Journy Learning Center Open House 12/6/08

Today was the Journey Learning Center's open house. I brought Noah and Trey met us there - it was pretty amazing. One of the OT's, took Trey, Noah and me to their Sensory Gym. It was absolutely amazing. She spent over an hour with us and observed Noah. The first thing she noticed was that Noah had flat feet and needed orthodics. She showed Trey, Noah's pronation. She explained that orthotics could help help Noah's balance and gross motor skills immensly. Trey fortunately works with a lot of podietrist and feels that he can get one of them to help fit Noah.

She explained that there are two different "types" of Sensory Integration disorder. One in which the child needs help stimulating their senses, the other is which the child can't control the level of stimulation of their senses. Noah has trouble controling his. It's almost like he's on a sensory "high" and the more he is in a stimulating environment the more out of control he is.... and this works with his speaking, behavior, mood... everything.

She is a big advocate of skin brushing and a listening technique. She said that the listening technique (which is basically a headset with a very specific rythmatic CD), is used to help control the over or under stimulation of a child with Noah's disorder. What's really cool about it, is that you can continue to use the CD's well into the childs upbringing. ...

Definitely more to come!...

11/27/08

Thanks Giving.

Man... I'm not sure Noah could have been cuter with my Papa today. He was so 'lovey' with him. You can't help but have your heart melt when your child loves on your own Grandparent. I can't even imagine the joy my Grandfather must have felt. I hope that I can experience that some day with Noah's children's children.... (strange when you put it that way!)

Anyhow, he seems to do very well at my parents. As you ALL know, they have a very clean and organized home. I know you'll all find this surprising, but my Mom let's the grand kids go pretty much nuts with the toys so long as they pick them up at the end of the night. (Go Mary!!) Anyhow, between the 1 hour baths with Jacob and Amanda and playing with blocks on the stairs, Noah was in Heaven. I do think that he likes the calmness of their home...

He did show have a hard time when Jacob would pull out his toy power drill...Noah HATED the sound it made and would scream at the top of his lungs for Jacob to turn it off. I notice the same thing with my hairdryer and with the coffee grinder ... Noah literally comes into the bathroom to tell me to turn off my hairdryer. The vacuum used to bother him, but I used to put him on my shoulders while I vacuumed and he seems to have adjusted to the sound now. (and Mama got QUITE the workout - ha!).

11/28/08

Noah mowed through some "nut-thins" crackers. They are gluten-free... I didn't even realize that when I gave them to him. The next day, he had to huge poops that were not as hard for him 'to go' as usual. I'm very intrigued by this nutrition thing and am reading into it as much as possible. I want to get Noah's blood work done so that I can see if he has any food allergies.

11/23/08

We (Dad, Stephen, Teresa, Jacob and Amanda) and Noah all went to the Cowboys game today. It was fun and Noah was fascinated, but it was VERY stimulating for him. I had to pretty much be over the top, on my toes all day because he couldn't seem to find a "content" zone bc there was so much energy everywhere. He can't seem to relax when he gets set-off. .... He wouldn't really go to anyone accept me (which isn't normal with Jacob around). He would occasionally sit on Stephen's lap and my Dad's, but like I said above, normally, you can't get him away from Jacob. He wouldn't hardly be with him at all?? Today kind-of went back to my Halloween observations.. fun day, but exhausting.

11/21/08

Went to JLC this morning....absolutely amazing! Mary read Noah's entire eval and definitely thought he'd be a good candidate for the OT program. Also, since we are catching his condition early, she feels that he would probably progress quickly through the program.... she even said the he could potentially graduate in a year. (She noted that that assumption was based off his current efforts to immulate my behavior leads... like hugging, etc.) Noah will hug complete strangers if he sees me hug someone. I'm definitely a "safe zone" for him. He sees my behavior as a safe and "ok" if he immitates. I walked through the OT gym and was VERY impressed. Mary discussed how each station worked on different sensory needs. The swings are what I found the most fascinating. The different rocking/swinging motions help center his mind. I can't wait to try the swinging on Noah. I really think he will take to it. Not only does JLC offer OT, but they offer 2 hours of speech a week and also half day school (I personally think Noah is too advanced for the school though). I left there with high hopes. I took Noah to see his peditrician this afternoon. I REALLY do not like her. She sucks. She hadn't read Noah's eval before she walked in the room and after 5 minutes in the room with him said that his diagnosis was apraxia (which we already know a year ago) and ADHT?? I do NOT agree with her, but whatever. Her bedside manner was horrible. Sh didn't even touch Noah.... she only "shoed" him away. She told me I needed to discipline him differently, but I pretty much don't want her opinion on anything. I really needed Trey there tonight because I think what "good" she may have to offer Noah, she would have been more likely to show if Trey challenged her with his medical background and knowledge. He had a case and couldn't get there unfortunately :(. Trey and I went to dinner tonight. He's not sold on the nutrition thing, but did agree that we need to get Noah a new Ped. She did say she would refer Noah to a Neuro & Pyschological Doc. I don't have their names nor the referral yet because I didn't have my new insurance card with me and they wouldn't refer w/o proof of insurance. Man! Ugh! I'm really stressed about how much Noah's care is going to cost, but I have the utmost faith that it will all work out. The Big Man has a plan for us.

11/20/08

Took Noah to Speech today and spoke at length with Annette. They recommended two different Neuro/Behavioral Ped Docs. One isn't taking any more patients and the other hasn't called me back yet. They also recommeded the Journey Learning Center (JLC). I called the JLC this afternoon and spoke with the founder, Mary, who's an OT. She has over 25 years of Ped experience who are On the Spectrum (Autistic) and/or that have Sensory Integration disorders. I meet with her tomorrow morning.

11/16/08

Mom and I have been reading a lot! Just getting the diagnosis from Bea and Darian, Noah's behavior seems to make so much more sense. He doesn't like certain noises = hairdryer, vacuum, coffee grinder... he immediately tells me to "turn off" or to "stop". I can only imagine what noises are setting him off during the day at Creme. Once he's set off, he becomes whiney, clingy and almost hyper active. He can't seem to sit still. It's almost like he's looking for a way to calm himself, so he goes from task to task, which only causes the cycle to intensify. I have found that getting down to his level, holding his shoulders and counting slowly and asking him to breathe seems to help. Singing also helps. (he really likes the Red song). It's hard to get him to calm down though in a very stimulating environments like the Halloween party. After only 30 minutes of being outside with everyone and everything (...fyi...my neighborhood went ALL out for Halloween... we had two bounce houses, a hay ride and a full blown haunted house that they built out in my garage...for those of you that don't know... I have a ridiculous 4 car garage) he asked to go inside and watch TV. It's hard to be at an "event" like that with him because you never know if he knows to stay close by... also, he doesn't have any concept of consequences (which I'm sure most 3 yr old don't...but I'll journal more on his 'lack of fear' later). The other thing is you don't know what will trigger and onset of 'over stimulation' & when an onset occures, he's not predictable and is likely to remove himself from the environment with no notice.

11/14/08

ECI/PPCD Evaluation

Noah was evaluated by the Keller School District today. I was NOT impressed with what they have to offer and the lack of timeliness. He passed sight and hearing tests. We were pretty creative on his hearing test... still don't understand why they didn't want me with him during the testing? He failed the speech test, which was no surprise. He is scheduled for another, more thorough eval for the TALK program on Jan 13th.... yes, a full TWO months. After his eval with KISD, the earliest he can be placed and just in the TALK program would be the end of January. He would then have to show delays in the gross motor skills to be evaluated for the full PPCD program (which is only 1/2 days).

Noah's Eval

Since I'm starting this Blog after I've been journaling for about a month, I'm back dating and catching up. :)

Noah was evaluated by Diarian and Bea today (11.7.08). They spent about two and a half hours with him. The things they noticed:

1) Noah was in a quiet environment and was more susceptible to interaction
2) He loved the steps and got going faster and faster on them as time went on
3) He loved interacting with all the therapist but didn't follow instructions

They indicated that Noah has a Neurological/Sensory integration Disorder. He showed tendencies of autism.

1) Lack of fear
2) Repetition
3) Sensitivity to sounds
4) Sensitivity to touch