The good, the bad and the ugly

The good news is Robbie's speech seems to be improving and he is mastering many of his tasks in ABA. The bad news is he has been out of control hyper. Sleep stopped last week and he went 6 nights with very little sleep. He would fall asleep at 8:30pm and wake up at midnight. From then on he was wired. Jumping on the bed, running down the hallway, talking about some movie he had in his head. Exhausting! Then he would fall back to sleep somewhere between 5am and 6am. ( we were late to school 2 days last week)
The other difficulty is the repeating of movie lines. Robbie can recite most of the movies we own. There are times when he gets lost in that world. His aid had trouble getting his attention this week because of this. So- what do we do- other than cry and pray- We decided to restrict his diet again. Gluten free, Casein free, sugar free. That began over the weekend. No improvement yet but I'm hopeful.
We're gearing up for our child study team meeting next week to discuss Robbie's summer program and next year. We're prepared to fight. He needs more than he's getting. He will loose a lot of what he's learned this year over the summer. As we read all the books written by celebrities who have pulled their children out of the Autistic spectrum I want to scream. ( If Lexi wasn't napping I probably would) They invest hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on services for their children. Rodney and Holly Robinson- Peete wrote a book stating they spent $160,000 a year for 4 + years to help their son. While that's wonderful it leaves me feeling even more helpless. What about the rest of us? I lost my job in December and we're biting our nails waiting to see if my husband has a job for next year. If our school district doesn't step up and help I fear the worst. So now I hope for the best and make sure to tell Robbie how much I love him every chance I get! He will repeat it back to me- and I know even though he is repeating what he hears he means it!