Matthew And The Diagnosis...

As most of you know Paul and I have felt for a long time that there were a few things about Matthew that was very different from the other two children. We began our quest to figure out what the problem was almost 3 years ago. At that time we were still living in Frederick, MD and to be honest the school system was so overburdened that nobody seem to hear our pleas for help. In November of 2005 we moved our family to Bushnell, and again I began questioning the difference in Matthew's behavior vs "normal" children. After about 3 months of getting to know him and observing him the school here agreed that something was very different, so began our journey. I have a very close friend of mine that has a son with Aspberger's Syndrome, she has known Matthew since birth and she kind of alluded that he had some of the same behavior patterns and differences that her son had. We began doing a lot of reading on this form of autism, we felt pretty sure that Matthew fit the Aspberger pattern. Finally after a year and a half of trying to get an evaluation done through the school system, on December 5, 2007 Matthew was evaluated by Tina Veale a Private Autism Consultant. The results were given to us about 3 weeks ago, I am both happy and sad to let people know that Matthew has been diagnosed with High Functioning Autism. It saddens me because I know that there are alot of things in his life that will be a real challenge for him, but I am happy that we finally have a valid diagnosis that we can now work with. We have felt like we were grasping at straws for so long not knowing what the problem really was, that for us to now have an idea of what we are dealing with makes this a lot easier. Basically for right now we have the diagnosis, but we are still patiently waiting for some more testing to be done. On Feb 19th we will take Matthew to Springfield, IL for some neurological tests to be done. The test will help the therapist that will be working with him to better understand his abilities and yes his disabilities as well. Once that has been completed we are hoping he will begin occupational therapy for his fine motor skill issues, group therapy to better learn to socialize in society, and speech therapy for some of the language and mental to verbal issues he has. Now keep in mind we have gone out of our way to explain to Matthew that although he is learning things very differently and has some socializing issues that he will grow up to lead a productive liFe. He is still the Matthew we all know and love, and quite frankly we wouldn't change this diagnosis because it is part of what makes up the wonderful little boy we call Matthew Wayne Perchalski.

Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 04:53PM by Perchalski Family