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Thursday, April 30, 2009

School Evaulation

Today was our school evaluation, so far so good and nothing that I did not expect.

Douglas failed speech, he can not say R's or S's and then there is his oral sensory issues. He however Passed OT with flying colors (intervention works) I have some paper work I have to fill out, the sensory profile etc. This he will not pass which will qualify him for OT. He however passed on kindergarten readiness. Again I contribute this to the awesome preschool we have been attending and therapy.

Kalie qualifies for speech under articulation only, and sailed through on fine motor and gross motor skills.

Now my shocker. JM is not only ready for kindergarten they said that he could easily go in first grade, okay this is my most severe SP child. I am so proud of him. His gross motor and fine motor skills were awesome, his speech articulation only.

How did we do this, we have been in therapy since they were a year old. I work with them every day and we know what to do when we get upset, what works for us and what does not work for us.

I am so proud of my big kids...

Monday, April 27, 2009

JM has a bad day at Church- one step forward, one step back

Yesterday was not a good day for John Michael at church, he was so overly excited all day long and nothing I could do would calm him down. He got in trouble at Sunday School, Kid Jam and then again at Mission Friends. He just could not seem to center himself no matter what any of us did.

I tried joint compression, deep pressure and even quiet time. The only thing that got him settled was putting him to bed. He went right to sleep and woke up a different child. He was great at school today. IN fact his teacher was very impressed with how well he was behaved.

So one bad day equals one really good day. One step forward, one step back.

We also did his parent teacher conference today. I was very happy with the results of his progress in class and how far he has come this year. He is writing his name, knows all his letters, numbers and shapes. So all good news on that front.

His teacher thinks he would do well in Kindergarten but that I should separate him fro the other two and maybe all three should be in their own room. But that is a different topic all together.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

The boys get a wish..





For some reason my boys love helicopters, or as they say hepocopters, this past Wednesday the Church sponsored safety night, which included fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, the fire trailer and you would know it Helicopter, a life flight helicopter. Talk about two little boys that were beside themselves with excitement all day long..

Here they are dreams come true

Friday, April 24, 2009

John Michael, sensory avoider.

John Michael is my sensory avoider, he has a very hard time calming down and he was the first to be diagnosed with SPD. When he was much younger he had a hard time walking on grass, would not play with sand and could not stand to get dirty in any way. He would not eat any messy food and would only wear certain clothes.

Once this child gets upset or is focused on something he can not get it off his mind. We have to do lots of deep compression with JM and when he was younger had to make him swing and would wrap him tight in blankets to help calm him.

We noticed JM's inability to self calm when he was a year old, the other two were doing much better, they would get upset and be able to calm them selves down, JM on the other hand would stay upset. He could not let go of what ever he was fixated on and seemed to get really upset when you would make changes in our routine in any way.

Now to help him adjust to changes we always talk with him about them in advance, we let him know at least a day ahead of time that we are going to be doing something different the next day. We talk about it a good bit and build it up so that he is aware of the changes and can deal with them more.

This year at school he decided he wanted to see how the toilet worked so he stuck his head in it, thank goodness it had recently been flushed. He told me he wanted to see how the water would feel on his head. He loves WATER, however washing his hair is difficult. As well as getting any water in his eyes. He screams.

JM has very sensitive eyes, has to always wear glasses. His gross and fine motor skills are delayed as well as his speech.

He is my biggest concern once school starts.

Therapy has helped him a great deal and while this touches on some of his issues, you get the idea of what is going on with him.

Thanks again for reading.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

People never sease to amaze me

The boys are playing five year old t ball this year, tonight they had one of their games. The team has eleven players on it, they can only play ten players at a time, well the batting coach came to the conclusion that seeing how I had two boys playing that it would be okay for one of them to always be on the bench. She starts Douglas, and JM starts the game not playing, then at 30 minutes into the game she pulls Douglas and puts JM in.

I get that not every child can play the entire game, but could she please just allow them to play one game through.

Keith asked her tonight why was it that our boys were always pulled, her response. was well you have two playing, this way one is on the field at all times. Gee lady, you really think that is fair to my kids. The other 9 boys on the team play the entire game, but because I have two boys on the team they can only play half the game each.

Get a clue lady and let them play the game.
myLot User Profile

So what is Mylot, well it is a pay per post site, yes they pay you to post, and it does not matter what you post about. Give it a look and see what you think.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Something other than SPD. My sisters wedding.

So my sister is getting married in May, the wedding is going to be in Destin Florida, she is getting married at Henderson State Park on the beach.

Keith and I are going, without the children. This is a well needed break for us. We are looking forward to some time on the beach and with family, we are staying over so we can have some time for just us as well.


The dress I got for the wedding is from Boston Proper, I am so exctied, the thing is I really need to lose about 10 lbs before the wedding, so to help keep me on track once a week I will let you know how my weigh loss is going. As of today I have lost four pounds, I would like to lose another ten, so that will be a total of 15 lbs before the wedding. Wish me luck and please give me any weight loss tips you can

Oh and this is the dress.. what shoes to get.

Sensory Seekers, the story of Douglas

To start Douglas's day we have to wake him up very slow there can be no lights on as his eyes are very sensitive to lights, he says that lights hurt his eyes. If it is sunny outside we have to make sure we have sunglasses for him. So we start off slow with Douglas, often I wake him up and he is brought to my room to watch television while I get ready for the day (yes the other two are in there as well, but this is about Doug's day)

Once I am ready for the day we have breakfast, Douglas is also my Oral sensory child, or as some say picky eater. But breakfast is easy, cereal, pancakes and fruit. He also loves milk. Again no lights on in the kitchen during breakfast, we can let natural sunlight in through the windows as long as it is not too bright.

Once Douglas is good and awake he spends some time with high impact activities, when he was younger this was pushing a basket across the floor, now it varies. I try to have something he can do to wake up his senses. Of course if it were up to daddy we would not do this.

Then it is off to school. Where his teachers allow him to have lots of high impact activities. I love our school.

Once home we have lunch, this is the tricky meal, can be difficult at times, he is so "picky" no red foods, only Mcdonalds Chicken Nuggets, thank goodness though, he loves Peanut Butter and Jelly, fries and lots of fruit.

After lunch if it is nice we will seek out some high impact activities for him, riding his bike, playing on the play gym, running, jumping etc. Anything that will provide him with high impact activities.

For the most part the trio still naps, Douglas however for the most part will play in his room, he has to always be on the go and active. So he is playing quietly, cars, trucks, trains etc. He has an obsession with anything with wheels.

After nap is play time again, and of course snack time. If it were up to Doug he would be running, jumping etc 24/7 I have a hard time getting him to calm and just sit still, the kids at church say he loves to wrestle.

If Doug gets upset or his feelings hurt he will hide behind the couch or under the table. He needs a dark closed in spot to calm himself down and to get back center. The good thing is Doug Knows this and will put himself in the dark spot to get calm.

Douglas also needs deep compression once a day. we hug him tight, wrap him in a blanket very tightly and will rock. I put pressure on his joints (this is normal a first thing in the morning activity to help awaken his scenes. We also do brushing therapy on his hands feet legs and arms once a day. All together this takes about an hour to two hours a day, depending on his mood.

Bath time is getting much easier with him, he will finally allow water to get in his eyes, he will however not take a shower, it scares him and he says it feels like pens and needles on his skin. I am hoping that swimming this summer will help him with going under more as it did last summer.

It is something different every day, you never know what is going to cause him to get upset or have too much information coming in. He often tells me to turn down the volume when we are out in public. His way of telling me that the world is too loud.

I think that is enough for my sweet Douglas.. Thanks for reading..

Sunday, April 19, 2009

So what is Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD

I have been asked this a good bit in the recent past, in fact since blogging about the kids and what is going on with them I get it more and more. So I thought why not kill two birds with one stone and try and explain what is going on with the kids.

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is a disorder of the brain, it has often been said that children with SPD are actually on the spectrum, but this has yet to be said as factual. It is in fact a disorder of the brain and results in people with SPD not being able to process all the informaiton that is coming in. When in loud places they have a hard time processing all that is going on, it is difficult for them to process sounds, touch, taste, vision, and movement to name a few.

Children and or adults with SPD have a hard time processing information as it comes into their bodies, their brain in fact does not interpret the experience as they should. A child with SPD do not experience things the same way as we do. A simple change from walking on grass to dirt while barefoot to us is no big deal, to a child with SPD it could result in confusion, pain even and they could have a melt down.

While other children with SPD will seek out activities like this, they may have to lick everything they see, they seek out high impact activities, seem to be rougher and more "Boy" than other children, have a difficult time sitting still or in one place for extended periods of time.

As a result of these difference children with SPD have difficulties with self calming, gross motor and fine motor skills will be affected, they may have a difficulty with speech and may not talk at the same time as their piers, writing is difficult as their fine motor skills are delayed.

As you see this is just the basics. You can learn so much more by visiting various SPD sites like

http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/


I will have follow up post on the different types of SPD. Thank you for reading.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Gymnastics and SPD


In January I decided to sign Kalie Rose up for Gymnastics, she had low muscle tone in her upper body and was lacking in strength. Since then there has been considerable improvement in her upper body strength, but better than that she has lost some of her shyness. Kalie has always been painfully shy, so bad in fact that she did not talk to her preschool teacher or in class till after Christmas this year, last year it was the end of year before she did so.

So since she started her muscle tone in her upper body went from below average to average, that is in four months, in addition she has increased her social skills and is thriving on the attention.

I am going to sign John Michael up soon as well, his muscle strength is much worse than Kalie's was, also I think the activities will benefit other aspects of his sensory issues. JM is a sensory avoider and has a hard time self calming. I think that gymnastics will help him to seek out more activities. He has been in sports but he is not crazy about baseball or soccer. I think that Gymnastics will be more his speed.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

What else is wrong with your kids?

Yes, someone asked me that a while back. We were at a birthday party that was serving pizza. Well my Douglas is oral sensory and will not eat pizza, he gags at the thought of it. I brought along his lunch so that he would not be tortured to sit there and watch all the other children eat.

Apparently the father thought this was not the right thing to do and asked me why I had brought food, I explained that Douglas would choke on pizza and that instead of have him watch as all the other kids eat I brought along something he would eat. I do not expect others to always have on hand the kind of foods my oral sensory child would eat. I do however bring along foods that he will eat.

So this is the response I get, what else is wrong with our kids. I wanted to slap him, I wanted to cry and scream at him, what is wrong with you, and why on earth would you ask me a question like that.

I just turned and finished giving my son his food. I tried to remain calm and composed. I think I did a very good job at maintaining my composure. After all I did not want to make a big scene at someones birthday party.

My question is why do grown men at like this?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Therapy update. Sensory Processing Disorder

As most are aware the triplets have all been diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD. As a result they have a delay in speech, and gross and fine motor skills. While we have come a long way in the past several years, we still have a ways to go.

John Michael is the most delayed and is lacking in upper body strength, I am thinking I may sign him up for gymnastics, as this has helped Kalie Rose so much with hers. He also has issues with behavior, speech and dealing with frustrations. He gets focused on something and can not let it go. Which can make for some very long days, and sometimes weeks. This has been one of those weeks. In addition he is considered to be a sensory avoider, he hates loud noises, bright lights and avoids high impact activities. As far as speech JM needs to learn to control his inflection, he does not really know when he is talking too loud and tends to scream a good bit.

Douglas, is a sensory seeker and well avoider at times. He has a very difficult time adjusting to bright lights, mornings are not fun for this little guy. But for the most part he is looks for high impact activities, always crashing into things, running wild, well all boy. He has great upper body strength and fine motor skills, however some of his gross motor skills are not up to bar. His speech is more delayed than JM, but in a different way, he has articulation problems.

Kalie, is a mix, there are some activities she seeks and others she just will not do. She is painfully shy and has a hard time in large crowds and places that are overly noisy. She also has articulation problems. Our therapist are not sure she will qualify for services through the school district, it is questionable.

So where do we go from here, on the 30th they are being evaluated by the school district, and JM is going to a developmental ped this summer to make sure we are not missing anything else. It has been a roller coaster ride at times. But I am thankful for the services we have received up to this point and the progress the kids have made.

While they are doing great and improving every day, I know we still have a long way to go. Pray for us.

Monday, April 13, 2009

I used to go to the bathroom alone.

So today when the three of them followed me to the bathroom it occurred to me that there was a time in my life that I used to go to the bathroom alone, in fact there are a lot of things I did at one point and time without an audience. Do not get me wrong, I have gone to the bathroom alone since the kids were born, but for the most part when that happens they are not with me for one reason or another. I guess most moms come to this realization at one point in time. For some reason it dawned on me to day that I no longer get the privacy I once had in the rest room.

It really is the small things in life, that is once you become a mom, that you give up or no longer do. So maybe the next time I find myself in the bathroom alone. I may just stay in there a little longer, take a book with me, escape so to speak from the world outside.

Being a mom of multiples has been a rewarding challenge over the years, but even with the lose of privacy I would not trade it for anything. I would however, like to know when they will no longer feel the need to go in the bathroom with me. Anyone know the answer to this..

the things we wonder.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

School Pictures..








These are just the proofs but as you can see I am going to have a very difficult time selecting pictures.. HELP

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