Jumping!

My little superman can finally jump from a higher surface while keeping his feet together.  He now jumps off of steps, curbs, playground equipment, and most recently, our couch.  Love it!!

OT Update

Kiddo has been in occupational therapy with the greatest OT ever (in my very biased opinion) since March of 2014.  In the 17 months he's been in therapy, we've made lots of progress.  Lots.  I mean, he's walking up and down stairs alternating feet now.  His run is a lot less of a waddle and much faster.  His balance and core strength have improved significantly.  He now attempts to color pictures rather than just scribbling all over paper, he can write the letters of his first name, and can draw circles and squares and a happy face.  His sensory issues have become less and less problematic.  He can kick a ball now, and can throw with a lot more accuracy, and can even catch a thrown ball about every other time.  He's now fully potty trained and can dress himself (except he needs help with shirts).

Kings of the beaver dam!  17 months ago, Kiddo wouldn't have even attempted to climb it. :)

A few weeks ago his OT reevaluated him, and I got the report on Wednesday.  At first, all I see are the percentiles. His locomotion (gross motor skills like walking, running, stairs, jumping, hopping, etc) is at the 5th percentile.  Meaning 95 percent of his peers can perform better than him in this area.  I see it every time we go to a playground or a play place, but seeing it in writing is not fun.  His object manipulation (catching, throwing, kicking, etc) is at 25th, not so terrible.  Nor is his hand eye coordination, his highest at 50th percentile. (Maybe there's a chance he won't be terrible at sports like his mama?)  His grasping (fine motor skills like writing, cutting, etc) is at the 5th percentile.  And his stationary skills (balance, posture, core strength) is at the 2nd percentile.

I'm feeling defeated.

Next, I see the month equivalency.  He is 63 months old, but his stationary skills are like that of a 33 month old.  His locomotion 29.  His object manipulation 46.  His hand eye coordination 52.  His grasping skills 37.   Did I mention he is 63 months old?

Forget defeat.  Now I'm just discouraged.  Can he not be ahead or equivalent with his peers in any of these areas?  How long is it going to take him to catch up?  Should we be doing more therapy?  Should I be focusing on these areas more than I do his speech and language?

But, I have to see the positive in everything or else the defeat and discouragement and the questioning can be paralyzing.  So, when we got home I pulled out his huge binder filled with all his evals and I found the one from his first eval in March of 2014.  I had to see how much progress he has made in 17 months.  And I crunched some numbers  I desperately needed to see the positive, and I found it.  In 17 months of weekly private OT, twice a month OT and PT from school, and me working with him he has made:

Stationary skills: 15 months of progress.  Not bad, Kiddo.  Not bad at all.
Locomotion: 7 months.   Really?
Object manipulation: 19 months.  Yay!
Grasping: a whopping 24 months.  Go Kiddo!!
Hand eye coordination: 14 months.

Ah, much more encouraging.  Though the locomotion is still not as much as I would like, he's made two years worth of progress in 17 months on his fine motor skills.  He's making progress in every area.  While his peers may be making progress too and that's why his percentiles are still really low, he is making steady progress and gaining new skills.

I can't wait to see his next evaluation, because I KNOW those numbers are going to be even higher.  Once he masters jumping and pedaling a bicycle those locomotion numbers are going to go way up.  And we will master them soon, I can feel it.

Plus, these stupid evals don't take into account how dang smart he is.  His teacher has told me multiple times "He is so smart."  Yep, I know it.  He's been reading for a while now and loves science.

So anyway, take that stupid apraxia!!  We are surely and steadily beating you!!

Kiddo can climb any mountain he puts his mind to.  :)

Climbing New Mountains

I took Kiddo to Pump it Up, an indoor inflatable party zone.  This place is awesome, though the last time I've been there was when Kiddo was almost three.  Other kids his age were climbing on the inflatables by themselves, jumping around, having a great time.  But Kiddo wasn't able to do any of that.  I helped him up all the inflatables, went down the slides with him sitting on my lap, and left wanting to cry.  

It's been a few years since then, and we joined a friend of mine here for a play date.  Wasn't sure if he'd be able to climb everything by himself this time, but knew he'd have fun.  And he did.  

He did climb everything all by himself.

And he had a blast.

And I left with a smile on my face and my heart beaming with pride.

He may still have a long way to go, but times like this reminds me he really has come a long way. :)

Thumbs up for Pump it Up.  :)

Climbing every (inflatable) mountain.

The giant slide.  Love the face plant toward the end. 

Progress Report

Whew, it's been a while since I did one of these, so I'll try and remember the inchstones and new words and phrases since the last progress report.

Kiddo:

Social: We spent an amazing two weeks with family and Kiddo seemed to blossom socially from all his fun playing with his eight cousins and other relatives. The weird thing is, we didn't see it as much while we were there, but we do now.  He is now calling his friends by name, and when he sees pictures of his cousins will call them by name.  He also now calls Little Brother by his name, rather than "Baby" as he has for the past several years.  He is starting to respond to peers too, when they talk to him.  Before he seemed oblivous to them talking to him, so huge progress there.

Kiddo with his cousins--all born in 2010. :)

Gross Motor: It's taken me three years to find a good pediatric physical therapist, but FINALLY, I found one, a good 45 minutes away, and she is truly AMAZING.  Within one session she had taught Kiddo how to get up on tiptoes, and within two sessions, Kiddo was alternating his feet on stairs.  The two weeks we were visiting family, he had lots of practice alternating feet on stairs, as we were on the third floor of a hotel.  We encouraged the alternating of feet by prompting him with "One-two-one two! (without the prompting he doesn't alternate his feet).  He's doing so much better on stairs, and next time we're around a staircase I'll get a video.

Fine Motor: He is still not holding writing utensils properly, but is now coloring items on a coloring page rather than just scribbling all over it. Sometimes he picks really random things to color, like at church this Sunday they were to color a picture of Jesus walking with his disciples, and Kiddo only colored the plant and the sun.  But still, he's coloring, rather than just scribbling, which is awesome.

Speech: Wow, this kid has so much stuff to say now.  I wish I could even remember it all, but life is so busy I don't even have time to write down the conversations we have.  Yes, conversations!

Biggest articulation improvement is he is now including more final consonant sounds.  Words that end in p and t sometimes d he's including those ending sounds.  He's also getting better at changing consonant sounds, rather than repeating them.  Example: potty used to be poppy but now has the d sound in the middle, whoo hoo!  However, he's had so much practice switching consonant sounds that he's doing it in words where they stay the same.  Example, I'm now "Moppy!"  And yes, always with an exclamation point.  I can't wait to be Mommy again, regardless of whether it has an exclamation point or not.

Biggest speech/communication improvement is he is now using verbs.  They usually have to do with what Little Brother is doing, as Kiddo thinks it's his job to report on Little Brother's activities.  Some examples include:

Little Brother's name + ______
Throw toys.
Close door.
Loud noise.  (aka, Little Brother is screaming)
Cry.
Sleep.


Some conversations (though these are not his pronunciations, just what he's trying to say)

Me: Look, it's a roly poly!  If you touch it it will roll up into a ball, because it's scared.
Kiddo: Yeah.  Wake up bug!
Me: It'll wake up when it's not scared anymore.
Kiddo: Eat leaves?
Me: Yes, I think it eats leaves and grass.
Kiddo: Bee eat honey.
Me: Yes, they eat nectar from flowers to make honey.
Kiddo: Butterfly eat flower.
Me: Oh, yeah, they eat the nectar from flowers.  Like bees.
Kiddo:  Yeah.  Bug wake up!  Eat leaves!

Me: Time to pray.
Kiddo: No pray!
Me: Yes, we always pray before bed.
Kiddo: Mommy, Daddy, (Kiddo's Name), (Brother's name), Jesus!
(those are the things he always thanks God for, but usually in fill in the blank format: "Thank you God for ____."  Way to rush the praying there, Kiddo.)

Kiddo: (spotting the toddler bed we had bought for Little Brother)  Big boy bed!
Me: Yes.  It's a big boy bed for Little Brother, just like you have.
Kiddo: Yeah.  Big boy.  Little Brother--little boy.
Me: Oh.  Yeah, Little Brother is a little boy and you're a big boy.
Kiddo: Yeah.  Daddy big big boy.

Hubster: I've gotta go to work, to fix the robots.  (He works with computers, but always talks to Kiddo about his work using robot references, since Kiddo is so into robots).
Kiddo: Robots sick?
Hubster: Well, they fell down. I have to help them up, make them feel better.
Kiddo: Robots get up!
Hubster: I'll help them up.  It might take them awhile.
Kiddo: Ok.
(Later, when Hubster returns)
Kiddo: Robots up?
Hubster: Nope, they're still down.  But I'm helping them up.
Kiddo: Ok.  No robots down.


Little Brother:

Behavior: Little Brother has some hyperactivity/impulsive issues that Kiddo's OT was noticing and recommended we get him evaluated for sensory processing disorder.  He also is terrified of water, and whether it's fear or sensory related, we do not know, but we're getting him evaluated in a few weeks by Kiddo's OT.  I've started using Peace and Calming essential oil on him and it does seem to be calming him down.  He has less temper tantrums and is hitting and throwing toys less.  He's much more enjoyable to be around lately. :)

Speech: I got Little Brother formally evaluated by Kiddo's private speech therapist.  She admits that apraxia is a possibility but it's too early to tell yet.  She diagnosed him with "severe expressive delay, mild receptive delay, and moderate articulation delay."  His behavior made it rough for her to finish the evaluation so we agreed that private therapy is not a good idea for now, until we get his behavior issues figured out.  So we'll continue the twice a month speech with Ms. Blessing in our home through Early Intervention, which he'll get until he turns three (in August).

I attended Little Brother's transition meeting yesterday.  He will receive speech therapy services through the school like Kiddo, when he turns three.  Now I have two kiddos with IEPs, fun times, but whatever we have to do to help them, we will do. :)

Little Brother's speech seems to be totally taking off lately.  He repeats a lot of two to three word phrases we say.  Sometimes they sound clear, sometimes, not so much.

New words and phrases:
apple
grapes
I know
bubble
It's a _____
One-two-one two  (this is how he counts after our stairs experience with Kiddo.  Even if I say One he'll say one, I'll say two, he'll say two, I'll say three, he'll say one, I'll repeat three, he'll say two, etc.  Gotta work on this)
color
Me! (when he sees himself in the mirror)
moon (which is for both the sun and the moon in books)

Academic skills: He can identify body parts, lots of animals and their sounds, and several shapes (circle, triangle, star, square and rectangle).  Naming colors is either a concept he doesn't grasp or doesn't care about, though his favorite color is definitely red.  (Any time he colors, he always starts with red, and sometimes will only color with red.)  Counting is also something we're working on, so far he only counts to two.  Puzzles though, he's a champ at.  This kid loves puzzles, and sometimes can sit for twenty minutes, doing the same puzzle over and over again.

Progress Report

Little Brother:  Wow, time outs are doing wonders for this kid.  We've had lots of problems with disobedience, and though we tried several different discipline tactics nothing worked, until we discovered calling time outs "stuck" did the trick.  This kid does not like being stuck, in fact, "tuck" was one of his first words.  A minute or two "being stuck" for every act of disobedience/unkindness has made him much more compliant, and done wonders for my stress and frustration level, haha.  Now he follows directions much better, and is no longer hitting or biting poor Kiddo.  The throwing toys at Kiddo still happens, but is getting less frequent.

Not much to report when it comes to his speech, but wow, this kid is great at jumping. :)

Kiddo:  Hubster and I are amazed every day at the progress we see and hear.  Some of Kiddos words and phrases and SENTENCES, are getting longer, more complex, and clearer!  Other people are starting to be able to understand some of the things he says without me having to translate, who hoo!

Some of his newest phrases and funny things:

• Every night during bedtime prayers, I say "Thank you God for ____" and he fills in the blank.  He always starts it off by saying "Eesus!"  Sometimes he's thankful for Mommy and Daddy, sometimes brother, always his own name, and sometimes random things like books, eyes, church, etc.  This kid melts my heart with his prayers.
• He demanded "pee butta jeyee! (peanut butter and jelly sandwich) one day for lunch, and I kept telling him to wait, as I was busy doing something else.  After three times of this he comes up to me, holds up one hand, says "One pee butta" holds up the other hand "One jeyee!" and then claps his hands together.  Hubster and I just laughed.  Yes Kiddo, I know how to make a PB&J, but thanks for the reminder. ;)
• He plays hide n seek now!  He tells us who should count (usually he's the counter, occasionally I get the privilege of counting).  When it's his turn he covers his eyes, but peeks a tiny bit, counts to ten and then says "Readee naw!" and comes looking for us, and when he finds us, he tells us where we are, which has been great for teaching him prepositions, and just pure fun to interact with him in a new/social way.  If it's my turn to count, well I must admit, he's a terrible hider (hint: his favorite spot is face against the wall, in plain sight) and if I ask Little Brother "Where's Kiddo?" Kiddo'll jump out and say "Boo!"  Gotta teach him that just because he can't see us doesn't mean we can't see him, but we are thrilled at how quickly he caught on to the game and how often he requests to play "Dida Seech!"
• He is really into science.  He is fascinated by the whole digestion process (we hear "eat, tummy, poo poo!) a lot.  He loves dinosaurs, weather, space, etc.  The Magic School Bus has become his new favorite TV show, which reminds me of my own childhood.
• He calls Hubster's school (Hubster's currently going to grad school) Robot School, because one time Hubster said he goes to school to learn about robots and computers and Kiddo latched onto the robot idea.
• While in speech therapy, Ms. Blessing had him playing "Don't Spill the Beans".  For each word he said five times correctly, he got the bean.  Then Ms. Blessing decided to work on sounds, rather than words.  "Say pa!" she said.  "No pa, no pa!" Kiddo insisted, "No pa, bean!"  Yes Kiddo, you are right, it is not a pa, it is a bean.
• He is starting to say hi to other people when they say hi to him!  This is huge peeps.  He plays well with other kids, but has never really interacted with them verbally, but now he tells them hi. :)
• He tries so hard to bribe me to read "boo boch!" (two books) instead of just one before bed.  One time he pulled out a copy of "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and pointed to the number two.  "Boo ish!  Boo boch!" he insisted.  Such a smarty pants.
• He's started tattling on Little Brother.  He'll come up to me while I'm in the kitchen or doing laundry, or whatever.  "Botha do doy!" (Brother throw toy!) etc.  Or, he'll take matters into his own hands and tell Little Brother what to do.  "Botha no dutch!" (no touch!) or "Botha no do doy!" 

As for gross motor, we're starting to make a little bit of progress on pedaling a bicycle, whoo hoo!  He needs a little push to get going, and then can pedal for about three or four cycles before he loses the momentum.  He can go the length of our driveway no problem since it's on a very slight incline, but can't pedal it back up.  Definitely needs more strength before he can do it, but I think he has the motor planning down for it, which is huge.  Steering, though, is a different beast.  Steering requires lots of motor planning, which his brain has no ability to process when it's working so hard on pedaling.  But I'm hopeful that he'll be strong enough to be riding his bike over the summer. :)

His core is definitely getting stronger, as evidenced by this photo.  I was doing laundry, and came out to find he had taken all the cushions off the couch and was hanging out like this.  "Mommy, cook!" (Mommy look!)  He held this position for at least 5 minutes. :)

Hopefully I'll have lots of other progress to report next month, when both kiddos get to spend two weeks visiting with their cousins!  I can't wait. :)

Journey through 2014

Wow, hard to believe 2014 is almost over and we're ready to embrace 2015.  Last year I wrote a blog post, Oh the Difference a Year Makes, and it was a great experience for me, to remember how much Kiddo progressed, and the obstacles we faced in 2013.  At the beginning of 2013 he had three words, and by December he had about 300!  So, to see the journey of 2014 with it's victories and setbacks, I present:

2014 in review:

January:  Kiddo started preschool, which he loved.  He was FINALLY able to climb up those play places they have at McDonald, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, etc.  And, according to the speech videos I posted in January, he was using a few phrases, specifically his attempt at "excuse me" after burping and saying "Ready, set, go!"

February:  In February we had two setbacks and a huge victory.  Setback one: Our attempt at therapeutic riding was a bust, as Kiddo refused to get on the pony.  Kinda defeats the purpose of going to therapeutic riding if all you're going to do is feed and pet the pony and not, well, ride it.  Setback two: we attempted a gluten free diet, but something in the gluten free foods was causing him diarrhea and the pediatrician recommended we stop.  And the major victory?  Kiddo was potty trained in three days!!  I thought it was going to take longer than that, just because most skills take a long time to master with apraxia and I've read of apraxic children not being potty trained until 4 or 5, but at age 3 1/2 he was fully potty trained, (night time trained too!) in just three days.  Best victory ever.  :)

March: Both kiddos started to use more words.  And Kiddo was evaluated by a new occupational therapist, who turned out to be a major Godsend.  He has made so much progress working with her and she has been such a blessing to us.  

April: After going to several audiologists and ENTs in our area and not getting the answers I wanted regarding the pressure in Kiddo's middle ears, the increased frequency of ear infections, and whether or not he should be wearing his hearing aid, I took him to a well respected hearing clinic in the city an hour and a half away from us.  Finally got answers--tubes needed to go in pronto to relieve the pressure and to remove the fluid that had been causing the ear infections. Kiddo also started using three and even four word phrases.

May: Kiddo got his ear tubes in, and within no time we were noticing he was understanding more of what we were saying.  Yeah, uh better hearing helps with that.  We also learned that though he still has a severe hearing loss in his right ear, it was not recommended he wear his hearing aid anymore. Research indicates it's best to let the brain learn to compensate for the loss by relying on the good ear and not a hearing aid in the impaired ear.  We also celebrated the second annual Apraxia Awareness Day.

June: Kiddo turned four, whoo hoo!!!  And another setback, one I found devastating: we were supposed to go work with Jodi Kumar, awesome speech language pathologist at George Washington University Speech and Hearing Center.  She is the creator of CHAMP Camp, where we had taken Kiddo last summer and seen great results.  We had the hotel booked and everything, but Jodi had an accident while playing volleyball that required surgery the week she was supposed to work with Kiddo. I was glad to hear she was ok, but I was so disappointed that we wouldn't be working with her.  We went to the DC area anyway, to spend time with family for Kiddo's birthday and I made it a goal to work on those OT skills in play places and playgrounds while we were there. 

July: July was pretty relaxing as we had a lot less therapy appointments.  I went to CASANA, a conference for parents and speech therapists about working with kiddos with apraxia.  Learned a whole lot and got to meet some cool people, hang out with an apraxia mom friend I'd met at CHAMP Camp last summer, and I also got to meet Nancy Kaufman.  We also started Verbal Behavior Therapy, which I feel like Kiddo made LOTS of progress in, but that therapist was sadly only able to work with us for two months and we cannot find another one anywhere near us.

August: Little Brother turned two!  Both Kiddos made some progress with their speech: Little Brother was saying about 20 words, and Kiddo lots of two and three word phrases.  Kiddo was also participating in mini conversations, which always makes me smile.  We also went on an AMAZING family beach trip that was such a blessing to experience.

A selfie with both of my little blessings. :)

September: The new school year started, which meant more therapies through the school system.  We elected to not put Kiddo in a preschool this year, so that I could work with him myself, and we could use the money we were putting toward preschool toward the OT that we were seeing so much progress in instead.  But, this meant I had twice as many therapies to drive him too, and to chase Little Brother around their waiting rooms while Kiddo is in therapy, as opposed to just dropping him off at school where he got the therapies.  Life got real busy, real fast.

October: Little Brother was evaluated for speech and qualified for twice a month speech therapy through the county.   Kiddo had the privilege of working with the "Apraxia Queen" Nancy Kaufman and an awesome OT for four whole days at an apraxia intensive at the Kaufman Children's Center.  We both learned so much, and after the intensive Kiddo is now consistently saying 3 or 4 word phrases, and using final consonants on lots of words, whoo hoo! 

  

November: We experienced lots of slow and steady progress.

December: More slow and steady progress.  Kiddo's using verbs in his phrases now, like cry, work, clean, sleep, play, eat, and drink.  Some funny conversations.  A Christmas with my family, filled with excitement, in which the kiddos were able to tell us what they got.  Kiddo could read to us who the presents were to and who they were from.  He got a balance board to work on those gross motor skills and both kiddos got a ridiculous amount of other goodies to keep them plenty busy.



Honestly, sometimes I get overwhelmed with how far we still have to go.  Just a few days ago, I was crying to Hubster because Kiddo had only mastered four of the fifteen goals I set for him for this year.  The biggest one I had for him, 'Jumping', I want to see him do so badly, and we're not there yet.  But, he mastered the second goal I had for him, 'Potty Trained', in a record three days, whoo hoo!  He mastered my goal of him speaking in phrases, whoo hoo!  He now goes up and down slides like a champ, which wasn't even one of the goals I set for him, but is so awesome to see.  And while he hasn't mastered 11 goals, he's definitely made progress in them.  Hopefully we'll master them in 2015.

Ahh, see, perspective.  Gotta keep things in perspective, and that's what this blog does for me.  It reminds me that though the progress can be excruciatingly slow and the journey overwhelming and exhausting and expensive and full of worry, the progress is there and the journey worth continuing.  There are victories and blessings and joys and triumphs that we cherish because of the journey.  Kiddo's in a totally different place then he was last year.  So with a proper perspective I can truly say, yes, 2014 was a good year indeed.  And I can't wait to see what victories and progress are in store for us for 2015. 

Progress Report

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted.  Sorry.  I took the kiddos to our favorite playground today, and here's my fav pic of each of them to go along with their progress report.

Kiddo: Biggest progress with Kiddo's speech is he's using the final consonants on words, namely the letters s, t, p, k and ch.  So we're hearing words like "yes" instead of "yeah" and "hep" for help instead of "he", and "chuch" instead of "uh" for church, and I could go on and on, but it's awesome to hear him and be able to understand better what he's saying. :)

He's also been communicating a lot more, and has learned how to ask questions without using any question words by raising his voice at the end of his phrase to make it a question.  For example, sometimes when I tell the kiddos to "Get your shoes, we're going to go bye bye," he'll ask "Baba, Bapa?" which is his way of asking "Are we going to see Grandma and Grandpa?"  Speaking of Grandma and Grandpa, they introduced both kiddos to Hawaiian rolls on Thanksgiving. The kids loved them so much I bought some, and when Kiddo saw them he got so excited and called them "Baba Bapa row!"  He now calls them "pee butta row" since we put peanut butter on them.

Back to Kiddo asking questions: I had the kiddos in the shopping cart, as that is what I call them.  Everyone here in the south calls them buggies.  Anyway, both kiddos were in the shopping cart/buggy and this random guy came up to us, talking to us, and marveling about how well behaved they were sitting there in the buggy.  Kiddo looked up at me, turned his head, furrowed his eyebrows and asked "Buggy?"  Haha, so clear, no translation needed.  Guess maybe we should start calling it that, as he can say that much easier and clearer than shopping cart.

Kiddo's learned how to request his wants and needs without prompting anymore, which is absolutely awesome and a great relief to me and my sanity.  Instead of him coming to me and whining until I can figure out what he wants and prompt him to say it, he tells me what he wants, or will take me to the thing he wants if he doesn't know how to say it.  It is awesome.

He's learned to say the word clean, and he'll walk into a room I've just cleaned and declare "Mama clean?"  He says it with this incredulity to his voice that I try to not take it personally.  Yes, Kiddo, I do clean things.  Every day.

He'll just say things so matter-of-factly and it just makes me and Hubster laugh.  One time he was playing with my hair and I asked him "Where's Daddy's hair?" (expecting him to point at Daddy or something of that nature) and he immediately said "All gone."  (For the record, Hubster's hair is just cut very short.)  Another time he was labeling things he saw while we were reading a book.  Then he pointed at my mouth, said "mow" and then pointed at my nose "big no!"  I'm hoping he means in comparison to his own, and not that I actually have a big nose.  Either way, I'm thrilled that Kiddo is expressing himself.

As for gross motor we're experiencing excruciatingly slow, but steady progress.  He now steps up and down steps without squatting, whoo hoo!  He usually will step up or down by himself, or occasionally he will hold onto someone's hand or something for support,  He's getting much better at using his legs to propel himself forward and backward on his bike, but won't attempt pedaling yet.  Still not jumping yet, but he has learned to bend his knees before jumping, so now he bends his knees and then steps forward, one foot than the other while he says "up".  I so badly want to see this kid jump.  He can now do wheelbarrows all the way across the living room floor with me holding onto his ankles (for several months I held onto his thighs to give him more stability, and about a year ago he couldn't even hold himself up, let alone walk forward with his hands).  He now will let us help him do forward rolls, before he freaked out if we even attempted, though he's a long way from doing them himself.  He can climb all the way up the slides at play places which is pretty cool to see and Little Brother gets so mad/frustrated because he wants to climb up after him and can't.  Kiddo now loves swings.  A couple months ago he refused to get on them.  He still sits in the baby swings as he doens't have enough strength in his core to stay in a regular swing, though he now loves the tire swing.  Provides more stability is my guess, as well as the fact he can spin "roun roun" (around and around).

And as for fine motor, Kiddo is learning to color more within the lines, rather than just scribbling all over coloring pages.  He is starting to write the letters of his name, though he needs prompting, especially with the last three letters of his name.  He can put on his own socks and shoes, which makes going places a lot easier now, yay!  He's able to cut across a sheet of paper now, before he could only do little snips.  He can peel his own clementine if I start it for him, and he's learning to spread his own peanut butter on the bread for his beloved PB&J sandwiches, though he'd much rather lick the knife than actually make a sandwich.

Little Brother:  Little Brother was having terrible temper tantrums, lots of screaming and whining for a few months.  That's around the time he stopped using the 30 or so words he had, and I honestly was getting really worried.  I've experienced Kiddo's uber slow progress, but never a regression of skills, and Little Brother was going through one and I was worried.  But Hubster and I prayed a lot for peace in his little heart and for his words to come back and I believe God answered our prayers.  With the help of our awesome speech therapist Little Brother is using those 30 words he had before and more.  His temper tantrums are so much fewer and further apart, and I don't know if it's because he can communicate more or if he was sick before or just going through a terrible terrible phase that we never want to experience again or what.

BUT, Little Brother's talking!  He's using the names of animals rather than the sounds they say.  He saw a deer on TV and was so excited and proudly declared it a "goat!!" haha.  

He's now requesting the things he wants, usually "caka" for cracker, "titi" for TV, "mo" for more, "ju" for juice, "zizza" for pizza, "didi" for outside, "uppah" for up, "opuh" for open, "su" for cereal, and "chee!" for cheese.  His newest word is "amote" for the remote, which he brings me when he wants to watch TV.  He usually repeats each of these words several times, as if we're not getting it the first time.  For example, he'll bring you his empty cup and say "ju ju ju ju" until you've gotten his cup refilled and in his hands.  We heard you loud and clear the first time, buddy.

He says "Yeah!" a lot.  Example" "Do you want cereal?"  "Su. Yeah!"  He says "Ta da!" with his arms out all triumphant-like every time he finishes one of his puzzles. 

He says "whereditgo?" all as one word for anything that you ask about that he doesn't know where it is.  For example, "Where's Daddy?"  "Dada? Whereditgo?"  Makes me smile every time.  He also puts 'a' in front of words, so for example he'll bring me "a ba!" (ball) or "a book!"  

He'll announce "poo poo" after each time he's done so, as well as every time he's passed gas.  I've gotten many a funny look from strangers when Little Brother suddenly announces "poo poo".  Thanks buddy, for keeping life so entertaining.  

He blows kisses when you tell him "bye bye" or "night night" or "I love you".  And he folds his hands and sits quietly while we pray and proudly declares "Ameh!" when we're done.

He gives monstrously tight hugs, in which his hands are wrapped around your neck and he'll say "wiggle wiggle" as he holds on tight. I enjoy the hug and the wiggles, the choking part I could do without.

As for gross motor skills, he gallops, which he calls jumping, and he does it gladly, even on your lap while he's giving you one of his monstrously tight hugs.  Kiddo is still further ahead than Little Brother on the climbing front.  Little Brother can't climb up play places which makes him very frustrated and so many times I find myself climbing up the play places to help him up so he can play up top with his brother and then go down the slide, only to begin the process over again.  Ugh.  I can't wait until both of them are able to climb up those dang things themselves so I can actually sit and relax like the other parents who oftentimes are oblivious to what their children are even doing.  But that's a rant for another day, sorry.  As for stepping, he quickly graduated from crawling up and down them to now holding onto a support or hand.  But today I watched him climb up a staircase without holding onto anything.  I was happy to snap a photo before he made it to the top. :)

That's about it for now.  Slow and steady progress over here.  Much better than regressions and plateaus.  I'm ready for some speech surges and lots of victories in the gross motor department.  For Christmas, I want to see Kiddo jump and to hear both kiddos say "I love you."  We shall see. ;)

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.

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!! :)

Summer Plan of Genius

Sometimes, I get overwhelmed with all the things that Kiddo needs to work on.  Scratch that.  A lot of the time.  He needs work not just on his speech, (LOTS and LOTS of work on his speech) but also lots of help with all the following categories: Language Comprehension, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Self Help and Social/Emotional.  I have lots of pins on Pinterest and post-marked lots of pages in in several books I've collected over the last two years with activities and ideas for each category.  And I was only getting more overwhelmed with what to do to help him.  To top that off, Little Brother also has a speech delay and is doing speech therapy, and so I knew I needed to be focusing on his speech as well.  I felt all over the place, and like we would make such slow progress with Kiddo by continuing what we're doing of working a little bit of time in each area each week.

So I was excited to get to leave behind all the stress and go out of state to visit family and friends where we used to live.  While there, I determined to only work with Kiddo on his gross motor stuff.  Sure, I still incorporated speech here and there throughout the day, but every day I planned at least one trip to a play place, kid's gym, or playground.  And I really saw Kiddos' gross motor skills blossom!  Added bonus, Little Brother's skills bloomed too!

We went to Chick-fil-A a lot.  Why not get lunch and some gross motor practice in one trip?  Kiddo was able to climb up the HUGE slide!  January of this year, he wouldn't even attempt the slide at the CFA near our house.  In May he was climbing about a third of the way up.  But now he is climbing to the top effortlessly.  And what's even better?  He will slide down it!  He never went down the slides, but rather would go back down the steps.  His climbing of the platform steps at Chick-fil-A has gotten much better, and he's much faster so now he can keep up with other kids who are climbing up it now, and go down the slide like they do.  Play places are now fun, rather than stressful for me, now that he can get up and down completely by himself. :)  And Little Brother made quite some climbing strides himself, with all the practice.  He can now follow Kiddo up the entire slide, and slide back down with him, both of them giggling together when they crash into each other at the bottom.


We went a few times to the mall, which has one of my favorite play places.  The pics aren't of the greatest quality, as they're all from my camera phone, but I'm so glad I was able to capture these moments. :)

Kiddo climbing the eagle.  Love that proud grin when he made it to the top. :)

Little Brother's turn on the eagle. :)

More climbing fun

I also took the kiddos to My Gym, a place where I took Kiddo before Little Brother was born, when we were aware of his gross motor delays, but not the extent of his speech difficulties.  My Gym, along with physical therapy was great for him and I really miss My Gym, as we have nothing like this near where we live now. :(  Anyway, I registered the kiddos for a sibling class while we were in town and they had a blast!

Ladder and slide fun.

Ball pit fun!  Check out Kiddo's improving ladder skills too. ;)

We had lots of other adventures too!  We met some of my friends' new babies, had play dates with a few friends of ours at Chick-fil-A and the farm, and of course had lots of fun visiting with family.  After each of our adventures, this is what I usually saw within minutes:

So anyway, back to The Summer Plan of Genius.  I was discussing with Hubster how it's overwhelming to figure out what to work on with Kiddo since there's so many areas and so little time.  So after discussing a while, we realized that what I did while we were out of town is what we should keep doing.  I will continue to work with Kiddo throughout every day on his speech skills, but I will rotate our focus among his other areas of weakness on a weekly basis.  So one week we will work on his gross and fine motor skills, go to playgrounds, do crafts and exercises at home, really focus on all of his occupational therapy homework, etc.  Another week, we will really focus on his speech and language skills.  Back and forth.  Not that we won't keep working on all these areas each week, because we can always incorporate lots of these things throughout our day.  But I will plan activities that focus on that area specifically and reinforce often.  Just as he made lots of progress in his speech when we went to CHAMP Camp last summer (a week long speech intensive), and he made lots of progress on our trip in his gross motor skills, I hope this will help the skills to come faster overall, and help me maintain my sanity.

I'm excited about this.  I think it'll make things much easier and more fun for me, but for Kiddo too, as (hopefully) it'll really help his motor planning by getting to work on certain skills often for a few days at a time.  Anyway, we'll have to see how it works.

I pray that it'll be a summer of lots of progress in every area for both kiddos, and that it'll be a summer of peace for my mind and heart as I lean on God instead of myself for strength and wisdom. :)

Gross Motor Progress Report

Kiddo's gross motor plateau he's been on FOR-EV-ER seems to have transitioned into a gross motor skill surge.  And I'm thrilled.

He now walks up and down curbs, rather than squatting to go up/down, or needing to hold our hand to do so.  Whooo hoo!!!  Although he hesitates, and I can see him wanting to revert back to what he's used to, with encouragement he will step up or down without squatting or holding our hands--most of the time.  It's a work in progress, but hey, it's progress.

Kiddo can now do the wheelbarrow.  For the longest time, he lacked the upper body strength to hold himself up.  And once he could hold  himself up, he couldn't figure out the motor coordination to walk on his hands.  But a few times a week we would practice, with me holding on to his waist rather than his feet.  Within a few weeks he was able to go 3 or 4 'steps' without needing to rest, and now he can go about 10 or 12 before he's too tired to continue. :)

Kiddo can also walk on tiptoe.  Yeah, he couldn't do that before.  I read it was a precursor to being able to jump, so we started working on that skill until all at once it clicked for him.

He also has had GREAT improvement in his climbing skills.  He can now climb a ladder, climb up onto the side of the couch, and is much more confident on playground equipment.  He also can climb indoor play places!  He couldn't climb up those huge platform/steps before, so he would just play at the bottom of those play places in the "Tot Spot," and clap and do his happy dance whenever someone went down the slide.  Unless, I went up with him to help him, which is really hard to do with a toddler, and definitely not fun for me.  But now, he can climb to the top of the play place by himself!  In fact, he didn't want to come down when it was time to leave--a whole new world to explore, but he climbed back down on his own. You can tell in the pic below, he was VERY proud, as was Mommy, Daddy and Little Brother.

Next steps, learning how to pedal the big wheel bike and learning how to jump on the trampoline--both items he got for Christmas from the grandparents.  Operation Grow in Gross Motor Skills is most definitely a go.

Apraxia vs. dyspraxia

Apraxia.  Dyspraxia.  I've seen them used interchangeably for so long, I thought they were the same thing. It seemed to me like dyspraxia was the British term for apraxia.  All the information about dyspraxia seems to come from the United Kingdom.  But I'm beginning to realize, there's a difference.  Basically it comes down to this:

Apraxia:  No motor planning.  Effects speech and can effect oral movements.

Dyspraxia: Difficulty with motor planning. Effects gross and fine motor skills, can impact understanding and speech.

You can read more about the difference between apraxia and dyspraxia here.  

This new information is a little overwhelming, but yet things are making sense to me regarding Kiddo.  He has to be trained how to speak, how to make every sound, how to combine those sounds into words, how to combine those words into phrases, how to combine those phrases into sentences, and so on.  It's not just difficult for him and will come to him with practice, but rather that it is impossible for him without therapy and lots and lots and lots of practice.  Therefore he does have Childhood Apraxia of Speech.  He completely lacks the motor planning in that area.

But, as I read the symptoms of dyspraxia, I was shocked by how many of them Kiddo struggles with:

"Particular symptoms or signs of dyspraxia in babies and toddlers can include:

• Hypertonia or hypotonia.
• Delay in reaching developmental milestones.
• Difficulty performing physical activities such as climbing stairs, running, hopping, and jumping, when compared to other children of the same age.
• Difficulty chewing solid food.
• Difficulty with pincer grasp and holding a pencil/drawing. Drawings may appear immature for the child's age.
• Difficulty performing daily activities and self-care tasks such as getting dressed.
• Taking longer to acquire new skills.
• Falling over a lot or appearing clumsy.
• Problems grasping the concepts of 'on', 'in', 'in front of', etc.
• Difficulty establishing relationships and with social behaviour.
• Anxiety or agitation.
• Delayed language development or problems with speech.

As well as the problems above, particular symptoms or signs of dyspraxia in school-age children include:

• Difficulty participating in group situations - being much better one-on-one.
• Problems with maths and writing, including having trouble copying things from the board in school.
• Disorganisation.
• Difficulty reading.
• Poor concentration and listening skills.
• An inability to follow instructions.
• Avoidance of physical education in school or physical activities with friends.
• Anger and frustration."    (Taken from http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Dyspraxia-and-Apraxia.htm)

Once I realized that a lot of Kiddo's difficulties are related to dyspraxia, I've been able to find a lot more research to help him.  And two books I've been reading have been awesome, enlightening, full of activities and ideas for working with Kiddo and building up his motor planning in other areas, particularly in his fine and gross motor skills.  Two books I've found really helpful are:

*Understanding Motor Skills in Children with Dyspraxia, Autism and Other Learning Disabilities by Lisa A Kurtz. 
*Dyspraxia: The Hidden Handicap by Dr. Amanda Kirby.  

Another thing I've found really helpful, on the biomed side of things, is that Omega 6's are recommended for motor planning.  I've been giving him only Omega 3's, which has done wonders for his speech, and so I went off on another research frenzy.  Yep, research indicates that Omega 6's, particularly from evening primrose oil or borage oil can help with motor planning and are recommended for children with dyspraxia.  So, I immediately ordered a bottle of fish oil that contains the Omega 3's & 6's as well as Vitamin E.  We'll see if it makes a difference.

And, just had to share this random tidbit: I discovered that Daniel Radcliffe (the actor that played Harry Potter) has dyspraxia.  He was terrible at sports and struggled with things such as writing and tying his shoe laces and was discouraged about not being good at things that came easily to his peers.  His parents got him an acting audition, not really expecting that he would get the part, just bragging rights among his peers about getting an audition.  Obviously, he got the part.  You can read more about it here.