Bird on the Street

Since You Asked

10:46 pm

Well, several of you asked, so I tried to get a little video of Charlie’s walking practice. It’s not that his walking is so fantastic–it’s how much he seems to enjoy it. He was pretty tired, but we still got a little work in. This video shows me three things:

It’s a menagerie up in here. Seriously, what’s with all the animals?
My rear end is not something that needs to be seen on camera.
I think that maybe the steps Hub is making are too big–what do you think?

Don’t worry about how he’s slumped at the end. The iPad is on the couch and he *must* to lean in close. After a little bit he straightens up nicely.

Filed Undertherapy

Unit on School

2:32 pm

Unit on School

Key Terms: school, bus, pencil, eraser, crayon

(note: I used a classic red school house pic because Charlie’s classroom is also red. If you can get a picture of your child’s actual school, that would be ideal)

Objectives: The child will recognize the above school-related items by sight.

Activities

School Bus Changing Station: This has become our go-to activity because it provides such great reinforcement and interaction. Simply put, I created buses out of sticky-backed foam and put them on the wall above his changing area. I don’t have a picture because Charlie’s “interaction” involves ripping pieces off the wall and chewing on them, and throwing them on the floor. This time I took a little tip from Ellen and tried to incorporate some PT into it as well. So we changed him in the other direction to try to get him to use his right hand. No dice. He just reached over with his left. Still, great way to keep the learning going throughout the day.

Pretend School House: Playing pretend is a cognitive skill and I have no idea if Charlie knows how to do it or not. My guess is no, so we’re working on it. I painted a diaper box to look *roughly* like a school and then rolled up a plastic bus that we had and had the occupants get off the bus and go into the school. I didn’t have any people that were the right size so this bus had a driver, a chick, a pig, and one very tiny man. diaper box school craft

Same/Different: Another new concept for us. We would show Charlie three buses and then have him tell us which one was different. He wasn’t real interested, but you can bet we’ll be repeating same/different for a while. same different activity

School Sensory Bin: I filled a bin with rice and then added school supplies: erasers, pencils, and crayons. Charlie then got to explore the bin. He was real excited to touch the things inside until he felt the rice–apparently rice is disgusting to Charlie. Funniest part is when a piece got in his mouth–I’ve never seen him stick his tongue out that far before.

Finger-painted School Bus: I cut out a bus shape and then Charlie finger painted it yellow. After it dried, we glued it to a white sheet of paper and then glued on two black bottle caps for wheels. This came out really cute and Charlie is getting better and better at painting. school bus craft Book We Enjoyed

Wheels on the Bus: Raffi Songs to Read by Raffi. Charlie is still pretty unimpressed by books, so anything that we can sing is good. This is just the Raffi song as a book.

Filed Underthematic units

Best Neuro Appointment Ever

11:44 pm

On Thursday we found ourselves back at the neurologist. I used to dread doctor’s appointments–every time I went there was some new thing that was WRONG and BAD and NEEDED TO BE FIXED RIGHT THIS SECOND. Ugh. It was like a report card with all F’s. Things are more stable now–appointments don’t tend to end in a surgery recommendation or a life-altering diagnosis-but I still look forward to them with the same level of excitement as someone about to get a mammogram.

This was, hands down, the best visit we’ve ever had at the neurologist’s office.

I told her all about the school nurse’s concerns about possible sleep seizures. Doc thought it was unlikely.

I told her about concerns the nurse had a bout his shaking eyes. Doc doesn’t think it’s a seizure.

I told her the nurse thought we might need a 24 hr eeg. Doc disagrees.

I asked her about when Charlie giggles in his sleep, could that be a seizure? She thought not.

She acknowledged that there’s always the possibility that Charlie has the occasional seizure that we don’t pick up on, but as long as he continues to progress and develop like he is, she thinks we should continue to do what we’re doing. It was the most laid back I’ve ever seen her with regards to Charlie. I even had to remind her that we needed an EEG.

She marveled at his vision. Marveled. This was a woman who wasn’t convinced he could see at all.

She assured me that Charlie’s issues with over-heating are definitely related to brain injury. She said it’s extremely common and assured me that I was not being overly-crazy.

Boy fingerpainting

Speaking of crazy, I know I’ve told y’all about how Charlie’s vaccinations are all messed up and how we are now proceeding very slowly with getting him vaccinated against some of the biggies. Next on my list was the DTaP, but several of my amazing readers told me that the D part is contra-indicated for some cases of Epilepsy, so I held off until I could talk to her about it. You know what she said? She said, “I’d risk as little as possible–you need the tetanus.” If you’ve ever tried to talk to your doctor about alternatives, you know how rare and wonderful that response is. She actually recognizes the work and effort we’ve put in and how far we’ve come with Charlie. She wants to protect what we’ve accomplished. I’m like verklempt over here or something.

Now I just have to find someone who offers a plain tetanus shot to three-year-olds. I called our regular pediatrician’s office and her nurse called me back to tell me, “uhhhh, we don’t offer that. Dr. So and So (not our doc–just some other doc in the office) says it should be fine as long as the epilepsy is controlled.” Ummmm, forgive me if I don’t give a flip what some regular, not-even-our-freakin doctor has to say about my decision to rigorously protect my child’s brain. Especially since I know he didn’t pull out a file or anything. Gah. So I’ll have to go elsewhere–and probably pay out of pocket–but that’s fine.

We wrapped things up with a prescription for some private PT. Charlie is so into walking right now we’re going to see if we can get some extra time in on that. I also got all my paperwork signed so I can get a handicap license plate. That’s where we’re supposed to park for school, so we need to get one.

So, yeah, great visit. Still have to get past the EEG, but hopefully that will be fine too. In the mean time I’m just going to be happy about where we are right now.