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.

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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.

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. :)

Last Day of CHAMP Camp

The last day of CHAMP Camp has come and gone. The parent session about sensory processing by Britt Collins, author of Sensory Parenting was absolutely fabulous.  I may just have to purchase her book.

The kiddo continued working on his functional words, also saying "me" and "you" and "uh oh" during his individual session.  He also said "cookie" and "candy" with prompting. :)

Then it was graduation time!  They started with a slide show, and I snapped a photo of all the pics of the kiddo.

The theme of this year's CHAMP Camp was super heroes, so each of the kiddos got a cape with badges for things that they worked on/accomplished during the week.  Ms. Katie shared the kiddo's badges: One for saying "me", one for saying "uh oh" spontaneously, one for working so hard in individual sessions, and one for working so hard on the phrase "I want ____".

Then, the kiddo got a medal for completing CHAMP Camp, which he is extremely proud of and didn't want me to take off. :)

Kiddo and I with Ms. Katie and the creator/director of CHAMP camp, Jodi Kumar

It was, in case you couldn't tell, a fabulous, though exhausting week.  We are excited to be reunited with daddy and little brother who we missed greatly, and heading back home, to put into practice some of the things we learned in camp.

Bath Time Victories

The kiddo used to not a big fan of water due to some sensory processing issues.  He'd cower when it rained, and scream when I wet and rinsed his hair with a washcloth.  But now, he lets me wash and rinse his hair without a complaint.  If some water gets into his eyes he'll point to it and I get the towel and wipe his eyes.  Easy peasy.  Yesterday at bath time he even put the washcloth on top of his own head, water dripping down the sides of his face, and he just grinned.

Bath buddies!

But, and here's the amazing thing, yesterday the kiddo said two amazing things while he was in the bath.

Progress Report

We've returned from two weeks of visiting family and friends from where we used to live, and the kiddo had a blast with his cousins and his friends we were able to catch up with.  We went to playgrounds, the farm, the air and space museum, and had plenty of opportunities to relax and hang out with family.

The kiddo playing with his cousin/bestie. :)

I think the kiddo blossomed into more of a little boy while there: he was very cautious and quiet before the trip.  With all of his male older cousins to wrestle with, and his bestie, his cousin who is only 3 months younger than him, he had lots of boys to play with and learn from.  He now loves wrestling with Daddy (before it was just pillow fights with lots of giggles. The giggles are still there, along with screams of delight).  He now climbs on things he wouldn't even attempt before (he climbs up onto our bed now, onto our couch from the side arm, and is much more confident at the playground.)  He throws so much better and harder too.  It's fun to see him much more active.

Fish Oil Supplementation

Children taking omega-3s (from fish oil) have been reported to have an increase in speech (for children with speech delays), focus, attention, and memory.  Why? 


Click here to read the rest of the article (plus info about three other supplements I give my children that have helped with focus, speech, sleep, and behavior.) :)

Operation Overcome Sensory Issues

The kiddo used to be so terrified of the vacuum cleaner he wouldn't go near it, and he'd cry when I was vacuuming.  I had to vacuum when he was sleeping, and if it woke him up he'd scream.   He would also cry when we ran the blender, food processor, or was near a leaf blower.  Anything with loud, continual noises.

The kiddo used to plop on the ground and cry when a gust of wind blew over him.  Or if we drove with the car windows down he'd scream and put his arms over his head until we rolled the windows up.  So, generally we drove with the car windows up.

The kiddo screams when you wash his hair or he gets water splashed in his face.  I can't tip his head back to wet or rinse his hair without screaming.  I use a wash cloth to wet and rinse his hair, and remain very careful of his ears. 

I was doing my best to protect my kiddo from what I thought were simply his fears.  But I didn't want to baby him anymore.  I mean, can you imagine a 16 year old freaking out when he sees a vacuum cleaner or is out driving with his friends who have their car windows down?!  

I learned a few months ago that it wasn't fear that was causing his reaction, but that he had sensory processing disorder.  Kids with sensory processing disorder are oftentimes either over or under sensitive to certain stimuli.