insight.



I feel like this first post focuses a lot on the negative and my own fears so I want to say that Jake is a delightful little dude. He loves music, drawing and most of all, his little brother. Jake has said I love you exactly twice that I understood, and the first time it was to his little brother. The second time it was to his Dad. Nah, I'm not jealous, I was so joyful to hear it that it didn't matter if he'd said it to the dog! Jake loves the outdoors as well and I can't wait until good weather to begin camping again. I'm hoping that his love of sleeping in his "tent" will carry over to camping!

I love this guy with all of my heart, and would never want to change or "cure" him, just get his dad and myself the help that we'll need in order to help Jake have the most rewarding life possible... the same thing every parent wants, I'm sure.