Yesterday I received the results from Megan's recent evaluation. I don't agree with their findings, but I never do. They have Megan's adjusted age (based on what she can do/understand) at 18 months up to 24 months on some skills.
I don't disagree with the age range when it comes to her speech, she is just starting to say word sounds.
I don't disagree with the age range when it comes to her gross motor skills because she is walking but isn't quite stable or balanced enough yet to stand still "forever", she can stand for 20-30 seconds but then needs to take a step. She isn't able to climb up and down stairs by herself, or jump or hop or skip. All things that lower her adjusted age.
I do, however, disagree with their cognitive findings being in this range. When I ask for examples I am told that when they ask/tell her to do something that she doesn't do it until they model the behavior. For example, they tell her to get on the swing during PT. Her PT said she makes the request, waits 3 seconds, makes the request again and then after 3 seconds she models the behavior by walking to the swing. I have explained to everyone involved that Megan needs about 8 seconds to respond. Ugh!
I will be attending Megan's ARD meeting on Wednesday to review the evaluation and discuss our next steps.
On a happy note: Megan continues to do very well. She is struggling with allergies again because of the drastic weather changes this week; but she is working hard to control herself. We have had some very pleasant wagon rides and trips to the playground.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Dancing
Yesterday after school I had Megan in my lap and I was telling her how great she has been doing. I told her I was proud of her for controlling herself and she leaned forward and gave me kisses. She may not be fully talking yet but she knows how to get her point across.
After nap we were sitting in the floor singing songs. I started singing 5 Little Monkeys and she stood up and started dancing around. She sat back down about halfway through the song and then had to get back up again when I got to the Hokey Pokey. She loves to dance so much and it is always fun to watch.
After nap we were sitting in the floor singing songs. I started singing 5 Little Monkeys and she stood up and started dancing around. She sat back down about halfway through the song and then had to get back up again when I got to the Hokey Pokey. She loves to dance so much and it is always fun to watch.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Rough night and good morning
Megan was awake for 3 hours last night and wasn't happy about it. We aren't positive what caused it but we have 2 options - one being a delayed reaction to the dairy she ate but we really think it is a build up of benz in her system since she got progressively worse. We will be avoiding benz today (lotion, soap) to see if things go back in the right direction tonight.
During drop off this morning her assistant teacher was the one who helped her walk into the school. I told her that Megan had a rough night and that we thought we knew what caused it and would be avoiding it today. Her response "oh man and she has been doing so amazing lately". :-) Hopefully she will still have a good day today, despite her being a little tired.
During drop off this morning her assistant teacher was the one who helped her walk into the school. I told her that Megan had a rough night and that we thought we knew what caused it and would be avoiding it today. Her response "oh man and she has been doing so amazing lately". :-) Hopefully she will still have a good day today, despite her being a little tired.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Back to blogging
Megan's height and weight on 1/1/14: 36 3/6 inches tall and 26.1 pounds
So much has happened with Megan since my last blog post. She has been put on and taken off of several medications to help her sleep which did not work. She was admitted to the hospital for a 24 hour EEG and lumbar puncture for lab tests. She was put on a new medication that made her go crazy and then everything changed. We had been researching, for months, things to help Megan. We looked up everything we could regarding her sleeping issues and how we could help. And then Will found it.
I asked Will to research insomnia and to include the fact that the medications weren't helping as a symptom and that finally brought up a diet. The Feingold diet was developed for ADD/ADHD kids but works for several other issues. There was a testimonial on the main page about a little boy whose issues/symptoms fit Megan to a T. We started the diet as much as possible the next day and haven't looked back.
Megan is thriving. She is sleeping (which of course was the original goal) but she is also excelling in other areas. We expected her exhaustion symptoms to disappear but so much more has happened. Megan now has a much, much longer attention span. She will continue working on something instead of becoming frustrated. Even if she gets to the point of frustration she is quickly over it and back to trying. Previously she would throw what frustrated her and definitely not go back to the same thing. She is compliant and obedient. She will do what is asked of her, including making eye contact on request. She is happy and gentle and loving. She is interacting and playing with Sam, not just a little bit but all the time. She is following instructions and progressing. She is so much more verbal, she is trying to say lots of different words and not just when we ask her to, sometimes she just points and says something. Last night she pointed at her bible and said bible. It was awesome.
The diet is a work in progress as we are still figuring out what triggers Megan and what is okay. She seems to be really sensitive to some things so we are working on what's okay for her specifically.
So much has happened with Megan since my last blog post. She has been put on and taken off of several medications to help her sleep which did not work. She was admitted to the hospital for a 24 hour EEG and lumbar puncture for lab tests. She was put on a new medication that made her go crazy and then everything changed. We had been researching, for months, things to help Megan. We looked up everything we could regarding her sleeping issues and how we could help. And then Will found it.
I asked Will to research insomnia and to include the fact that the medications weren't helping as a symptom and that finally brought up a diet. The Feingold diet was developed for ADD/ADHD kids but works for several other issues. There was a testimonial on the main page about a little boy whose issues/symptoms fit Megan to a T. We started the diet as much as possible the next day and haven't looked back.
Megan is thriving. She is sleeping (which of course was the original goal) but she is also excelling in other areas. We expected her exhaustion symptoms to disappear but so much more has happened. Megan now has a much, much longer attention span. She will continue working on something instead of becoming frustrated. Even if she gets to the point of frustration she is quickly over it and back to trying. Previously she would throw what frustrated her and definitely not go back to the same thing. She is compliant and obedient. She will do what is asked of her, including making eye contact on request. She is happy and gentle and loving. She is interacting and playing with Sam, not just a little bit but all the time. She is following instructions and progressing. She is so much more verbal, she is trying to say lots of different words and not just when we ask her to, sometimes she just points and says something. Last night she pointed at her bible and said bible. It was awesome.
The diet is a work in progress as we are still figuring out what triggers Megan and what is okay. She seems to be really sensitive to some things so we are working on what's okay for her specifically.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Behaviors
Megan developed several "bad" behaviors when her sleep deprivation started. Though she is still not back to a regular sleep schedule, she has been getting more and more sleep. With the additional sleep I have noticed that some of her behaviors have started disappearing, or at least becoming much less frequent. Unfortunately some of them have morphed into habits that we are working to "unlearn".
Behavior Status:
Behavior Status:
- Pulling her hair out. This one is one of the ones that has morphed into an unwelcome habit. The behavior started in her bed when she wanted to sleep but couldn't. The nights that this happens have decreased, but it still occurs when she is really upset. The habit part of this is that anytime the status quo changes it is her go to coping technique. If she is frustrated, upset, nervous or even extremely happy she will grab her hair right behind her ears and yank on it.
- Biting others. During the height of her sleep deprivation Megan was biting everything and everyone for no apparent reason. Obviously the reason was she was exhausted and frustrated that she can't sleep. She would bite Sam just for the heck of it. Thankfully the more sleep she gets the less we see this one. Instead of her biting someone 10-15 times a morning she has gone 3 days without biting at all.
- Biting herself. This one is generally done when she is frustrated about not getting her way, or not being able to do something she is trying to do. This is another one that has changed into a habit as well. I have seen it a lot less the past week as she has gotten more sleep
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Changes
Megan has been changing over the past few weeks, especially in the last 7-10 days. Not only has she said a few words but she is trying to talk quite often. She tries and tries to say words, she points at things and struggles to find the right sounds for them. She will have me tell her what something is over and over again as she tries to imitate me.
She has always used our hands to do things or pointed at things and grunted for them but she is now walking over, asking for something, walking back to us, grabbing our hand and taking us to the item and talking to us about it some more.
Today when I was playing with the kids I asked Sam if he was my little buddy, mommy's little boy and he said "yes, yes, yes" and giggled. A few minutes later I asked Megan if she was my little miss, mommy's little girl and she emphatically shook her head yes, clapped her hands and smiled a huge smile.
She will audibly tell Sam more when she wants him to do something again, like turn on a toy or play chase with her.
She is engaged, she is responsive and she is initiating conversations. She is doing great at school. She has started interacting/play with the other kids. Her and another little girl in her class pretended legos were hats last week and were putting them on each other's heads and then giggling about it.
She has always used our hands to do things or pointed at things and grunted for them but she is now walking over, asking for something, walking back to us, grabbing our hand and taking us to the item and talking to us about it some more.
Today when I was playing with the kids I asked Sam if he was my little buddy, mommy's little boy and he said "yes, yes, yes" and giggled. A few minutes later I asked Megan if she was my little miss, mommy's little girl and she emphatically shook her head yes, clapped her hands and smiled a huge smile.
She will audibly tell Sam more when she wants him to do something again, like turn on a toy or play chase with her.
She is engaged, she is responsive and she is initiating conversations. She is doing great at school. She has started interacting/play with the other kids. Her and another little girl in her class pretended legos were hats last week and were putting them on each other's heads and then giggling about it.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Talking, sleep and starting to run
A couple of weekends ago Uncle Mike was at the house and Megan tried very hard to say his name. She said "m, m, m, mi, mi, mi" very excitedly. It was a wonderful moment because she was trying to talk. Well, since then she has really taken off. She said "dada", "up", "on", "ip (ipad)" and "hat". Every single one of those words were thrilling to hear, but hat was by far the best because she had never made an "h" sound before.
All of this talking started after she got 4 uninterrupted nights of sleep in a row, followed by every other night for a couple of days. We have been doing everything we can to help her sleep and this just proves how very important it is for her development. She has started on a new medication that will hopefully help her to sleep through the night so that her internal clock can reset. It worked the first night, but did not work last night.
Megan got new orthotics last week. These are actually the same ones she had previously, just bigger. She is doing amazing with them. Her gait has narrowed and she is so much more stable. She has started really moving and is almost at a run a lot of the time.
All of this talking started after she got 4 uninterrupted nights of sleep in a row, followed by every other night for a couple of days. We have been doing everything we can to help her sleep and this just proves how very important it is for her development. She has started on a new medication that will hopefully help her to sleep through the night so that her internal clock can reset. It worked the first night, but did not work last night.
Megan got new orthotics last week. These are actually the same ones she had previously, just bigger. She is doing amazing with them. Her gait has narrowed and she is so much more stable. She has started really moving and is almost at a run a lot of the time.
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