ABA Therapy Takes No Holidays

Nor does it observe Sundays either. Yesterday he had 2 three hour sessions. Today he had therapy from 9:00 until noon. They came back at 1:00, staying until 6:30. This is a very long day for Eric. So far he is handling it very well. Taking breaks outside definately helps :-) He has been on an off here lately when it comes to tolorating therapy. The last couple of weeks have been good. The 2 weeks before were really bad with the tantrums, ect. I've found that it helps if I feed him well before they start. It goes better when he sleeps well at night, but that can be hard to control. I wish I had a solution to that one! Eric will be going to summer school for a little over a month. It is 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. They will try to bring his therapy to around 35 hours a week. These long days are something we are going to have to get used to. It seems as if Eric never gets a break, but I know in the long run it is worth it. He has made so much progress. The hard work is really paying off. Way to go Eric!!!

The Wait Is On!

On Wednesday we got a letter in the mail from the county and state. Andy is on the waiting list for the waiver that funds the in home therapy. He is number 235 on the list. The estimate wait time is 1 year. He will be able to start therapy before he starts school full time. That is so awesome. There will be more time to work with him. I have learned a lot since going through this with Eric. That was such a long process with so much miscommunication to get him on the list. Then he had to wait 18 months for the funding. With Andy, this is a piece of cake. He is going to get the help he needs in a timely matter. That makes me feel so much better.

My Persistant, Resourceful Little Boy

Here is my son playing with his ZAC Browser. He has a splint and sling on his right arm because of a fall he had Tuesday night. Does this stop him from finding a way to do what he wants??? Heck NO!!! This boy still finds his ways to make trouble and get what he wants. Being cute is definately his advantage :-) He is doing real well with the molded splint. The sling, he's not too crazy about. Not that I blame him. It is really hard to keep that on right and it has to be adusted all the time. It hurt him when I had to move his arm into the right spot in there. I will be glad to be rid of that thing. The only time he fought at the ER was during the xrays. He even let them put the splint on with very little fuss. It was after 3 am at that time and he was so tired I don't think he cared what they did. He would lay down when nobody was working with him and try to go to sleep. Mommy was feeling the same way. Too bad I had to get up at 6 am with brothers. We attempted to send him to school on Thursday. He was sent home because he needed a release from a doctor to attend school, liability concerns. The orthopedic doctor's office finally called me back Thursday afternoon and set up an appointment for late Friday morning. Normally Andy don't handle doctor's offices well. He is in a real good mood considering he has a hurt arm. We get there and he is fixated on a large fish tank in the waiting room. He was engrossed in the fish the whole time we waited, which was a while. This was our savior for this whole appointment I think. Yes, there was some crying again with the xrays and when they cut off the sling and put on his new cast. There was a chip at the end of the forearm bone. He will wear his blue cast for the next 3 weeks. I got so many pictures of him in the cast, doing the same things that Andy always does. It was hard to keep him still to get good pictures. The bad news is that the transfer cable got fried with my PC on Thursday so I can't get them uploaded until next week when the cable is shipped to me. I am so proud of how Andy has handled all of this. If there is anything that will help him through his challenges in life it is that he lets nothing stop him. He finds a way to do what he needs to do. Way to go Andy! More pics will be added once I can :-)

Andy's IEP Meeting

Andy's IEP meeting took place last Friday. At first I was wondering how this was going to go since he was all upset about not going to the bus after they put him in the wagon and brought him out to the hall. Seeing me, having the computer all to himself and sitting in the wagon playing with it wasn't enough to stop him from crying. His routine was changed, so he got upset. He did calm down after about 10 minutes and me holding him for a bit. I was finally able to meet the wonderful speech and occupational therapists that have been working with him for the past year. Andy has made great progress this year. He is starting to use a few words. I've heard him say "eat", "go", and "tickle", at school they've heard him say "dah" for milk. I've noticed him saying the words for the last 3 weeks. He uses a voice output machine at school. His is much simpler than Eric's. He has learned the eat and go buttons on that machine. One day when he wasn't feeling well he kept pushing the go button, saying he wanted to go home! They have "hi friends" programmed into the machine so when he sees the other kids at that school that love him so much he can say hi to them! Andy is very popular at school. The older kids will look him in the eye and talk to him, sincerly. At first he was uncomfortable with this attention. Now he eats it up! Life is great when you're so cute :-D Andy now sits with his friends during circle time and snack time. During snack they stopped trying to get him to drink out of a cup and try different foods. They are letting him eat cheerios or crackers for snack so he will sit with his classmates and eat. The focus on the social training is important here, along with him tolorating sitting for a short while. The other issues can be dealt with at home or at the feeding clinic. There are very few changes being made to the IEP itself. There will be a different structure to the Early Childhood classroom at that school. This is going to change into an integrated classroom with a regular and special ed teacher, one assistant and a larger number of kids in the class. There will be 30 minutes added to the school day. It is still a half day, 4 days a week so it's not much of an increase. That extra year will help him.I hope he will be able to handle this okay. He's impressed me with how quickly he's adjusted to school and the great progress he has made. I don't want to underestimate him so I will not make an issue of this unless problems develop. Next year he will be going into the pre K class. He really has an advantage with the late September birthday. His speech will be be increased from 45 min a week to 60 min. I know, still not much but it's the best the school can provide. There were a couple of issues that were debated a bit...

Andy loves this wagon. At first it was needed for transport because he had problems walking around the school for any distance. He would get frustrated and drop to the floor. He's too heavy to carry. This is not needed as much for transport, but it makes it easier to get him to and from the bus since it's such a long walk. He uses this wagon as his place of comfort when he needs a break. The occupational therapist would like him to go to a corner of the room or find another source of comfort. She would like to wean him from the wagon. The teacher, and I don't want to push the issue. It will be available for him if he needs it, just not right out there all the time. I really don't see why there would be an issue for him using this for comfort. He is also recieving very little OT because his tolerance is low. I would really like to see more than 60 min a month. It doesn't seem that they are doing much sensory integration work with him. She wants to focus on fine motor skills, writing and coloring in particular. These are needed skills, but I don't think the whole focus should be here. He will be starting ABA within a year, they can focus on self care and some of the sensory stuff. With the limited time they have, I guess I can't expect much. The meeting went well. With all of this we were in and out in a little under 45 minutes. We are now ready for the new school year for Andy :-)

Autism Awareness Decals

This is the autism puzzle symbol made out of vinyl. A good friend of mine made this after another friend requested this. Both of these wonderful ladies have a child that is the process of being evaluated for an autism spectrum disorder or Asperger's Syndrome. This is their way of spreading autism awareness. She has this along with other custom lettering and drawings can be created with vinyl and put on walls or windows for home decor, or on car windows. More information is available on her blog. You can also click on the Vinyl designs button on the side of my page. She has the best explanation of vinyl lettering and decor.

Eric Meets Woodsy The Owl

Woodsy the Owl visited Eric's school yesterday. His slogan is "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute" from what the teacher wrote on the back. If anyone knows any more about Woodsy please let me know. No offense Woodsy, I am sure you are a great guy. I feel it. I just don't know you. I am not too good at keeping up with all the characters the kids get into.

Now to the point of me posting this. I never seen Eric go anywhere near a person in a character costume. He wanted nothing to do with anything like this. Too see him get this close and actually touch him was shocking. It shows how much more Eric is willing to branch out and show interest in others. I'm proud of you Eric!!!

Here is Where The Action Will Be Taking Place

The therapists requested a table or desk that they can sit Eric down to work at. I have a couple of children's chairs that the Birth to 3 folks gave to us from their graveyard. Otherwise I had no children's furniture in the house. It was a space and financial issue for a long time. The table thing was brought up again during Eric's IEP meeting. They are hoping this will help with him sitting at school and staying on task with is work if it's done at home and during therapy. The special health nurse at Eric's school found this desk at the large yard sale in the subdivision that the school is in. She called me and asked me if I wanted it. Of course I accepted. I offered her the $ it cost, she would not accept it. I put the bin of supplies in the area, and Eric's new therapy space is born. Now they don't have to go in various bedrooms to do the therapy. In most cases they prefer not to use bedrooms, to keep them as a "safe spot" for the kids by not asking them to do work in there. Once you get to the top of the steps just turn left it is right there. The bathroom is right across from there. Not like he will go in that one or anything, but the door will be open and light on just in case.
What does Eric think of this ?
He is very fascinated with the marker holder, it spins around. He may not look too enthused in this picture, but he went to sit down voluntarily. Take that as he likes it :-)

Thank you Mrs. Thompson!!!

Meetings, Appointments and Other Eric News

There is a lot to catch up on with Eric. This is another long one so relax with your beverage of choice and enjoy :-) Two Mondays ago we went to see the psychologist in charge of Eric's ABA therapy. This is called the lead therapist. The state mandates a meeting with this person along with Eric's therapy team every 6-8 weeks. Of course this could not be done during Easter vacation and Eric has to be present at the meeting. I had to bring him to school later that morning. Not real happy about that but oh well. This meeting turned out to be quite stressful for me. This psychologist was very concerned about Eric's eating, or lack thereof. I can understand that. It is obvious this man has never dealt with a situation like this before and eating disorders are not his specialty. He kept saying this was abnormal and that someone was not doing their job with Eric. He offered no viable solutions. This was making me very upset to say it nicely. There are no quick easy answers to these problems. It is going to take time to get Eric off that cup and eating more foods. I cannot force the issue no matter how much he thinks I should. Introduction to anything new has to be made as positive as possible or it will not work. They are intensifying the eating and oral tolerance programs. This psychologist could not believe that Eric has never seen a dentist. It is not easy to get an appointment at a dentist that would suit Eric's needs. They did give me a list of dentists that work with special needs children, but I doubt any of them put them to sleep. That is the only way a dentist is going to get into Eric's mouth. I would not be surprised if he has tooth pain. He won't let me brush his teeth with toothpaste, just brush and water. That could be contributing to the feeding problems. This psychologist also thinks there might be something physically wrong with Eric to cause him to not want to eat. There is a pediatric GI doctor on the feeding team and he don't suspect any issues. Once I get to the feeding clinic appointment I will say more on that. I was so glad to get out of there.

This brings me to his feeding clinic appointment which was 3 days later. I will keep this as short as possible. The psychologist there said that none of the issues that the other psychologist brought up would cause severe feeding problems like what Eric has. She's worked with many autistic children with this problem so I am sure she knows what she is talking about. Then the topic of totally breaking him from his cup came up. He has to get some nourishment. We have tried to take it away before and it don't work. He won't give in even if there is no other option. With that said, he would need medical supervision through this process. That would most likely mean another 2 week inpatient stay. I have to set up an appointment with his whole team (psychologist, nutritionist, SLP, nurse and GI doctor) to discuss possible physical issues with his feeding and whether it is safe to attempt the cup breaking/spoon intro at home. If we have to go back to the hospital most likely it would be in the fall or winter due to a waiting list. That would be difficult form me with my other children. I know their dad won't watch them. On the other hand I think this is what is needed. The psychologist said that if inpatient was needed they would work with me on all that. We will cross that bridge if and when we get to it.

Eric's IEP meeting was a week ago. The draft is all set, and we should get the final within a week. This was a long meeting, but it went very well. I am so happy with how much he has progressed in many areas. The obvious is his speaking. That has just exploded. He is now more willing to sit and do things such as art projects, ect without tantrums. He is willing to try writing now. He's got the routine of school down so well now. I could not ask for a better progress report. He tends to do more at school than he does at home. We have to work on that. We now have more tools for the therapists to work with such as mouth massagers, picture schedules, and social stories. He will be going to summer school again this summer, which he really enjoys. He went swimming with his class yesterday and had a blast! Will post pics of that once I get them.

My Little Computer Whiz?

Andy loves the computer. He has a fascination with any electronic item that has buttons, lights up and makes noise. I have to keep my cell phone out of his reach at all times or he will go online with it and buy games, or call God only know who. The computer seems to be his favorite thing right now. Mostly he likes watching Youtube videos, anything with music in it. He has started getting into Facebook, as shown here. He started typing a bunch of random letters and numbers in my status and making comments with the same type of thing. I had people asking me if I was OK and if I was trying to ask for help. Didn't mean for that to happen. I am watching him much closer now when my computer is on. That is still hard to do. He goes on this machine with a purpose. He uses the mouse and keyboard quite well, the mouse in particular. He knows where to find the Youtube videos I have bookmarked for him and Facebook with no problem. He knows where he wants to go and gets himself there. Andy may be autistic, but he is smart. He still knows what he wants.
I recently installed the Zac Browser for Andy. Now he can play with the computer and not get into trouble :-) He loves watching all the videos on there. So does baby brother Jon, or he likes most of them at least. There is one video on there with Cookie Monster singing about the letter "C". It starts out with a cow mooing. Andy now moos too when he sees and hears that. It is so cute. The problem is that Jon absolutely HATES that video and cries every time he hears it. Don't know if he is tired of it since it has been played so many times, if the cow mooing scares him, if he don't like Cookie Monster's singing or what. This is a frequent argument in this house now. I am glad to see him have fun with this and imitate the cow mooing :-)

Updating ...Andy invaded my Facebook page again. He put up at least 30 status updates for me. Little smarty pants was quite busy. I was waiting for Eric to come home from school and I will admit I was getting a little sleepy from running around cleaning all day. At least he kept this in tact! It's all cleaned up now. I'm glad he gave my friends a good laugh. Gotta love cute little ones :-)Picture of the damage...