Dyspraxic Journey

Tag Archive: vision therapy

Will we be moving?

The latest news with our family is that we are highly considering moving further out of town. I recently have reached out to more parents with children with special needs that live in my neighborhood to get their thoughts about our local elementary. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great school and one of the best in the entire area; however, I have received very mixed results from the parents of children with special needs. This is disheartening. I have talked with other parents with children with special needs that live in a smaller school district nearby who rave about their school system. This would also give us the chance to own more land, get more space, and live closer to the water. There is also a community space we can join with a pool, park and lake access. That could be a great option for meeting neighbors. We would live less in the middle of everything which has its benefits and drawbacks.

Our 3 week road trip ended last week. Lots of positive memories, genuine family visits, and the chance to get away from the heat. The kids traveled well, but man, I was exhausted when things were said and done. For all the positives, there was 2 solid days on the road, tension due to the stress of traveling, and the fact that these road trips really get us out of our element and get us thinking about our lives. Things surface that you may not be expecting. When we got back, I told myself that we need to find a different option for next year. However, just over a week later, I may have to already change my mind :). For all the tension, it may be a good thing for that tension to surface. Maybe with 3 summer road trips with the kids, we will be more prepared and aware of what comes from these trips. Plus, Olem was already in a questionable place so traveling with kiddos may not be the most relaxing and stress-free thing to be doing. The last 2 road trips have required us to rush back as there were other trips that got added to the end of the summer road trip. For this year, Olem had to fly out for work the day after he got back. (more…)

August 18, 2016 Growth and Progress, Therapy, Worries, Fears, & Ramblings, , 0 Read more >

Argh…this restricted diet is getting to me

CB is 4 years old …

CB is handling his restricted diet beautifully. He eats most anything we put in front of him, and responds well in situations where he can’t eat something his friend is eating. The generic “I’m sorry honey but that will hurt your tummy” response seems to work fine, at least for now. I am very grateful for this; however, for the last week or so, I keep imagining our family eating out wherever and eating whatever. I find myself hoping that his progress is not connected to his restricted diet. I picture a fridge full of full fat milk yogurt, cheese sticks, cream cheese, and ice cream. OK, can you tell I am missing milk products? I make our coconut milk yogurt, coconut milk kefir, almond milk, and on occasion we have Dayla cream cheese. They suffice but I really miss animal-based milk. I also imagine a time where I am not making so much of our food and we have a clean kitchen most of the time. I seriously am not keeping up with all the cooking AND keeping the kitchen totally clean. Maybe I just need to order a supermom cape. Once I tie the cape around my neck, I will instantly be the SuperMom I would like to be. One can hope!

So, within the next week, CB will have more bloodwork done to see how his nutrition levels are. We hope this will help us to see if the diet is helping his body, to ensure he is not having any new vitamin deficiencies, and to look at a few more factors we haven’t tested for before.

CB’s OT & ST started including the ILS (Integrated Listening System) as part of his therapy. With his first OT session with the ILS headphones, he was able to ride his balance bike (a bike with no pedals) smoothly down the hall w/no headphones on. After his OT put headphones on him, he was super wobbly trying to ride the balance bike down the hall. Surprisingly by the 2nd session, he was functioning quite well with the headphones on. His ST is also providing mouth and tongue tactile input to help him be more aware of the different parts of his mouth. This should help him to be able to move his tongue, lips, and jaw more independently. CB has this issue with his entire body. He has a hard time moving various body parts independently. His OT also performed some vision exercises with him immediately following spinning exercises. It is so good to see auditory and vision therapy being incorporated in his OT and ST sessions.

Glowing Glances: CB is stringing more and more words and more and more syllables together. Before swim lessons, HB was crying b/c he didn’t want to stay in the dressing room. CB’s first impulse was to hit HB so I mentioned that CB should instead tell his brother he was sorry he was sad or ask how he could help.  CB hugged his brother and said “I sorry your sad”. It was such a beautiful sentence.

Progress: CB has been dry for the past 3 days! We changed his potty reward system to reflect a new system where he gets a car if he stays accident free for a day. We made this change about a week ago. It looks like we now get to update it to be something like he gets a car if he is accident free for 3 days in a row. The interesting thing is that the point of the rewards system is to serve as a motivator; however, CB asks for a car about every time he uses the potty. He cries about 1-2 times a day b/c he wants a car then. I am pretty  sure he doesn’t understand our current system and just waits for us to tell him he has earned a car. He doesn’t have much of an awareness of time, so it makes sense that this could be an issue for him. As I type this I am realizing, that our current chart system kind of blows and maybe our next one will be easier for him to understand.

April 22, 2015 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Therapy, , , , 0 Read more >