Autistic-Like

Today we met with Blake's teacher to go over the findings from his "IEP" (Individualized education plan) appointment we had a couple weeks ago. Basically a few people from the program he is at right now assessed him to see if he would qualify for special education, including speech, etc. His teacher told us that there are three major areas they asses: Cognitive ability, Speech and Social skills (the ability to follow direction etc). His Cognitive ability is very high which is great but his speech and social skills are lacking, he also has "autistic like" behaviors so he is qualified to receive special education services. On Monday we go to another meeting to talk about this more "in depth" which is something we will do once a year for as long as he needs these kinds of services. It was nice to talk with his teacher today. I got to ask a lot of questions which I hadn't really had the chance to do yet. He gave me some pointers on how Im supposed to discipline Blake when he is doing something he shouldn't and some other helpful advice as well. I always feel so mean when Im telling him not to do something because I feel like maybe he cant help it, maybe he doesn't know any better but I know he still needs to be corrected and his teacher was able to tell me how to do that. I gotta be honest, I never in a million years thought we would be going through this. I never thought one of my children would have any learning disability let alone Autism and Im still trying to get used to all of the changes that are and will be taking place. Dealing with a crazy toddler is hard as it is, but imagine the toddler has infinite energy, can't follow simple commands like "come here" and has no real sense of communication. It is all consuming and sometimes it's really hard. I feel so sad and scared for Blake. Everyone says "he's smart, he'll learn, he'll get better" but how does anyone know? What if he only progresses to a certain point and then stays the same, what if he never functions "normally"?  I will say that I already see some (all be it small) improvement and I am optimistic for his future.