Taking the Scenic Route

First some photos, then an update

Zane’s Therapy –

As it stands now, Zane’s schedule is going to be very full this fall.  He will have speech therapy Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs from two separate places, one where he has been going, and the other at the college.  The student that will be working with him at the college (hour and 15 minute sessions twice a week) came to observe him at his current speech therapy and is working closely with the professional speech therapists.  Her supervisor also has a special interest in ASD kids and is extremely excited to have a verbal ASD kid to work with, so will be following the sessions especially closely.  The student also stayed to observe the OT.

Also, the Occupational Therapist worked with the YMCA that is near us to form a private gymnastics class for Special Needs Kids.  I have a feeling I am the catalyst for deciding to actually form the class because it was something I specifically asked about…she then said that there were several other kids in the same range as Zane with motor planning and that it would definitely be a great idea.  A few weeks later, she had a flier for me listing the times the class meets and that it won’t be listed in the main catalog of classes.  I signed him up for the one that is the most convenient for us, and if the other class doesn’t fill, I might sign him up for that one too.

The only thing left is a possibility of doing hippotherapy.  I believe there is a waiting list, but our OT works at a great therapy riding place not too far away from here.  She said that the kids were all paired with Speech and Occupational Therapist and they do a lot more than just learning to ride horses…lots of therapy packed in to the sessions.  I am going to see about doing that too.  I think that will be a squeeze though.  I will have to see if it even works into the schedule at this point.

Zora -

Somehow my little girl turned 8 months old without me noticing.  wow.  It is going too fast already!  She is now on all fours rocking back and forth and trying to figure out crawling.  (she actually does it on purpose now, not just when she is so mad that she pushes herself up).  She has one tooth totally poking through and the other one has a corner peeking.  She is really frustrated that she can’t walk around.  She used to be satisfied with us just propping her up against something so she could stand, now she wants us to hold her hands so she can try and walk.  She wants to MOVE.  Any sitting still ticks her off.  She will be so much happier when she can move herself.  I suspect she is going to be one of those kids who never wants to sleep because she is scared she will miss something.

Solids are causing drama in our life, but it seems to be working itself out.  At first we thought she had normal tongue thrush, even though she is a bit old for that.  After we talked to Zane’s speech therapist, who also does feeding therapy, about what was exactly happening and she said it sounded like the middle muscles of her tongue were overdeveloped and that is likely what was causing the issues.  We kept using the big syringe that was originally used for syringe feeding when she was a newborn so that we could get the food in her, but kept feeding her with a spoon also, working to push down on the middle of her tongue with both things.  She is starting to be able to eat with a spoon now and keep most of it in her mouth. 

The solid food also caused constipation.  I suspect it was the crackers we gave her in a restaurant this week that caused the main problem.  I have never dealt with constipation in a kid before, so I felt like a first-time mom when trying to figure out how to deal with it.  lol.  Poor baby.  She has now gotten past that and has more normal poos, but it is just amazing how pooping is once more a major topic of conversation around here.  lol.

Cool Zane thing –

Earlier this week we went out to eat.  We were showing Zane the kid’s menu to help him pick something to eat (life is so much easier since he started responding to choices).  They had little cartoon drawings of most of the menu items and we were pointing to those and asking “chicken strips…” ect.  Halfway through the list, he points to the WORD (not the picture, in fact there wasn’t a picture of it) “hamburger” and says “hamburger”.  It didn’t register immediately what he just did, so I just ask if he wants cheese on his burger.  (yes, btw).  After a bit though, it dawns on me that he pointed to the word, and to top it off, the PECs card we have for his choice board doesn’t have the word “hamburger” on it, it has “burger with cheese”.  Another confirmation that he is, in fact, reading.

He also spells, without prompts, “cat” and “dog”.  He surprised his OT by demonstrating that this week.  Another interesting point, he used the lower case “a” and produced it correctly.  The writing is not spectacular, but readable.  Considering I concentrate heavily on all upper case letters (easier to write), it was a surprise that he spontaneously used lower case letters.

We have suspected for well over a year now that he could read and spell and it is really exciting to finally see him demonstrate it.  If that is what he is willing to show us, I suspect he knows much, MUCH more.  There is a long lag between when he understands a skill to when he willingly demonstrates it.  He has to feel like he has mastered it before he will demonstrate it.