Dyspraxic Journey

Monthly Archive: May 2015

Public Preschool OR Private Language-Focused School

CB is 4 years old…

Olem (my partner, husband and trusty-confidant) and I have been deliberating for months over where CB will attend preschool for the fall. Currently, CB goes to preschool at the local public preschool for children with disabilities M-F from 7:45am-10:45am. For the 4 year old program for next year, the schedule changes to 7:45am-2:00pm M-F. This felt like a big adjustment from the current preschool schedule. On top of that, CB still needs to attend his private therapies and selected sports activities and potentially take naps. We toured a language-focused school in the area and highly considered sending CB there for the next year. Besides the big schedule adjustment, we weren’t sure CB’s teacher would be the best fit for him. His teacher will most likely be the same one next year and we weren’t sure her personality meshed with our son’s. We were also concerned his personality was being stifled. After evaluating the other school and really comparing both options, we determined that his current school is the best fit for the following reasons:

  • His executive function has improved greatly while attending the public preschool
  • CB is the most aggressive of his classmates so the fear of being bullied or learning negative physical behaviors is less of a concern (assuming his class remains fairly similar)
  • CB’s class is diverse (on many levels)
  • CB is thriving and appears to enjoy going to school
  • The classroom is quiet which helps CB to focus and not be distracted by other sounds
  • CB performs best in a structured environment and the program is very structured
  • The preschool introduces the concepts CB will need to master in kinder. CB needs to perform tasks over and over before he learns them. Getting the extra practice is very important for CB.
  • We plan to keep CB in public school if we can so CB is learning early what to expect.
  • CB receives 2 speech therapy sessions provided by the school a week
  • The program incorporates the handwriting without tears principles, which we think the multi-sensory method will be easier for CB to learn his letters.
  • Although, the class is more rigid than we prefer (especially for a 3 or 4 year old), we realized that CB needs more rigidity than we prefer.
  • Even though CB’s teacher is more firm than we prefer, CB is doing very well in the class.
  • We hope this will boost his confidence b/c he will have a good foundation for starting kinder the following year.
  • We can always transfer him to the private language school if the public preschool system is not working out.

Homeschooling is not a serious consideration. CB performs well for his teachers and therapists but fights Olem & I tooth and nail at home when we recommend an activity he is unsure he wants to do.

Glowing Glances: Last Tuesday, we visited a pediatric therapy play gym CB has played at 2x before. They have all sorts of equipment used by physical therapists, including a ball pit, rock climbing wall, kid-size building blocks, 7 different types of swings, and much more. CB tried all 7 different types of swings comfortably and enjoyed them :). On one of the swings where you stand on the triangular base and hold on to the ropes, CB was jumping while the swing was moving in circles. I can’t believe it!!

UPDATE 6/17/15: We are still hesitant about the public preschool due to the requirement for him to go M-F 7:45-2:00. We plan to try to use the dual enrollment option to have CB attend public preschool M-TH 7:45-2:00, with the exception of getting out a little early on Mondays for private speech therapy. On Fridays, I plan to home school him. This will provide more time for playdates with his typically developing friends, outdoor play, time with his younger brother who greatly influences him, and time that I can spend with him :).  Our state law “made the decision to allow 3- and 4-year-olds to be dually enrolled to give them more opportunities to interact with their typically developing peers”. The students can be enrolled in public/private school or public/home school.

May 21, 2015 Education, , , 0 Read more >

Allergy Report & First Food Reintroduction

CB is 4 years old …

Life is going well here in our little household. Olem and I are both thinking positively and just enjoying life. It is easy to see how CB’s behavior can be quite linked to our moods and reactions. CB is having a great week at school. I guess the aggression last week was either tied to the return to school after our trip and/or the reintroduction of fish oil after a 5 day break due to our little vacation. CB is still a bit off. His therapists mentioned that he did a good job and performed what was asked but that he struggled more and seemed more foggy-headed than he has been lately. When things like this happen, we immediately start looking into what is going on with him outside of therapy to see if there is a logical or easily-identifiable reason. CB is experiencing some seasonal allergies which may be contributing to these struggles. We now think the rash on his bottom is potentially linked to his seasonal allergies. We also found out he has to wear non-elastic underwear. The elastic irritates his skin.

We got 90% of his allergy report back and were pleasantly surprised. He only showed an allergy to mold (indoor and outdoor) and a borderline potential for a peanut allergy. Olem had allergy shots as a kid and was allergic to a long list of things so we really expected to see similar results for CB. CB’s nutritionist had recommended back in January that we hold off performing an allergy test b/c she felt the report would show a lot of false positives since his nutrition report showed several vitamin deficiencies and the selective IGA deficiency. I posted more about that at my Current Diet and Supplements post. Since his latest nutrition report showed that his body is in a much improved state, we decided to move forward with the allergy report.

We reintroduced plain whole milk yogurt (first casein protein introduction) yesterday into CB’s diet. He had a small amount yesterday afternoon and a small amount this afternoon. So far, he hasn’t shown any noticeable reaction. We really hope he can have yogurt again. We think CB for sure had, and potentially still has, leaky gut issues. Since his body is no longer reporting malabsorption issues, we thought it would be a good time to start reintroducing foods. We know the modified diet has helped, but we don’t know 100% why or what specific components have helped his body. Our plan is to reintroduce foods slowly, monitor CB’s body, emotional, and physical response, and have another nutrition report performed in 6 months. Hopefully, we will see some changes in one form or another that tell us when his body is having problems with a specific type of food. By performing the nutrition report in 6 months, we will be able to see if any vitamin deficiencies or malabsorption issues have returned.

Positive progress: CB stayed dry all night and urinated in the toilet on his own first thing in the morning. His sleep was very interrupted last night b/c of his younger brother. There is the chance he didn’t get to sleep as deeply and was able to control it better. Still, it is a great step for CB! Also, CB’s vestibular system is integrating more fully. He requested more types of swings during OT and at the pediatric therapy play gym and seems way more comfortable.

 

May 14, 2015 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, , , , , 0 Read more >

The Little Light Switch and Nutrition Report Update

Just like everyone, CB has his on days and his off days. Well, lately his behaviors have been wavering quite a bit so it is more like he has his good moments and bad moments. Yesterday during his OT session, he was so positive and took everything head-on. He laughed while working with the OT on the spinning board. He actually was laughing. Just a few months ago, he was super scared and required the security of the OT riding with him just so he could tolerate it for a few spins. Whatever the OT suggested, he was on board and didn’t put up his usual walls. Most of the time for CB, his first reaction to any suggestion is no. He immediately jumps to the “I can’t do it” mentality and gets frustrated from the get go. We are currently working with him to try to shift his perspective, calm down, and try the task a few times before getting frustrated. So that was a very positive and “on” moment for CB. Today during swim class, he was totally off and sensory-seeking. He was moving the entire time and either splashing, putting water on a classmate, dumping over swim container baskets, or just not paying attention. He even was pretty off when he was in the water with his swim teacher. It is so hard to figure out what CB needs to feel focused and comfortable. Both his OT session and swim class immediately followed a nap so it isn’t like for one class he was really active beforehand and not for the other.

On another note, we got his nutrition report back and he is not vitamin-deficient anymore – yay! Now, he is still a little low on iron based off his ferritin and UBC levels, but the values continue to increase. His Immunoglobulin A levels have increased a bit. They are still low but he has moved out of the selective IGA deficiency range. We know he can produce some IGA, at least. He also had quite a low homocysteine level, slightly low WBC, slightly low carbon dioxide, slightly high vitamin e, and slightly high vitamin a levels. So most likely he still has some inflammation or bleeding. We still haven’t done the organics acid test b/c it requires the patient to not eat apples, pears, grapes, cranberries or their juices w/in 24 hours of providing the sample, and to pee in a cup first thing in the morning before eating or drinking. This is honestly too difficult right now to take on. We tried in early Jan and it was a disaster. Once CB gets in the habit of peeing in the morning before breakfast, then we will try it.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, CB will have his blood drawn for the food and seasonal allergy test. We know CB is allergic to processed soy and has seasonal allergies just based off observation. He is also battling a rash on his bottom, which appeared on and off for several months, and has shown symptoms like he may have some other food allergies. We will see if the test tells us much.

For a therapy update, CB’s ST has started incorporated straw therapy a week and a half ago. CB thrusts his tongue out when drinking from a straw. In regards to the PT developmental exercises I am performing at home with CB to work on integrating his retained primitive reflexes, this is a challenge. CB puts up a fight almost every time we perform the exercises. I need to work on a new strategy so it is not a battle. He typically doesn’t actually mind most of the exercises once we get started. It is the starting part that is so hard for him.

Glowing Glances: We visited a new park and a new children’s museum during a trip we took this past week and CB owned the playscapes. He climbed new play gyms that were not just like the ones he has seen at other parks. For CB, he has to perform tasks over and over and over before he can be successful at a task. Even then, he can forget how to do something depending on the day or environment. So it was so encouraging to see him be able to use his skills he has used in other contexts and apply them to new situations and environments. He also regularly says “of you or of ew” when prompted. Even though it is prompted, it still fills me with joy to hear him repeating the phrase “I love you”. Oh, and he regularly thanks me ” tank you or tank ew” for dinner and says “ih good”. 🙂

May 7, 2015 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Growth and Progress, Therapy, , , , 0 Read more >