Amazing Therapists

For some reason, saying goodbye to all of Kiddo's amazing therapists has been harder than I imagined.  Maybe because they've become such an integral part of our lives.  Maybe because they see how hard Kiddo works and they work just as hard with him.  Maybe because they offer a lifeline when you feel you are drowning in all that apraxia and hypotonia and dyspraxia and sensory processing entails.  Maybe because it took me a while to find each of them before they came into our lives.  A good therapist, one who really gets your child and actually knows how to work with them and push them to succeed, well they are hard to find, but once you do find them, you learn to not let them go, even if it means paying out of pocket to see them.  But letting them go is exactly what I've had to do in the last few months.

I'm kicking myself for not getting a pic of Kiddo with his school speech therapist, Ms. R, who we said goodbye to at the end of the school year. She worked with Kiddo since he was three.  She taught Kiddo how to play board games and use words and phrases he had never attempted before.  She is his only school therapist that has attended every single one of IEP meetings.  She learned I was a Christian and was so excited, sharing with me Bible verses to pray over Kiddo, and even praying over him a few times after his session with her.  She was the one who told me about the school that Kiddo is now in, and is thriving in.  She wrote a letter to that school, stating why she recommended he needed to be a student there, and they accepted him because of that letter.  She went above and beyond what she needed to do to help Kiddo succeed and will not be forgotten.

Next, we said goodbye to Ms. M, Kiddo's private speech therapist.  We've only been working with her since January, but this sweet lady reinforced everything we learned at Nancy Kaufman's clinic: she rocks the Kaufman Protocol and Kaufman cards and all that other stuff.  And she also reinforced what we learned at CHAMP by using PROMPT cues with him.  She always raved about how sweet and cooperative he was, how hard of a worker he was, how much progress he was making, which always encouraged this mama's heart.

I was stunned when I learned last month that Ms. B, Kiddo's amazing private OT was leaving for Nashville.  What?!?  We were willing to drive an hour back to this clinic to keep working with her when we moved, and then she up and leaves for Nashville?  Ah, but I wish her nothing but the best, as that is what she has given Kiddo.  I learned so many things from her in the 17 months we've seen her, and Kiddo just as much.  Kiddo is climbing now because of Ms. B.  He is more confident in himself and his skills now.  More regulated, as she likes to call it.  She affectionately called him "My Little Turkey."  Why, I'll never know.  She was quirky and sweet and passionate about what she did, and it was evident to all.  She was the one who told me we needed to evaluate Little Brother, because of some of his behavior issues she saw, and because of that eval we learned he has some sensory issues too and began OT for him early.  We paid out of pocket for Kiddo to see Ms. B, but it was truly worth every penny.








And last but certainly not least, and the hardest of all to say "see ya later" to, our amazing speech therapist through Early Intervention, Ms. Blessing.  It's not her real name, but it should be, as that is what she has been in our lives.  She's the one who was bold enough to confirm my suspicion Kiddo had apraxia, though therapists are supposed to wait until age three to diagnose.  The one who expanded Kiddo's vocabulary from two sounds (uh and ow) to two-three word phrases.  The one who worked with and loved on both my children, who watched them grow (she met Little Brother when he was 2 months old, Kiddo at age 2 1/2), and built up their language.  She gave me insight and ideas and education and hope when I felt lost and overwhelmed.  She let me record sessions of Kiddo working with her for the application to CHAMP Camp and to Nancy Kaufman.  She continued working with us even after Kiddo aged out of Early Intervention, before we knew Little Brother would need her as a a therapist as well.  She was truly invested in helping them and helping me to succeed.  She was our Nancy Kaufman in our little corner of the world.  She will always hold a very special place in my heart.

I'm thankful to each and every one of these ladies for all their hard work and effort and love to produce such sweet apples of gold in my children.

Sensory Stuff and OT Awesomeness

I've known Kiddo had some sensory processing issues for a while, and I read a few books on it.  The books say to take your child to an OT (occupational therapist) for an evaluation and treatment, and so I did.  I told them that I knew Kiddo had SPD (sensory processing disorder).  But they (and I say 'they' because we've worked with two different OTs) both focused only on his fine motor skills.  Which I realize is an aspect of OT, but not really what I wanted help with.  OT #1 we worked with for 6 months.  She worked on finger and hand strengthening (using tweezers, clothespins, playing with theraputty, etc) and finger dexterity (stringing beads, playing games, etc).  We then switched to OT #2 which I did not have to pay for anymore, as we saw her through the school system and we see once a month.  She has been working with him on scissor skills (Kiddo can cut a piece of paper in half) and writing skills (he can now draw circles, crosses, and several letters, including most of the letters of his name independently.)

Now, don't get me wrong, this is all good stuff.  But Kiddo cannot do a lot of physical things like jump and climb and pedal a bicycle and walk up a curb without needing to hold on to someone's hand.  And all the physical therapy we've been doing hasn't really been helping a lot with that but I've read that OT could.  So I knew we needed to find an OT who could help us.

And then, my apraxia mom friend in the area told me about a new OT clinic.  And so I got the referral from our pediatrician and scheduled the appointment.  And then we went and I was BLOWN AWAY.

The eval was very thorough.  I filled out a packet of info about how Kiddo responded to certain situations and when he met certain milestones (all of them late except for stacking blocks. Sigh) while the OT watched how Kiddo did certain things in their sensory clinic.  The next week she gave me a copy of the eval: a whopping 7 pages, even longer than our speech eval at GWU where he got the official diagnosis of severe apraxia.

Anyway, here's the results of his evaluation based on each system that effects Kiddo:

Tactile system: Responsible for interpreting touch.  Kiddo is undersensitive: he doesn't notice when he has a messy face, and has poor grasp on utensils, crayons etc, as well as difficulty dressing and undressing due to this undersensitivity.  He also has a fairly high pain tolerance--he's had blood drawn multiple times and he doesn't even flinch when they do it.  He watches fascinated, the nurses and I are always amazed.  But Kiddo is oversensitive when it comes to his ears.  He doesn't like water or wind in his ears.  Washing his hair isn't the most pleasant experience, nor is driving with the windows down.  But he no longer covers his ears and starts crying whenever the wind starts blowing.  OT diagnosed him with moderate tactile issues.

Auditory system: Responsible for interpreting sound.  Kiddo is oversensitive, despite his hearing loss.  Vacuum cleaners, blenders, leaf blowers, weed whackers, etc used to terrify him.  He's gotten much better about that if he has warning that they are about to start.  OT diagnosed him with mild auditory issues.

Proprioceptive system: Responsible for understanding body position without using eyes.  This totally explains why Kiddo has such a hard time climbing things and on the playground.  Also explains why he dislikes swings and slides and when Daddy picks him up and swings him around.  OT diagnosed him with severe propioceptive issues.

Vestibular system: Responsible for discriminating movement in space--works with the proprioceptive system to regulate muscle tone, balance, postural control, bilateral movement (side to side) and eye-hand coordination.  Again, explains why playing is such hard work for him.  OT noticed the way he transitions from sitting to standing, from lying to sitting, and from standing to sitting all indicate severe proprioceptive issues.  The way the OT described it to me was that his vestibular system was very immature, like that of a 22 month old, and so the way he moved around would look like that of the average 22 month old.  Talk about a punch in the gut, but it really does explain so much.  Little Brother, at 20 months, will soon be passing him in both speech and gross motor skills, but that is another blog post for another time.  The following picture I found on Pinterest really helped me understand the vestibular issues better.  Kiddo is most definitely a vestibular avoider.

Our awesome OT now works with Kiddo once a week for thirty minutes, and they're the most amazing 30 minutes I've ever witnessed.  Finally, I feel like we're on the right track and getting him the help he's been needing for a while regarding his gross motor delays.  Here's a pic of the sensory clinic where Kiddo works with his awesome OT.

There's a huge ball pit she has him wade through, bringing pillows from one side of the ball pit to the other.  Then he climbs out, stepping through each of those big tires.  Then he swings for a little while on a little platform swing, which you can't see in the picture, then he climbs up the tires and wooden steps to get a hanging monkey and brings it down.  Then, he goes over to the ramp, climbs up it, walks across the suspended bridge and down the slide.  Most exhausting obstacle course ever for him, but he's getting so much better each time and I've seen such good progress.  She also works on different things with him once the obstacle course is completed until our time is up.  It goes by too quick for me, but Kiddo is chatty but exhausted by the time the 30 minutes is up and he takes a good long nap afterward.  I love OT days. :)

As if finally addressing all these issues isn't awesome enough, we've had a little bonus.  Kiddo's talking more often, and the OT says that usually happens as a child's sensory system regulates.  She says in her experience, a lot of children with speech delays and disorders have a speech explosion after they start OT.  I'll gladly take it.  Finding this therapist has been such a blessing and I truly praise God for bringing her into our lives.

I'll leave you with a video of the boys playing.  I honestly don't think Kiddo would have attempted "jumping" into the ball pit like this before OT.  He probably would have crawled over the pool and played a little bit and then would be done.  But he and Little Brother did this over and over and over again, for about an hour. :)

Progress Report

Speech: Kiddo surprises me more and more with the little things that come out of his mouth.  Here's some examples, all from today:

• We were heading out the door to go to preschool when he told me "Grrr packpack!''  Oh yes, how could I forget the beloved Angry Birds backpack?  Thanks for reminding me Kiddo!
• Hubster, Little Brother and I picked Kiddo up from preschool and were driving into town to get some lunch and go shopping.  As we drove down a big hill we heard him exclaim "Wheee!"
• Kiddo was playing with bubbles outside and he spilled quite a bit of the bubble solution on our porch.  "Oh no!' he told me.  Never heard him use that expression before on his own, ever.  
• Seconds after the "Oh no!" incident he stepped in the puddle of bubble solution and then started walking around, admiring the footprints they left.   "Look at your little feet," I told him.  "Bubba ee!" And he stepped in the puddle and left "bubble feet" over and over and over again, proclaiming that phrase every single time he took a step.  I should have gone to get my camera to take a video for you, but honestly, I was just savoring the moment and didn't want to miss any of it.
• Kiddo came running to me in the kitchen, crying.  Normally, when this happens I have to run through a list of bazillion questions to find out what's wrong.  "Did you get hurt?  Was it your head?  Your arm?" etc.  This time, however, I asked him, "What's wrong?"  And he told me.  "Toe hur".   He pointed at his little baby toe and I gave it a kiss all better, and I told him how very proud of him I was that he was talking to me and telling me what was wrong.
• I had laid all our couch cushions on the floor in a big square for the kiddos to walk across and play on.  Kiddo's foot slipped in-between the two cushions and he fell over.  "Uck!" he cried.  And I helped him get his stuck foot out from between the cushions.

This kid is blowing me away with how quickly he is learning new words and phrases.  I hope this speech surge goes on forever and ever, because I hate those speech plateaus and finally having a glimpse of what he thinks about and is experiencing is such a treasure.

Little Brother's Speech: Little Brother (18 months) has had speech therapy with our beloved speech therapist once a month since January and we're seeing great progress.  He now makes lots of animal noises (my favorite is his quacking noise for the duck) and is repeating some of our words and phrases.  "Bye bye" and "Do aga" (do it again) are a few of the phrases we've heard, as well as the "go go go" and "da da" (all done) he's been saying since around 15 months.  As for individual words, don't have a lot of those yet, except for "titi" for TV and "ti" for eat.  (Apparently I'm raising a kid that wants to eat and watch TV all day.  He hears no a lot).  Occasionally he'll say "Mama" and "Dada" but it is always whispered and he signs it while he's saying it.  I have heard him say "gaff" (giraffe) a few times and "go" (goat), and "tiga" (tiger) once or twice.  This kid ADORES animals!  He still seems to prefer signing to speaking for now, but he LOVES to babble.  "Goolioolioolio" is my favorite babbling phrase we hear from him, and if you say something back to him in response he'll continue the babbling like he's having a conversation with you.  Kiddo never babbled and I've been enjoying hearing baby babble.  I'll try to get a video of the babbling and also his animal sounds for you soon.

Kiddo is Potty Trained!  Yep, that's right, Kiddo is potty trained!  Check out my previous post if you want all the fun deets about the potty training process.  We've been accident free for a week now and though he needs help pulling his pants and underwear back up, he can now pull them down by himself.  He is willing to sit on a toilet when we go out in public, but at home he prefers to use his potty chair, though I've sat him on the toilet a few times and he didn't complain about it.  He's been going to the bathroom at school with no problems, which his teacher and I are both thrilled about.  He also is staying completely dry through the night!  We've been putting a pull up on him every night but the last four nights it has been dry in the morning.  I've been amazed how quickly he has taken to potty training once he was ready, and the fact that he is night trained already blows me away.  So proud! 

New Therapies: I've been trying to figure out what we're going to do therapy-wise over the summer since Kiddo didn't qualify to get physical therapy/occupational therapy (PT/OT) through the summer and can only get limited speech over the summer through his school.  I wasn't really looking forward to going back to the clinic we have gone to previously, because although he did make progress there, it was slow.  So, a fellow apraxia mom/friend of mine recommended I check out this children's clinic because her son has had great progress there.  So I called, expecting a long wait list, but was able to set up a PT/OT appointment, and had our evaluation this past Tuesday.  This therapist was ah-maz-ing.  She was pointing out things about Kiddo that I never noticed, or at least didn't realize what they indicated.  She explained to me that the majority of his gross motor struggles stem from the fact he has "poor postural control", and once we strengthen his core "he'll become a really active little booger".  So we'll be working with her twice a month and I'm optimistic about what both Kiddo and I will learn from her.  The clinic also has a speech therapist, and I immediately asked to be put on the wait list to work with her.  Should be to the top of the list by May they said, and I was so impressed with the clinic (it has an awesome sensory gym and an indoor playground that the speech therapist uses too!) I was sold.  Kiddo's making great progress with his speech therapy where he sits on the floor or at a table, but I've noticed he gets a little more vocal when he's moving (common of most kids) and so this therapist uses that approach for building speech and I want to see what that's like for Kiddo and how he responds to it.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more I can report, but that's all I can think of now.  Loving all the progress I'm seeing in both of the boys.  I love my little blessings so much and am so proud of both of them! :)

"Cheese!"