Kaufman Day 4

Last day went great!

Speech: During our speech session Nancy and I both worked with Kiddo on his words/phrases, and Nancy gave me excellent feedback on working with him.  She gave me the list of words she's been working on with him and when I get home I'll make flashcards of each of the words so we can keep working on them.  She'll send us her eval and the list of goals to work on for the next 6 months or so soon, so I look forward to that.  I got the DVDs of each of the sessions, and I look forward to watching them with Hubster and sharing them with Kiddo's speech therapists.  Nancy says he has moderate-severe apraxia of speech, but she sees so much potential in him and would love for him to come back for another session.  Hubster and I are already talking about how to make that happen, we saw so much good come from this week.

She gave Kiddo a ziplock baggie full of cars as his prize for working so hard, as you can kind of see in the pic of the two of them below.  He was smiling like crazy about these cars until I snapped this pic, thanks Kiddo. Not the greatest pic ever, but better than nothing. ;)

OT: Kiddo did some fun work on a scooter board, working on his core and arm/shoulder strength.  Poor kid was grunting after a while, it was so hard for him to propel and steer himself using his arms while lying on the scooter, but he did like the game.

We did some more oral motor work, and Ms. Jessica had me do each of the exercises, so that I'd know how to continue the exercises at home.  She gave me a huge stack of papers to read with different exercises to work on with him, and some ideas of things we could buy to help him with his various sensory and oral-motor challenges.

All in all, an absolutely wonderful week.  God answered each of my prayers about this week: safe travels, health, that Kiddo would cooperate, that our therapists would have wisdom in how to best work with Kiddo, etc.  God is so very good, and blessed our trip abundantly more than I could have asked for or imagined.

*     *     *

Kiddo has been saying new things this weekend, that have just blow me away.  My favorites:

• After going to the bathroom on a cushioned toilet he declared it a "sof poppy" (soft potty). 
• I asked the barefoot Kiddo if he wanted to put his socks on.  "No.  Fee ha!"  (Feet hot).  
• When I was telling him we were going to have pizza for dinner but he had to wait for it, he told me over and over again, (the tears and crying didn't help with my translation)"No wait.  Pizza now."   
• After going to the bathroom at a rest stop on our drive home, he told me "I dee, I go poppy" (I drink, I go potty).  I was blown away not only that he knew that, but it is his first 5 word phrase, whoo hoo!!  Actually, that's more than just a phrase, it's a whole sentence!!  Oh, and the lady in the bathroom with us washing her hands heard him say that and giggled and commented on how smart he was.  A total stranger was able to interpret what he said.  :)

When Hubster got to see Kiddo again, he was just grinning at all Kiddo had to say, and he told me "You brought me home a different kid.  I'm so proud of him."  

We can't wait to hear what else Kiddo has to say and I pray that we can get another opportunity (or several) to work with Nancy again.  She's pretty awesome, and so is our God who truly and abundantly blessed our trip.

Kaufman Day 3

Speech:  Kiddo had a fabulous first session with Nancy, where again he said so many words and phrases it filled an entire notebook page, two columns wide.  Way to go Kiddo!

I must admit, she's tough on these kids.  She expects lots of sounds and words and good behavior out of them.  I think it's what gives her such amazing results, but I have to be honest, sometimes it makes me wince.  Like when she'll push Kiddo's hand away from his mouth so she can hear him better.  I understand why she does it, but we've taught Kiddo hand cues, and so he uses them to remind himself of how to make the sound.  Nancy told me she doesn't think the cues are actually helping him, but I disagree.  Some of the sounds he can't make unless he's using the cues, such as his "t"s and sometimes his "m"s.  Also when Kiddo doesn't understand what she's asking him to do, or he gets distracted, you can see her get a little frustrated with him.  But I think that's because she's so eager to get him talking again, working on his sounds and words and so I understand where she's coming from.  Nancy isn't this perfect apraxia goddess, but she sure does get the job done and has amazing results!  She gets more words and phrases out of him in a 30 minute session as I think I get out of him in a few days.  Seriously.

For his second session of the day, I was armed with notebook and pen for another round, but Nancy told me to come in for this session, and to prompt him with some of the phrases.  I must admit, it's intimidating to be trying to do what the so called "Queen of Apraxia" does so effortlessly, but her feedback was so very helpful and will be what will stick with me best when we get home and are Nancy Kaufmanless.  She wants to do the same thing for our last session tomorrow.

Taking a break between speech sessions.  He loves this little car cushion. :)

OT: In OT today he got to swing in this awesome swing that has a small ball pit in the bottom to work on his vestibular system.  He loved it.  He got to do some crawling through tunnels to work on his proprioception, and then we worked on his oral motor stuff.  Jessica showed me tools to use to strengthen Kiddo's jaw, and the Z-Vibe, a vibrating tool that encourages the tongue to follow it.  She put some Pixie Stix dust on the Z-Vibe and put it on the roof of his mouth, and we finally had success with him getting his tongue to the roof of his mouth every single time.  We need his tongue to go there for him to be able to say t, d, and n's properly.  Something tells me I'll need to invest in a Z-Vibe. ;)  We also were working on his blowing without puffing out his cheeks using a whistle and blowing bubbles, and he is getting much better with it.

*           *          *

Little Brother's adventures of the day with Grandma included going to an indoor play place/coffee shop called Jungle Java, where he made a new friend.  He also had fun exploring the hotel grounds and this little playground on our hotel's property.

After all Kiddo's hard work, I took him to the hotel pool for some chill time, where he had a blast, and every time I'd ask him if he was all done or wanted more pool, the response was always "more pool".  Finally, fingers all prunified, I told him it was time to go back to our hotel room, where he asked me without any prompting "Go to elevator?"  Uh, yeah kid, we can ride the elevator as many times as you want if you use words and phrases like that!!!!

Can't believe tomorrow is our last day at the Kaufman Children's Center. We have learned so much, but still have so much more to learn.

Kaufman-Day 2

Speech:  Uh, can I just go ahead and say that yes, Nancy Kaufman is truly amazing.  I want her to relocate to our neck of the woods so we can work with her every week.  Her energy and intensity is amazing, and a million cups of coffee would still not get me anywhere near the level of energy and enthusiasm and intensity she has.  She pushes the kiddos hard, yet knows their limits and makes sure they have moments of fun while they are working.  And she really does make it fun and keeps them engaged and motivated.  She reminds me of a loving drill sergeant. ;)  She got Kiddo to say more words and phrases in a half hour session, then I think I've gotten him to say in the past week.

They worked on lots of his favorite words (pizza, banana, puzzle, shoe, water, sticker, monkey) as well as a lot of the words on her Kaufman cards.  And lots of phrases, such as:

• Put on/off
• Put away
• I want to pick
• Up high
• Oh no!
• Stand up
• Go down

and lots of phrases using verbs, which can also be used as requests:

• pet puppy
• throw ball
• read book
• eat apple
• open bag
• turn on/off
• hug baby
• blow/pop bubbles
• sleep bed
• ride bus/boat
• put on hat

She also has been working on those final consonants (such as hat, boat, bed, up, want, book, yes, pick) and he's doing so much better with them with the help of hand cues.  

She's also getting him to say "yes" with the final "s" sound, instead of his usual "yeah," and to say "again" instead of his usual "more" when he wants something to happen again.

I have pages of notes I've taken, and Nancy records each session, so I can't wait to watch the DVD sessions again and share them with his speech therapists when we get home.

I'm so proud of how hard he's been working for Nancy.  We've prayed hard that he would cooperate with Nancy and her methods that he would learn a lot, and we see God answering our prayers and blessing our time here. :)

OT:  Oh my goodness, their sensory gym is amazing and I wish I could get a pic of Kiddo working/playing in it, but sadly they don't allow pictures in it, though I'm grateful to be able to go in and watch and learn.

In OT today, he did some swinging, did an obstacle course twice that ended up in a super fun ball pit, and played in a kiddie pool of dried rice and beans.  He loved that!  He laid out on his tummy in it, his arms going up and down like he was making a snow rice angel.

Ms. Jessica did quite a bit of work on his picky eating and oral motor skills.  He got to eat some veggie straws, and had to bite it using his back molars, rather than biting it from his front teeth, to help strengthen his jaw.  He caught on quite quickly and ate several veggie straws, biting from the back molars each time and asking for more.

She then showed me strategies for introducing him to new food so he doesn't experience the anxiety/meltdowns he normally does about having to eat anything new.  Today he tried a slice of pear and a turkey burger.  He did great, taking two bites of the pear (he wasn't a huge fan) but eating about half of the turkey burger.  She believes his picky eating and anxiety about new foods stem from a texture thing, and so her strategies should help him deal with new foods and their new textures.

*          *          *

Little Brother's adventure included shopping with Grandma at Meijers, where the pony rides are only a penny.  He loved it and cried when it was time to get off.

Kiddo is so proud of all his "ticker"s he got for his hard work in each session and didn't want to take his shirt with his stickers off for bed.  He is currently sleeping in this outfit.  He was so tired that about half an hour before his usual bedtime he didn't say a word, just went to the bathroom and then climbed into bed by himself.  Within a minute, he was asleep, and about ten minutes later when I put Little Brother into his pack-n-play for the night next to where Kiddo was sleeping, Kiddo's eyes flickered open and he was immediately back asleep again.  

Kiddo is working so hard and making me so proud. :)  Stay tuned to see what we learn tomorrow!

Kaufman Evaluation Day

Well, we made it to West Bloomfield, MI!  It was a 13 hour car trip, divided over two days.  Kiddos did pretty good, thank goodness for technology!

The morning started bright and early, with Little Brother escaping from his pack and play and playing in the living area of our two bedroom suite hotel (which is awesome btw).  Anyway, after getting ready for the day we headed off to the Kaufman Children's Center.  I felt like I was headed off to the first day of school, I was nervous and excited.

But we made it!

Speech Evaluation:

I think what I've been most nervous about is how Kiddo would work with Ms. Nancy, but he was great!  I got to watch from a separate room through the window while he had fun with her toys and did his best with responding to all of her requests.  After his eval with Nancy, I went in to talk to her for a while about her observations.  She told me she sees a lot of potential in him, it just will take longer for him to resolve from apraxia since he has so many other delays and areas to focus on, in addition to the speech.

  

She told me the goals she wants to work on with him for the week and they include the following:

• Working on his t, d, n, w, and h sounds
• Working on final consonants
• Naming nouns, verbs, and functions in 2-3 word phrases
• Learning how to ask questions

And can I just say, yes it's true, Nancy Kaufman is absolutely AMAZING!  She is awesome at keeping him motivated, balancing play with lots of repetitions of speech.  I think my jaw dropped at one point at the phrases she was able to get out of this kid that no one has ever attempted to get him to say yet.  No wonder she's called the queen of apraxia and I feel so blessed to be able to work with her this week.  I can't wait to see the progress he'll make and how she'll go about working on these goals with him.  I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight, I'm that excited. :)

OT Evaluation:

Our OT for the week, Ms. Jessica is absolutely fabulous and I'm so excited to see her work with him.  She continually was pointing out things to me, some of which I knew or therapists had pointed out to me, some things I didn't know.  I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed with all the info, but she reassured me she'd have all this in writing for me, and would give me a plan of action as to how to work with him on all these areas after the week was over.  I was so glad to hear her say that what our OT at home is working on with him at home is exactly what Kiddo needs to be working on, so I feel we're on the right track.  Ms. Jessica is a lot more aware of other issues our OT does not know about (such as oral motor), and so for that, I'm grateful for the new insight.

Kiddo had a few moments where he freaked out about something she wanted him to do, usually oral motor related, but overall he was very cooperative and his normal cute self and had fun.

After the two hour eval, we came up with a plan.  He will have an hour of OT for the next three days, where we will work on the following areas:

• Oral-motor skills, working specifically on a stronger bite, blowing without puffing out his cheeks, using a straw or whistle without biting it for stability, putting his tongue up on the roof of his mouth, less sensitivity to certain foods/textures, and introducing him to new foods since he is such a picky eater.  
• Motor skills, specifically on building up his core strength and stability.  Ms. Jessica said once we get his core stronger and more stable while he's moving (instead of the waddling while he runs, sitting in a squat, turning sideways to go up and down steps, etc), we should see a jump in his oral and fine motor skills, as well as speech, and so she really wants to focus on this, as it's (no pun intended) core to all other areas of development.  Our OT at home works on this a lot, but I'm interested to see how Ms. Jessica will work on this with Kiddo.
• Sensory motor, working on his vestibular and proprioceptive issues.  She said his vestibular issues are very minor now, so we've obviously made great progress with our OT at home, but proprioceptive still seems to be the area we're struggling with and I'm intrigued to see what she'll work on with him to help him with that.

The Schedule:

On Tuesday and Wednesday we'll have speech with Nancy Kaufman twice a day in the morning, with a half hour break in between, have a break for lunch, and be back at 1:00 for his OT session.

On Thursday (our last day) we'll have just one speech session and a consultation, and then an OT session and a consultation and be done by noon.  I look forward to the consultations so I can learn how to implement what he's learning at home and keep the progress going forward, as well as share the info with his therapists at home.

Oh, and so I don't forget about Little Brother and Grandma (who so generously came along for the trip to help me watch Little Brother) they had a blast at the local library and story time where they got to play with a parachute.

Stay tuned for Day 2!

Progress Report

Hi folks!  We leave THIS weekend to head to Michigan to work with The Nancy Kaufman next week, I am so beyond excited!!!!  Can't wait to see what we both will learn.  Currently Little Brother and I have a cold, so pray that we're all better and there is no sickness during our trip.  That would be no fun at all.  My mom is coming with me to watch Little Brother while Kiddo is in his speech and OT sessions, and after his four day intensive we'll visit my relatives who live a few hours away from the Kaufman Children's Center.  

Anyway, without further ado, the progress report.


Kiddo: 

Motor Skills:
We just got back from his OT appointment.  I had asked his OT to reevaluate him so we could bring the report with us when we go to the Kaufman Children's Center so we don't have to pay the full price for their OT evals, which cost about $400.  Yikes!  Hopefully they accept this and we save some money.  Plus, I did want to know how he was improving, so here's the scoop in how he scored back when we evaluated in March and when she reevaluated him last week:

Locomotion (walking, running, jumping, skipping, etc)      22 months (in March)  ---->25 months (now)

Balance and coordination     27 months ----->34 months

Fine motor       15 months ----->28 months

Hand/eye coordination    38 months----> 40 months

Not as much progress as I was hoping for, but we're going in the right direction.  She didn't reevaluate his sensory stuff, which is where I think he's made the most improvement and what I'd be most intrigued to see regarding progress.

I'll admit I was a little disheartened by the numbers above.  We've been going to this OT for 8 months, and to see only a two or three month improvement in several areas is frustrating.  The fact that he's over four and measuring like a two-three year old in pretty much every way is uber discouraging.  But, he definitely has made progress, and apparently over a years worth of progress in his fine motor skills, whoo hoo!  I celebrate every baby step, every new skill, every victory.  Here's a video of him at our recent trip to the playground.  The fact he even attempted to climb this is huge.  He needs lots of encouragement, but he's getting there and getting stronger slowly but surely.

Speech:  I have found the perfect activity to keep Kiddo motivated while we practice his speech.  I found cute little Angry Bird cat toys at Walmart (shhh don't tell Kiddo what they really are), green pigs and a red bird and I'll set up paper cups in a pyramid fashion with the pigs strategically placed on the cups.  After saying a certain number of words/phrases he gets to throw the Angry Bird toy at the paper cups and knocks the cups and pigs down.  He LOVES this!!  I thought this would work a few times before it no longer motivated him to practice his words, but we've been doing it a few times each week.  The pic to the left is the Pinterest pic where I got the idea for the speech activity.  I love that site!

My new favorite random conversations with Kiddo

While reading a book about opposites:

Me: Look, The giraffe is tall. And the monkey is short.  

Kiddo: Yeah!

Me: Hey, is Daddy tall or short?

Kiddo: Tall.

Me: Is Mommy tall or short?

Kiddo: Short.  (thanks Kiddo).

Me: Is Brother tall or short?

Kiddo: (ponders for a moment).  Tall Baby!

At the consignment shop:

Cashier: Look, your mommy is buying you some games.  Do you want to go home and play games?

Kiddo: Game!  Ok!

The cashier and I both laughed, and honestly I was so excited that what he said was so clear that I didn't have to translate for him.  I left just feeling happy in my heart that he was perfectly understood by a stranger.  Victory.

Random:  Oh my gosh, this kid loves Angry Birds.  He could play it all day long if we let him, and he excitedly tells us how many stars he gets after he beats a level.  (Wa saa! = one star! Boo saaa! = two stars!  Bee saa! = three stars!)  We redecorated his room with Angry Bird wall decals and he was the most excited child I think I have ever seen.  I should have had my video camera out.  He smiles so much more than he used to, and tells me things all the time, though unfortunately half of the time I don't know what he's saying.  He is a master at working the DVD player and my iphone and anything computerized or digital.  He has started doing this coughing thing to get out of doing something he doesn't want to do.  Ex: speech therapist tells him to say a word that is hard for him, and he does this fake cough to (hopefully) get out of having to say it.  It never works, but he still tries, and I think it's cute, though I don't let him know that.  As you can tell by the above conversation, he now says "Ok!" after we tell him to do something, or we give him news that is exciting, which I think is adorable and makes me feel like I have such an obedient child, ha ha.   Ex: "Go get your shoes."  "Ok!"

Little Brother

He loves his animal crackers.  "Goka" is what he calls them.

Speech: We got Little Brother reevaluated for speech again.  He qualified again.  He hasn't gained any words since his second birthday in August and has been using the 50 or so words he had previously a lot less or not at all, which greatly concerns me.  Also, the way he says some of his words hasn't improved at all, which could be a red flag for apraxia.  Since apraxia is genetic, it's possible for both siblings to have it, and in fact I know of several families I've met online with two or even three kiddos with apraxia.  If Little Brother does have apraxia, it is no where near as severe as Kiddo's (Kiddo only said two sounds at Little Brother's age) and he definitely would only have speech apraxia, not the whole body apraxia that Kiddo does.  But, honestly I'm thinking that it's just a delay and with services by our beloved Ms. Blessing he'll pick up words quickly and be communicating better in no time.

Random: He LOVES puzzles, and gets really frustrated if he can't get one of the peg pieces to fit in properly.  Cue temper tantrum.  He's also started spitting if he's mad, which makes me wonder if the phrase "spitting mad" came about because of a toddler.  He has learned how to gallop and gallops everywhere, especially when he has an audience.  He is the best snuggler.  He'll climb into your lap (especially if you're using a laptop) and tuck his arms underneath him and get all cozy and just snuggle for a few minutes, and I gladly set my computer aside to soak those minutes up.  Bliss.

Anyway, that's about all for now.  Check back next week to see how things are going for us at the Kaufman Children's Center!! :)