Audrey walking into spring 2022

We survived a long two week spring break from school and filled the days with a short beach trip, a family visit to the lake house and lots of outside time!

We are excited to see how the next few months go. Since the pandemic, school hasn’t been all that consistent given school breaks, distance learning, seasonal sickness and a week of Covid! So we are hoping to settle in to more of a schedule this spring!

Things Audrey is crushing lately:

-Using her AAC device in school!

She is learning to navigate her communication device and chooses her circle time activities, greetings to her classmates and asking for breaks and help are all things she continues to make progress on!

-Walking independently!

She continues to gain more stability and assurance with this and seems highly motivated to be on the move. We recorded her record high of 51 steps just this past week so I am looking forward to her soaring in the near future.

-Sleep!

We are still nowhere near smooth sailing but her chunks of independent sleep are continuing to get longer. I had lab work done for her a few months back which showed her iron level was pretty low. Supplementing that has seemed to start making a difference and we hope the next time we test it is at the level her doctor and I discussed. Lack of iron leads to restless legs which Audrey definitely deals with so we hope it continues to get better!

-Mainstreaming into Gen Ed!

Audrey has worked up to 30 minutes each day at school in the general education class with her neuro typical peers. She has SO many friends who know her on campus now and they tell me she thoroughly enjoys being a part of it! She gets to go to their language arts morning lesson and one day a week she does a music class with them! It is a win win for all involved and I couldn’t be happier with her school placement.

Something we continue to struggle with at home is effective communication. She has a lot of big feelings but can’t always communicate exactly what she needs. By continuing to navigate her communication device and having her physically get stronger, we hope that this will open some new doors to her being able to tell us what she needs. It’s by far the most challenging part of this journey for us all!

Summer will be the true test to her 7 year old sass 🤣. I have her signed up to do a local physical therapy intensive which she hasn’t done since before the pandemic started.

I know it will be hard but I’m hopeful for the progress and gains that will come from it!

I continue to work as a board member on the CASK Gene Foundation, mainly on the social media end. I’m thrilled to be a part of the exciting new things to come our way related to new CASK Gene research. It’s a learning experience which I’m grateful for.

If you haven’t checked it out please do so by going to caskgene.org

Keep watching as Audrey continues #KickingCASK this summer!