Nate's neuro appointment today

The appointment today went very well! I went in with expectations on the low side since I'm not extremely impressed with this doctor's view of biomedical treatments or with how much she talks (a ton). (This isn't the actual neurologist but the nurse practitioner, Teri, who follows all of the neurologist's original diagnosis patients.) She spent some time talking with us and observing Nate. Although she didn't officially redo the CARS test (bummer), she did have some great things to say about Nate.

• She thinks he would be OK placed in a "regular" preschool.


• She says she can just "hear" autism when a child with autism speaks--something in the inflection, the stilted meter, the way the child speaks; she can't hear it in Nate. She used the words "best I've ever heard" about Nate's language.


• When I asked specifically if it would be beneficial for us to have an updated CARS test on Nate, she said no. Then she said, "If I did the test again on him now, there is a high likelihood he would not place on the autism spectrum at all. Perhaps I could find some tiny thing here or there to put him on the spectrum, but I really don't think so." This was awesome! So although we didn't get a new CARS number, we essentially got the neurologist nurse practitioner to say that Nate probably wouldn't qualify for a diagnosis.

The subject of one-to-one aides also came up, when I said I thought maybe the school could place Nate in a "regular" preschool class this next year with an aide. Teri gave us her opinion of aides in general (a negative one), which was good to hear. Perhaps I don't want an aide for Nate. Teri's opinion was that parents use aides as a crutch in order not to let their children possibly fail or flounder on their own; in addition, aides aren't properly trained.

All in all, the NP was very impressed with Nate and his progress. She also had some nice things to say to/about us as parents and how we interact with him. I left the appointment feeling energized, excited, and proud of our awesome little boy!