Sitting still

Kate and I went to listen to some music tonight.  There were supposed to be people singing, but they cancelled and some symphony players were there instead.  I told Kate it was classical music and she said she didn't really like that type of music.  But, when I asked her if she wanted to stay she said yes.  She kept asking me questions, always in a whisper.  I told her to wait until the musicians stopped playing, in the breaks between pieces, and ask her questions then.  And she did!!  One time she said that it seemed like we were in a castle because it was fancy and looked royal.  We were in the Tabernacle and there are really high ceilings, fancy molding, tall windows and chandeliers.  We ended up staying for about 35 mintues and then she said she was done.  I said we needed to wait until they were done playing and then we could go.  Without a word, she waited and when they were done, got up and followed me out quietly.

For me this was great because I love classical music and I love to go to the symphony.  It was the first time in a long time that we have been able to do that together and it was a really enjoyable experience.  No one turned around to look at us once!! LOL.  But, really, I was a happy mama. 


I had the 10th session meeting today with Brianna.  She gave me some more homework to do, but this time it is more fun stuff.  YAY.  We need that.  I will put up the areas that she moved up levels another time.

I hope I have good breath

Some days I don't know what to write.  Things happen so fast and then I can't remember what I've blogged about.  So here are some things I think I haven't talked about yet.

Not only is Kate getting dressed by herself, but she is putting her dirty clothes in the laundry basket.  She started doing it with quite alot of encouragement and then one day I walked in the room and saw the clothes that she had worn that day in the laundry basket.  She did it herself without me telling her to.  I was quite excited.  Of course, I didn't say anything, just kept my excitement to myself.  She is still sensitive about people commenting how much they like when she does x y or z.

Today we went jumping at the trampoline place with some friends.  It was fun to see her running around the tramps chasing or being chased.  We all had  a great time and most of us were tired by the end of the hour.  Her friend and partner at BB  could have stayed longer!  He has a ton of energy and is in really good shape!  The rest of us are getting there :)

We had a minor setback yesterday.  Kate was shown a car wash video and she couldn't stop talking about it basically for the rest of the day and into today.  It surely stimulated that left side.  It was a really good lesson for us both.  It reaffirmed my decision to avoid carwashes and carwash videos.  She hasn't had compuuter time in the last few months because it was creating such a disturbance.  It was so hard for her to find new things to do and not focus on carwashes for the rest of the day after she had been online.

I learned today that physical exercise helps to clear that obsession away.  Going to jump really helped to take the focus off carwashes and she was able to talk about a variety of things.  Being out of the house helps immensely.

So, since she has been in the program for a while, we are starting to pinpoint the areas that she gets stuck and encourage her to talk about other topics.  Anything that is new will stimulate the right side and that's what we want.  So, when she asks about carwashes or starts to play with carwash stuff, I have to redirect her and help her find an activity to do that is new.  She doesn't like it one bit.  Hopefully soon she will catch herself and not have to depend on me always telling her to find a new activity.  It is very challenging, but very necessary in order to get that right side strong.

The best part about yesterday was that my friend took Kate for a few hours.  I was so happy to have the place to myself.  I watched a video on Spain and pretended I was there eating tapas and strolling down Las Ramblas.  Beautiful.  And then I took a nap.  I had dinner all ready before Kate could utter the words "I'm STARVING!!!!"  That was nice not to hear that for the fifth time that day.  Thank you my friend!!!!

So it seems each week we are adding new things, reaaranging our schedule, putting things away that have been overused, and trying to keep it fun while switching everything up.  I am sorry to say that keeping it fun and positive have been a challenge for me lately, but I am doing the best I can. 

At the end of the day, at bedtime, Kate and I always make up.  We say our sorrys and snuggle, and she says funny things like "Mommy, I can smell your breath through your nose..."

Jill McCormick

This rocks my world.  Kate was listening to her talk at the beginning and said "Mommy, that's you!  That's what you say!" 

Oh Selena!

It is so great that Kate is in the shower and even better that she is enjoying it enough to sing. She doesn't know I took this recording of her, but I just had to.  She has been singing this song and trying to learn all the words.  I need to get some more songs for her to sing, as this one is turning repetitive.  But it is cute anyway.  She really likes Selena Gomez and likes the video to this song too.

Summer fun

We've been trying to get out of the house early in the mornings because it is already about 90 degrees by 10am sometimes.  Here is a fun park we went to last week. 

 Kate painted her toenails and thumbnails with watercolor pencils.  She scrubbed them and still couldn't get all the color off.  She is coming up with some pretty funny things to do lately.

Assessment #2!

Today it was so awesome to see how much Kate has progressed in just 3 months.  When you see the results just stop and think what it really means.  In some areas that part of her brain has developed 3 years, in just 3 months!!!  That is just amazing to me. 

I know I already posted the primitives but I will put them here again.  The interesting thing is that it shows, since she still has the primitive reflexes, that parts of her brain have not developed past an infant.  All of these reflexes should be gone by age 1, so the parts of the brain that govern these reflexes are still at that age.  So the most important thing for us to focus on is getting these primitive reflexes to integrate.  We want them GONE so she can really take off and not be held back by them anymore!!

The scale goes from 1(weak) to 4(strongest)  (0=GONE)

Rooting- started at a 4, now a 1:   I can tell a difference with this one!  She is less sensitive when I stroke her cheeks.  AND she has been swallowing small capsule supplements for the last few days, YAY!

Moro- started at a 2, now a 2:   We really want this to release, because it is the startle reflex.  It will help her to be more relaxed more of the time.

Grasp-  started at a 1, now a 1:  She is getting a stronger grip for sure, just not releasing the reflex yet.

ASTNR- started at a 2, now a 1

TLR- started at a 4, now a 2:   This is a big decrease!  Her neck muscles have gotten so much stronger and she can hold herself in a ball easier than at the beginning.

STNR- started at a 4, now a 1:  also shows the strength of the neck muscles and ability to hold her body still

Landau- started at a 2, now a 2:  no change, but she is getting a stronger core so it shouldn't be long

Spinal Galant- started at a 4, now a 3:  when this releases her body will be less sensitive to clothing, we are already seeing a change, that she can tolerate different clothes and textures a little, but when this reflex releases the textures won't bother her anymore.  Right now, she is just tolerating some different textures, but her body is still very aware that they don't feel very good.

I will just put the areas that she went up levels:

The most interesting of the assessment was the visagraph test.  She wasn't able to complete this test in the first assessment because it is timed and she wasn't a fast enough reader.  So, this time, she read a story and the computer tracked her eye movements while reading.  She understood 90% of the story and she read at a 1st grade, 5th month level. The amazing part was that the computer showed how her eyes moved as she read.  It is hard to explain, but basically showed that she doesn't read smoothly from word to word from left to right.  She is reading the words well, but her eyes are moving back and forth from left to right and then left again to part of a word she already read.  Does that make sense??  It was a little heartbreaking to think that I used to get frustrated with her because it was so hard for her to read.  Now, it is easy to see why she was having such a hard time.  Her eyes are not working together and they are not developed enough to move smoothly from one word to the next.  It really hit me that so many kids who have a hard time reading would benefit from this simple test.  And it would help parents and teachers so much to know how their eyes are or are not working.  Anyway, it was a real eye opener for me, and I have never really pushed reading for her.

Eye movements-OPK (ability to perform slow and fast eye movements) From level 6 to level 7

Pupillometry- sensitivity to light- from age 6 to age 8- so she is almost at age level for this!!  Her brain developed two years in this area!!

Auditory Processing- processing of sound- From age 10 to age 9- which is good! She is hypersensitive to sound, so she can hear us whispering from the other room!!  Hopefully we can get away with it a little better now :)  And she won't be so sensitive to all of the noises in crowded places and get overstimulated.

Fine motor-  From age 3 to age 6!!!  This is huge!  She progressed 3 years in just 3 months.  I am blown away by this.  So, I can see that it is easier for her to use twist ties and rubber bands.  She is able to write easier and has a stronger grip on markers and pencils.

PRNG- maturity of balance and equilibrium- from level 9 to level 13-  She is able to spin in circles now and not get dizzy.  We jumped around in circles on the trampolines and she was having a blast.  We never had to stop because she got sick, just because we were tired.

CORE
Supine- from age 4 to age 8, 4 years growth!!!
Prone- from age 6 to age 8
Lateral-  from age 4 to age 7
Brachiation(holding her body up above the monkey bar) from age 4 to age 11!!
Sit ups- from age 4 to age 5
Push ups- stayed the same at age 4, she is getting stronger but push ups are still hard for her although we work on them every day!
These core exercises are really important because they all are strengthening the right side of the brain.  So, to see so much growth means that her right side is getting stronger.

Gait and Aerobics-balance and using both sides of the brain at the same time- from age 4 to age 7!


This progress was fun to see on paper.  There are still some areas that are staying the same and they will focus on those this session.  We hope the primitives will fade away soon so that those parts of the brain can grow and develop to age level.  It is amazing to me that different parts of her brain can be at such different ages.  Some parts are at an infant level, some are at an 11 year old level, some an 8 year old, some a 5 year old.
 
So, for right now, even though we are seeing changes in Kate, some things will stay the same until we have the primitives gone and then the body and brain can develop and then we will see even more changes in the things Kate is able to do.  It is quite a process to witness.  But it is a process, first this, then that.  Tammy keeps saying "We are setting the foundation and the development will follow."  We will continue to see development throughout the next year, and beyond....

Little presents

Everyday, no matter the day, I keep seeing these little lights.  Sometimes they flicker quick and go out and sometimes they stay for a while and I drink in their beauty.  Staring in awe.  All it takes to see them is to quiet the mind, look carefully, look closely, with wonder.  Always wonder, what will I see next?  And wait with anticipation and excitement.  And you will see them too.

Grand Opening

We were lucky to attend the Grand Opening Party at Brain Balance this week.  Grandma Shauna, Aunt Linda and Grandma Linde came to the ribbon cutting.  Dr. Melillo was here and we got to meet him and ask him questions.  Kate asked if it was left brain(repetitive) to listen to the Brain Balance music 5 times a day :)  Dr. Melillo said no and Kate replied "I guess it's only left brain if it's things you like".  Haha.  She's got it!  Kate had fun with her friends playing in the sand and jumping in the bounce house.  And some of the food was on our diet, of course, so she was super excited to be able to eat lunch there.  She had 3 servings of the chicken!!  For once, we got to eat the food at a party  ;)

Sand box and some welcomed shade. 

Ribbon Cutting!

Kate, Aubree, and Andy's accomplishments



Dr Melillo

Later that evening, we attended a lecture by Dr. Melillo.  It was so helpful!  All that he was saying brought everything together for me in a clear way.  It was really inspiring.  Kate and Grandma Shauna were there and at one point, Kate leaned over to me and said "What is autism??"  Interesting. 

I will just share a few points that he talked about:

He talked alot about the functional disconnect in the brain of kids with learning differences, ADD, ADHD, ASD etc.  Basically, there are parts of the brain that are at different ages.  The brain didn't develop, for a variety of reasons, at the same rate.  So that is why we see kids who are brilliant in some areas and struggling in other areas. 

He talked about the brain being like a symphony.  If there are a few instruments playing out of tempo, then it affects the whole sound of the music.  You can't just tell all of those players to speed up, because maybe one of them is playing too slow.  You have to address each musician and have it play the right tempo.

So, the kids with the label ADHD have, say, 10 instruments(or parts of the brain) out of tempo. And kids with ASD(autism spectrum disorder) have 30 out of tempo.  We have to pinpoint what parts of the brain are out of tempo and either slow them down or speed them up to match the rest of the brain.  Then, the whole brain can work together.

The other interesting point he said was that people used to think that at conception the DNA was essentially wiped clean.  That the developing baby got a brand new set of DNA.  Now the research shows that all of the mom's and dad's marks(I can't remember what he called them, but all of the toxins, health issues, etc that affect the DNA) get passed on to the embryo. 


It was a really great talk.  I know I keep saying that, but it was the highlight of my week.  They are making a DVD of it so if anyone is interested, just let me know. 

The funniest part of the night was when Dr. Melillo said Aspergers and of course it sounds like ass-burgers.  Well, Kate looked at me with the funniest expression and pointed to her bum with this questioning look.  "Like???" and pointed to her bum again.  It was so funny.  I had to explain that the word starts with that sound but it is just a name.  She is cracking me up more and more as she becomes more aware.

Cars

The other day Kate and I played with this vehicle(I don't know what to call it, hehe) for at least 20 minutes.  It started by her rolling it to me across the carpet.  We played with it like that for a while.  Then we took it in the bathroom on the vinyl floor and tested it out there.  It was really fun!!  We have never really played with cars or vehicles, she was never interested.  Anyway, she got the idea for salamander to have a ride.  So we taped salamander to it and had fun zooming salamander around.  Kate would say these funny comments that salamander was saying, like "whoa, that was too fast" or "weeeeee" in salamander's funny voice.

It seems like a simple thing, but it is really big!  We were laughing and sharing this fun experience together, taking turns passing the vehicle back and forth, looking at each other in the eyes, and experimenting with how soft or hard to push it so it would go where we wanted.  And it was all new.  It was cool to see Kate enjoying it so much since it was something that she never paid attention to or enjoyed before.

Feel it

Everything is valid and everything is truthful, because Law of Attraction lets everything be. The question is not whether it's right or wrong, whether their approach is right or wrong, or whether my approach is right or wrong. The question is: Does their approach feel good to me? And if it doesn't, then I choose a different approach.

--- Abraham


I am into the Law of Attraction so this quote was especially meaningful to me today.  There are so many opinions about parenting and in the past I had a lot of them!!  In early childhood education there are standards and best practices and developmental models.  Billions of books are written on the subject each with their own flavor.  All of that is fine, but I am finding that lately it is more important for me to parent by what feels good to me.  When I see or learn new ways of doing something, I always notice how that feels to me.  Like today when I heard a mom in the store say "NOW!!" to her child.  I cringed when I heard it.  That doesn't feel good to me, even though I have said that to Kate a time or two.  And it was probably today, lol.  So, even though I do things that don't feel good to me, I notice those things and try next time to act in a way that does feel good.  It is a constant process for me, but noticing what feels good to me and my body helps me to discover who I am and how I naturally parent.  Books and education and other people can provide the ideas or approach, but each person finds what is meaningful.  And it's cool that everyone gets that chance to notice what feels good to them because we are each unique.

Back at it

After about a week at home, we are back and Kate had a session today.  So we are on a roll again.  Since she was sick for several days last week she has lost some strength and the exercises are very tiring again.  Once she gets back on the supplements and does some core exercises, I hope it will come back quickly.  The last few nights she has gotten to bed pretty late so hopefully tonight she can get some good sleep.  Yesterday was the Grand Opening Party!!  I will write about that later.  But, the coolest thing was that she referred to her BB partner as her friend. It was so sweet.  He is 10 and doesn't have many friends (according to his mom) but Kate thinks he is so funny. 

There has been a lot going on lately that I want to catch up writing about.  But, not tonight.  Just wanted to give a quick update.

Weird

THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle
www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove

 

:: Weird Is Good! ::

Our culture is full of contradictions. For example,
it's good to be unique and original, but it's not good
to go too far off the beaten path... "Don't be *weird*!"

But aren't uniqueness and originality weird by
definition?

So let's settle this once and for all: It's *good* to
be weird! In fact, the words *weird* and *worthy* have
the same root. (Really!)

If you subscribe to "The Daily Groove," you're
probably a weird parent. You don't *do* conventional
parenting, and you probably get strange looks from
parents who do. If you think they think you're weird,
it's because they do!

But only because YOU ARE! :-)

So get a piece of paper and write "Weird Things I Do"
along the top, then make a list... a LONG list.

When you're done, cross out "Weird Things I Do" and
change it to "Things I Appreciate About Myself!"

Now, whenever someone points out your weirdness, you
can proudly agree and accept the compliment: "Thanks!" :-)

 

Our family does some pretty "weird" stuff in the name of healing and wellness.  And I am so grateful for it!!!  We are benefitting so much, even if other people cannot or choose not to see it that way.  I am weird and so is my kid!  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sunblock

I know...I should be packing but I just had to write this down.

Today we went swimming.  It was 100 degrees!
Kate changed out of her pants and put her swim shorts on by herself without any hesitation.  AND, she didn't wear her jammy pants underneath like usual.  Then, she let me put sunblock on her!!  She hasn't let me do that for the past few summers.  She had so much fun playing with the kids.  AND, when it was time to go, we left.  Easily.  Smoothly.  No protesting.  Wow.

Primitives

We weren't able to do the assessment report today but I asked if Brianna could share the results to the primitives and she just called me!  All of our persistence and Kate's hard work has paid off.  She is losing her primitive reflexes!!

Here are the results from her 1st assessment in February:

The levels are from 1-4 with 4 being highest or most prominent:

Rooting-4
Moro-2
Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex-2
Grasp-1
Tonic labyrinthine reflex-4
Landau-2
Initial Spinal Galant-4
Symmetrical Tonic Neck reflex-4

Here are yesterday's results( I am missing some)

Rooting-1
Moro-2
Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex-1
Grasp-1
Tonic labyrinthine reflex-2
Landau-2
Initial Spinal Galant-3
Symmetrical Tonic Neck reflex-1

So, the bottom line is that we only have to do one exercise 5 times a day and that is snow angel which she likes anyway!  The rest we can keep doing 3 times a day.  So I am happy about that.  Of course, doing any of these 5 times a day will help them go away quicker, but right now we are both happy for a little break!!