Not too much to report this week. Therapy went well. In speech, Zena is working on getting Emmett to use description words while he plays. He needs a lot of prompting, but he is trying.
Teanna (I just realized this week that I've been spelling her name wrong) worked with Emmett on the therapy swing for awhile. She tried to get him to go into one that was bowl-shaped, but he was too afraid. She also worked on puzzles with him, which he does not like. He gets very frustrated and wants to stop. He also does not like having to take the pieces apart and put them away. Not sure why this bothers him so much, although Teanna said that is normal behavior. The other thing Emmett got to do was play with different textures. He played in a rice bin and then with putty. He was hesitant with the rice, but seemed to be okay with it. But he loved the putty. He was sticking beads in it and pulling it apart.
Emmett's birthday was on Friday and it was a great day for him. The only time he got upset was when he had to stop playing with his new toys and head to bed. I think he would have stayed up all night playing with his new gifts. He is very grateful for them. :)
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
week 13.
This week was hard for me; I'm not going to lie. Emmett was a handful and I felt like I didn't get any kind of a break. I am exhausted. Most of the time I feel as if I'm treading water and I can barely keep my chin above water; while trying to dodge the waves that slosh over my face. I love to swim, but this is difficult. Many people don't understand the definition of 'exhausted'. Most people just think it's another word for tired, but it actually goes beyond the level of tired. It happens slowly, over time. It affects mind, body, and spirit. It wears on you and begins to make you dull. Exhaustion has affected me in bizarre, often embarrassing ways. Auto pilot kicks in, and that becomes your new awake. If someone tells you they are exhausted, please don't just tell them to go take a nap. They need much more than sleep.
Emmett has been doing a lot more stimming lately. He cannot control his excitement. Hand flapping, hopping up and down, and making loud high-pitched giggles are just a few of the things Emmett does when he is happy. Although it may appear cute, it becomes a problem when we are at public places, such as a pool. Emmett gets so excited being in the water and watching the other kids, he begins splashing everywhere and throwing toys. Even though he isn't necessarily splashing or throwing at the other kids, it still happens and people get mad. This week we went to the pool twice and I had many 'looks' from other moms and one mom actually came up to me, requesting that I make my child stop his splashing and throwing. The problem is, no matter what consequence I give Emmett, he does not learn from it. I think his actions are out of his control.
With that said, Tianna (OT) tried some methods on Emmett to try to calm his body down, such as 'brushing' his body with a soft silicone brush, joint compressions and deep tissue massage. Trying this methods before we go out in public might help with keeping his body calm. This can make trying to get out the door even more challenging, especially because I'm not used to doing these things. We will learn more about these methods next week.
Speech therapy went fairly well this week. Zena is beginning to have Emmett try to describe things that he's doing while they play.
On Friday, Emmett had the second part of his psychology assessment with Children's in Mpls. Aside from one meltdown, the assessment went really well. Dr. Mary, the psychologist (not the friendliest, by the way), performed an IQ test along with others. Now, we wait for the results. She wants him to have another assessment in one year.
In addition to the assessment, we had Emmett's 3-month follow-up appt with Dr. Amy at Children's. She asked us how intervention treatments were working and wanted to make sure we were getting all of Emmett's needs met. She is really nice and helpful. We need to go back and see her in 6 months.
Emmett has been doing a lot more stimming lately. He cannot control his excitement. Hand flapping, hopping up and down, and making loud high-pitched giggles are just a few of the things Emmett does when he is happy. Although it may appear cute, it becomes a problem when we are at public places, such as a pool. Emmett gets so excited being in the water and watching the other kids, he begins splashing everywhere and throwing toys. Even though he isn't necessarily splashing or throwing at the other kids, it still happens and people get mad. This week we went to the pool twice and I had many 'looks' from other moms and one mom actually came up to me, requesting that I make my child stop his splashing and throwing. The problem is, no matter what consequence I give Emmett, he does not learn from it. I think his actions are out of his control.
With that said, Tianna (OT) tried some methods on Emmett to try to calm his body down, such as 'brushing' his body with a soft silicone brush, joint compressions and deep tissue massage. Trying this methods before we go out in public might help with keeping his body calm. This can make trying to get out the door even more challenging, especially because I'm not used to doing these things. We will learn more about these methods next week.
Speech therapy went fairly well this week. Zena is beginning to have Emmett try to describe things that he's doing while they play.
On Friday, Emmett had the second part of his psychology assessment with Children's in Mpls. Aside from one meltdown, the assessment went really well. Dr. Mary, the psychologist (not the friendliest, by the way), performed an IQ test along with others. Now, we wait for the results. She wants him to have another assessment in one year.
In addition to the assessment, we had Emmett's 3-month follow-up appt with Dr. Amy at Children's. She asked us how intervention treatments were working and wanted to make sure we were getting all of Emmett's needs met. She is really nice and helpful. We need to go back and see her in 6 months.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
week 12.
Therapy went great this week! And now that Ethnie is done with school, she was able to come too. I think she had just as much fun as Emmett did! She was able to join in on the activities with him. In speech, Zena continued to work on using verbs and using words to describe what they were doing. They did this through games. She also worked on him slowing down to listen and process what she says before he does anything. This can be hard for him when she is holding toys that he wants to grab. Emmett cooperated the whole time and was happy (and laughed a lot).
Occupational therapy with Tianna was very interesting to watch this time. I am really learning a lot about how the brain processes things and how the body reacts to how the brain processes anything we are doing. Tianna did some deep pressure joint massage and "brushed" his body with a rubber-bristled brush. These methods are good for calming the body. Both Ethnie and Emmett rode on the therapy swing together. They loved this and I think Emmett felt safer this time because Ethnie was on it with him. He seemed "distracted" by her so he wasn't worried so much about holding on or swinging higher, which is good! Then Tianna moved on to blowing bubbles with straws and painting with shaving cream. Emmett got pretty comfortable with the shaving cream and started to touch it with his hands and put some on his nose. He tolerated it for about five minutes then wanted it washed off immediately. He preferred using the paint brush. This activity is going to help him to slowly tolerate getting messy. The goal is to make the painting utensil smaller and smaller, and eventually skip the utensil all together. While Emmett was doing these activities, he was also engaged in therapeutic listening, which was fascinating to learn about! Listening to music is the only way we can utilize all the parts of our brain at the same time. Therapeutic listening is a form of auditory intervention and helps with sensory processing. The special headphones used make the music electronically modified to highlight the parts of the sound spectrum that naturally trigger attention and activate body movement. It also focuses on organized rhythmical sound patterns inherent in music to trigger the self-organizing capacities of the nervous system. It is amazing! Tianna had me put the headphones on and listen as well. For a normal-functioning person, the way the music is played seems strange and can actually make you sick. I could feel a headache coming on after listening for only two minutes! But for someone with sensory processing issues, it helps them do things easier and better.
The listening system Tianna is trying on Emmett is called Vital Links and here are things therapists have seen improvements in:
On Friday, I had an appointment with Fraser Center, the most recommended clinic/school in MN for autism needs. The waiting list is very long, so I am starting this process now. Fraser has amazing day treatment programs for children with autism, one of them being a life skills program that I am pushing for. The first appointment was just for me and Kent, the clinician who will be working with us. Tons of questions asked, medical info to exchange, questionnaires to fill out, and goals for Emmett. The next appointment is set for July 1st, where Emmett will be given an assessment to see what Fraser can offer him. It's a long process, but I'm hoping within six months he can begin services there in addition to therapy with Children's.
Friday evening, Emmett and I went to a wedding reception at a country club. Matt and Ethnie were camping so I had to bring him with. I tried to prep him as best as I could throughout the day. Once we walked in the door and he saw all the guests, he got upset quickly. He stopped moving, started hitting me, and wanted to be held for a good 20 minutes. He was having a very difficult time, which made it impossible for me to socialize. When we found our seat at the table I gave him a snack and his cars, which helped a bit. Then I noticed on his face he had three patches of raised red bumps that he kept itching. At first I thought a mosquito might have been in the car biting him, but these didn't look like mosquito bites. Towards the end of the reception, Emmett was more calm and the bumps started to go away. By the time we got home, they were gone. I did some research and figured out that Emmett broke out in hives because he was so stressed!! I didn't see any bumps anywhere else on his body after we got home, but that may have been because they had already gone away. I looked up images of rashes and these bumps were hives. I also did some research on hives related to autism and found some articles/blogs about children with autism and getting hives because of stressful situations. I felt so bad that he was stressed out to the point of having a physical reaction. We will not be making him go to any receptions or large parties any time soon. He is not able to handle it.
Occupational therapy with Tianna was very interesting to watch this time. I am really learning a lot about how the brain processes things and how the body reacts to how the brain processes anything we are doing. Tianna did some deep pressure joint massage and "brushed" his body with a rubber-bristled brush. These methods are good for calming the body. Both Ethnie and Emmett rode on the therapy swing together. They loved this and I think Emmett felt safer this time because Ethnie was on it with him. He seemed "distracted" by her so he wasn't worried so much about holding on or swinging higher, which is good! Then Tianna moved on to blowing bubbles with straws and painting with shaving cream. Emmett got pretty comfortable with the shaving cream and started to touch it with his hands and put some on his nose. He tolerated it for about five minutes then wanted it washed off immediately. He preferred using the paint brush. This activity is going to help him to slowly tolerate getting messy. The goal is to make the painting utensil smaller and smaller, and eventually skip the utensil all together. While Emmett was doing these activities, he was also engaged in therapeutic listening, which was fascinating to learn about! Listening to music is the only way we can utilize all the parts of our brain at the same time. Therapeutic listening is a form of auditory intervention and helps with sensory processing. The special headphones used make the music electronically modified to highlight the parts of the sound spectrum that naturally trigger attention and activate body movement. It also focuses on organized rhythmical sound patterns inherent in music to trigger the self-organizing capacities of the nervous system. It is amazing! Tianna had me put the headphones on and listen as well. For a normal-functioning person, the way the music is played seems strange and can actually make you sick. I could feel a headache coming on after listening for only two minutes! But for someone with sensory processing issues, it helps them do things easier and better.
The listening system Tianna is trying on Emmett is called Vital Links and here are things therapists have seen improvements in:
- sensory modulation
- posture and movement
- attention
- improved social interactions
- increased engagement in the world
On Friday, I had an appointment with Fraser Center, the most recommended clinic/school in MN for autism needs. The waiting list is very long, so I am starting this process now. Fraser has amazing day treatment programs for children with autism, one of them being a life skills program that I am pushing for. The first appointment was just for me and Kent, the clinician who will be working with us. Tons of questions asked, medical info to exchange, questionnaires to fill out, and goals for Emmett. The next appointment is set for July 1st, where Emmett will be given an assessment to see what Fraser can offer him. It's a long process, but I'm hoping within six months he can begin services there in addition to therapy with Children's.
Friday evening, Emmett and I went to a wedding reception at a country club. Matt and Ethnie were camping so I had to bring him with. I tried to prep him as best as I could throughout the day. Once we walked in the door and he saw all the guests, he got upset quickly. He stopped moving, started hitting me, and wanted to be held for a good 20 minutes. He was having a very difficult time, which made it impossible for me to socialize. When we found our seat at the table I gave him a snack and his cars, which helped a bit. Then I noticed on his face he had three patches of raised red bumps that he kept itching. At first I thought a mosquito might have been in the car biting him, but these didn't look like mosquito bites. Towards the end of the reception, Emmett was more calm and the bumps started to go away. By the time we got home, they were gone. I did some research and figured out that Emmett broke out in hives because he was so stressed!! I didn't see any bumps anywhere else on his body after we got home, but that may have been because they had already gone away. I looked up images of rashes and these bumps were hives. I also did some research on hives related to autism and found some articles/blogs about children with autism and getting hives because of stressful situations. I felt so bad that he was stressed out to the point of having a physical reaction. We will not be making him go to any receptions or large parties any time soon. He is not able to handle it.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
week 11.
This week was full of new information about Emmett and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm trying to take deep breaths and take care of only what I have control with. It's hard for me to wait and take baby steps, in general. If there is an issue in my life I want it resolved NOW. That is impossible when raising a child who is newly diagnosed with autism. Making progress in baby steps is the only option. I think I am learning a new definition for the word patience.
Emmett had meltdowns in both speech and occupational therapy this week. It was the first time he's had one in therapy. Poor bud. He was getting frustrated in speech about putting together a puzzle and I believe that is what triggered the meltdown when he got frustrated a second time. He ended up kicking the game he and Zena were playing and it exploded, game pieces flying everywhere. He was pretty much done with his speech session at that point. He couldn't handle anymore.
In OT he got upset with Tianna when she tried sharing toys with him. He was batting her hand away and trying to tell her to move out of the way and stop touching the toys. Tianna continued to get him to share with her and it got a bit better. She mostly worked on oral motor skills with him. She is observing him doing different things with his mouth to see if he is using his tongue normally, like while eating his yogurt or a sucker. He tends to keep his tongue towards the back of his mouth instead of moving it from side to side or forward in a licking motion. She also worked with him on blowing with his mouth, which he liked. He isn't able to blow with his mouth well because he doesn't pucker his lips enough. They were blowing bubbles with straws in a bowl of soapy water. Emmett mostly wanted to splash with his hands.
Tianna also shared a lot of information on the vestibular system in the ears and how the brain processes how that works. This has to do with space, balance, and control of what is going on around you. Many times children with autism process this differently and can affect how controlled and safe they feel in their environment. Emmett seems to be particularly sensitive to this.
On Friday, we had another meeting with special education and the team informed us that Emmett has a spot for PreK at the Linwood Monroe school in St. Paul. This is good news! There are only two schools in the district that offer the special ed PreK program he needs, one of them being really ghetto and rough, and I was worried he wasn't going to get in to the nice one! But he did, and I am grateful.
The second half of the meeting was spent going through the evaluation report from Emmett's assessment with the special ed team. This was difficult for me to read through. Although I am very hopeful and have been told Emmett has a lot of potential, reading through his report verifies that he could have a long road ahead of him. His test scores are far below average and he is functioning 1 1/2-2 years below his age level. However, the special ed team told us not to focus on these numbers because Emmett is still so young and much can change in the next year.
Emmett had meltdowns in both speech and occupational therapy this week. It was the first time he's had one in therapy. Poor bud. He was getting frustrated in speech about putting together a puzzle and I believe that is what triggered the meltdown when he got frustrated a second time. He ended up kicking the game he and Zena were playing and it exploded, game pieces flying everywhere. He was pretty much done with his speech session at that point. He couldn't handle anymore.
In OT he got upset with Tianna when she tried sharing toys with him. He was batting her hand away and trying to tell her to move out of the way and stop touching the toys. Tianna continued to get him to share with her and it got a bit better. She mostly worked on oral motor skills with him. She is observing him doing different things with his mouth to see if he is using his tongue normally, like while eating his yogurt or a sucker. He tends to keep his tongue towards the back of his mouth instead of moving it from side to side or forward in a licking motion. She also worked with him on blowing with his mouth, which he liked. He isn't able to blow with his mouth well because he doesn't pucker his lips enough. They were blowing bubbles with straws in a bowl of soapy water. Emmett mostly wanted to splash with his hands.
Tianna also shared a lot of information on the vestibular system in the ears and how the brain processes how that works. This has to do with space, balance, and control of what is going on around you. Many times children with autism process this differently and can affect how controlled and safe they feel in their environment. Emmett seems to be particularly sensitive to this.
On Friday, we had another meeting with special education and the team informed us that Emmett has a spot for PreK at the Linwood Monroe school in St. Paul. This is good news! There are only two schools in the district that offer the special ed PreK program he needs, one of them being really ghetto and rough, and I was worried he wasn't going to get in to the nice one! But he did, and I am grateful.
The second half of the meeting was spent going through the evaluation report from Emmett's assessment with the special ed team. This was difficult for me to read through. Although I am very hopeful and have been told Emmett has a lot of potential, reading through his report verifies that he could have a long road ahead of him. His test scores are far below average and he is functioning 1 1/2-2 years below his age level. However, the special ed team told us not to focus on these numbers because Emmett is still so young and much can change in the next year.
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