Life is back to normal..

All three children are returning to normal now, swine flu has moved through the house, it still lingers with my husband and I. Odd all the news reports say that it is hitting children much harder and yet the two of us have suffered much worse than the triplets did. Which I am glad it turned out that way. I would much rather my be sick than them any day. It is so much harder when a little one is sick.

I had parent teacher conferences yesterday and was plesently surprised at how things turned out. First their grades were awesome. JM had the most areas in which he needs help (which was no big surprise) and the areas that he needs work are things that I already knew he needed extra help on and is getting at school and home. The teachers love him and say that he is very well behaved and that other than typical boy behavior they have had no issues with him. I am so happy that he is adjusting so well and doing so well in school. I was so worried that I would get reports home and be called to the school often due to him not doing well. His teacher's in fact said that had I not told them and if not for a few minor personality things they would have never guessed he had aspergers. I attribute this to him being in therapy since he was one years of age and all of the hard work he has done over the past several years to learn to deal with all the sensory input.

Douglas had a great report as well, he had 3's on everything with the exception of two things, address and patterning. I am so proud of my little man. The teacher said he gets the giggles so easy and has such a contagious laugh. She also said he seems to be a care taker, I was aware of this and will need to work on him doing things for himself and not giving up his things for his brother and sister. I want him to be happy and not always worry about everyone else.

Kalie Rose, like Douglas had mostly 3's with a handful of 2's, the teachers love her and call her their fashion princess of the class room. (big surprise there) the things she needs work on were no big surprise to me either. She is such a smart girl and is doing so well.

Again, all and all I am very proud of the three of them and how well they are doing in school. They all seem to have adapted very well to being in the new school, to being in separate class rooms and to the longer days.

Conversation with an old friend. - Mamma Bear

I ran into a n old friend this past week, she apologized for losing touch with me and for not being there when we got JM's diagnosis. She acted as if I should have lost it, like really lost it when I was told. She was surprised at my resonse and seems to think that I am not letting it sink in. I assured her that I was well aware of what this meant for him and our family. She just kept apologizing to me, asking me about my support network and what was I going to do.

The best way I can answer this question is that I am going to get up tomorrow, I am going to get dressed, I am going to get the kids dressed and I am going to live my life. I have no choice in the manner. I do not have time to lose it. I have to be my children's advocate, I have to fight for them and the fight is only beginning. I know that I will have days that I do not feel like getting out of bed, I will have times that all I want to do is cry but I also know that in order to ensure that my children have all that they need I need to be strong.

The therapist I go to for the kids, she has been with us since the kids were two years old, calls me mama bear and has me talk to some of her new moms in the practice and has me talk to them about what they need to do to help their child. She say I am strong and encouraging and she uses my children as examples all the time, examples of how far they have come. So if I have to be known as Mommy bear the tough one then I shall be.

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.

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.