June 4, 2015 PT/EI plus something exciting for my son.

This visit was supposed to be at the park, but me and my son had a rough morning. He discovered his nose and has been enjoying picking it.  When I woke up, his face was covered in caked up blood and he was having trouble breathing, like he was congested.  After I cleaned him up, I discovered he had given himself a nosebleed, and a bad one at that.  By the time we were done sitting together, it was about twenty minutes before the PT visit was going to start and I realized he hadn't eaten breakfast yet. So we had the visit at home.

It was supposed to be just PT with T., but A. the EI service coordinator called and said she had a cancellation and asked if she could come by as well. I told her that it would be fine for her to come by.

When T. and A. showed up, I had some cool news. My son has started saying "go car" a lot. Like all the time. More words are a good thing even if only the speaker understands them.  My son has also started climbing!  He uses me to climb on to the back of the couch to perch up there and look out the window. He worked with T. to climb from the floor to an ottoman to the couch  and then up the back.  I was standing behind T. just being quiet and watching them when my son got very nervous and started looking anxiously behind him.  He has become more aware of his surroundings which is also good development.  When he finally saw me, he calmed down.

He was very apprehensious of A. and T. this week for some reason. He usually hugs A. and smiles at her, this visit he screamed and cried.  He is getting his molars in and he grew about five inches last week, no lie he had a major growth spurt, so we were thinking he was just in pain.

T. said not to keep the ottoman static, but to move it from one side of the couch to the other so my son can practice climbing on both sides, using both legs.

We discussed potty training again, but a little more seriously this time. My son does not like to dirty a diaper he already soiled. He will hold his bladder until you change the diaper.  Also, he has started taking his diaper off more.  We discussed how this could be hard because he is non-verbal.  The hints they gave me was to give him a plastic "bubble" book that can be washed off to look at on the potty and then he will eventually relax and go.  Also, T. said to take a picture of his potty and put it somewhere visible in the living room/his bedroom/the kitchen, just somewhere visible, and when it is time to go on the potty to tap the picture and say "Time to go to the bathroom." Eventually he will make an association and should be able to point to the picture of his potty when he needs to go.

The other thing we discussed was my son joining a play group for non-verbal children aged two to five or four at the Sensation Station. (http://sensationstationus.com/).  The playgroup will do sensory play and use musical instruments.  T. and A. are both pretty excited about this. The playgroup will run for 8 weeks and I think it will greatly benefit my son.  I should be meeting with the director of Sensation Station June 9 , and I will definitely blog about it.  A. filled out a disclosure agreement so she can reach out to the Sensation Station to help chart my son's growth.

That was pretty much it this week, but there has been some progress so like always, I am looking forward to next week's therapy.  It continues to help both me and my son.

Hearing Test 05/18/2015

This was a pediatric hearing test done at the Rhode School For the Deaf.  M. the Speech Therapist suggested we get a hearing test done to rule out hearing problems as a reason for delayed speech.  A. asked if we wanted her to go.  Since she is my son's Early Intervention Service Coordinator, I feel she should come to all our specialist appointments.  Not only is she an advocate should we need one, she is also an impartial third party.  She would definitely ask us how the visit went, but I feel that I would give her opinions, not just facts and she needs facts to add to my son's record.


When we met the Audiologist we gathered in his office.  He asked who we all were and why we were there. He then had me and my husband take our son into a sound proof room and sent A. into the lobby.  My son sat on my lap and the Audiologist gave him a stuffed animal to play with.  With my son distracted, he checked his ears and said they looked fine. Being nervous, I asked how can they look good with all the potatoes growing in there? He said a few potatoes were fine.  He then did a small test to check the anatomy of the inside of my son's ears.  The scan was fine.  He then conducted the same hearing test given at birth to all children born in the state of Rhode Island.  My son passed. The next phase of the hearing test was the Audiologist left the room and went into a room directly in front of us.  I was reminded almost of a sound recording booth. There was a large sheet of glass in front of us.  We could see him, but could not hear him unless he activated a microphone.  He could hear and see us.  In our room there were three speakers. One if front of us, and two to the sides.  There were also three light boxes in the room. One directly in front of us with Mickey Mouse, one on the left with Donald Duck and one on the right with a third Disney character.  My son was still clutching the stuffed animal.  The Audiologist would activate the microphone for the speakers in turn, then flash on and off the light box.  My son was totally unimpressed and ignored everything except for the stuffed animal.  The Audiologist then asked if I could take the toy away. My son took that opportunity to toss the toy on the floor.  The Audiologist proceeded to say my son's name at different volumes through the speakers. For about half a minute, my son was responsive. Then it was all over.

We went into the lobby to join A. and wait while the Audiologist prepared the results.  When we gathered in his office, he asked what my son's developmental age was. A. said her agency does not assess developmental age, but stated my son scored 5 out of a possible 35 on his communication assessment at our annual review. That assessment was based on an average 2 year olds developmental level.  The Audiologist said the results were inconclusive. Because my son's ears are anatomically fine, he doesn't believe there is damage to the ears, but my son was incredibly unresponsive to the stimuli. He said if I want to 100% rule out a hearing deficit, we can sedate my son and then do a brain scan. I am not even a little ok with that.  I think at 2 years of age sedation for an unnecessary procedure is totally not ok.  I know for a fact my son isn't deaf.  When he is deeply napping, when I go to wake him up I rap loudly on his bedroom door. He immediately gets startled. I believe there could be some pitches he might not hear, but  I don't think he is deaf.  The Audiologist suggested we come back in a few months for another hearing test, no sedation.  He then gave us copies of the inconclusive results for the Neurologist, the Speech Therapist and the Pediatrician.

My mom has been reading up on autistic children and autism in general.  Based on several of the behaviors my son displays, I think he may have autism.  This is not a bad thing, but I think if he has it, then in order to help him succeed we need to mold his therapies around his abilities.  My mother is currently reading The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin.  One of the topics discussed is hearing and autism.  Some people who have autism can only hear vowels, other only consonants.  Other people with autism can only hear certain tones and pitches.  Other people with autism are so into their own mind, or activity, they can't hear you.  I asked A. if she feels my son might be displaying some of the symptoms of autism.  She danced around her answer.  She finally said we can discuss my concerns with the Neurologist or if I can't wait until August to see him, we can call a different one.  I told her I understand she can't diagnose, but based on her experience does she think I might have an autistic child. She was quiet and hesitant and then finally said she has not worked with enough autistic children to give an opinion.

I know my son has sensory processing disorder. Maybe that is all we are looking at. But I want him to succeed and to live the happiest life he can. Although I think we are into labels, if I knew what we are dealing with, I feel I could better help him succeed.

Speech Therapy 5/13/15

My son was very grumpy/upset today.

We got a visit from M the speech therapist and A the EI coordinator. M and A played with puzzles with my son. He got grumpy very quickly and A happened to touch his head. She noticed he was warm, so I took his temperature.  99.5 degrees,  not enough to be worried but enough of a temp to make him miserable.

I had some concerns about my son eating clearly not food items. We have a pussy willow tree outside and he ate a bud off the ground.  It must have tasted as delicious as it looked because he promptly spit it out. We went to visit a friend who has a dog, and my son petted him.  He came back with a large tuft of fur.  The same thing happens when he pets our dog so I thought he would drop it on the ground. Instead he tried to eat it. The fur had to be wrestled out of his mouth.  We went to my mother's house and she has a gravel driveway. My son was walking up and down the driveway, then he sat down to play. Boys play in dirt so this was ok with me. I was talking to my step-father then out of the corner of my eye, I saw my son's hand go up to his mouth.  I went to go investigate and he had all sorts of goodies in his mouth. He had sand, pebbles, bits of twigs, and bits of plants.   Of course I took him in the house and cleaned his mouth out.  The speech therapist said he is looking for input so I should give him something to eat. Something crunchy, or cold, or spicy, or sweet to give him input. I think this a good way to teach him to ask for snacks.  He doesn't get many non-fruit based snacks due a possible tree nut/pine nut allergy so its mostly fruit or fruit and peanut butter or Cheerios for snacks.  He does however eat a very well rounded healthy diet that includes crunchy, and cold, and spicy, and sweet 

My son responded well to the back and forth play and had a higher level of eye contact.  What we need to work on is back and forth play, then withholding a turn until he does something to indicate he wants to continue.

I also was the randomly selected parent of the month to do a survey.  As I have no complaints or problems with any of the services or service providers I think that should be pretty smooth and easy.

The visit was cut short due to my son being sick.

My son's EI annual review and OT 05/06/2015

Hard to believe my son turned two on 4/19/15.  It honestly feels like yesterday I held my sweet boy in my arms for the first time.  I love my son more than I love anyone else and I am so glad he came into my life

Even harder to believe, it is time for our last annual review with EI.

This visit we had A. the EI coordinator, C. the COTA, and D. a student.

The annual review is a long, long visit. Lots of questions are asked. Lots and lots and lots.  Also a lot of paperwork. Basically you have to revisit the objectives made at the last review, decide if they worked, decide if you need new goals.  The last review, my son was not walking, using a sippy cup, or eating on his own. Thankfully, all of that has changed. Our new goals are to have him talking, at least one word where he can identify an object/idea and use it appropriately. I made the goal, maybe I am aiming too low, but I want him to succeed because that is my primary goal, not to fail.

While I was talking to A. about goals, my son was playing with C. and D.  They did functional play, but honestly I missed about 98% because there were a ton of questions regarding my son's development. Not surprising, he got 5 out of 35 for communication. At least I was not surprised by the results but to see your child get scored can be very discouraging.

I did get educated about RIPIN (http://www.ripin.org/) and will get to meet with M. a parental consultant.

One thing I did get to discuss with C. was the fact that I bought the electric toothbrush she wanted me to buy. I have anxiety and I always worry I am going to mess things up, even simple things.  I went to Walmart and bought the cheapest generic toothbrush I could find, because I was told the brand doesn't matter. As a toothbrush, I think this is an excellent toothbrush. As a mouth stimulant so my son can get sensory input, not so much. It is loud. Like really loud. I think the sound scares him. The first time I used it, I ran it over my cheeks and hands, then my husband's, then my son's. He flipped out. We use it sometimes on his cheeks and hands, but he doesn't like it for long. C. suggested to use it on his stuffed animals to show nothing bad will happen. I tried it with his stuffed Woodstock.......he was a little more receptive to using it on his cheeks, but not lips yet.

Suggestions for things to work on, using the toothbrush as a redirect from mouthing toys and fingers, and offering support in play.

4/30/15 OT/Speech Therapy/EI visit

     Wow full house today.  We don't always combine this many therapies, it just worked out.

     M. the Speech Therapist was scheduled to come at 10:30. C. the COTA was scheduled for 11:00.  My son has a lot of electronic toys and he would rather play with them than interact with the various people who come to see him and I am really frustrated by it.  He only has a year left with these services and I want to take advantage of them. I moved all his electronic toys from the living room to the hallway that connects the kitchen to his bedroom.  Ten thirty came and went which was making me nervous because M. was supposed to be coming.  Ten forty sill no M. so I checked my calendar because maybe I was wrong. Shortly after 10:40 M. knocked on the door. She said she saw C. outside  and was going to come upstairs with her, but after 10 plus minutes realized C. was just early.

     I told M. I hid all the electronic toys and she was really happy I did that. She said she would take the batteries out of her kid's electronic toys and then they were just toys.  My son would at first not engage with her and instead held on to the front of the couch and danced.  I asked him if he could dance with M.  M. picked up a puzzle and the two worked on that for a little bit. My son mostly wanted to walk around so M. kept distracting him.  Since he wanted to play on the couch, she picked up a ball and put it on the couch and rolled it to him.

     I did get to tell M. about "gotta go".  (http://momlovesscifi.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-son-just-made-more-progress.html) She was duly impressed.

     At 11:00 C. the COTA and D. a student arrived.  Sometimes EI/PT/OT/ST will bring a student. They always ask prior to the visit if it is ok.  I am pretty laid back and have never had a problem with students coming.  I do have a tiny apartment (about 400 sq. ft.) so we were kinda becoming a little tight in my extremely tiny living room.

     What I like about having multiple services is that they can double up.  It makes my life easier.  Although for someone with social anxiety is can be overwhelming sometimes, they are not here to see me so it makes it easier in that respect.

     When C. arrived we discussed how my son is doing with baths.  She had suggested in the past that he gets placed in the tub first, then draw the water with him in the tub.  I was sceptical at first, but it worked.  He was fine until his hair was washed, then he got upset.  C. asked if he ever got laid down in the tub to rinse off and no he hasn't only because the tub is so traumatic that baths are kept as short as possible.  She said laying him in the water will rinse out his hair and some kids have an easier time with it. 

     M. and C. played with my son with his sensory box and they played with puzzles.  M. noted when given two puzzle pieces my son chooses quickly and doesn't hesitate like most kids.   When my son got frustrated and was done, they made him use sign language to signal he was done.  He played with D. with his toy where you push the beads along on wires.  M. noticed he would rock from foot to foot and asked if he does it with shoes on.  I really couldn't remember because we primarily wear shoes outside.  I put his shoes on and he continued doing the same thing.  M. played with sensory balls, the kind with rubber spokes all over them, by rolling them on my son's head, neck, and back. He loved it. Since bath time is so awful, I asked if it would be ok to bring the ball in the tub and massage him with it in the water.  They said sure.  M. even suggested textured bath mats.  M. and C. then engaged my son by having him play ball with them.  M. said to create opportunities for engaging him like this.

     At 11:15 there was a knock at the door.  It was A. the EI coordinator.  She was late because she had an appointment in another town.

     My son was mouthing a lot of toys and C. asked how brushing his teeth is going.  It is going well, except now he likes to bite the bristles of his tooth brush.  She suggested getting an electronic toothbrush and just rubbing the outside of his checks to give him the oral stimulus he needs.  She asked if he has a straw cup or a water bottle because that does the same thing.  He does have a water bottle with a straw but I don't know how to teach him to suck. She told me to put water in it, then drip a few drops on his mouth by holding the bottle upside down. He should open his mouth for the straw and once the straw is in his mouth,  run my fingers along his check to facilitate sucking. We are definitely trying this.

     M. commented this was an incredibly successful visit and credited my hiding the electronic toys.

     I am glad of our progress and looking forward to our next therapy/EI visit.

My son just made more progress!

As I have posted,  my son is in Speech Therapy.  He used to have about 10 or 12 words until last August when he lost them all after an ear infection.

Well, lately he has been taking to saying "gotta go". He says this when he is tired of whatever is going on. Saturday night I hung out with some friends and I guess we were boring because he would say "gotta go" and then leave the room.

I am so happy.  He is saying a phrase with actual meaning, he knows what it means,  and he knows the appropriate action to go with it.  It is only one phrase, but this is pretty much the only thing he is saying.  Well he says "dog", but it doesn't always mean dog.

My son turned 2 on 4/19. This is such a huge leap forward.

First Speech Therapy visit 04/15/15

     What a week for us! Monday was the first OT visit, and today was the first Speech Therapy visit.

     If you want to know why we added speech therapy some reasons are here  http://momlovesscifi.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-speech-therapy.html.

     A. who is the EI coordinator came with M. the Speech Therapist today.  My son just loves A. so much. He gave her a big hug again as his custom. We never met M. before so he was a little shy with her.

     Since this was the first visit M. told us what we would be doing today. She did not do a formal evaluation as my son is too young to really be able to evaluate. Also, given that he has been receiving services for a year now, she can base where he is based on the assessment of her coworkers.  In addition, the neurologist recommended her services.   She said she will do one later, unless I am really looking for her to asses him, but based on the background that she is aware of, we qualify for services so it is not really needed.  I told her I agree and we can do the official evaluation when she feels it is appropriate.  M. asked me what my primary goal is and I would like my son to identify at least one object. We are not shooting for the stars here, I like to set reasonable goals.  I would really just like to say, "Get the ball." for example and have him get it. Or at least look at it.  M. asked if he has had a hearing test and other than the one given at birth, no he hasn't.  She said she likes all her parents to get their children's hearing tested and gave me some numbers to do that.  A. did say that my son had a nasty ear infection last year and before that he had about 10-12 words he said. After the ear infection, he lost all his words. Actually, after the ear infection it was a source of major concern because my son lost all his skills. He wasn't walking yet, but he stopped crawling, he stopped being interested in a sippy cup, he had a major regression.  He had the flu earlier this year, and after he recovered, he didn't want to walk, he didn't want the sippy cup, and his language regressed even further.  M. suggested the hearing test will see if maybe he has fluid in his middle ear. She thinks he can hear fine, but if he has fluid in his ears, he may need tubes put in. Basically the fluid can alter how children hear sounds which affects language development.  She also wondered out loud (this is not her area) if fluid in the middle ear can be affecting his balance, if there is any, and that is why he doesn't want to walk after a sickness.

      A. read and played with my son while M. observed and asked questions. M. asked what toys my son likes to play with.  Basically he likes all the electronic toys, and all the other toys we have discussed here on this blog already. She also asked if he likes books. I told her he adores books. She said that is great.  She also asked how he interacts with other children. I told her that he doesn't even when he is around them.  She asked if there are any food textures he avoids and I told her not at all. He eats everything.

     I did ask her about television watching.  We only watch maybe two hours of children's television per day divided between Sesame Street, Daniel Tiger and Dinosaur Train.  The television doesn't hold his attention long and with all our appointments I try to get his play time in as more of a priority.  Also, now that the weather is nicer we go for walks in the mornings.  I basically wanted to know if television viewing is detrimental to a child with language delays and/or how to make less detrimental and what should we avoid.   She did answer my question, but first gave the disclaimer of not to add to his viewing habits based on what she said.  She also said that studies show children who learn from a traditional teacher and teacher on an electronic medium, like an I-Pad, the traditional teacher model is still more effective. I think that is interesting since so many schools want to veer away from traditional teaching.  Then she said shows like Sesame Street or Dora The Explorer actually use good language models since there is so much repetition and that is how we learn language.  She said to avoid shows like Curious George that the main character uses sounds not words.  She said except Curious George, most PBS shows are not detrimental to children with language delays.  Again, I am not using the TV as a babysitter, nor as the primary way for him to learn speech, I just use it for a little entertainment in the mornings when I am still waking up a bit.  She said music is a great way to learn language and some of her parents have enrolled their children in music classes. She also hinted that music classes would also be a way for my son to interact with other children.

    Speech therapy will occur three times a month.  Most of the visits will overlap with other services.
    For us to work on for next time, when reading, I am to point out some picture on each page and point to it and repeat what it is.  The hope is in time, he will point to that item when I say "Where is the x?".  Also, we are going to work on naming physical objects, like a ball or a cup.  So I will hold two objects, and name them, then ask him, "Where is the x?".

   I think this service is also going to help us greatly.

   

First Occupational Therapy Visit 04/13/15

     Mom fail, I completely forgot OT was coming yesterday. We went for a nice long walk, ate a late lunch and then my friend called. I was putting him down for a nap and chatting with my friend when someone knocked on the door. It was A. the Early Intervention coordinator. I was kinda surprised and let her in and then she said C. the COTA was on her way and should be here shortly.

    While A. and I were waiting for C., we discussed my son's weekend. Friday we went to the park with a friend and her daughter who is roughly six month older than my son.  He engaged in some parallel play but was far more interested in the wood chips on the ground than the little girl.  We did try the slide, but he wanted to lay down, not sit so I went down with him. He was laughing his head off.  We tried the swings but it got bad fast so we stopped that.  Saturday he went to the park with my husband while I scanned 173 old photos for a family tree project. He just wanted to walk around mostly.  Sunday, we went to the park as a family. He loved the slide, but the swing he is now deathly afraid of.


    When C. arrived, we discussed my son's history with A.  My son walked around, picking up a toy, looked at it, tossed it, repeatedly.  We have the Fisher Price Stride to Ride Puppy and my son played with that and one of those wooden activity cubes.  He also played with this A's help.
     (image from ebay)

A. read him The Very Hungry Caterpillar about four times.  My son loves turning pages and after each reading he would just sit and turn the pages.

    C. and I discussed my son's sleeping habits.  C. suggested giving him milk before bed as opposed to at supper which I meant to try last night, but fell asleep my self and messed up his night time routine. (I have been not feeling well at all for the last two weeks.)  C. also suggested writing down my son's schedule and scheduling in two snacks a day.

    We also discussed the sensory issues my son has. I discussed the terror inducing swing experience of this weekend. C. suggested taking my son to the park and having him help me push and empty swing to get used to how it works.  She also said taking a toy and putting it in the swing and showing him nothing bad happened to it.  She also suggested us sitting together on a regular swing and slowly working up to swinging together.  We also discussed bath time. My son shrieks in terror while having a bath. I am not using hyperbole. It is not the whiny cry kids use when they don't like something, it is full on blood curling shrieking and howling.  He clutches at you when you try to bath him and he tries to angle every part of his body out of the water.  She asked what temperature bath he gets and if we adjust it. We have tried everything from freezing to lukewarm baths.   She asked if we adjust the depth of the water. We have tried from a tiny puddle up to enough to float boats around the tub in an effort to make him play in the bath. It didn't work. She suggested not filling the tub prior putting him the water. She said put him in an empty tub and then put the faucet on. She also suggested showering with him, or turning the shower on when he is taking a bath. I will try all her suggestions and write about how things go.

   We also discussed me playing hand over hand with him, which I already do.  We discussed our weekend with his cousins and she suggested I play with the kids to try to engage my son. I told her I did that. I got on the floor and played with the toys with the kids to show my son how much fun it was, but he walked away.  I told her we do hand over hand play with all his toys but when he is done playing with something, he is done.  I showed her a sensory box we have:

She likes this because everything has a different texture. She suggested mixing up what is in it. Adding tissues and scarves for example.  I am going to do this several times a week. I will add/subtract items.  On her way out she saw this puzzle in a stack of toys I want to get rid of

She said this is a good sensory puzzle.  Instead of getting rid of it, we will keep it now.


   All in all this was a great visit,  I think working with C. is going to help us a lot.

PT/Early Intervention Co Visit 4/6/15

     Because of the sheer number of therapies my son is in, it is easier to have the visiys combined so we do not have 10 individual hour long visits a month.  I like the people that are working with us, but it is daunting sometimes.

     T. is the Physical Therapist and A. is the E.I. coordinator.  I told them both about the visit with the cousins we had and how I was concerned. (http://momlovesscifi.blogspot.com/2015/03/thoughts-on-this-weekends-trip.html)T. said that I should discuss my concerns with the Pediatrician and if needed, her and A. could recommend some specialists,  but to take my time and think about maybe if it was an anxiety thing and not necessarily a developmental issue.

     My son has a bit of a cold so it was even harder to engage him than usual.   We have been working on the "W" sitting and got to show T. our progress.

     Because my son is starting Speech Therapy on the 15th, we discussed M. the Speech Therapist. She works closely with T. so they will make several co-visits.

     A.  gave me the phone number of the pedatric optomitrist H. recommended on the OT evaluation.

     The next time we see T. will be at the park because the weather is nicer. Hopefully it doesn't rain.

     It was a kind of off visit only because my son was sick and tired and grumpy,  poor little man.  Hopefully Speech Therapy on the 15th will be more productive.  I am very excited about starting speech.

EUREKA!!!

Today for lunch, I made my son a simple meal. It was just spinach, tomato, and chicken nuggets. I put him down so he could hand feed himself the majority of the meal. When he was down to just little pieces, I got a spoon. As is our routine, I gave him the spoon to see what he would do with it.

HE PUT IT IN THE BOWL, GOT FOOD ON IT AND FED HIMSELF WITH THE SPOON!!!

This is a huge breakthrough. I am overjoyed with this progress. It was hit or miss, sometimes he didn't get food on the spoon, sometimes the food was too far back in the spoon for him to get it in his mouth, but practice makes perfect. He is 23 months and this is the first time he did this.

We have been doing hand over hand with utensils for about a year now. I can't wait to tell EI and OT what he did today!

Occupational Therapy Evaluation 04/24/15

H. came from the same company that provides early intervention services for our son.

He was very excited to meet H. He was all smiles when she came over. The first thing he did after hugging her was to try to open her bags and he managed to rip a Post-It from deep within her bag and throw it on the rug. Being quite pleased with himself, he began diving deeper into H's bags. I told him he can't be doing that but she laughed and said its fine.

H. then handed me a questionnaire that was several pages long. The first section was demographic information about my son. The question that stuck out the most was about getting upset when their nails are cut. Every single time that is an issue.

While I was doing the questionnaire, H. attempted the test for my son. Parts of the test involved making a block tower. My son picked up one of the blocks and tried to eat it. Then he walked around the living room ignoring H. while giggling and trying to lick the block. There was also a puzzle of three simple shapes: a star, a square, a circle. He wanted to play with the pieces. She tried to direct him to put the shapes in the right place, but he got extremely agitated and started to cry because he wanted to play with the shapes. She then handed him a book and told him to turn the pages. He grabbed the book, sat with his back to her and started turning pages and looking at the book. She asked me if he likes to color. I told her that I can no longer give him round crayons because he likes to shove them up his nose but I will demonstrate what happens when he is given triangular shaped crayons. I set him up with some paper and his crayons. I already knew what would happen, but I wanted her to see this. My son took all the crayons out individually, held them up, and stared at them while rotating them and babbling to himself. I asked him to make me a picture and showed him how to make a squiggle. He dove into the pile of crayons again and started sorting them. H. said maybe we should only give him one. Then she and I made lines and squiggles and I attempted to help my son make a squiggle doing hand over hand. He was upset and just wanted to sort the crayons.  She told me that she could no longer do the evaluation because my son does not take direction or respond to verbal direction. I have known this for a while. She also said developmentally, he should be in the cause/effect and problem solving stage, but he is still in the exploratory stage. He does not understand that objects have an intended purpose or what they are. It is true. I can't argue or disprove that. 

We discussed my son's sleeping patterns. I know this is an issue. Right now he is "napping" which to him means laughing and bouncing on his back in the crib. I put him to bed every night at 8 pm. He then bounces on his back, or jumps up and down while laughing/babbling or lays in bed and babble/laughs. Sometimes he sings. He stays up until midnight-2 am. Due to the incredibly tiny apartment we live in, this means I am up till midnight-2 am.  Some mornings he is up between 6 and 8. If he doesn't get up on his own, I make him get up around 9/9:30 in the hopes he will sleep that night. He uses nap time as free play. There is nothing in his crib except a mattress and a crib sheet. He has a sound machine to help soothe. I believe in the cry it out method unless he is sick/screaming. He doesn't want to be in bed so crying is frequent and I make him work it out. She said that the set up I have and my not running in his room for every little whine is what she wants to hear.

My son sucks the index and middle fingers of his left hand.  She will order him an OT tool called a chew tube.

We discussed my son's eating habits next. I told H. that my son has a hearty appetite, but he eats with his hands. She asked if he uses spoons and I said although I put a utensil out with every meal he does not eat with it. It was discussed that I try to make him use utensils by doing hand over hand with him, but that he is not interested in doing it himself. 

According to her report, he has difficulty social referencing, limited joint attention, and inconsistent response to hearing his own name. Again, this is true. He lives in his own little world and doesn't like visiting ours. My son also rocks side to side and back and forth.

In addition to ot 3x a month, it was also recommended that my son get an eye exam and an optometrist was recommended

H. was very friendly and professional. Her assessment was dead on. .In two weeks I will hear from a COTA to start services.  I think we need this.

Early Intervention 03/17/15

Today A. the Early Intervention coordinator came. My son just loves her. We went to the door to meet her and he was all smiles.

My son was very vocal today. He sang to her and babbles up a storm. They read the same Bob the Builder book that T. read to him. They talked and throughout the visit A.and I discussed his development.

I told her that he identified a cat for T. yesterday and she was extremely happy. She said that she put in a request for the Speech Therapist to come out but they normally don't until the child is two. He will be two on 4/19 so she thinks later next month or in the summer speech therapy will begin. The Occupational Therapist is coming on April 7th for the o.t. eval and I will definitely be writing about that.

My son actually said a few distinct words to A. He said "Daisy" and "thank you" to A. The Daisy disturbs me a little because I had a miscarriage in January and had the baby been a girl, her name would have been Margarita which is Daisy in english. I nicknamed the baby Daisy but haven't mentioned Daisy as a word since January. He said "thank you" to A. after she handed him a puzzle piece.

We also discussed that soon, around 27 months, we will meet with the school department to discuss my son's needs as e.i ends when he is 3. I cannot believe that we are already discussing school at this point.

It was a good visit.  E.I is not as focused as P.T, its a more general discussion of how my son is growing. We have a good program and I really like the people that come out and work with us.

Physical Therapy 3/16/15 as well as another positive development.

The last time T. the Physical Therapist was here, she gave me some things to work on.
     1. My son "W-sits". He has low muscle tone so he sits like this : 

     (This is not my son. This is just a Google image)
I was told to correct this.

     2. My son doesn't like to feed himself. This is another developmental issue we are working on. I don't mean feeding himself with utensils, I mean he doesn't like feeding himself with his hands. I am to encourage self-feeding.

     3. My son has low muscle tone so I was to think of ways to encourage him to use his muscles by making him move in unexpected ways. The example she used was having him sit on pillows and then he would have to use his leg muscles to balance.


When T. came today we had lots to talk about. Since her last visit, we visited friends who have a sunken living room. My son learned that by putting his hands on the step in front of him, he could climb up the stairs. This used problem solving and helped used muscles.  He has been eating the majority of his lunches by himself. Today I made him chicken nuggets, celery bites, avocado and tomato slices for lunch. He usually picks out the chicken and makes me feed him the veggies, but today he ate it all by himself. To work on balance and muscle tone, last week I took him outside and held his hands and had him walk over our slushy, icy backyard. She had only positive feedback and agreed it is hard to think of a lot of outside winter activities for a toddler for pt purposes but soon we will be going to playgrounds for pt.

T. then played with my son. I got him this Melissa & Doug puzzle at a yardsale:

This puzzle is great for him because it develops fine motor skills and language.  They played with the puzzle and then she pointed to the cat and asked him what it was. His response? "meeo". Like "meow". This is the first time ever my son made an association. We both stared at him, then I started clapping. Then he kind of looked at T. and said it again like she should totally know that its a cat.

Then T. and my son read a Bob the Builder counting book. She is really pleased with his progress.

We discussed how we only have a year left of early intervention and then she planned a visit for April. I will share how that visit goes as well.

Why Speech Therapy

I shared yesterday that my son needs speech therapy.  Not being able to form sentences by his age is not necessarily a red flag, but if you suspect your child is behind, I suggest seeking an evaluation.

My son started gurgling and giggling early. I thought he would be an early talker. All my mother's children were talking in simple sentences by 13 months.  I am a chatterbox. Seriously, I never shut up. I figured if any child is going to learn language and to talk, its going to be mine. I also read insistently. My son had a pretty well stocked bookcase before he was even thought of. I have been buying books for children since I was a teenager.

We read everyday. Some days its just one book, but some days it is several. We read everything from Mother Goose to the Bible. My mother has read him Thurber and medical journals. Sandra Boynton is  a favorite author. I also sing. Given my tin ear that may be more of a hinderance to his learning to talk.

Words came slow, but they came. There were the standards Mom and Dad. We also got some hi, hello, hey,  cat, oink, dog. He would point at the dog and say cat. To be fair, I have a really small dog. he would say "Yeah!" and then start clapping. He would say "gain, gain" for again, again. It was delightful watching him learn language.

Last summer he also started saying "juice". I was just waiting for the simple sentences to begin. Then, he got an ear infection followed by a virus and was sick for almost two months.  All the words stopped. All of the words.

I missed his little voice. He didn't even babble anymore. One of his favorite things to do in the car was to say "Mom!" then wait for me to say "Hi", then he would call out "Dad!" and wait for my husband to reply. No more. 

There was not even any babbling. It was silence except for giggling.

Then the babbling started back up. It was slow, but he started saying "dddddDADDY!!!" and "MMMummaaa".  I was so happy. But that is where it stopped. 

He hums now and babbles. Sometimes he will babble sing. But that is it.

He still gets read to and sung to. I narrate the whole day hoping for something to stick. 

I am concerned now that he is 22 months. He had a regression and never came back from it. The neurologist is hoping before our six month follow up, now five months away, there will be sentences.

I have booked an appointment with a speech therapist. Hopefully they will be coming out here soon. I know we will also have to have a hearing test with an audiologist to check for hearing damage.

I will be writing more about this as developments happen. Thank you for letting me share.

I'm back!

Holy cow. It has been way, way too long.

Sorry for the long absence.

So just to bring everything up to speed, here's what happened. I was working at a job that is about two hours from my house. I pretty much only was home for six hours a day. Last June, I quit my job due to daycare being crazy expensive. Since then, my son has been seeing a physical therapist, a nutritionist, and Early Intervention.  Turns out my son has low muscle tone, and developmental delays. We have also had ear infections, flus, vomiting viruses and many other sicknesses.

I don't plan on taking such a long absence again.

I actually want to jump right into things.

So I want to change the focus of the blog a teeny, tiny bit.  I want to start sharing what its like having a child with developmental delays and talk about his therapy as we go through this.  I still want to talk about other parent things, and pop culture things, but I really need an outlet to discuss what is going on.

What prompted all of this was at his 3 month checkup he could not hold his head up very high. He could hold it up, but not high.  At his six month checkup he wasn't rolling and he had a hard time sitting up.  We had an Early Intervention evaluation, and he scored pretty high so no services were sought.  At eight months, he could not hold his own bottle, and he wasn't  crawling.  The pediatrician sent us back to Early Intervention.  At 10 months he could finally hold his own bottle.  After several months of hard work, at 15 months he started to crawl.  I cried. He laughed and looked at me like I was nuts and crawled like a pro for the rest of the day. Shortly after this, he started Physical Therapy. After much more hard work, at 21 months, he stood up and walked. And walked and walked. I was speechless. Now we approaching the two year mark and he is not talking so we are going to start speech therapy shortly.  We have seen a neurologist who also recommended Occupational Therapy.

It is very frustrating because I never know what is working, and what is not. I never know what is getting through to him, and what is just frustrating him.  He would scream like he was being tortured when I was trying to get him in the crawling position, but when he was ready, he just took off.  The walking was the same. He would sometimes walk if I held his hand or hands, but he would scream and cry. I thought for a while he was in physical pain because of this. I would not take him on long walks either, just from the living room to the changing table or from the living room to the high chair. Then, one day at my mother's house, he stopped playing with his toys, stood up, and walked the length of her house.

Another specific challenge I would like to share is the transition to sippy cups.  This was another stage that would make me weep. We owned a great variety of sippy cups to help ease the transition. We also did not even attempt to transition until crawling started.  When you first gave him the cup, he would scream. This evolved to screaming and then throwing the cup. This is how we lost our first sippy cup. RIP Munchkin sippy cup.  Eventually, he would raise the cup to his mouth, but would let the liquid within pour down his face and chest requiring a complete outfit change. Finally at 21 months, we somehow put it all together. He drank from the cup! This is where frustrating comes in.  I know its hard to transition,but having a kid with developmental delays means we don't like change. It takes hard work to see progress and its normally many months in coming.

I will continue to talk about this ongoing. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Or if you are going through the same thing, or went through the same thing, I would like to hear about it, if you want to share.



To change topics...........I recently saw Frozen.
Just a quick rant, I do not boycott or dislike Disney.  I do however feel that they were on the right track with Old Yeller and Bambi. Sometimes bad things happen. This is life.  I really like fairy tales and The Little Mermaid, though sad actually has a point. You can't force people to like you and don't change who you are to achieve that end.  I have not seen the animated Disney version, but I hear it does not end with Ariel becoming sea foam. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a very dark gothic novel that explores love, lust, desire, envy, and greed. It has a very touching ending after a thrilling climax. Once again, I have not seen the animated version, but I hear that Esmeralda and the Hunchback are not found with skeletons entwined in the catacombs years later. I have not seen an animated Disney movie in a very long time but I heard Frozen was the one to watch.

I like how this is not a typical "one day my prince will come story". Of course its there and its actually sad to me how "ordinary" Anna needs a husband that badly.  Being ordinary is extraordinary! There is nothing like the adventures one can have on one's own, especially at 18. I like how its about family relationships, reminiscent of Pixar's Brave.

However, it felt rushed. It is not a short movie, but I felt that the story was almost forced. The musical numbers are not spread out, they are mushed together in the first half of the story. I felt it would have been a lot more enjoyable if it had focused more on animation and story.


While I am reviewing things, I would like to briefly review Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

Ready Player One is like if someone scooped up all of pop culture from the late 70's to the early 90's and made a video game out of it, and then played that video game in a dystopian future. Literally that is the what the book is.  I highly recommend this book to everyone everywhere.

The Thirteenth Tale is a wonderful story crafted by a master storyteller. The protagonist works in her father's bookstore and is asked to write the truth about a reclusive author.  The book takes place in England but does not specify the year or decade in which it takes place. This gives the book a very timeless feel. This book I recommend to people who enjoy stories. It is a ghost  story without a ghost. It is a love story between twins. I loved this book.

Before I go for the day...........I wanted to share a recipe.

My son is a toddler and I try very hard to make him eat nutritious foods. I am a SAHM now and I really don't want every lunch to be peanut butter.

In an effort to shake things up a bit, yesterday I opened up a can of black beans, sauteed  a quarter of a yellow onion, cut up four celery stalks, diced a tomato, added some frozen chicken stock (recipe and tips coming soon), added powdered garlic, and tossed in some cheddar cheese and heated it all up on the stove. I squeezed fresh lime over the soup and my son was laughing and smiling while eating it. It was cheap and easy to make.


I promise it won't take two years for me to write again because this is fun :) I hope to be back early next week.