A few weeks back my sons coordinator mentioned that we needed to apply for Long term coverage. I just kinda pushed it back into my "think about it later file" and when it came up again I was like huh? What do you mean LONG term coverage?? My plan is to kick this in the ass and be done with it. I never looked past his toddler years. I guess the BIG picture is that there is a possibility that the outcome could not be what I imagine (huh, really?) and to safeguard his therapy and coverage we have to apply. So I did and our app is currently being processed and what not. This is one thing I just don't want even think about. I picture Jojo being a typical kid in a few years and you know what? I'm keeping that picture.
This week has been a HUGE step for us. We went from one day sessions to three!! I had all sort of new things thrown out to me. The notes I took are a mess but I'm glad I took them. The speech part of things is finally coming more into the front lines now. I learned that jojos fixation with a binky isn't typical binky love, rather its a need to have his mouth full and busy. So there is a great Oral motor tool called a DnZVibe, its basically like a plastic wand that had different end tips that he can chew on, suck on, and drool all over and think he is having a grand ole time but really it will be helping to relieve his sensory need and developing some proper use of his tongue to help promote speech. I just ordered his new tool tonight and I'm super motivated to have him give it a whirl. She also mentioned getting him a chewy tube, I have been reluctant because it just seems like another thing to suck/chew on and well I have already bought a ton!
We also used the Ipad and got some cool apps to start using during and in between sessions: here's what we are using
*Fisher price ABC, Animal sounds, Body parts apps
*Picture AAC app(uses pics and my voice to help jojo correlate sounds to objects)
*Using Hand over Hand to initiate activities that he is working on. I am really hoping this will help with self feeding.
A fun fine motor activity we did this week was with dry beans and pompoms (the cute colorful small furry balls for crafting) we put all the beans and poms in a big bowl, gave jojo a spoon to use to fill the smaller bowl. It took him a awhile to not use his hands but he did it!! He did three scoops n dumps into the bowl. I am so proud of him. We are also working more on the hand-over-hand approach to encourage the touch and feel of me helping him and to help him accomplish a task and getting praise.
Bean Bag play/therapy! This is so cool to play and watch. Jojo first speech therapist had a bean bag in her office and jojo loved it. He laid in that thing and just looked at peace. So for his birthday my mom got one for him and he has been having a ball with it. Now it is used as a sensory relief for him. we toss the bean bag and he runs full force and crashes into it. He loves it!! We do this five times before they start a session to relax the sensory need and it seems to work.
All in all it was a hard week with lots of small hidden treasures that I sometimes have to look really hard to find. I am going to give the month of October my all and make the most of the craziness that happens with multiple sessions in a week! More posts soon and I plan to be detailed on the activities and what we are working on so I can help others.
Side note: Another very interesting thing I heard during therapy was that one of the therapist had recently attended a seminar discussing ASD and she heard an interesting piece on a possible link between autism and the brains use of mirror neurons, basically lacking the proper mirror neuron system. I found the article online: I read It completely and its a lot of scientific jargon but ultimately really made me think...could there be a real link to possible RF usage in our homes and ASD? I think so, its definitely a possibility!
Out of time: A possible link between
mirror neurons, autism and electromagnetic
radiation
Ian M. Thornton
www.ianthornton
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