Year four;
putting the pieces back together:

    Following the pshychiatric hospital fiasco, we were wary and didn't know what to do. The neuro-psychologist had suggested we go into private therapy but we couldn't really afford it. We were on the waiting list for a center called La Ressource which dealt with children who suffer from dysphasia. From what we could gather, having been unable to prove a diagnosis involving autism, the pshyc. hospital wanted the other facility to pick up the evaluation process.

    A period of "doing nothing and waiting", followed. Sébastien had been in daycare and it was not helping. He wasn't interacting with the other kids and he was not picking up any language skills. We felt that our daycare worker was not really trying to help. We realize now that she was simply ill equipped. We ultimately took him out of daycare but it was extremely difficult to deal with having both kids at home, what with all the stress. It was also around that time that we started noticing that my daughter was also not speaking properly or as much as she should.

    Sébastien finally was seen by a psychologist and a speech therapist at La Ressource. Though the psychologist was less certain, the speech therapist felt that we were not dealing with an autistic disorder. She felt that Sebastien simply suffered from severe dysphasia. 

    My husband and I got to have help for ourselves! La Ressource had a family therapist. We started going to see him and could not believe how helpful it was... how helpful he was! Within a few short months, he got me on the right track to heal from the emotional meltdown I had suffered from the stress of the pshychiatric evaluation my son had undergone and he helped us find ways to potty train Sebastien and to get me some time for myself.

    We got both children into a new daycare a few days a week. It gave me time to be a woman instead of just a mom. It helped me stop feeling like basket case! The situation, however, was not ideal because the daycare worker was very emotional and constantly demanded that we acknowledge her efforts. We were still in the dark as to what exactly was going on with Sebastien, we were having Ophelie assessed to see if anything was wrong with her hearing and we weren't getting much support outside of the treatment facility.