Thursday, August 30, 2012

School update


This is the second week of school, and the first full 5 day week. Its been going okay from what I’ve been told (and from me comparing to what I know Alpine was like in June and July).

I did get an email on Tuesday that the SPED and Social Worker have decided to forgo the 30 days they were going to wait before doing a FBA (functional behavior assessment, basically a tool to determine why Dominic’s behaviors occur) and start that now. When I asked why, his SPED told me that she thinks it will be better to get the behavior plan in place for consistency (which is what I asked for before school started… go figure)

So I answered a bunch of questions about his behaviors at home. I called the social worker this morning to see if she had any questions, and she hadn’t read the thing I wrote yet. I will be interested to see if other parents go into the detail I went into. I split out behaviors at home in 4 categories as follows”


Self Stimulatory Behavior / Stims (growling, spitting, screaming, waving arms)
Self Injuirious Behavior / SIB’s (biting himself, banging head on wall, poking throat/other body parts, pulling hair)
Aggressive Behavior - (kicking, hitting, biting others)
Non Compliant Behavior / NC: (Ignoring request, saying “no” to request, doing opposite of what is requested)

And then I talked about timing, frequency, and severity of each behavior type as well as what we do in response and what triggers them.

It looks worse than it is at home when I write it out like that. We see almost no SIB’s at home anymore, they’re just occasional. And aggression is only if he’s really frustrated. NC comes and goes in waves, in general he’s doing better with using his words instead of just being non compliant. Stims seem to be correlated to full moon cycles (this week he’s been REALLY stimmy) which goes along with the theory we’re working on right now re parasites. (parasites get active around the full moon – releasing lots of bacteria / toxins, which are the chemicals he’s reacting to with the stimming). Everything is made worse with sleep cycle interruptions. Sometimes food violations make him more stimmy – seems to be a threshold (like this weekend… We had leftover pizza in the fridge from guests Sat evening. I was in the kitchen cooking most of Sunday, but when Rod got home from work in the afternoon we were both outside doing yard work. Monday morning, Rod said – he’s acting like he got glutened. Monday at lunch, Rod went to have leftover pizza and realized a large portion of it was gone, and another piece had the toppings eaten. So he had been glutened in a big way.). We’ll see how my list compares to the schools.

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In Other news, we’ve started a parasite protocol, and wouldn’t you know it, he’s already passed a very digested worm. I about fell over. This is the first month of a 12 month cycle on this protocol. Our family doc is in the loop (she prescriped the anti-helminth) and we’re doing regular blood work to make sure we’re not stressing his liver / kidneys.

Its extremely interesting to me that austistic kids (and moms) globally are all pooping out the same looking stuff – mucus, worms, etc (we are taking pictures and comparing the pics with each other). The families doing this protocol on neurotypical kids and dads are NOT seeing the same. I wish there was a way to get the message to those who could fund a proper study. I don’t get excited about protocols, you all know that, but there’s something big here conceptually.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

How is it the first day of school already?

Quick Catchup Post...


Tomorrow is the first day of Second grade for Dominic. We dropped by to visit with his SPED teacher on Thursday and it sounds like Dominic will have a one on one para all the time (its in his IEP, the question is will the principal honor it.  The teacher is pushing for it).   Which is very encouraging. We brought her up to speed on his summer and passed along the transitional materials from Alpine.  She was thrilled to see them.

Yesterday, we had a photo session with my friend Kathryn. She did family pictures for us a few years back that turned out AMAZING.   She's doing a fundraiser because her daughter with CP and multiple other issues is to the point that they need a wheelchair van.  And this photo session was one of the fundraising methods.  She posted a teaser of the pictures on facebook, and here's one of them.  As she did last time, it appears that she did a fabulous job. I have to tell you I cannot believe Dominic actually followed her instructions and posed how she asked him to.  She also had him convinced that a dinosaur lived in the camera and he was trying REALLY hard to see it. (again, she's awesome.)


Then last night was our monthly parents night out with Alpine.  Even tho we're not actually Alpine parents anymore, we're still "part of the family" and therefore going to these. It was a lot of fun.  We had the same sitter for Dominic we've used the last couple of times we've gone out, and when we got home she told us again what an improvement she sees in him in the month since she was last here.

She said he talked up a storm, labelled everything he saw, asked for things in sentences, etc.  She was very impressed.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Vacation pictures, round 3

Goats at the county fair. He kept trying to feed them hay.

This one fell in love with Rod.

You can buy beer at Walgreens in WA State.  We were so impressed we took a picture.

high fives!

blackberry picking!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Really?

So last week, I picked up a new pair of sneakers for Dominic to start the school year with.  Nothing special about them, and we've kept them new for Monday's school start (eg, still attached with the weird rubber band thing).

So Dominic's decided somehow that they're a toy.  Specifically, a bed for his plastic tiger.  He shoves the tiger in (headfirst, i might add), says goodnight, and covers the whole thing with a fleece blanket. And then makes snore noises

Currently the tiger-head-down-in-the-shoe is outside with Dominic sleeping on the deck.

I really hope that the tiger can give up his bed come Monday when school starts....

More Vacation Pics

He did actually find a crab. Fortunately, it was already dead


the Family, minus Mom taking the picture

This is Frankie. Dominic LOVES Frankie and in fact has been asking for him since we got home.  They played the entire time.

More of Dennis and Maria's property. Yes, those are blackberries

First time I've boarded an airplane by leaving the terminal and going outside. 

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Some Vacation Pictures


Watching chicks hatch at the County Fair on Saturday with Grandmother


Walking to the Beach with Dad.  WA is SOOOOO green


it may be cold, but its water, and thats all he needs.


fold out sofabed Dominic slept on


With Dad on Uncle Dennis and Aunt Maria's deck.


Dennis has a cool Backhoe. 


And he LOVED the chickens. 


The Creek on Dennis and Maria's property, note Aunt Maria making sure he doesn't jump in. see earlier reference to water.


Grandad and Grandmother's foldout tent makes a great chair.


The Tram at DIA.  He thought it was a carnival ride.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Leaving on an Airplane!

Saturday we left at ohgodthirty to get to Denver and catch a flight up to the Pacific Northwest where we are visiting family.

Dominic did AMAZINGLY well on the plane and the trip thus far.  Leaps and bounds better than the last time he flew.  No wiggles, no tears, followed instructions.

We hit the local county fair when we got here for a few rides, saw goats, sheep and chickens.  Dominic loved it, especially the animals.  We even got to watch baby chicks hatch.  So cool.

Sunday, we went to the beach and spent a good hour watching Dominic wade in, throw rocks in the water and look for crabs.  He found one, but it was dead, so no harm no foul. 


We took my family out for dinner Sunday evening to celebrate a slew of birthdays, and Dominic sat nice the entire meal.  Blew my Dad away that he sat so calmly for so long.  he ate every bite of his dinner and all of dad's potatoes. 


Today has been less structured - did some swimming, saw my brothers property, Dominic played like crazy with my brothers dogs, and tonight we'll have another meal with my brother and sister in law before we head out.


Overall, this has been the best Dominic has ever done.  My whole family has remarked on how much better his behavior is since the last time they saw him (my mom saw him in Dec when she came while I was so sick), but it had been a year plus for everyone else.  My SIL and Brother have noted on significantly improved verbals since the last time they saw him. 


We'll fly home tomorrow, and then spend a couple of days re-balancing before school starts for Dominic on Monday.


:)


(lots of pictures to follow when we get home)


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Annual Trip to the North Pole

We love it when the Starlight foundation sends their free North Pole tickets. Dominic and I went today while Dad worked.



Picnic Lunch!


Goose Pen


Riding alone??? Really?


This one's actually a view of the Waldo fire burn area, which is the other side of Hwy 24 from the North Pole

I can dig this alone thing... really



Petting the Reindeer babies. 


Hey, this ones fun!

Riding...
Alone again

Just for fun before we left...

Friday, August 3, 2012

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Sharing.

Dominic came right inside after a perfect day at Alpine, and asked for a Popsicle.  Then  he went to the garage freezer and got it.  

Here he is sharing it:


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

People Like that.


Dominic has ALWAYS had issues getting his haircut, even when his grandmother could do it.  Last winter we realized she just didn’t have the stamina to keep doing his hair, so we’ve been bouncing between various places trying to find someone that both had the patience to deal with wiggly boy and the experience to not leave bald patches.  His issues are sensory in nature – the feeling of the scissors in his hair freaks him out.  And don’t even think about using clippers. They send his sensory processing issues into the stratosphere.

So last week, we got him a haircut. One of Rod’s students (who has been in the education field for many years) had started working at a Supercuts and was willing to give it a shot. We warned her in advance about his sensory issues, and somehow we managed to be the only clients in the place when we got there.

He was wiggly, but overall did MUCH better than he has at the other various places we’ve tried.  We were THRILLED in fact that he let her do a little bit with the clippers. Great progress. There were no tears, no fighting, just a lot of wiggles and needing to have his head held still, etc.  And the haircut turned out super cute.  I called it a success. (and believe me, he’s had haircuts I called failures)

There was another stylist kind of lurking about.  Not friendly at all.  Offered no help whatsoever.

Rod’s student told him last night that said other stylist had made a snide remark after we left about how if she “had a child like that” she’d give them up for adoption.   

A year ago – even 6 months ago -  a comment like that would’ve sent me into either rage or despair.  But when I think about how much better he did this time, and the HUGE step of even allowing a little clipper use, I can’t be bothered by her insensitivity and ignorance.   He is making such progress here.    So we will do our best to insulate him from “people like that”. I think he’s actually close to the point where he would be aware of that kind of thing now and we don’t want that.