Thursday, April 24, 2008

Crazy Talk

Dominic scares me sometimes. He came up to me today with obvious bite marks on his wrists and hands. He said "take them off." I asked, "what your hands??" He replied, "yes, I don't want them on anymore." I told him we need hands to grab things so we need to keep them on. He starts trying to pull off his hand and says, "I want them off. I want to see my bones. Take them off so I can see my bones!!"

Now I would worry too much but I always catch him obsessively doing things. I catch him all the time biting his toenails off and well the other day he had bit one down to where it had began to bleed because it was so short. Anyways- hopefully he'll stop and I won't have to take him in to the Dr with weird bite marks on himself and then have to explain it all to his Ped at his Kinder shot appt in 2 weeks.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Ohhhhh.....not good.

Damien is nearing 3 now so he can really understand most things like...... how to get under his brother skin. When playing with his stim box (mouth helpers as I call them) the other day, he pulled out one of the whistles he likes that is a bit on the loud side. He took it straight over by Dominic and began blowing as hard as he could. Poor Dom jumped about a foot in the air followed by screams and grabbing his ears yelling for him to stop. Since Damien understands that Dom can't handle loud sounds he continued to toot it and run around the front room in circles. I finally ended up taking the stupid thing away and putting it in time out.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Poor Kid

Today is Kindergarten Round up! Thing is we won't be going. Dominic puked a few times Saturday morning and then Monday morning before the bus came he came down with the Hershey Squirts. It was a very long morning of him running to the toilet. Thought he'd be ok to go today but again right before the bus came he said, "uh oh, mommy I think I pooped my pants!" So sure enough his tummy is still not good. I went out again and told the bus he wouldn't be going.

So sadly he'll miss out on seeing his future classmates and the classroom visit they are doing but good thing is he already goes to the school for preschool, we know his teacher and I can get him in for alittle tour of the classroom later.

Monday, April 14, 2008

"Pee Boo!"

Damien has really opened up to playing Peek-a-boo with us all. He can actually think to say it now when he puts his hands to eyes. Other times though he just puts his hands to his eyes and laughs.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Dry For One Whole Week!


Dominic has been completely dry in the morning for a whole week. This is the first time this has ever happened and he's 5 yrs 2 months. We've been told for years that because of his severe snoring he's not getting a good nights rest and we needed to take his tonsils and adnoids out so he could wake himself to go. It's always been a complete surprise to Dominic when he has woke up wet. He has no idea. We started using cloth pull ups that look like underwear (Bummis) because he was to that age where peeing the bed is kind of embarrassing for him.

We've told him if he continues to do so well, we will go to Target (his favorite store) and he can find a new bionicle. He's excited so every morning he wakes, checks himself and screams, "mommy! I didn't pee the bed!!! I get Bionicle now??"

Friday, April 11, 2008

Dominic's Re-Eval for his IEP

First off I was really impressed how the meeting went. A bit overwhelming but I made it through. A summary to all this below is Dominic will have a Para working with him daily 2.5 hrs in the morning. He will not be taken out of class for special ed services which is AWESOME so he will be just like the other kids (except for the para)

Dave and I were there along with the following staff.
  • Mr. George Principal of Elementary school
  • Mrs. K- Dominic's current teacher
  • Kris- Dom's EI Special Ed teacher who comes to work with him
  • Lena- School Psychologist for Elementary school
  • Susie- EI Speech Pathologist
  • Barb- the Elementary Special Ed Teacher
  • Mrs. B- Dominic's assigned Kindergarten Teacher
  • Susan- Elementary Speech Pathologist
  • (missing) Robbie- Occupational Therapist

As far as academic achievement and performance, they found that he is still cognitively delayed and will need some help to keep up with his peers. On Communication he is at a 55 mth level (he's 63 months old) for expressive language. He is at 50 mth level for Receptive. So basically he communicates awesome now but when you ask him to do something he doesn't quite understand. He made some improvements on completing tasks but still not up to par. Because of this he has a hard time following directions and answering questions in a classroom.

Socially he has improved quite a bit but is still delayed. He needs to learn to share, follow rules, play with peers. They described him quite abit as a loner which makes me sad. Here is what exactly is wrote on his IEP from the teacher's standpoint.

Dominic s active in the classroom often touching other students, getting in their space, or moving around in his set. His attention to task varies. Sometimes he is very engaged in the activity while other times he is completely turned around looking away from the source of instruction. he has difficulty understanding personal boundaries as well as classroom expectations At times it appears as though he acts on impulse without realizing he is breaking a class rule, such as when he takes objects out of the center areas around the classroom. It doesn't appear as though he is doing this deliberately to be defiant but rather he is playing and just wrapped up in what he is doing. There are tims when he is defiant and resists adult instruction especially when it is a table time activity that is little interest to him.

When he was 4, his EI teacher had me have him tested for ADHD which he scored borderline ADHD/more oppositional. I don't believe she ever put it in his folder though. It seemed to me they were trying not to just slap the title on him so I went ahead and told them that we expected this as he had been tested for ADHD and did score that he did indeed have ADHD but we chose not to medicate.

The Sensory Processing testing we did a few months back did identify him as a SID child/student (THANK THE LORD!! ANSWERS! OMG!) Just hearing that finally made me just about start crying right there at the table as they read it. I had my head looking down just shaking my head in agreement. Based on classroom observation by EI, testing his Teacher and I both took they will be giving him OT to work with this and fine motor skills since he still can't hold a pencil right.

So here's his accommodations this year

  • classroom visual schedule
  • seating close to teacher
  • removing extra materials from work area
  • clear explanation of behavior explained in a way he can understand
  • prepare for changes n chdule but maintain consistet schedule as much as possible
  • allow additional time for responding to tasks
  • demonstrate activities or directions that need to be completed
  • frequent prompting and redirection
  • small group instruction as much as possible
  • frequent repetition of new concepts
  • use of visual cues and hands on learning
  • teacher will use behavioral charts for rewarding
  • Special ed teacher will check in twice a month for updates

On District and State Assessment testing he will be given additional time, a small group environment, demonstration o directions, and use of visual cues as allowed.

We made a Behavior Intervention Plan with strategies, consequences, and crisis management (lets hope that never is needed!) Dominic has always had a very hard time controlling anger. At Early Intervention, he hit, kicked, screamed, slapped teachers and bus drivers. They would have to restrain him, rock him, put him in a quiet place to settle down. Now he hasn't been hitting much but he won't move to where he needs to go, runs away, screams, cries, etc.

So anyways that is a summary of the meeting. In all it was a hour and a half long! We had a book of papers to take home and go through. It went very well though, I'm pleased, alittle worried about no summer services but we'll try homeschooling as much as possible this summer to see if we can keep him on task and caught up.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Today Is The Day

Dominic's IEP review is today. Why is today's meeting any different than the last 2 year reviews? Well, this is the big one. Transitioning him to Kindergarten. Dave is coming with me so we will see how this goes down. The School Psychologist, School Speech Path, Kindergarten teachers, and Special Ed Teacher and of course Kris his Special Ed teacher from EI will be there. This will be the most overwhelming meeting I've had to endure so far. I know only good will come of it but it's where we have 1 agency letting us go and now we'll deal directly with the School District with Dominic. To me it's scary but maybe I'm scared of nothing, I don't know. lol I still have no clue what his review scores have been except that social did not change at all from the previous year. Wish us luck.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Mad as HELL!!!

I am so mad right now at Dominic's School. Tell me what you think we should do. Ok so Dominic is in Head Start, not because of income, but because of the fact he is at risk and on an IEP through Early Intervention due to his delays. I was not happy that he would be in Head Start in the first place because of how ANAL they are, BUT unless I wanted him shipped to a different town to school (same district) because of the IEP, he had to go there and I wanted him at the same school as his sister.

So here's the deal. First, the Stupid moronic women running the program know nothing about special needs. I should have found out more before deciding to pull him out of Early Intervention. If he gags, throws up, it's stomach flu and they send him home. He has Sensory Intergration Disorder so certain foods, smells, etc will send his senses into overdrive. So we started having phone calls at lunch saying he would gag looking at the food or when he tried eating it. I told them about this at the beginning of the year he had this and he might do these things. Well they started asking me to pick him up a few times because they didn't want to take a chance he might puke on the bus BUT they also said he would have to stay home the next day. Most days he never touched his food and would just look around the lunch room which was one of the reasons they had also called. Finally I said, look. I'll pack lunches for him, things I know he can eat, he likes and won't get sick on. For about a month we've been fine. Till yesterday.

I get a note saying this
my nutrition coordinator at Head Start, ------, asked me to request a doctors note from you about bringing his own lunch. She said due to the lunch program that head start uses, they will require a note of explanation. If you have any questions about this you can call.......

I pack him healthy lunches, not crap. Believe me since I used to do daycare i should know what's healthy!! Should I just let him starve to death? Sit at school at eat nothing and ride the bus home for a hour? This is another stupid hoop they want me to jump through and I'm freakin tired of it. So this time my dh is calling the nutrition coordinator. Early Intervention has also said because of the SID incidents in the past to call them if we needed help with anything so I may be calling them today to about this.

I will never put my kids in some stupid state funded program again. If you have a child on an IEP and they offer a spot in Head Start, DON'T DO IT!!! They call me all the time about this and that. They need proof of this, they need to talk to me about that or I'm breaking some stupid rule. I told Early Intervention I made a huge mistake trying to put him at the school he'll be in Kindergarten at next year and Damien will be there at the EI center ALL of his preschool years because I am not dealing with this again.

Worst part is now I have this IEP meeting with the principal, Headstart teachers, EI special ed teacher, and the Kinder teachers trying to figure out who's class he gets next year. I am already stressed out completely about it and having the Headstart teachers in there I may just explode and say GET OUT because I don't want to deal with them anymore. I just want May to come and to deal with the school district from then on out NOT Headstart.

Oh and before I noticed this note, I packed Dom a PBJ, Strawberries, Apple Juice, Gogurt. I was NOT going to take that away from him so I sent it. He saw me pack it. If they don't allow him to eat it I will be PEEVED!! He will not eat Chicken Noodles over mashed potatoes.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Jordan



My cousin Jordan is severely autistic. Ever since having my own set of problems with Dominic my aunt has always been there if I had any questions, especially when finding out some of the "traits" he has had. Dominic however is nothing like Jordan.


Jordan is 17 now. My Aunt's son but my Grandmother's baby. She puts on his socks and shoes, fixes his hair, she takes him to the park to play. He gets excited being with kids, flapping his arms and hopping in place. When he was a baby he seemed pretty normal except for a rather large head which runs in the family. However by the time he was 1 ish, it was apparent there were other things going on. He would space out, not talk or notice you were there. As he grew older, his behavior, ticks, flapping, etc were so extremely hard on them both that it was enough that my Aunt and Uncle decided that Jordan would be an only child because he would require so much work. He was enrolled in Early Intervention by the time he was 2 and started meds by the time he was 4. When my uncle would come to family events with my aunt and Jordan the visit would always be short. I felt terrible for my uncle, you could tell he was always embarrassed by his behavior where ever they were to go. I remember when my uncle moved to a new home about 6 yrs ago, it just so happened the boy next door was special needs as well and he and Jordan hit it off becoming great friends the first day they moved in! We were all thrilled watching them. That was Jordan's first "real" friend.

Jordan is doing so well now. Almost ready to graduate, participating in the Special Olympics. His parents have come so far in the past 17 years. So scared, overwhelmed with him as a child to wow, what a blessing he is.

IEP Review Appointments

Dominic- April 10th

Damien- April 30th

Why oh why do I always get so nervous for these??? Ugh.