I decided to brave a dinner out with Preston. He's very diffcult to control at restaurant's. I always bring a stack of new toys or notebooks/pens/pencils/playdough but suffice it to say all of the funnest things in the world will not keep that boy seated. Normally, McD's is about as daring as I get alone. Mike and I will take him out to Moe's or Ruby Tuesday's but overall it is NOT an enjoyable outing for any of us. It's generally very stressful.
BUT, Saturday night, I decided to take him to the new Fritz' Diner in Shawnee. If you're not familiar, Fritz' delivers your food by miniature Train. Preston is in awe of trains and cars. So, every time he saw the train and heard the whistle, he would squeal with delight, yell "MOM. MOM", point and watch it make the delivery around the restaurant. He actually stayed at our booth, however, he never really stayed seated....but that was ok. It wasn't a horrible experience and seeing him light up, just brought tears to my eyes. He ate amazingly well, too.
Still working on age and "big" and "little" items. Neither of which are making any progress so to speak.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Thursday November 12th
Preston and I visited the Lee Ann Brittain center today. What a beautiful facility. I spoke to Amy, the director for about an hour and a half. She had a lot of great suggestions for him. She gave me the name of a therapy group for children. I felt really confortable with her and she wasn't shoving her school down my throat. She seemed genuinely interested in his well being. She is going to visit with Shannon Lockwood (OT that works there and happens to be a friend of ours) and see if they can come up with some answers about helping him progress more. She complimented Preston to me a lot. She saw that he had some great skill sets. He DOES.
I then spoke to the SPED teacher at our school in his classroom. Juanita. She suggested we work on little and big. He doesn't understand those yet. I am concerned that he still doesn't know his age. He says he is "2" when asked though we we have repeatedly tried teaching him he is "3" since last December! He's now closer to FOUR than three! ACK....Where did the time go? Anyway. He has a long haul. He is fighting "work" with me and with the teachers some. He cries when they make him work too much. I think he needs to be pushed.
I feel a little lost. No one really directs us. I have to learn to be his advocate. I had a case worker with ITS but now I have ME and Mike and that is it! And we don't know much about all of this. I am starting to research and learn as much as I can.
Amy is going to call me back next week. Juanita is contacting all of his therapists and having him re-evaluated for OT services. He is clearly sensory seeking. Then we will review his IEP.
The ball is rolling.
I then spoke to the SPED teacher at our school in his classroom. Juanita. She suggested we work on little and big. He doesn't understand those yet. I am concerned that he still doesn't know his age. He says he is "2" when asked though we we have repeatedly tried teaching him he is "3" since last December! He's now closer to FOUR than three! ACK....Where did the time go? Anyway. He has a long haul. He is fighting "work" with me and with the teachers some. He cries when they make him work too much. I think he needs to be pushed.
I feel a little lost. No one really directs us. I have to learn to be his advocate. I had a case worker with ITS but now I have ME and Mike and that is it! And we don't know much about all of this. I am starting to research and learn as much as I can.
Amy is going to call me back next week. Juanita is contacting all of his therapists and having him re-evaluated for OT services. He is clearly sensory seeking. Then we will review his IEP.
The ball is rolling.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
November 2009-Update
Oh my. It's been too long. I am going to start posting here again regularly.
Preston is now 3 years and 8 months old. Hard to believe he is almost 4 years old.
He is making a lot of progress with words. He has lots and lots. He is also putting small sentences together. A lot of the time, we have to coach him to put the words together. We are asking him to give a little more when he asks/whines for things. He IS pointing now. He points to the sky and says "airplane"! He says "I want apple". Sadly, he is on to our tricks and the tricks of the speech path at school. He doesn't like to "work". He started school in March. Love his Sped teacher. He is in a school through our school district. There are 10 kids in the class room. 5 with special needs, and 5 that are model students. At our first Parent Teacher conference, we learned that the teachers LOVE our boy (and why wouldn't they? LOL) While he is progressing, he is not progressing at the speed that they would like to see. We have lots of work to do.
He is a fun little boy. He LOVES his big brother. Anything Cooper does, Preston wants to do-however, talking isn't one of those things! He seems to struggle with comprehension. He doesn't understand "If than.......this......" statements. Makes it difficult to bribe him!
At any rate, it looks to be a long road ahead but we're up for the challenge. I'm making this blog a priority so I can track his progress better. He is such a joy to all of us. He goes ninety to nothing all of the time. He is SO interested in things. SOOO busy and into things. He is starting to listen and understand some "reasoning". He understands he has to hold my hand when we cross the street instead of darting across the street (most of the time). We recently ruled out the genetic anomolies that the Child Psych asked us to do. The genetic testing were simple blood draws thankfully!
More next week!
Friday, January 23, 2009
January Update!!
Ok, so it has been a LONG time since I have updated this site. We have had some great progress with Preston over the last several months. He is mimicking really well. Angie, our ECSE was able to get a weighted vest for him and it’s really doing the job. He wears it for 20 minute increments and when we need for him to sit still for an activity or therapy session. There is supposed to be a lasting effect of about 2 hours but I haven’t seen that as much as just during the time he is wearing the vest (once the tantrum has ended-lol).
We have met with the ECSE from DeSoto school district and she has given us paperwork to fill out and permission slips to be signed. Everything is turned in and now they will start to observe Preston in his Daycare setting, at home and during therapy sessions. This is all for them to see if he qualifies for the preschool that the school district offers to kids who have some special needs. It has an excellent reputation. Jaunita is very nice and thorough and Preston liked her, too. She teaches in the mornings and then does the observations in the afternoons. If Preston qualifies, they will then help us write an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) so that we can be sure all areas of need are addressed.
Preston’s oral sensory problems seem to have gotten worse lately. He is drooling a lot and is fixated on having something in his mouth a lot of the time. We have special chew toys that we got from the OT and those seem to help but we have a lock on the pantry and on the refrigerator because he always seems to want something in his mouth-his hand, an apple, a toy car, etc. redirect, redirect, redirect!!!
He is saying a lot of words now. He even has a few select small sentences “Aye daddy?” (Where’s Daddy?) “EEEE Up, EEEE Up”---(Get up, Get up). So it’s definitely fun to see that progress and know he CAN say some things.
He is still a mystery to Infants and Toddlers Services. They have a new Child Psychologist on staff who is going to see Preston and once and for all rule out Autism. Yes, we all realize as social as he is that it sounds insane to even be considering that as a diagnosis-but there are certain places on “the spectrum” that even a social little bugger like ours could fall. We don’t care one way or another WHAT he has or doesn’t have. Our biggest concern is just making sure he gets every bit of help he can get and by kindergarten is mainstreamed. If that means an assessment with another Child Psychologist than we are cool with that. Our Speech Patholoigist is nearly sure he has a verbal Apraxia of some sort and/or an auditory processing disorder. So, in order to get a few inches further before we transition out of Infants and Toddlers Services we’re taking this next step. I’ll continue to post updates as we go through these next few months of discovery both with the Child Psychologist as well as with the school district.
We have met with the ECSE from DeSoto school district and she has given us paperwork to fill out and permission slips to be signed. Everything is turned in and now they will start to observe Preston in his Daycare setting, at home and during therapy sessions. This is all for them to see if he qualifies for the preschool that the school district offers to kids who have some special needs. It has an excellent reputation. Jaunita is very nice and thorough and Preston liked her, too. She teaches in the mornings and then does the observations in the afternoons. If Preston qualifies, they will then help us write an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) so that we can be sure all areas of need are addressed.
Preston’s oral sensory problems seem to have gotten worse lately. He is drooling a lot and is fixated on having something in his mouth a lot of the time. We have special chew toys that we got from the OT and those seem to help but we have a lock on the pantry and on the refrigerator because he always seems to want something in his mouth-his hand, an apple, a toy car, etc. redirect, redirect, redirect!!!
He is saying a lot of words now. He even has a few select small sentences “Aye daddy?” (Where’s Daddy?) “EEEE Up, EEEE Up”---(Get up, Get up). So it’s definitely fun to see that progress and know he CAN say some things.
He is still a mystery to Infants and Toddlers Services. They have a new Child Psychologist on staff who is going to see Preston and once and for all rule out Autism. Yes, we all realize as social as he is that it sounds insane to even be considering that as a diagnosis-but there are certain places on “the spectrum” that even a social little bugger like ours could fall. We don’t care one way or another WHAT he has or doesn’t have. Our biggest concern is just making sure he gets every bit of help he can get and by kindergarten is mainstreamed. If that means an assessment with another Child Psychologist than we are cool with that. Our Speech Patholoigist is nearly sure he has a verbal Apraxia of some sort and/or an auditory processing disorder. So, in order to get a few inches further before we transition out of Infants and Toddlers Services we’re taking this next step. I’ll continue to post updates as we go through these next few months of discovery both with the Child Psychologist as well as with the school district.
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