We fired Jesse's home therapist this past week. While it really sucks, in a way, it was a huge relief in another. Since May, we've put up with multiple lates and sick days, coffee being continuously spilled on our carpets, schedule changes to accommodate her, and a decreasing level of patience on her part. The straw that broke the camels back, however, was her posting about Jesse (using his name even) on her Facebook page. (Not to mention that it was post DURING his therapy session that day.
So, we're going to try without therapy for a few months. We're going to do playdates and playgroups and biweekly speech therapy. We may enroll in toddler Mother Goose or some other more structured activities. Jesse's language has come so far these past few months that it's now within the normal range for a child his age. So we're going to focus more on play and socialization, which he's been really missing out on, in my opinion.
Other big news is that Jesse's is starting to seem ready for potty learning! In the past couple of days Jesse has requested to use the potty to pee and he pooped on the potty without any suggestion from me or his father. This is so exciting, because I would *love* for him to be out of diapers before the next kiddo arrives. Which is the other big change we're expecting. "Trouble" is due to arrive some time in March.
I guess that's all for now.
Showing posts with label home therapist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home therapist. Show all posts
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Just a quick update
We had our Individual Support Services Plan (ISSP) meeting this week. In attendance were the social worker, Jesse's senior therapist, her mentor, and myself. Jesse's SLP sent along a progress report to be included as well. We discussed Jesse's strengths and needs, and picked three main areas to work on in the coming six months. I should have a copy of the formal report on Monday, so I can go into more detail then. We also reviewed and signed the service funding agreement, which will pay for the home therapist that will be working with Jesse.
Speaking of which, we're finally on the ball with regard to hiring someone. We've interviewed one person already, and it went REALLY well. The only issue is that she's looking for the full 30 hours per week (as it's her income and all) and we were hoping to find someone part-time. It's an option though. We have two more interviews lined up in the coming few days. Hopefully we'll have a decision made by Wednesday and can get everything lined up for home therapy to start the week after next.
Also, I received and invited to attend a program called "Making Connections in Autism" at the Janeway. It's a program of four education sessions for parents, caregivers, and therapists of children with autism - in particular those who have been waitlisted for SLP and OT services. It's taking place over 4 weeks in May. I've already notified them that I will be attending. I'm hoping our home therapist (if we have one hired by that time) will be able to attend as well. My fingers are crossed that this will give me some ideas for how to break Jesse of his toe-walking.
Speaking of which, we're finally on the ball with regard to hiring someone. We've interviewed one person already, and it went REALLY well. The only issue is that she's looking for the full 30 hours per week (as it's her income and all) and we were hoping to find someone part-time. It's an option though. We have two more interviews lined up in the coming few days. Hopefully we'll have a decision made by Wednesday and can get everything lined up for home therapy to start the week after next.
Also, I received and invited to attend a program called "Making Connections in Autism" at the Janeway. It's a program of four education sessions for parents, caregivers, and therapists of children with autism - in particular those who have been waitlisted for SLP and OT services. It's taking place over 4 weeks in May. I've already notified them that I will be attending. I'm hoping our home therapist (if we have one hired by that time) will be able to attend as well. My fingers are crossed that this will give me some ideas for how to break Jesse of his toe-walking.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Put yer feet up....
...this is gonna be a long one!
Tomorrow is Jesse's Individual Support Services Plan (ISSP) meeting. It'll be here at the house, so I don't have to find a sitter (thank goodness). There will only be a few people in attendance - the Autism Program's social worker, Jesse's senior therapist (ST) and her supervisor, and myself. Jesse's SLP can't make it, but she emailed me a progress note. Steve can't make it either, since he's already at his max vacation time this year. He helped me write up our own contribution to the meeting anyways. It's basically just a sheet of paper with the heading "strengths" written on the left and "needs" written on the right. We came up with the following...
Strengths:
-non-verbal communication
-growing vocabulary
-will attempt new words
-imitation
-high energy
-great fine motor and gross motor skills
-likes to be around adults and other children
-transitions easily from one place to another and from one activity to another.
Needs:
-to work on increasing vocabulary and phrases
-to work on decreasing toe walking
-to work on interactive play with other children
-to work on not running away when out in public
-has difficulty breaking certain routines
Jesse's SLPs progress note also listed some strengths and needs, none of which were a surprise to me. It was very encouraging though, that she seems so pleased with his progress thus far. It will be interesting to hear what his ST and her supervisor have to say at the meeting tomorrow.
I'm also really looking forward to this, because the funding for Jesse's home therapy program will be approved. We'll actually be able to pay whoever (whomever?) we hire to be Jesse's home therapist!
Speaking of which, we have an interview set up for Wednesday night! I'm very nervous about interviewing someone. I've never really done that before, aside from sitters for Jesse. I suppose this shouldn't be that different though. I definitely need to prepare for it though! I also have to go through the rest of the resumes and try to find a few more candidates to interview. I'm thinking 5-6 interviews should be sufficient. I really want to find someone who's high energy, friendly, creative, and dependable.
Also, I figured now would be as good a time as any to share an update on Jesse's vocabulary. It's growing so much! It's very difficult to keep up with now too, since he'll at least try to imitate almost any word you ask him to say.
Imitated/prompted words:
Koko (the daycare owner's dog)
ears
hair
knees
toes
on
out
boots
shoes
go ("doe")
duck
gone ("don")
ball
arm
god
mouse
purse
pee
cheese
Spontaneous Words:
Mom
Da/Dad
Nan
Pop
Josh ("Dosh")
Jesse ("esseez")
Anna ("Nana" - daycare owner's daughter)
no
this
up
nose
baby
hi
bye
juice ("dooce")
bees (refers to nursing)
boo
uh-oh
off
eyes
poop ("doot")
hot
beep
more ("no")
ta-da
night-night
hop
ding-dong ("ning-nong")
Jesse also has a handful of two-word phrases now too, including "bye bees/Mom/Dad/Nan/Pop/Josh," "my baby," "no, Jesse's!" and "uh oh Da!"
It's quite a bit better than the list from March 11th, which was the last time I did this. And so, so much better than the 5 words he was using when we had our first speech therapy appointment with his current SLP on March 8th. That was only 6 weeks ago! His non-verbal communication has also come a long way since then, which is very helpful. He's much better able to communicate with us what he wants (to eat, for example) and when he wants us to play with him.
There's so much more to tell, but it's getting late and we have an early rise tomorrow. Speech therapy is at 8:30 and the ISSP is at 10 am! Hopefully I'll get a chance to update tomorrow.
Tomorrow is Jesse's Individual Support Services Plan (ISSP) meeting. It'll be here at the house, so I don't have to find a sitter (thank goodness). There will only be a few people in attendance - the Autism Program's social worker, Jesse's senior therapist (ST) and her supervisor, and myself. Jesse's SLP can't make it, but she emailed me a progress note. Steve can't make it either, since he's already at his max vacation time this year. He helped me write up our own contribution to the meeting anyways. It's basically just a sheet of paper with the heading "strengths" written on the left and "needs" written on the right. We came up with the following...
Strengths:
-non-verbal communication
-growing vocabulary
-will attempt new words
-imitation
-high energy
-great fine motor and gross motor skills
-likes to be around adults and other children
-transitions easily from one place to another and from one activity to another.
Needs:
-to work on increasing vocabulary and phrases
-to work on decreasing toe walking
-to work on interactive play with other children
-to work on not running away when out in public
-has difficulty breaking certain routines
Jesse's SLPs progress note also listed some strengths and needs, none of which were a surprise to me. It was very encouraging though, that she seems so pleased with his progress thus far. It will be interesting to hear what his ST and her supervisor have to say at the meeting tomorrow.
I'm also really looking forward to this, because the funding for Jesse's home therapy program will be approved. We'll actually be able to pay whoever (whomever?) we hire to be Jesse's home therapist!
Speaking of which, we have an interview set up for Wednesday night! I'm very nervous about interviewing someone. I've never really done that before, aside from sitters for Jesse. I suppose this shouldn't be that different though. I definitely need to prepare for it though! I also have to go through the rest of the resumes and try to find a few more candidates to interview. I'm thinking 5-6 interviews should be sufficient. I really want to find someone who's high energy, friendly, creative, and dependable.
Also, I figured now would be as good a time as any to share an update on Jesse's vocabulary. It's growing so much! It's very difficult to keep up with now too, since he'll at least try to imitate almost any word you ask him to say.
Imitated/prompted words:
Koko (the daycare owner's dog)
ears
hair
knees
toes
on
out
boots
shoes
go ("doe")
duck
gone ("don")
ball
arm
god
mouse
purse
pee
cheese
Spontaneous Words:
Mom
Da/Dad
Nan
Pop
Josh ("Dosh")
Jesse ("esseez")
Anna ("Nana" - daycare owner's daughter)
no
this
up
nose
baby
hi
bye
juice ("dooce")
bees (refers to nursing)
boo
uh-oh
off
eyes
poop ("doot")
hot
beep
more ("no")
ta-da
night-night
hop
ding-dong ("ning-nong")
Jesse also has a handful of two-word phrases now too, including "bye bees/Mom/Dad/Nan/Pop/Josh," "my baby," "no, Jesse's!" and "uh oh Da!"
It's quite a bit better than the list from March 11th, which was the last time I did this. And so, so much better than the 5 words he was using when we had our first speech therapy appointment with his current SLP on March 8th. That was only 6 weeks ago! His non-verbal communication has also come a long way since then, which is very helpful. He's much better able to communicate with us what he wants (to eat, for example) and when he wants us to play with him.
There's so much more to tell, but it's getting late and we have an early rise tomorrow. Speech therapy is at 8:30 and the ISSP is at 10 am! Hopefully I'll get a chance to update tomorrow.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Just call me Pavlov
This week Steve and I took the Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) Training course that home therapists are required to take to work with kids with autism. It's offered to parents so that we can understand the programs and assist as needed, and also so we can better understand our kids and our interactions with them. It was all very interesting. It's VERY much based on the principles of operant conditioning. The trainers were great, and the other parents and home therapist that attended were fantastic. It actually was a lot of fun, which I hadn't expected. It also helped me to see that this home therapy will actually be fun for Jesse as well. It's meant to be.
I was really surprised too, at how the discussion we had seemed to tie some things together for me. Some things that Jesse does have always been a mystery to me. Like a year ago when he repetitively rolled himself off the couch to fall sideways on the floor. When he repetitively bangs his head, arm, leg, back again the wall or furniture. It's all a sensory issue! It's not seeing, hearing, smelling, touching or tasting. It's proprioception! It's one of the seven senses we have (there's also vestibular), and Jesse seems to just need more of that sensory input!
There were other times though, during the course, that I though how Jesse really doesn't fit the bill. I know there's a huge range of abilities and issues when it comes to an autism diagnosis, but in many ways Jesse is just so NORMAL! For example, they explained that imitation usually has to be taught. Imitation or mimicry is one of the major ways kids learn how to do things or how to act, and it's often (usually?) absent in kids on the spectrum. Well, Jesse mimics EVERYTHING! From chasing around the kids at active play and "falling" when they fall, so mimicking Steve's mannerisms and speech. And there were other things too....I can't recall them all at the moment due to sheer exhaustion, but it really made me doubt, at time, the diagnosis. I guess all we can do it wait and see. His ADOS will be repeated at age 3 and he may or may not come away from it with the diagnosis again.
***edited May 1, 2010 to add:
The title of this post will tell you how far removed I am from my B.Sc. in Behavioural Neuroscience. I'm only now realizing it should be "Just call me Skinner".
I was really surprised too, at how the discussion we had seemed to tie some things together for me. Some things that Jesse does have always been a mystery to me. Like a year ago when he repetitively rolled himself off the couch to fall sideways on the floor. When he repetitively bangs his head, arm, leg, back again the wall or furniture. It's all a sensory issue! It's not seeing, hearing, smelling, touching or tasting. It's proprioception! It's one of the seven senses we have (there's also vestibular), and Jesse seems to just need more of that sensory input!
There were other times though, during the course, that I though how Jesse really doesn't fit the bill. I know there's a huge range of abilities and issues when it comes to an autism diagnosis, but in many ways Jesse is just so NORMAL! For example, they explained that imitation usually has to be taught. Imitation or mimicry is one of the major ways kids learn how to do things or how to act, and it's often (usually?) absent in kids on the spectrum. Well, Jesse mimics EVERYTHING! From chasing around the kids at active play and "falling" when they fall, so mimicking Steve's mannerisms and speech. And there were other things too....I can't recall them all at the moment due to sheer exhaustion, but it really made me doubt, at time, the diagnosis. I guess all we can do it wait and see. His ADOS will be repeated at age 3 and he may or may not come away from it with the diagnosis again.
***edited May 1, 2010 to add:
The title of this post will tell you how far removed I am from my B.Sc. in Behavioural Neuroscience. I'm only now realizing it should be "Just call me Skinner".
Monday, April 5, 2010
"My Baby!"
Yes, this is what Jesse said today. I'm adding it to his list of two-word phrases, which, until today, has consisted only of "bye [insert noun]." He says "bye bees," "bye Mom" (I nearly fell on the floor when he said that to me when I dropped him off at day care last week), and "bye Da/Josh/Nan/Pop."
This sweet little phrase turned my otherwise crappy afternoon into pure awesomeness. We were meeting with Miss Crabby-Ass insurance adjuster when he said it. I had just taken him out of the room because he was getting loud. I was holding his baby doll (which was MY baby doll 29 years ago) and he reached out and said "my baby!" Clear as day. He hasn't said it since, but I'm hoping to hear it again soon.
In other news, we reached a deal with the other guy's insurance agency. They're giving us a grand total of $1000 for our car, but we get to keep the car and scrap her. (They're paying to replace the car seat as well.) We also found a new(ish) car to replace Steve's 1999 Sonata. It's another Sonata. A 2006 model. Steve is quite pleased that for once his car will be newer than mine (by about 5 months). We get to pick her up tomorrow. I was so worried that we wouldn't have found another car by the time Steve goes back to work next week. (He's on holidays this week for the ABA training.) We need two cars since Steve works about 30 minutes outside of town and Jesse has his speech therapy and various other appointments during the week that I need to take him to.
So that's a couple of things that are now out of the way.
Tomorrow Steve and I start the ABA training. We had hoped to be doing this with our newly hired home therapist, but we haven't even gotten around to looking at the resumes yet. We'll probably be starting that task tomorrow night or Wednesday night. The ISSP is tentatively scheduled for April 19th. Only then will funding be approved to pay our home therapist, so I don't feel too behind.
Oh, and we're also going gluten free (GF) this week. I just need to pick up some foods to get us through the first week or so while we learn how to incorporate non-gluten containing foods into our diet. I'll definitely write more on this later. Oh, and my book report. I'll have to work that in too. Damn, I'm such a procrastinator!
This sweet little phrase turned my otherwise crappy afternoon into pure awesomeness. We were meeting with Miss Crabby-Ass insurance adjuster when he said it. I had just taken him out of the room because he was getting loud. I was holding his baby doll (which was MY baby doll 29 years ago) and he reached out and said "my baby!" Clear as day. He hasn't said it since, but I'm hoping to hear it again soon.
In other news, we reached a deal with the other guy's insurance agency. They're giving us a grand total of $1000 for our car, but we get to keep the car and scrap her. (They're paying to replace the car seat as well.) We also found a new(ish) car to replace Steve's 1999 Sonata. It's another Sonata. A 2006 model. Steve is quite pleased that for once his car will be newer than mine (by about 5 months). We get to pick her up tomorrow. I was so worried that we wouldn't have found another car by the time Steve goes back to work next week. (He's on holidays this week for the ABA training.) We need two cars since Steve works about 30 minutes outside of town and Jesse has his speech therapy and various other appointments during the week that I need to take him to.
So that's a couple of things that are now out of the way.
Tomorrow Steve and I start the ABA training. We had hoped to be doing this with our newly hired home therapist, but we haven't even gotten around to looking at the resumes yet. We'll probably be starting that task tomorrow night or Wednesday night. The ISSP is tentatively scheduled for April 19th. Only then will funding be approved to pay our home therapist, so I don't feel too behind.
Oh, and we're also going gluten free (GF) this week. I just need to pick up some foods to get us through the first week or so while we learn how to incorporate non-gluten containing foods into our diet. I'll definitely write more on this later. Oh, and my book report. I'll have to work that in too. Damn, I'm such a procrastinator!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Now we're getting somewhere
So sorry for slacking on this blog. There's just so much going on right now. My husband, Steve, was in a car accident on Thursday. Steve is mostly OK, though he's having some back pain and had to take some time off work. The car is toast. We were really hoping to get another couple of years out of Steve's car, so that we wouldn't have to be making 2 car payments, but God/fate/karma/whatever had other plans. I'm sure we'll get through, but we've been really busy trying to get all of this straightened out.
In the meantime, Jesse is doing really well. His language is really coming along. His list of words, both imitated and spontaneous, grows daily. His SLP is really happy with his progress. I also have a book I'm reading that is giving me some great ideas on how to help this along at home as well. It's called Motivate to Communicate. It's written for kids on the spectrum, but I have a feeling it would really work well for kids with a "simple" speech delay as well. I'm not that far into it yet, but I'm hoping to have it finished by the weekend, and can give you a review of it.
We've also been assigned a senior therapist! Yay!!! She's actually still training, so her supervisor will be coming along with her and helping her, which is great. They both paid us a visit this morning. We mostly just went over Jesse's history and what our main concerns were. They also gave us a bit of an overview of what the next few weeks will consist of. On April 12th, they'll return and do Jesse's evaluations, and then on April 19th (tentatively) we'll have Jesse's ISSP (Individualized Supports and Services Plan...I think that's what it stands for). That's when we'll come up with the plan of attack for Jesse. It's only when we have the ISSP that we get funding for the home therapist. (Speaking of which, we still haven't hired anyone yet. I have about 40 resumes here, though, to look through.)
I also keep meaning to do a little book report, of sorts, on the book I just finished a couple of days ago. It's called Changing the Course of Autism: A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physicians. It's not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination. There's a lot of anatomy and physiology and immunology knowledge needed to understand it well. It did challenge me to recall a lot of what I learned in my B.Sc. and my B.N. I think it's worth reading though, for any parent who has a child on the spectrum. (And for any doctor treating a child on the spectrum.) Jesse's waking up from his nap, so I can't get into it now, but I will definitely give a review of this book later.
In the meantime, Jesse is doing really well. His language is really coming along. His list of words, both imitated and spontaneous, grows daily. His SLP is really happy with his progress. I also have a book I'm reading that is giving me some great ideas on how to help this along at home as well. It's called Motivate to Communicate. It's written for kids on the spectrum, but I have a feeling it would really work well for kids with a "simple" speech delay as well. I'm not that far into it yet, but I'm hoping to have it finished by the weekend, and can give you a review of it.
We've also been assigned a senior therapist! Yay!!! She's actually still training, so her supervisor will be coming along with her and helping her, which is great. They both paid us a visit this morning. We mostly just went over Jesse's history and what our main concerns were. They also gave us a bit of an overview of what the next few weeks will consist of. On April 12th, they'll return and do Jesse's evaluations, and then on April 19th (tentatively) we'll have Jesse's ISSP (Individualized Supports and Services Plan...I think that's what it stands for). That's when we'll come up with the plan of attack for Jesse. It's only when we have the ISSP that we get funding for the home therapist. (Speaking of which, we still haven't hired anyone yet. I have about 40 resumes here, though, to look through.)
I also keep meaning to do a little book report, of sorts, on the book I just finished a couple of days ago. It's called Changing the Course of Autism: A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physicians. It's not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination. There's a lot of anatomy and physiology and immunology knowledge needed to understand it well. It did challenge me to recall a lot of what I learned in my B.Sc. and my B.N. I think it's worth reading though, for any parent who has a child on the spectrum. (And for any doctor treating a child on the spectrum.) Jesse's waking up from his nap, so I can't get into it now, but I will definitely give a review of this book later.
Monday, March 15, 2010
What a breakthrough!
I feel like the big brick wall I've been bashing my head against for so long has started to crumble. We had Jesse's weekly speech therapy appointment this morning. Jesse's SLP, M., was THRILLED with his progress! I took my Flip video camera with the video of Jesse talking in the bathtub from last night and showed her. So right away she tossed her plan for incorporating signs into his therapy and wants to dive right into increasing his vocabulary and getting him saying things spontaneously.
During the appointment she got him to say "eat" and "bus." He's also now saying "bye." I can hardly keep up! She gave me some tips for how to play with him and encourage spontaneous talking and new words. Such a productive 1/2 hour!
In other news:
We had our follow-up with the physiotherapist. She gave me some more information sheets on how to deal with the sensory issues. We have some proprioception work to do with him. She's pleased with his range of motion in his ankles, but thinks that he could tighten up if he continues to toe walk so much. She advised me to do some stretches with him and keep an eye on his range of motion. She'll keep his file open, so that if I need to, I can call her up and make an appointment and we can get Jesse right back in to see her without the
wait. She did think Occupational Therapy would be a good idea though, to help with the sensory issues, and I will be asking for a referral to OT at our appointment with Dr. C on Wednesday.
I also spoke with the social worker, J., this morning. We still don't know when we'll be assigned a senior therapist. It was supposed to be a 2-3 week wait. It's now been 4 weeks. And J. said that she "hopes" it'll only be "another week or so." So frustrating! I told her that this makes it REALLY difficult in terms of hiring a home therapist. They want someone hired by the next ABA training session (April 6-8). But how am I supposed to hire someone when I have no idea how many hours I'll be hiring someone for? I don't know if it'll be 15 hours, 20 hours, 30 hours? Something in between? Who would even be willing to take a job if they have no clue what kind of hours I can offer them? So I'm sort of at a loss as to what to do about that right now. I guess I just have to keep my fingers crossed that someone will get the lead out get moving on this.
I have to focus on the positive though, right? And I am. I'm going to work on Jesse's speech with him and do as much as I can. He's already come SO FAR in just the last couple of weeks. It's actually really exciting!
During the appointment she got him to say "eat" and "bus." He's also now saying "bye." I can hardly keep up! She gave me some tips for how to play with him and encourage spontaneous talking and new words. Such a productive 1/2 hour!
In other news:
We had our follow-up with the physiotherapist. She gave me some more information sheets on how to deal with the sensory issues. We have some proprioception work to do with him. She's pleased with his range of motion in his ankles, but thinks that he could tighten up if he continues to toe walk so much. She advised me to do some stretches with him and keep an eye on his range of motion. She'll keep his file open, so that if I need to, I can call her up and make an appointment and we can get Jesse right back in to see her without the
wait. She did think Occupational Therapy would be a good idea though, to help with the sensory issues, and I will be asking for a referral to OT at our appointment with Dr. C on Wednesday.
I also spoke with the social worker, J., this morning. We still don't know when we'll be assigned a senior therapist. It was supposed to be a 2-3 week wait. It's now been 4 weeks. And J. said that she "hopes" it'll only be "another week or so." So frustrating! I told her that this makes it REALLY difficult in terms of hiring a home therapist. They want someone hired by the next ABA training session (April 6-8). But how am I supposed to hire someone when I have no idea how many hours I'll be hiring someone for? I don't know if it'll be 15 hours, 20 hours, 30 hours? Something in between? Who would even be willing to take a job if they have no clue what kind of hours I can offer them? So I'm sort of at a loss as to what to do about that right now. I guess I just have to keep my fingers crossed that someone will get the lead out get moving on this.
I have to focus on the positive though, right? And I am. I'm going to work on Jesse's speech with him and do as much as I can. He's already come SO FAR in just the last couple of weeks. It's actually really exciting!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Frustration
It's been 4 weeks since our initial meeting with the social worker. We were told then that a senior therapist would be assigned to us within three weeks. It's now been 4 weeks. Four LONG weeks. I called and left a message with the social worker, but she hasn't called me back. This is just not sitting well with me! The senior therapist is supposed to do 3-4 weekly appointments with Jesse to help determine his therapy needs. Until then, we don't know how many hours of ABA therapy per week Jesse will need. How are we supposed to hire someone when we have no if we're hiring for 15 hours per week, or 30? And a little bit of guidance as to what qualifications or characteristics of skills to look for in a home therapist would be helpful.
Somebody needs to get with the program! Argh!
Somebody needs to get with the program! Argh!
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