The Blessings of Failures

We took Darin in today to be evaluated for the autism therapy trial at BYU. He passed all the tests with flying colors. That meant he wasn't eligible for the therapy trial. I had a sinking feeling when the director told us that, but it was quickly followed by an offer to use Darin in their diagnosis class beginning in the Fall. Darin will be a guinea pig for graduate students who are being taught how to recognize various behaviors in developmentally delayed children. After the diagnosis class is over, they will continue to help Darin with what he needs. WE GOT DARIN INTO THE BYU SPEECH THERAPY CLINIC!!!

As for the tests he went through today, it was all about how Darin interacted with the graduate students. I've never been more happy to see my son fail. He was willing to play the games they wanted to play. He was pretending his dog was licking ice cream. He would drive his car around and stop when the light was red and go when the light was green. The best moment came when they pointed out one of the toys was holding a little cat. Darin pretended his dog toy was scared of the cat and ran away. Everyone was laughing about that, and of course, in true Darin fashion, the positive response meant he wanted to continually have his dog toy run away from the cat.

The transition of leaving all of the new-to-him toys was difficult, but he was distracted for awhile by being able to push the handicap button that automatically opened the door. He also almost pushed the fire alarm thinking it was the way to open the second door (luckily, the fire alarm wasn't a push button system, so it would have taken him quite a bit of effort and a lot of distraction of all of the adults to allow him to trigger the fire alarm).

So, I've never been more thrilled that my son failed. He'll be starting a long term therapy process at BYU in the Fall - and he'll be able to help all of those lovely new graduate students learn how absolutely adorable he can be when he's in a good mood.