Hi Everyone:
After all your help and support with my concerns, I wanted to let you know that things are looking up. I brought up the speech delays and autism concerns with my coordinator last week and she said it was too early to know about autism, but that it hadn't entered their heads at all with Emerson. That made me feel better. She agreed that more needed to be done about the speech, so we scheduled a home visit with the speech therapist. An hour at home was a LOT more productive than 1/2 hour at school! We're going to keep it up and hopefully see even more improvement.
I think he somewhat sensed my desperation and has been making more of an effort this past week too. Since I last posted, he suddenly started clapping and waving (things we have been working on for soooo many months), imitiates me when I stomp my feet, attempts to feed me or himself with the spoon and does the same with the hairbrush, and even imitated the speech therapist when she did a little game involving putting plastic rings on his head and then pretending to sneeze to make it drop. I couldn't believe this was my child!
I don't always get a chance to respond to posts (I'm lucky if he takes a nap these days!), but I hope you all know I'm thinking about you and sending lots of support in return.
Best,
Cassi