John Carving His Own Path: Did he break anything?

TRACKING PROGRESS OF NEW WORDS AND ACTIONS

OCTOBER

10/19 - John is working with Taneill on the floor today we have new words. He is doing great with the picture board she has. The amazing thing is he pointed out 4 letter and identified him without anyone showing him.

NEW WORDS: CAKE, TURTLE,

Saturday 10/10 - House, Kick

He has a book to work on sound formations, Frieda gave him a few weeks ago. He finally mastered ZZZZZZZ, EEEEEEEE

Paint, House, Hair

Brian said he pointed in the mirror and said JOHN - sort of

BOWL not BALL

Started playing dress up with shirt and shoes

Put sock on Daddy

FINALLY FINALLY, sat on a tricycle and peddled and did not have a meltdown. He is starting to get used to movement.

This includes all of the dance scenes in ANNIE, he is kicking his legs and says the line before it comes on.

SEPTEMBER WORDS

It has only been a few weeks and look at this progress.

hi, nite-nite, hat, kick, jump, juice, milk, cool, ball, white, yellow, purple, bye, uh-oh, mama, daddy, cheese, ball, no, peeka boo, choo choo, beep beep, blue, green, apple, close, nose - he pointed first time, annie - the movie he won't quit watching, baby, nana - for banana, cow, poo poo, pee pee, help, keys, mouth, trees- he pointed, spoon, cool, shoes, car, thank you, kissy kissy - carol burnette from annie, teeth, mouth, ear, please

September Actions

This is the first time he has ever done the following......we tried many many different techniques but the one DADDY found that worked was making the OK sign with your fingers and pull it up to your eyes and make him look at you. After doing this over and over again, he started looking at us.

Next, he started hugging and trying to kiss us. You have no idea how excited we were that day. We tried for a year to call his name, get his attention, we would clap, sing, scream, dance, and do anything else but when he was doing something there is no stopping him. Now he runs and gives me a hug when he sees me. It took until he was two years old to even look at his parents. These are things other parents may take for granted.

Stop what you are doing and take the time to enjoy these moments because when you don't have them or can't get them it is a tough "failure" moment. Even though it is not your fault, it is a tough thing to never have your child respond to your voice, smile when he sees you, or cry when you leave him somewhere.

We used to think he was just happy to be somewhere.

September

He pointed for the first time

He learned a body part - his nose

He actually sat down and looked at a book

He kissed mom and dad - first time

He hugged mom and dad - first time

Climbed in car seat

Walked to car without laying on the ground for ten minutes

Held my hand

Brushed my hair

Brushed his teeth

Used a Spoon and set the table

Caught a ball ----after weeks of practice

Jumped - after weeks of practice - THANKS Occupational Therapist L

Singing to the movie ANNIE - He almost knows all of the notes he will have the words soon and here we come BROADWAY

TUESDAY TANEIL - SPEECH

I don't have enough words to say about this fantastic person. She is a fun, loving person that I have in my life and so does JOHN. I am so thankful to meet her. We have done so many activities and she has instrumental in John's success over the last few months. In addition, the Bubble Bee series is amazing.

Magic Bag - We use the magic bag to try an identify one thing at a time

Book - She is the first person to get John to sit down and look at a book. She actually got his attention so much, he took the book and hid it and I found it a week later.

We are working on learning the difference between identifying two objects. Not there yet, this week assignment is to try and learn more. If he wants "more" juice etc......

To top of Speech Therapy this week, I purchased the sheet music to ANNIE and we attempted to sing it to John. The piano was out of tune and so were are voices, but we tried. For all of you Annie Lovers, email me if you want the music.

WEDNESDAY LOU ANN - OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

BRUSHING PROGRAM/JOINT COMPRESSIONS INSTRUCTIONS

Instructions

Hold Brush horizontal

Start on palm brush until entire arm done

Keep hand on him

Brush the Back

Move to the other arm

Keep Hand on him

Move to the leg

Brush Entire Leg

Move to the other Leg

Perform 10 Joint Compressions on each side

shoulder, elbow, wrist. hips, knees. and ankles

Should be done every 2-3 Hours

With John I am doing it every 3-4 times/day

We have also added the additional weighted vest to our regime. It has been fantastic. This includes any transitions from one place to another, all running, heavy work that is assigned is done with the vest and the head banging decreases significantly with the use of this. Generally, thirty minutes when he gets to school. They use it at school from going and coming to places and when in the gym with alot of input and noise. It helps keep him calm and focused. My thought was it is going to make him stronger, but this has been a life saver for our family. He even takes naps now because he actually is getting enough input to relax. GO LOU ANN

Thursday Night - we just put together the trampoline trying to redirect the head banging, we will keep our fingers crossed.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Did he break anything?

I am not a doctor, but I feel like it because I am on call. Yesterday, the school called and John just had enough. Yes, he was tired, he was banging his head, he was ready to go. Why? Who knows, since this is the kids that never sleeps. I got in the car and rushed two minutes to bring him home. All of my good work, down the drain in three hours and now reason why. I let him fight himself for a while by banging his head and then finally he went to sleep on the floor.

Today, I dropped John off at school at 9:00 in hopes of some work time. The teacher requested the weighted vest, since it seems to help John stay focused and not so out of control. I am still not sure how this is helpful except making him stronger and even more difficult to handle. It seems to be working, so we will go with it. It is very helpful during the transition times from the playground to the class room.

So, in attempts to get two solid hours, I left the school went and got the vest and returned to the school. Able to sit down and work on some accounts receivables, just when I was ready to focus RING> RING>..

I don't even say hello anymore, my response is did he break anything? At that moment, I realized to any other person this might sound bad, but I truly want him to learn the threshhold of pain and that won't happen with a mommy who comes running.

They noticed that he had broken skin and a good bite out of his face, but they were not sure when or how it happened on the playground. Basically, it boils down to the same issue we have been having, he does not and barely feels pain. He did not cry, stop playing, or even acknowledge there was a bite, until Amy cleaned it and kissed it. So, this is where the concern still comes in and hopefully, this vest and the brushing techniques to include heavy work, per lou ann, will be helpful.

Either way next month I am calling to see what type of evaluations we can do to learn more about this high threshold, so he does not hurt himself or others.

Leaving to pick him up for Speech Therapy

1 comment:

SarahOctober 7, 2009 at 6:43 PM
Col,
The weighted vest is so that he can have the pressure that he needs to hopefully help keep him calm. At my very first teaching job I had a student that wore a weighted vest and he wore it just about everyday all day. It really helped to keep him calm. It may seem heavy to you, but to John it may be just what he needs to help him stay focused and calm. It sounds like things are going well.

Love to you all!
Sarah
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