Friday, May 20, 2011

Busy week... Speech IEP, OT evaluation and a diagnosis

We picked up Lillian's glasses last Saturday. The first couple of days were a little challenging but she has been doing much better. She will still take them off but, I simply clean them off and place them back on her face and usually don't even make a big deal about it. :D

This past Tuesday, we had an IEP meeting with her "home" school for the Speech Therapy that will start in September. I will have to drive her in twice a week for therapy. She was marked "to intelligent" for the Pre-school program through the Public schools. Oh, I'm not complaining that she is "too intelligent" but, what she is dealing with she could easily fall through the cracks... Well, if she had different parents. :D We'd NEVER allow that to occur. The meeting went well and we are looking forward to getting her started.

Today, Early Intervention returned for an OT consult. They mailed me a "sensory profile" a couple of weeks ago to fill out. They also recommended reading "The-Out-Of-Sync-Child." I was able to get a copy from our Library . Ken and I found it VERY insightful! We decided to order a copy of it along with "The out of sync child has fun" and "Raising a sensory smart child."

Back to the evaluation, we learned that Lillian has a Auditory Processing disorder (normal everyday sounds affect her. She cringes or acts fearful to normal noises while saying... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.) She is classed in the "Over stimulation" category here. This is like there being "no filter" in noisy or busy places. We have always been watchful in how she responds to outside stimulus. She has ALWAYS "overstimulated." We do things in baby steps to help her adjust to situations. We have also been telling her (but not to wordy) what we are doing... ie: Our meeting at the school was at 7:20am. She typically wakes up around 7am. So, I knew that I would have to wake her up. In the past when I have gone in to wake her she has been a real "apple" (crab apple..lol) so, Monday night when I was putting her to bed, I simply said, "Mommy is going to wake you up tomorrow morning because we have to go bye-bye early." She did fabulous! I went in and she sat up and said "Momma wake me up." VERY smooth transition!

She has a Tactile Processing disorder. Under stimulation or sensory seeking. Tactile processing affects touch... so she will kick me when I am changing her, pull my hair, hit me, or she wants to kiss and hug and will ask to touch everything and everyone. While that is VERY sweet, other children are not overly perceptive to hugging a stranger... So, we are teaching her socially acceptable behaviors that will allow her to gain what she "craves." We are teaching her to give "five" to her peers... That way it's not perceived as "odd" behavior and she is able to gain the "touch" that she craves. We will be starting OT monthly. The OT that we met with today said that she was impressed that we have been so insightful to her and she is doing a very good job of getting what she needs and self regulation.

She is also "borderline" for a Visual Processing disorder.. we are going to watch this as she continues to wear her glasses and adjust to them.

Some children are overly sensitive, and others under sensitive and then there are the cases where they are a combination (which is the most difficult because no one knows how the child will be from one day to the next) She suffers from a combination.  We roll with it and allow her to "dictate" how and what we do for the day. Having said that.. that doesn't mean that she runs the house. It simply means that I follow her cues and adjust and alter when and where I need to. There have been times when  I have had to reschedule things b/c I knew that she would not be able to tolerate what we had planned.

Causes of SPD (sensory processing disorder) can be Inherited or Prenatal or Birth Complications have been implicated. We are so grateful that there is treatment and we are able to help Lillian. She will always have to live with this but her brain can be retrained to a degree  and she will be able to learn coping skills. 

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