Tool Upgrades

It came the time to spoil myself and make our lives simpler, by moving on to tools that encourage generalization of skills. Particularly to something that our beloved service providers could see and accept.

Miniland Toys are found at Scholar's Choice. These cost roughly $10 each. and come in various fine motor/academia games

We started with the one on the left, as 'A' loves it, and has made a great deal of towered patterns already. It will be great for 'D' to refresh himself on his pro-sorting abilities he had as a preschooler.

Bill Nye The Science Guy: Gravity

A few episodes on Youtube and voila, both boys are huge fans of this show. What can I say, this is a grown man in a lab coat, throwing watermelons and TVs off the roof of a building, driving a car over a lake, etc. It gets them engaged and something they can easily relate to in their young exploration of the world around them.

Last but not least, 'A's magnetic train set has been a huge attention grabber for so many months, so this past week when I picked up a set of magnets with two opposing poles, he has been going crazy experimenting with them. 

De-Schooling the little one

Here are the things that took place over the past 5 months, that lead me to believe that we have re-written the concept of learning back into a language he easily understands and enjoys:

- we tried to follow the material they had provided him in the classroom, tracing manuscript lettering, and cutting various squiggles and shapes on plain paper. He freaked out. So we used it for scribble paper and I made a large mess over the work, his immediate reaction was shock, horror, and to tell me I was wrong.
- we tried to follow the pre-K activity books I had in the house, which I assumed were friendly and fun, but again this was a mistake, so instead we practiced drawing angry birds scenes over the images and colouring pages, much to his surprise; however this time no shock or horror.
- I've asked him to write his name on greeting cards, which turned out to be another big no-no.
- I attempted to encourage him to practice cutting paper, for crafts and with different designs. Nope, didn't happen.

What we DID do:

- he was given an opportunity to draw his thoughts about what he wanted to relate to me, in regards to his playtime with angry birds toys. he didn't like his work, so I gave him a new sheet, and a new sheet, and another until he was content with his drawing.
- we moved on from the leapfrog writing tablets to the vtech doodle pad, which gave him physical guides to follow for drawing pictures.
- I started asking him to describe what he was imagining and I would draw it for him.
- I changed the writing tools often, toddler markers, pens, crayons, pencil crayons, shapes, colours, size of tips, til eventually he chose his own grip cushion for the pen. Which is now his.
- He draws what he wants, he will write eventually, but right now, he is content to practice his steadiness, and coordination through doodling.
- we work with very brief moments of paper and pen time. increasing at his discretion, not mine.

We talk about school, and he refuses to even  consider the idea of going back.
We talk about friends, and so long as they are actually friends who will visit him outside of school, he is interested.

Socialization, well him and his brother have quite a bit of catching up to do, and are learning to do it together, as well as making friends their own age.

'D' prefers to be read to, as opposed to sensing the pressure to read on his own. This is okay for now, I have a suspicion his literary skills are more adept than he lets on they are. 'A' prefers to hear singing, and to read on his own. I hope to show him poem books and children's stories and rhymes that have tunes I am familiar with!

When I told Darus he is doing school with mommy, I don't think he expected that he would be able to make his own dinner, learn about offices and errands, where foods come from, what doctors are all about, and how he can develop real skills for living independently, while seeing where math matters, how others see science, and that communication and language are about being considerate, and sharing your imagination with others.

Randomness

Talking about sensory issues, and helping the boys work through their over or under stimulation challenges, balancing it all, and accommodating everyone at once is a bit of a process. I find that the more they are aware of what it looks and feels like to have a sensory processing 'moment' the more likely they are to communicate it and attempt to correct it, if I'm lucky even find a socially appropriate fix for it. Discussion, basic experiences, and slowly working on exposure as well as diet is turning out to be a huge undertaking, so I am finding it necessary to show them more about the human body and how it works. They are understanding it and learning what they themselves can do, but I am loving all of the questioning looks, questions, and experience of working on fine and gross motor skills again. Coincidentally, sensory integration strategies work on smaller scales, and carefully upgraded challenges work with independent play.

The Human Body by Pascale Hedelin

how to become a teacher

I have been technically homeschooling since January, it does not look like it. I have barely even sorted out a system or schedule. I have done nothing but worked on family connections, playing with the cats, going to parks, enjoying the spring weather, making the most of SO being home from work, and progressing with menu changes, and finding new goals for life skills programs.

I recently found a new tool to help come up with effective ideas to use sensory integration with achieving developmental goals. NeuroNet shows you how to maintain growth at home in the 20 minutes that is suggested by therapists to develop communication, coordination, and awareness. You can find their free videos on youtube under the channel neuronetlearning.

These are the farthest you can get from natural learning, and integrative activities, but they do offer some awesome strategies that you can customize to be comfortable for yourself and your kids.

The greatest part about unschooling is that you can offer tools and toys that have an intended purpose, and use it for more creative and care-free exploration. 'D' and I spent yesterday discussing how to doodle Angry Birds characters on the doodle pad. I had to follow his guidance in what scenes to create and how much detail to use. He's tough, but it made a great difference in changing roles, him teaching me something he knows a great deal about.

Where do I start, what do I do?

Unschooling sounds very simple, you let them play and explore, and offer teaching opportunities along the way. This is autism though, and in school your child would likely be receiving therapy. Here is how you can do physio, occupational therapy, speech and language all at home, every single day.

In Canada, we have something called NDDS; this is what our children's agencies use to measure the abilities of kids on and off the spectrum. When a child is referred to be assessed for spectrum disorders, the child is typically behind on their milestones. I measure my kids' well-being and regressions based on how many checklists they have fallen back on, and in what areas.

Now that my children are no longer receiving preschool services, or school board services, we are in limbo waiting for the paperwork to catch up. I am grateful however, as now I am able to comfortably return to the basics of autism therapy and treatment that I used to focus on when they were toddlers. Which is following these guidelines and helping them achieve growth from whatever developmental 'age' they seem to be at.

The areas on this checklist cover all developmental areas a child generally possesses by the age marked at the top. If your child is performing less than their age, you can find ways to practice these skills. It's a good idea to start from the beginning, when you saw problems and go from there. If your child isn't performing half or more of these skills, try the milestone sheet that came prior. Work on skills he is able to generalize first, and new skills secondarily. If your child is appropriate for his age, you can still look beyond if you want to keep them on track.

we have a new doctor!!

Today, is Wednesday. Which for us is reading day. Usually a struggle, as they are not the types to sit down and  read books when the weather has changed to simply lure them to the windows to stare at the pool and sunshine. However storytelling is something they are both fond of. For a long time, they never met in the middle when it came to compromising on auditory input of any kind. Even each others voices were irritating to them. I'm glad that seems to be over. Perhaps it was all of that time apart, who knows.

Dr. Seuss

Tonight was the first time I was able to read a book that wasn't simply from a movie or video game he liked. Actually it's the first time I was able to read a book and have him engaged. He wasn't feeling well and was more interested in distracting himself with the ipad, but he enjoyed it a great deal. Reading is a tool still to him, I'm not sure how or if he will find enjoyment, I know most people do, even casual readers, will eventually find a reason to use their abilities to read in a recreational way. However, his (acknowledged) need for practice with speech and sentence structure made this a fun evening. 'A' on the other hand, was so frustrated at trying to listen to the stories I read while watching his bedtime shows, he turned off the tv and flopped on some cushions on the floor! He loves music, and has had more experiences with story time than his brother had in a while. Both have always been thrilled to dig into books, but refused to let me read them. 

closure

First of all: I would like to give thanks to the wonderful people who did their best to support and integrate my children into the public school's ASD program. The teachers, program coordinator, support staff, EAs, administration, special needs officials from the board, the ABA consultant, speech pathologist, occupational therapist, pediatrician, bus driver, friends, family and other parents.

Now I have learned a few vital lessons about the school environment, and the children in it. When I sent my two severely-language impaired children to school, I had hoped they would receive services sooner, and at an equal quality to that which is advertised as waiting for us at the end of the tunnel, in a few years time. They have been on a wait list to receive intensive behavioural intervention since a few months post-diagnoses.

Here is what I feel to be the checklist for special needs children prior to entering the school system:

• no more than a mild language impairment
• a completely documented and signed portfolio of known medical issues.
• formal recommendations from current service providers and therapists.
• a detailed behaviour management plan.
• a daily communication notebook 

Sitting back to look over the time 'D' spent in school, I wish I had decided to homeschool full-time a little sooner. He had a full year and a half, including some summer school. Sometimes I find myself tearing up, what did I do wrong for him to not fit in at school? What happened there? I have so many questions that will never have tangible answers to, yet it is written all over his face, whenever the subject comes up. Seeing his school-friends was his single motivator for attending school for so long. He came home burnt out, and unwilling to be part of any family activities. He shut down. His communication skills still quite limited for his age, so the sudden disconnection was worse than ever. He was happy, yes of course. He enjoyed many moments at school, indeed he did. 

For some time, my visits to the office or with the staff was pleasant, social, and informative, all of my questions were being answered diligently. Then it happened. My son's eagerness to make friends was turning into a disruptive behaviour. An oversight on everyone's part I'm sure, I had a suspicion that school had taken a turn for the worst when he didn't want to get out of bed in the morning, and showed pent up rage and confusion after getting off his bus. Not until the weekends when he was happy again, did I get to spend time with my little boy. My baby came back out of himself during these times.

Summer school hit. He did well, but for the first time, I could communicate with him about school. The routines had changed, his needs for understanding became more severe, his ability to integrate with NT children had gotten better outside of school. The hours were shorter. The expectations had changed radically. The staff that was to care for him was not all the same. I was advised it was just to make transitions back to school in September that much easier and smoother for everyone. There wouldn't be any academics or therapies offered. So, I took it upon myself to explore his recent report cards and see what we could do to keep his skills up as well, and without interfering with the processes or routines at school. We asked him a great deal about his time at school, with very little success in learning actual context, simply able to see the feelings he was willing to show. During the summer the children brought home a journal every day, which gave us the ability to talk about the events of the day more easily. (I had asked for this during school but they  kept giving us the run-around; ironically this year the ASD classes did implement it).

What happened is this: the school's ASD program was unwilling to budge on standardized care, strategies, or implementations that are used for Every single child within the confines of the contained classroom. I spoke of staggered integration into the mainstream class, and faced looks of concrete expressions.

I am glad I brought my son home to learn and grow, to make his own friends, and to access better therapy interventions not available in the school.

Introduction....to Music Theory..

I love how this company really understands what an autistic child's experiences can be like, and a simplistic, inviting, yet transparent teaching tool their apps have been. We have taken a break from their math and alphabet series' and exploring life and social skills apps. Today we learned that 'A' loves the sound of the washing machine, and frowns at the sound of the coffee maker. I find his most sensitive days to be associated with the fridge, computers, and furnace (these are days we do our best to get out more often or find constructive things to focus on). A favourite temporary solution or emergency prevention tool is my stereo haha! a single overwhelming sound with melodies he is used to hearing, or likes, helps pass the time until we move on from the environment, or the appliances turn off.

Shanesh Colors: Sounds of the House -- ipad app

Recently, 'A' became bored with counting to 20, his first number recognition and sequential learning games. So we have taken a break from focusing on him, and have turned much of the math attention towards his brother, of course, nobody is left in the cold here, so it turned to be a fun math lesson for everyone.

This gave us the added benefit of incorporating our recent phonics activities and awareness, with simple numerical recognition, speech, and taking turns... and learning that its okay to have shared special interests. Learning to spell the written label for numbers was a highlight to our day, full of giggles and near squabbles.

Math Puppy ipad App

LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem

Last but not least, I am trying out music keyboard apps for the ipad, he loves dance music, instrumental, folk, all sorts of things. He also likes to dance.

zombie invasion

Yes. there is a zombie invasion, it is happening in our house. We have managed to find a fun way to exhaust repetitiveness, get through math practice drills, avoid penmanship, and learn all aspects of math, as well as swiftness and clear-headedness.

ipad app, Math vs Zombies

This app covers most of pre-algebra skills, no graphic content (obviously, its for kids!) and required much assistance. All of these things went amazingly well for a full half an hour, with an abacus at our side for visual reference, the speed at which the gameplay pushed him, even on easy level, encouraged us to practice skip counting, sorting, and visual recognition with speed.

It went so well, and exercised his mind, and mine (let us hope this would go well, and no meltdowns as he is having a blast, but challenged for once). This is the abacus we use in our house, up until now it's been a sensory and simple counting tool. 

'D' struggles with perfectionism and not understanding why he is so bright yet his instinct to grab a pen or use a computer is not what he thinks it should be. The zombies were rewarding, he's that kind of a boy, and he's the kind of person who loves addictive skill challenges such as this. The same boy spent 6 months of his toddler years with shape-sorter toys, of all shapes and styles! the same as every other preschool subject. I only ever provided the toys, offered assistance to avert meltdowns, and a third eye view of the problem. With math, we are very clear what his abilities are, he understands and accepts he has much more to learn, its a family activity generally.

the medical signs

Tonight I want to share something quite individual to my children (to the best of my knowledge) and tough to measure or even keep track of, which is: health. 

My youngest has had many seizures and 'zone-outs' since he was a newborn, he displayed signs of sleep apnea, severe allergic reactions to most chemicals and artificial ingredients, chronic silent ear infections, and so many other developmental challenges along the way. With each major seizure the size and shape of his head would increase. After a prolonged period of time without seizure activity his head would slowly work its way back down to proportionate. (or as much as a child of mine could come to an average size head!) The most troubling aspect of his health is his lower threshold for serious fevers. With warmer weather, we regulate his body temperature more than we ever would consider investing into his autism traits.

A brief summary of his traits are seeking dizziness, risk-taking behaviours, screaming, sleep disturbances and bolting. To break these things down even further, since he has been completely nonverbal for his life thus far, and unable to focus due to sleep deprivation, congestion and fever, or sensory overload... any caregiver he has had is well aware of his trademark spikes in 'autistic behaviour' and the contrast to his usual receptive, friendly, yet shy self.

With this being said, we have found a great deal of relief through homeopathic remedies for allergies, congestion, and cold/flu symptoms. Still relying on acetaminophen as an emergency fever buster. The most exciting change we have seen is when he gets a daily supplement of omega 3. He calms right down, except for his high energy personality. It is my goal to offer this to him in conjunction with diet changes. He is overly sensitive to the world around him, the omega 3 helps to calm this down, better sleep does as well. A significant contributor is store-bought grocery products such as bread and pizza, these have caused havoc and nightmares in our home, but his dependency is greater than I had expected so we have been slowly working towards completely homemade, natural, and healthy foods. 

his brother on the other hand is an entirely different set of circumstances but complementary in respect to 'A's needs and behaviours. He has many food sensitivities, which have caused him a great deal of digestive problems and anxiety to do with eating in general. He has his preferred snacks, which have slowly been permitted to be prepared differently. Another issue that goes alongside all of this, is that he has IBS-C, undiagnosed but being treated by  the pediatrician and pulled out of school due to his autism flare-ups linked to his digestive well-being. Essentially, when his diet is proper, and his body can adapt, his sensory issues, behaviours, and challenges dissipate dramatically. He evolves with each passage, literally. When he is stressed out, he regresses. He has a memory that is unbelievable, retains everything, and remembers events and moments from his toddler years.

We had followed doctor recommendations for years, with no success, I decided to start listening to the advice of 'D' more than his physician, and it turns out he had good reasons to complain about certain foods, as they were not helping him at all. The medications were not helping on their own, and were terribly hard to complement with diet and supplementation. Thus far, he is mostly GFCFSF. Not by trend, not by doctor recommendation, but simply through letting him eat anything he wanted for a time (he had to eat something!) and watched what happened. With dairy it was obvious as a toddler weening off infant formula, it caused the same intolerances he experienced while nursing. Store bought whole wheat and white breads are the most harmful I have found thus far. 

Now he drinks sports drinks such as gatorade and powerade to keep hydrated as well its an accepted medium for medicines and supplements. We are experimenting with a small amount of aloe vera juice, a great deal of exercise, and probiotics kids supplements. He is doing better! We let him have light rye bread for his sandwiches, but are seeing a limit to how many he can have in a day. more than two small sandwiches and he is bloated and overwhelmed by everything around him. 

Unschooling behind mommy's back

Months and Months of organizing, planning, and figuring out why on earth I cannot follow the standard curriculum and special needs programming that they offer at all public schools, and most catholic. Months of reading about amazing naturalistic curriculums, the origins and intentions of various forms of teaching and educating. Catching up on my children's special needs, and requirements for successful integration. Finding myself at wits ends, and off the cliff so many times, balancing my goals with fighting the fears of big changes ahead.

Then today. With such precision and focus. My 6 year old labeled moderately autistic, with severe language and communication delays, and very poor health pulled off a miracle. To me it is. To any science geeks or anonymous autism-sympathizers, it would be as well. He is dedicated to his toys and pretend play; he is very sophisticated. How? he studies, researches, and informs himself from various different perspectives, tools, resources, and continues with an open mind and a desire to share with those close to him, and a need for privacy and security from those who don't see what he has been doing.

1. his favourite theme is superheroes, for so many reasons, some therapeutic (yes deliberately), and others creatively.
2. he has many toys. a homeschooler gets to use many more toys than a daycare-attendee would.
3. he asks for help and support for learning during his play, he has taken VB/ABA and made it his own, child-led initiative to discover himself, and challenge his inner autism and child troubles into submission or creative masterpieces.
4. he has regular access to cartoons, movies, youtube, comic books, books, and parents (who of course have grown up with these same characters, so should be able to provide some insight or vocabulary)
5. he is learning to read, and at the same time his visual processing has developed marvelously through searching on youtube without reading skills, to find the videos that provide the stories, social possibilities, and more that he could be looking for.
6. he returns to his play or will show what he has learned, demonstrations, presentations, discussions, explanations. and the best part, is he is an interactive speaker.

pretend is the ultimate, amazing, autism stim out there.

This morning his drive was to watch Magic School Bus videos about the rain, and plumbing.

'D' has severe communicative delays, a highly developed and trained sense of echolalia, both delayed and immediate. So for him to have questions he cannot find the words for, and then to research it online through videos, which obviously bypasses his very rudimentary reading skills.. is in my opinion. Fantastic.