So, while we were shopping yesterday, at Safeway, Dominic got all excited over the soft soap handsoap dispenser that has a fish looking thing in it. I can't find a picture online, but its just a handsoap thing with an aquarium effect. He carried that around all day yesterday.
FAst forward to this mornings therapy at home. One of the things he was doing was 3d to 2d matching - there's a picture that he has to place 3d figures on in the right spots. One of the pictures was ocean life... with a crab, lobster, fish, etc. He took the little fish, and tried to put it in the soap dispenser so that the fish inside the soap dispenser would have a friend.
Kiddo likes animals.
However we have a menagerie and i'm not good with fish, so i think he's going to have to skip the whole fish tank thing.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
4th of July party
Dominic did really well at the annual 4th of July party at Jen and Mikes. Pics to come (forgot the camera, waiting for them to be emailed), but he interacted Okay with the other kids - no fighting, no hitting, shared te toys. Spent most of the party playing with Jen's outdoor pond / fish net thingy, and we were SO thrilled when he came running saying "car, car" and dragged me over to the pond to fish it out for him INSTEAD of jumping in (very shallow pond). He also had a ball climbing the tree and playing with the dogs.
Well, he clearly understands reinforcers.
So, our home therapist was here this morning, and said to Dominic "Sit down". then she sat to show him. He looked at her with a funny look on his face, leaned down to the bowl of potato chips (reinforcer du Jour) and put one in her mouth.
just funny.
Anyway, with the right motivator, he's doing really well - i got his entire alphabet out of him not once, but twice (almost all imitation, but still...) this morning with being swung around in the sheet as the immediate reinforcer. We've also got the piggyback game going, where he'll get to ride piggy back with me only going when he says what we're asking him to. immediate reinforcer is like 5 steps forward. he LOVES it.
just funny.
Anyway, with the right motivator, he's doing really well - i got his entire alphabet out of him not once, but twice (almost all imitation, but still...) this morning with being swung around in the sheet as the immediate reinforcer. We've also got the piggyback game going, where he'll get to ride piggy back with me only going when he says what we're asking him to. immediate reinforcer is like 5 steps forward. he LOVES it.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
good news / bad news
Bad news first - the ST yearly eval came back and his scores were, gulp, 1 year 6 months for expressive and receptive language. The eval was done the first week in June, so the first week at Alpine
BUT - the ST was blown away by how well he's been doing since. she see's great improvement. When I told her that unless I can sway the insurance (and frankly, i'm tired of fighting for ST), we run out of our $2500 allotment in 4 more visits and we are then done for the year, she completely agreed that if it was a choice, we needed to leave him at Alpine.
Good news - the OT said he made great strides in just one week on the fine motor skill of cutting with scissors. Plus, he verbally, independently asked for the swing as soon as they went into the OT room.
She agrees as well, that in the full year he was getting services on a school district IEP she saw no real progress, but in the 4 weeks we've had him at Alpine getting ABA, she's seen huge strides. We're in the right place.
Related note, the Alpine insurance bill went to our insurance carrier today. It should show up online as received in 7 ish days (thats what its been running lately), then they have 30 days to make a payment decision. Fingers crossed we know something by early August. Fingers crossed that they pony up and pay the out of network 70%. We have money set aside for paying out of pocket August 1 and are working on September - it would sure make it last a lot longer if insurance paid. Huge thank you's to those of you who've paypal'd and send donations to Alpine - it really does add up. If you paypall'ed and would prefer to do a tax deductible donation to Alpine - they are allowing directed donations, you send them a letter designating you want the check going to Dominic Whitcomb Valdez's account, and enclose a check. They are thrilled to do that for us.
BUT - the ST was blown away by how well he's been doing since. she see's great improvement. When I told her that unless I can sway the insurance (and frankly, i'm tired of fighting for ST), we run out of our $2500 allotment in 4 more visits and we are then done for the year, she completely agreed that if it was a choice, we needed to leave him at Alpine.
Good news - the OT said he made great strides in just one week on the fine motor skill of cutting with scissors. Plus, he verbally, independently asked for the swing as soon as they went into the OT room.
She agrees as well, that in the full year he was getting services on a school district IEP she saw no real progress, but in the 4 weeks we've had him at Alpine getting ABA, she's seen huge strides. We're in the right place.
Related note, the Alpine insurance bill went to our insurance carrier today. It should show up online as received in 7 ish days (thats what its been running lately), then they have 30 days to make a payment decision. Fingers crossed we know something by early August. Fingers crossed that they pony up and pay the out of network 70%. We have money set aside for paying out of pocket August 1 and are working on September - it would sure make it last a lot longer if insurance paid. Huge thank you's to those of you who've paypal'd and send donations to Alpine - it really does add up. If you paypall'ed and would prefer to do a tax deductible donation to Alpine - they are allowing directed donations, you send them a letter designating you want the check going to Dominic Whitcomb Valdez's account, and enclose a check. They are thrilled to do that for us.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
On Imaginative play
We've been seeing an upsurge in Dominic's imaginative play, which is FANTASTIC given that it was little to nothing for many months.
This first picture is his elephant getting a bath. Its hard to see, but there's water in there. The Elephant, bowl and water and all, goes with him to dinner, to the bath tub, and sits on his toybox while he sleeps.
Beside the elephant is the Sheep-on-a-Motorcycle. When we went to Safeway on Saturday, it was just for a couple of things, and so I let Dominic walk (normally, he's in the cart so he doesn't get into trouble), and as we were getting ready to leave, he pulled me down the toy aisle, saying CARS CARS and very deliberately picked out this motorcycle. Sometime Saturday evening, he brought it to me with the sheep riding it. And thats how its been since.
Closeup of the sheep on the motorcycle. No idea how this kid decided the sheep needed to ride the motorcycle, but its showing definate independent imaginative things at work. which we are THRILLED about.
And this is the chicken. I was getting ready to throw away the box when he took it out of my hand, and said FIXIT. so i taped the lid down, and after a while of wearing it on his head, the chicken started living in it. This one also went to bed with him for a few nights, etc.
Then there are a plethora of small toys with strings tied around their necks so they can go for walks - dinosaur, elephant, mulitple horses, and a small stuffed dog.
These are just little things, I know, but they are very exciting. Our morning therapist has said that she's got autistic kids who not only would not put a sheep on a bike, they wouldn't roll the bike around on its wheels or put a person on the bike.
This first picture is his elephant getting a bath. Its hard to see, but there's water in there. The Elephant, bowl and water and all, goes with him to dinner, to the bath tub, and sits on his toybox while he sleeps.
Beside the elephant is the Sheep-on-a-Motorcycle. When we went to Safeway on Saturday, it was just for a couple of things, and so I let Dominic walk (normally, he's in the cart so he doesn't get into trouble), and as we were getting ready to leave, he pulled me down the toy aisle, saying CARS CARS and very deliberately picked out this motorcycle. Sometime Saturday evening, he brought it to me with the sheep riding it. And thats how its been since.
Closeup of the sheep on the motorcycle. No idea how this kid decided the sheep needed to ride the motorcycle, but its showing definate independent imaginative things at work. which we are THRILLED about.
And this is the chicken. I was getting ready to throw away the box when he took it out of my hand, and said FIXIT. so i taped the lid down, and after a while of wearing it on his head, the chicken started living in it. This one also went to bed with him for a few nights, etc.
Then there are a plethora of small toys with strings tied around their necks so they can go for walks - dinosaur, elephant, mulitple horses, and a small stuffed dog.
These are just little things, I know, but they are very exciting. Our morning therapist has said that she's got autistic kids who not only would not put a sheep on a bike, they wouldn't roll the bike around on its wheels or put a person on the bike.
Monday, June 29, 2009
quick couple of pictures
We're busy busy this week with grandparents in town. Getting used to Dominic's new supplement tweaks, and trying to sort of stay within routine...
here we are at the zoo getting ready to ride the pony.
Here we are by the creek near the campsite
And here is Dominic with his Grandparents looking at the duck. (there's only one. thats why the place is call the Lone Duck Campground)
here we are at the zoo getting ready to ride the pony.
Here we are by the creek near the campsite
And here is Dominic with his Grandparents looking at the duck. (there's only one. thats why the place is call the Lone Duck Campground)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Dr Kucera followup appt this morning
We saw Dr K this morning, and have tweaked Dominic's supplements a little bit. The biggie is that we've decided to go ahead with chelation, but really only because Dr K doesn't do the scary sounding protocols that DAN! and Andy Cutler recommend. What we're going to do is this - in a few weeks when the supplement tweaks settle down, we'll start a chelation protocol of 100mg DMPS (which is the LOW end of options) 3 times a week. We'll do 12 doses, and then take a 13th pill for a post provocative heavy metals test. We're adding Milk Thistle to support his liver while we do this. We also have a round of blood work to do after this month long chelation effort.
The EXCELLENT news was that Dominic's essential minerals are all looking FANTASTIC. Which is good because Chelation also pulls those out.
There's one refill on the prescription, so we may go ahead and do a second month depending on how he does - we are to watch for funky poop (means his gut would be acting up), if he gets a cold or something, we are not to chelate until he's over it. We are to expect him to make gains with his therapy as the metals are pulled out. Of all of them, he had highest concentrations of Lead.
Things we are leaving on the backburner as protocols to try down the road are the McCandless Vit A protocol and the LDN protocol. The way Dr K discussed the LDN is that its similar to the Enhansa, which is super anti infammatory - LDN is an artifical immune system booster, so it helps, and there's progress, but until you remove the cause of the immune issue, its just a bandaid. So we're doing super w/an anti inflammatory but we still need to remove the cause of the inflammation.
The EXCELLENT news was that Dominic's essential minerals are all looking FANTASTIC. Which is good because Chelation also pulls those out.
There's one refill on the prescription, so we may go ahead and do a second month depending on how he does - we are to watch for funky poop (means his gut would be acting up), if he gets a cold or something, we are not to chelate until he's over it. We are to expect him to make gains with his therapy as the metals are pulled out. Of all of them, he had highest concentrations of Lead.
Things we are leaving on the backburner as protocols to try down the road are the McCandless Vit A protocol and the LDN protocol. The way Dr K discussed the LDN is that its similar to the Enhansa, which is super anti infammatory - LDN is an artifical immune system booster, so it helps, and there's progress, but until you remove the cause of the immune issue, its just a bandaid. So we're doing super w/an anti inflammatory but we still need to remove the cause of the inflammation.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Processing Issue?
We had written up a list of words Dominic uses expressively and receptively for Alpine to start probing and building upon last week. They started that yesterday. When I picked him up, they were very excited because he’d done a lot of talking. Including saying “I want Fuh Fish”. This was big because the fish were in the other room. They discussing if someone was teaching him to pronounce with the first sound of a word and that’s why the stutter, or if this is a brain processing thing. I think it’s the processing, and that’s what they agreed with. There’re also a lot of words he repeats the whole word, not just the first sound.
If this is the case, it is HUGELY exciting because it means that his processing ability is starting to come back. It goes along with our theory, too, that the virus disrupted synapses at a very basic level. So as Alpine is re - teaching him one tiny baby step at a time, those synapses are refiring and rewiring, and so its coming back.
I really think that the viral damage was done at a very basic level, because Dominic was / is missing the first steps that are building blocks to everything else: the eye contact, the first sounds of words, the jump to saying more than one syllable – even repeated. And once they can fill in those early stepping stones, I think he’s going to be able to put the more advanced pieces right back in. The other piece is if you make him mad enough he’ll try harder to say things.
If this is the case, it is HUGELY exciting because it means that his processing ability is starting to come back. It goes along with our theory, too, that the virus disrupted synapses at a very basic level. So as Alpine is re - teaching him one tiny baby step at a time, those synapses are refiring and rewiring, and so its coming back.
I really think that the viral damage was done at a very basic level, because Dominic was / is missing the first steps that are building blocks to everything else: the eye contact, the first sounds of words, the jump to saying more than one syllable – even repeated. And once they can fill in those early stepping stones, I think he’s going to be able to put the more advanced pieces right back in. The other piece is if you make him mad enough he’ll try harder to say things.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
New digs.
Big thanks to my friend Calliope for creating the new header, and to Keith for suggesting we add a paypal button - its linked directly to the bank account dedicated to Dominics therapy. Any and all contributions are gratefully accepted.
No big news - we're now 3 days in a row that he's tolerated being read to. He's doing great at Alpine. Working on getting the ESY therapist over to Alpine to observe and make sure she's not doing anything that would cance out what they're doing.... Hopefully that'll happen in the next couple of weeks.
No big news - we're now 3 days in a row that he's tolerated being read to. He's doing great at Alpine. Working on getting the ESY therapist over to Alpine to observe and make sure she's not doing anything that would cance out what they're doing.... Hopefully that'll happen in the next couple of weeks.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Parent Meeting at Alpine
We had a great parent meeting at Alpine today. Got to look at all the programs they've got him doing, and his results, etc. We agreed with her that he's got the same behavior issues at home as he does there - "elopment" which means he runs off (he really wants to play chase.) and he's doing some light hitting. Both of these need to stop, so she's going to implement a behavior program, and once its written, will share it with us and we'll implement it at home. We gave them some ideas of things to try - like the spinning thing to calm him down, and some other matching ideas - for example, in their matching program he was doing one to one matching, but I told her that he'd been doing a picture bingo sort of thing for our morning therapist at home, and she made a note to try it.
When I picked him up, she told me she went and experimented with the matching after we left, and he moved himself way past where they thought he was - and she's going to be able to move him more quickly thru the matching program. As a result, she has asked us for a vocabulary list of what his expressive and receptive words are. So i've bene working on that. When you write them all down, there's more than I thought. Which makes me happy.
Then we went straight to ST and OT from Alpine. His ST was so blown away by how well he was doing (he did a bunch of 2 word imitations) that she has agreed with me to remove the whole PECS step that she'd been trying to introduce at the school districts suggestion. He's got the words, the challenge is teasing them out of him, they don't need to try to make him communicate with pictures.
When I picked him up, she told me she went and experimented with the matching after we left, and he moved himself way past where they thought he was - and she's going to be able to move him more quickly thru the matching program. As a result, she has asked us for a vocabulary list of what his expressive and receptive words are. So i've bene working on that. When you write them all down, there's more than I thought. Which makes me happy.
Then we went straight to ST and OT from Alpine. His ST was so blown away by how well he was doing (he did a bunch of 2 word imitations) that she has agreed with me to remove the whole PECS step that she'd been trying to introduce at the school districts suggestion. He's got the words, the challenge is teasing them out of him, they don't need to try to make him communicate with pictures.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
He let me read him a WHOLE bedtime story
ITs easily been a year, if not longer, since Dominic has tolerated being read to. Tonight he let me read an entire bedtime story to him. This is REALLY huge. We'd basically stopped bedtime stories because its frustrating to start reading to have the book yanked out of your hands and thrown against the wall, or the child disappear under the covers and laugh maniacally, or literally run away from your lap. He did try to turn the pages faster than needed, but didn't hide under the covers, run away, or throw the book,and let me finish the whole thing.
huge step. really huge.
huge step. really huge.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Anyone need a Tax Deduction ?
Turns out that Alpine is a 501,c,3. And they're willing to accept checks from other people and put them towards Dominic's account if said checks are noted with his name.
Seriously, if anyone is interested in doing this, let me know. I'd prefer to funnel all checks to them by taking them all over the same time I take over payment for the next month to make sure they land in the right place. I did some figuring and if 18 people volunteered to make a $100 tax deductible donation to alpine w/Dominic's name on it each month, we would totally not be worrying.
And we are worrying. He's doing FANTASTIC and being able to continue beyond this summer all keys on IF insurance will pay, which we just won't know until probably early August.
Seriously, if anyone is interested in doing this, let me know. I'd prefer to funnel all checks to them by taking them all over the same time I take over payment for the next month to make sure they land in the right place. I did some figuring and if 18 people volunteered to make a $100 tax deductible donation to alpine w/Dominic's name on it each month, we would totally not be worrying.
And we are worrying. He's doing FANTASTIC and being able to continue beyond this summer all keys on IF insurance will pay, which we just won't know until probably early August.
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