We received the written report from the University this weekend.
"Psychological Evaluation for Learning Disability: WISC-IV & WIAT-II Interpretation"
"The current psychological evaluation will provide diagnostic clarification and recommendations based on M's performance."
"Relevant Background Information:" This could also be titled "Mom says ..." and "Dr. Psychiatrist says" and "Mr. Behavior Guy says."
"Methods of Evaluation: Clinical Interview, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition (WISC-IV), Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition (WIAT-II)."
"Behavioral Observations: ... remained silent and smiled when spoken to. ... obtained information from Psychiatrist and CBA due to concerns about selective mutism demonstrated throughout the clinical interview ... As voluntary mutism would preclude psychological testing ...
On the first day of testing M was pleasant and cooperative with the examiner. Furthermore, rapport was easily established with M. The examiner noted periods in which M seemed to tune out and disengage from the task at hand." She discusses how she handled that, pretty straight forward stuff.
"The examiner noted a pronounced tendency for M to be hasty in her decision making, arriving at answers impulsively without fully considering the sequential problem solving steps needed to deduce an answer logically. These behavioral observations were consistent across testing sessions and M demonstrated similar observable deficits in sequential problem solving strategy and impulsivity in giving answers on the second day of testing."
"Test Results and Interpretation: WISC-IV
general cognitive ability is with in Low Average range of intellectual functioning, as measured by the Full Scale IQ score. Her overall thinking and reasoning abilities exceed those of approximately 21% of children her age. ... verbal reasoning abilities as measured by the Verbal Comprehension Index are in the low average range and above 16% of her peers. The Verbal Comprehension Index is designed to measure verbal reasoning and concept formation.
... nonverbal reasoning abilities are in the Average range and above those of approximately 39% of her peers. ... designed to measure fluid reasoning in the perceptual domain with task that access nonverbal concept formation, visual perception and organization, simultaneous processing, visual-motor coordination, learning, and the ability to separate figure and ground in visual stimuli. M presents a diverse set of nonverbal abilities, performing much better on some nonverbal skills than others. The degree of variability is unusual for a child her and age and may be noticeable to adults who know her well.
... M's ability to sustain attention, concentrate and exert mental control is in the low average range. She preformed better than approximately 9% of her age-mates in this area.
... M's ability in processing simple or routine visual material without making errors is in the Average range when compared to her peers. She performed better than approximately 66% of her peers on the processing speed tasks. Processing visual material quickly is an ability that M performs well as compared to her verbal reasoning ability.
... M's speed of visual information processing us significantly better developed than her attention, concentration, and mental control. The direction and magnitude of this difference is rare, found only in 6.3% of the population". The terms "rare" and "uncommon" are further used to describe "visual information processing which is significantly better than her verbal reasoning concept formation ... 11 % of the population." ... "nonverbal reasoning and concept formation is significantly better developed than her attention concentration and mental control. The direction and magnitude of this difference is uncommon, occuring in only 15.1 % of the population."
When asked verbally the clinician indicated this was consistent with "her psychiatric diagnosis' ."
"Analysis of broader patterns across composite scores reveals insufficiently developed attention and concentration. Her working memory, auditory short-term memory, and long-term memory retrieval abilities are inadequately developed. M's auditory acuity, discrimination, and vocal processing abilities show insufficient development. Furthermore, insufficient language development and lexical knowledge contribute to her inadequately developed vocabulary and verbal comprehension abilities. It is possible that the scores were negatively influenced by insufficient use of encoding and rehearsal strategies. The extent of outside reading could have also impacted the scores. Additionally, the scores may have been negatively impacted by insufficient interest and reading patterns."
The report goes on to talk about the different levels of testing. Good information.
... "... no learning disabilities ... Her difficulties in school and the inconsistencies observed by M's family may be attributable to impulsiveness, low frustration and boredom tolerance and poor interpersonal coping." ... suggestions are giving for helping her in the classroom "would address her weakness in auditory learning."
... "Persistence is an area of difficulty for M. While she has the basic capacities of reading, she does not apply problem solving skills consistently and demonstrates deficient frustration tolerance. She has a proclivity for jumping to conclusion rather than working through the problem in a step by step sequential manner. ... rather than work through the steps she jumps to a conclusive answer that also seems to be arbitrarily assigned. Furthermore, M does not exhibit the ability to delay her responses and does not engage in retrieval of information from long-term memory in answering factual questions."
She's got it but doesn't choose to use it. hmmmmmm
This is my favorite part and for a parent that has been beaten up was parental validation. ... "The inconsistency seen across M's test scores at school are further evidence that her difficulties arise from an inconsistent application of her abilities. While her teachers may consistently state that M is persistent and effortful in her work, the test findings are more consistent with the parents conceptualization of the issue of M not consistently applying herself."
"While she may appear to be attending in class due to her consistent ability to maintain eye contact, this is misleading. M appears to to tune out and it is noticeable when she is no longer listening and comprehending what is being said to her." ...
The clinician encourages "a system of contingency management" at home and at school. And organized sport activity like soccer is also recommend.
It is a 10 page report so I have tried to hit the highlights here. Hope this is useful.
Showing posts with label Learning Help. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learning Help. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
More on the Results
There was so much information it is hard to get my thoughts together with out the documents in front of me so I am spitting it out as it comes to me. Thanks for bearing with me. I will post more nuts and bolts scoring type information once we receive that in the mail.
Did I mention the clinician started by saying, "Let's start with the good news, the good news is that Miss does not have any learning disabilities. However, ..." I thought here we go, what on earth has been revealed?
Miss' low tolerance for boredom and frustration is consistent with her "psychiatric diagnosis' ", primarily Bipolar disorder. She is stable and does have the skills needed to work through boredom and frustration more appropriately. Tantrums and disconnect are quick outs.
She is comfortable with her family and more likely to go right to the tantrum portion of the event, aren't we privileged? In other settings she primarily disconnects. The clinician said that she disconnects often and as soon as she is bored or frustrated or things just are less than interesting to her. Again because she is staring right at you it can be difficult in a class of 20 plus kids for a teacher to realize that she is "checked out". The clinician said, "If you are a teacher that is scanning for eyes you will likely miss that she is not engaged."
Again not ADHD.
But she also felt that after reviewing all the class work that I had brought to her and the report cards and everything else that it seemed shocking that the teacher felt that Miss was putting forth her best effort. The speech teacher and the intern in the classroom all said the same thing though. Children with RAD have skills like a magician!
Miss has no actual processing or sequencing disorder but that is an area of weakness and challenge for her. The clinician felt that this seemed consistent with the malnutrition history and delayed motor skills that had come with that. However, Miss has all the needed ability to push past this challenge and preform better. The clinician said that it isn't that Miss doesn't have long term memory skills she just isn't interested in accessing them most of the time.
Her reading skills were much higher than we would have guessed. Again, she doesn't want to de-code so she just puts a word in but she has the ability.
More than anything the testing confirmed what we believed that we knew about her. I was not confident on how challenged she was or wasn't by processing and sequencing problems or if she had any actual disorder but my belief was that she could do better than she was doing.
With RAD it can be very difficult to trust what you believe you know about the child, at least it can be for me. It was both reassuring and validating but it was also sad to know that I'm not wrong. That she isn't the child she can so convincingly pretend to be with others. I would rather be wrong. I would rather her only hurtle in life be that she got stuck with a family that doesn't jive with her. That our dynamics are too challenging for her abilities. (Someone once said to us that Miss only problem was that we just had too many kids in our family. That we had more children than we could handle.)
To know for sure that she has all the ability to do better she just isn't ... I guess on the positive side is a confidence boaster in terms of how we parent.
The clinician emphasized that Miss needs to be pushed to finish things to the end and that it was crucial that we continue to work on this now before she gets to middle and high school. We need to continue to focus on her behavior being her choice and that she choose the results by choosing to behave in that way.
Keep doing what you are doing and hope for the best. I feel a littleyikes unnerved about that.
While we had this hour and a half meeting with Ms. Clinician the 3 non-camper kids did really well sitting through that bunch of boring. They brought a puzzle to do and then Lil Bro climbed in my lap and started chanting "hungry, hungry, hungry". Mr. Man played with my hair and complained about how long we had been talking and Big Sis stretched out on the sofa at one point.
We are a funny group.
Did I mention the clinician started by saying, "Let's start with the good news, the good news is that Miss does not have any learning disabilities. However, ..." I thought here we go, what on earth has been revealed?
Miss' low tolerance for boredom and frustration is consistent with her "psychiatric diagnosis' ", primarily Bipolar disorder. She is stable and does have the skills needed to work through boredom and frustration more appropriately. Tantrums and disconnect are quick outs.
She is comfortable with her family and more likely to go right to the tantrum portion of the event, aren't we privileged? In other settings she primarily disconnects. The clinician said that she disconnects often and as soon as she is bored or frustrated or things just are less than interesting to her. Again because she is staring right at you it can be difficult in a class of 20 plus kids for a teacher to realize that she is "checked out". The clinician said, "If you are a teacher that is scanning for eyes you will likely miss that she is not engaged."
Again not ADHD.
But she also felt that after reviewing all the class work that I had brought to her and the report cards and everything else that it seemed shocking that the teacher felt that Miss was putting forth her best effort. The speech teacher and the intern in the classroom all said the same thing though. Children with RAD have skills like a magician!
Miss has no actual processing or sequencing disorder but that is an area of weakness and challenge for her. The clinician felt that this seemed consistent with the malnutrition history and delayed motor skills that had come with that. However, Miss has all the needed ability to push past this challenge and preform better. The clinician said that it isn't that Miss doesn't have long term memory skills she just isn't interested in accessing them most of the time.
Her reading skills were much higher than we would have guessed. Again, she doesn't want to de-code so she just puts a word in but she has the ability.
More than anything the testing confirmed what we believed that we knew about her. I was not confident on how challenged she was or wasn't by processing and sequencing problems or if she had any actual disorder but my belief was that she could do better than she was doing.
With RAD it can be very difficult to trust what you believe you know about the child, at least it can be for me. It was both reassuring and validating but it was also sad to know that I'm not wrong. That she isn't the child she can so convincingly pretend to be with others. I would rather be wrong. I would rather her only hurtle in life be that she got stuck with a family that doesn't jive with her. That our dynamics are too challenging for her abilities. (Someone once said to us that Miss only problem was that we just had too many kids in our family. That we had more children than we could handle.)
To know for sure that she has all the ability to do better she just isn't ... I guess on the positive side is a confidence boaster in terms of how we parent.
The clinician emphasized that Miss needs to be pushed to finish things to the end and that it was crucial that we continue to work on this now before she gets to middle and high school. We need to continue to focus on her behavior being her choice and that she choose the results by choosing to behave in that way.
Keep doing what you are doing and hope for the best. I feel a little
While we had this hour and a half meeting with Ms. Clinician the 3 non-camper kids did really well sitting through that bunch of boring. They brought a puzzle to do and then Lil Bro climbed in my lap and started chanting "hungry, hungry, hungry". Mr. Man played with my hair and complained about how long we had been talking and Big Sis stretched out on the sofa at one point.
We are a funny group.
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Results Are In
The nominees in the category of 'who knows that kid best' are:
Mrs. Teacher
Critical family members
But in Friend
and
The Mom
And the award goes to...
THE MOM!
Miss Fabulous has NO LEARNING disabilities, average to low average intelligence, wants things to be easy and instantly gratifying, her way, and she wants the easy route to getting there - excessively so. VERY low frustration tolerance, boredom tolerance and her way of handling this is to explode and tantrum or disassociate.
The clinician said that it would be easy to miss the fact that she has disconnected mentally in the classroom setting because she is "still looking right at you" but "she isn't there anymore".
At home and with family she is confident and comfortable to let it all hang out and so she explodes and tantrums. She knows the right behavior choice, chooses not to make that choice because she wants what she perceives as the easy way to what she wants.
She has isolated herself emotionally. Clinician said, "She has a wall up with borders and a mote. She is not interested in anyone getting in." She views other children as either a threat or competition that is in the way of getting what she wants. Therefore we see lacking peer relationships and bullying. At present she is not interested in being their friend she wants them to get out of her way.
I swear the clinician said all this.
We will get the written report shortly but she showed us all the info. Because this is through the university the supervisor has to sign off on the report before the clinician can give it to us and the clinician has to meet with the parents before she can present the report to the supervisor to be signed.
In terms of academics it is exactly as I/We suspected, she is capable of better results but the better results require effort on her part and she is not putting forth effort. This is the reason for the inconsistency. She needs to be motivated and made to push through to the results not babied with excuses made for her. I AM TALKING TO YOU MRS. TEACHER!
Processing and sequencing are not strong points for her but she does not have a disorder and still falls with in the normal limits in those areas, again she just needs to be willing to make more effort to use the skills that "she clearly has".
As soon as I get the results in writing I am going to meet with the principal at the school and explain how last year went, how this year needs to go and ask her to make her decision on this years teacher based on this information. This kid needs a butt kicker not a babier.
The clinician said there was a huge lack of effort on Miss Fabulous part during the testing. Whether it was math or reading she always wanted to skip on to the answer and not do any work. The answers were random and didn't seem to have base in knowledge most of the time. Even when she was guessing at words instead of decoding there did not seem to be any reason to what word she was guessing. We see this all the time. When she was interested in the topic then she she could sustain attention and put forth better effort.
She did not test with in the range of a child with ADHD. The lack of attention is from lack of effort.
Team sports was recommended because the emphasis is put on functioning as a group and no one person functions independent of the team. Soccer is at the top of the list.
Sadly most things that she recommended are things we are and have been doing. She seemed to understand that because she emphasised that Miss Fabulous knows what to do she is choosing not to do it. I guess the old 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink' applies here.
I will add more later as I remember it, there was so much!
Mrs. Teacher
Critical family members
But in Friend
and
The Mom
THE MOM!
Miss Fabulous has NO LEARNING disabilities, average to low average intelligence, wants things to be easy and instantly gratifying, her way, and she wants the easy route to getting there - excessively so. VERY low frustration tolerance, boredom tolerance and her way of handling this is to explode and tantrum or disassociate.
The clinician said that it would be easy to miss the fact that she has disconnected mentally in the classroom setting because she is "still looking right at you" but "she isn't there anymore".
At home and with family she is confident and comfortable to let it all hang out and so she explodes and tantrums. She knows the right behavior choice, chooses not to make that choice because she wants what she perceives as the easy way to what she wants.
She has isolated herself emotionally. Clinician said, "She has a wall up with borders and a mote. She is not interested in anyone getting in." She views other children as either a threat or competition that is in the way of getting what she wants. Therefore we see lacking peer relationships and bullying. At present she is not interested in being their friend she wants them to get out of her way.
I swear the clinician said all this.
We will get the written report shortly but she showed us all the info. Because this is through the university the supervisor has to sign off on the report before the clinician can give it to us and the clinician has to meet with the parents before she can present the report to the supervisor to be signed.
In terms of academics it is exactly as I/We suspected, she is capable of better results but the better results require effort on her part and she is not putting forth effort. This is the reason for the inconsistency. She needs to be motivated and made to push through to the results not babied with excuses made for her. I AM TALKING TO YOU MRS. TEACHER!
Processing and sequencing are not strong points for her but she does not have a disorder and still falls with in the normal limits in those areas, again she just needs to be willing to make more effort to use the skills that "she clearly has".
As soon as I get the results in writing I am going to meet with the principal at the school and explain how last year went, how this year needs to go and ask her to make her decision on this years teacher based on this information. This kid needs a butt kicker not a babier.
The clinician said there was a huge lack of effort on Miss Fabulous part during the testing. Whether it was math or reading she always wanted to skip on to the answer and not do any work. The answers were random and didn't seem to have base in knowledge most of the time. Even when she was guessing at words instead of decoding there did not seem to be any reason to what word she was guessing. We see this all the time. When she was interested in the topic then she she could sustain attention and put forth better effort.
She did not test with in the range of a child with ADHD. The lack of attention is from lack of effort.
Team sports was recommended because the emphasis is put on functioning as a group and no one person functions independent of the team. Soccer is at the top of the list.
Sadly most things that she recommended are things we are and have been doing. She seemed to understand that because she emphasised that Miss Fabulous knows what to do she is choosing not to do it. I guess the old 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink' applies here.
I will add more later as I remember it, there was so much!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
On being fair...
Life tends not to be, I've noticed.
In our brood of 4 we have 2 typical and 2 not as typical kids. The typical kids need to do typical things like have friends sleep over. Show of hands, who's eyes are rolling with me right now? I try to dodge that bullet as often as I can truthfully. But then there comes a time when it is time to man up Mom up and just do the right thing by my kids. I have lost complete control over the eye rolls and sighs at this point.
Today for lunch I served one kid a grilled bread sandwich. The kid was like, "Um Mom, um can I have some cheese on my grilled cheese sandwich?" Hello that is stressed out! I was like, "Oh so you actually wanted cheese on the grilled cheese sandwich? Oh, no problem. Coming right up." You know when a person slip trips and tries to act as if that did not just happen. It was somewhat like that. lol!
The kids played from 9:30 to 1:30 in the pool today. They had a quick lunch break and that was it. It is 7:25 pm and the 4 year old has not had a nap and is going strong. What's up with that? He should be ready to collapse.
This friend that was over is one of those situations where the kids get along really well but the parenting stiles are totally different. For example that Mom delivered her kid and my kid to me at nearly 7 pm and they had not been fed. I don't feel comfortable sending someone there own kid back at 7 pm and not have fed the kid. Maybe that's just me.
It is really kind of willy nilly over there and we can't and don't do things that way over here. Funny thing is, the kids want to be over here. Maybe it's the food. Or ... kids need structure to feel their best.
While the friend was over we had struggles with Mr. and Miss. Fabulous as they both are that is a given. Mr. is head first into the it'snotfairs and theyareleavingmeout I wantstoplaytoos while Miss starts out hanging back quiet and shy with near perfect behavior. If that lasted we would have a friend over every single day. I'd have them lined up around the block. It doesn't last and the down side is no fun.
So Miss had a rage in the pool. She never assaulted anyone which is awesome but verbally it was a rage. The banshee screams which non of our neighbors seem to care about where in full force. Big Sis says to the friend, "At this point she is attention seeking so what we need to do is just ignore until she gets her behavior under control." :-0 Okay there therapeutic sister, you rock!
As soon as Miss got herself under control Big Sis went and gave her love and a hug and she then rejoined the game. It was awesome!
We had another whale of a tale later on to the tune of "Mommy never comes back!" A bit delayed from last weeks travels (I am guessing) but we have made a point to keep Miss very distracted and busy this week. Maybe it helped, who can know.
In other news I have been meaning to mention that we did finally get approval for Miss M's testing. Yes I did say approval. Mr. CBA gave me the low down. They were concerned that Miss would attack the clinician during testing "given her history."
Honestly that was a bit surprising. Number one this university has a center dedicated to autism and in fact the autism center is where the psychology department is. Are they telling me they never get attacked over there? I doubt that.
But secondly Miss is stable and has been for months and I made that very clear. She hasn't even attacked the CBA in months. We already presented record of testing that we had done in Dec. and no one was attacked during that.
But most importantly she is 53 pounds and 7 years old and I wouldn't let her attend the testing packin' weapons, come on we that are not uncouth!
The whole thing made me laugh. This traumatized kid was very clearly just that, a traumatized kid. She refused toys and things to color with. She stayed close to me and chewed her fingers or picked her skin or fidgeted with her clothes. She clearly wanted to leave and she looked about as dangerous as a whipped puppy. But I guess once you attack social workers and finish the job by peeing on their floor and assault psychologist in your own home to the point they want to admit you to a psych hospital and your psychiatrist has a big fat file on what's up with you, and and and I guess any clinician in their right mind would have to consider that this kid that definitely seems to have some learning issues might possibly feel threatened during a testing session.
This is getting a little ramblingon at this point but ... I never knew that my parenting experience would be like this. I had visited this child every 6 to 8 weeks during a sixth month period before she was our daughter and came home to us and I thought I really and truly thought I knew what I was getting myself into. I had no clue.
I did not want to be a therapeutic parent. I would not have checked that box on an application to adopt. And yet here I am, doing what I can do and hoping it is enough to get us through.
In our brood of 4 we have 2 typical and 2 not as typical kids. The typical kids need to do typical things like have friends sleep over. Show of hands, who's eyes are rolling with me right now? I try to dodge that bullet as often as I can truthfully. But then there comes a time when it is time to man up Mom up and just do the right thing by my kids. I have lost complete control over the eye rolls and sighs at this point.
Today for lunch I served one kid a grilled bread sandwich. The kid was like, "Um Mom, um can I have some cheese on my grilled cheese sandwich?" Hello that is stressed out! I was like, "Oh so you actually wanted cheese on the grilled cheese sandwich? Oh, no problem. Coming right up." You know when a person slip trips and tries to act as if that did not just happen. It was somewhat like that. lol!
The kids played from 9:30 to 1:30 in the pool today. They had a quick lunch break and that was it. It is 7:25 pm and the 4 year old has not had a nap and is going strong. What's up with that? He should be ready to collapse.
This friend that was over is one of those situations where the kids get along really well but the parenting stiles are totally different. For example that Mom delivered her kid and my kid to me at nearly 7 pm and they had not been fed. I don't feel comfortable sending someone there own kid back at 7 pm and not have fed the kid. Maybe that's just me.
It is really kind of willy nilly over there and we can't and don't do things that way over here. Funny thing is, the kids want to be over here. Maybe it's the food. Or ... kids need structure to feel their best.
While the friend was over we had struggles with Mr. and Miss. Fabulous as they both are that is a given. Mr. is head first into the it'snotfairs and theyareleavingmeout I wantstoplaytoos while Miss starts out hanging back quiet and shy with near perfect behavior. If that lasted we would have a friend over every single day. I'd have them lined up around the block. It doesn't last and the down side is no fun.
So Miss had a rage in the pool. She never assaulted anyone which is awesome but verbally it was a rage. The banshee screams which non of our neighbors seem to care about where in full force. Big Sis says to the friend, "At this point she is attention seeking so what we need to do is just ignore until she gets her behavior under control." :-0 Okay there therapeutic sister, you rock!
As soon as Miss got herself under control Big Sis went and gave her love and a hug and she then rejoined the game. It was awesome!
We had another whale of a tale later on to the tune of "Mommy never comes back!" A bit delayed from last weeks travels (I am guessing) but we have made a point to keep Miss very distracted and busy this week. Maybe it helped, who can know.
In other news I have been meaning to mention that we did finally get approval for Miss M's testing. Yes I did say approval. Mr. CBA gave me the low down. They were concerned that Miss would attack the clinician during testing "given her history."
Honestly that was a bit surprising. Number one this university has a center dedicated to autism and in fact the autism center is where the psychology department is. Are they telling me they never get attacked over there? I doubt that.
But secondly Miss is stable and has been for months and I made that very clear. She hasn't even attacked the CBA in months. We already presented record of testing that we had done in Dec. and no one was attacked during that.
But most importantly she is 53 pounds and 7 years old and I wouldn't let her attend the testing packin' weapons, come on we that are not uncouth!
The whole thing made me laugh. This traumatized kid was very clearly just that, a traumatized kid. She refused toys and things to color with. She stayed close to me and chewed her fingers or picked her skin or fidgeted with her clothes. She clearly wanted to leave and she looked about as dangerous as a whipped puppy. But I guess once you attack social workers and finish the job by peeing on their floor and assault psychologist in your own home to the point they want to admit you to a psych hospital and your psychiatrist has a big fat file on what's up with you, and and and I guess any clinician in their right mind would have to consider that this kid that definitely seems to have some learning issues might possibly feel threatened during a testing session.
This is getting a little ramblingon at this point but ... I never knew that my parenting experience would be like this. I had visited this child every 6 to 8 weeks during a sixth month period before she was our daughter and came home to us and I thought I really and truly thought I knew what I was getting myself into. I had no clue.
I did not want to be a therapeutic parent. I would not have checked that box on an application to adopt. And yet here I am, doing what I can do and hoping it is enough to get us through.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
It Must Be The Peas...
Thank you for the reassuring comments regarding testing. I agree that this teams being thorough is a very good thing. We have an amazing psychiatrist and he is the one that sent us to this location for the testing so I will go in faith, just as so much has gone in a positive way in terms of getting help for Miss M we continue to be on that path. Thank you again for the cyber hugs and support!
Summer is under way here in Sunny Florida. The kids are out of school and Miss M is spending her days at day camp swimming and crafting and getting all that energy out. She comes home and swims in the pool and eats dinner and cuddles and sleeps well. Yeah summer!
Monday she fell off the bounce house slide at camp onto the rubber something or other. It probably smarted for a moment but there was no bruise no mark nothing was twisted or broken it was just an everyday kind of ut-oh, right? Oh no! Miss Miss put on her best drama and had those poor folks at camp guessing all day. They called and let us know what had happened and what they had done about it and I cringed because they had sooooooooooo fed the attention beast. It all worked out not too bad. She woke up at 10 pm with the fake-O drama in effect. We checked her out again, still no sign of anything. Got the pack of frozen peas on it and gave her a big dose of Motrin and called the on call doctor who told me to do what I had just done.
The next day at camp was an outing to the public pool. You would be amazed at the miracle a bag of frozen peas was able to work! She popped out of bed and was ready to roll. She said, "It must be the peas!" :-)
Wednesday Miss came home from camp with a scull and cross bone tattoo on her face. I was not wild about that. For one I don't think that a camp should put tattoos on a kids face because they don't come off easy and you can't cover them up on the face. Honestly my little darlin picked that tattoo because she knew that Mom would not like it, right O! Not a problem. Mom made sure to let camp director know that Miss M is not to have any tattoos from now on, period.
Lil Bro was back at the pediatricians office today. He is not really sick sick but he finished his antibiotic and he still has some cough and what not going on. She said he also has an ear infection going on. That kid never lets you know. So poor guy had to get a shot in the butt and goes on another round of antibiotic. Here's hoping that clears it up.
While we were there they gave the kids lolly pops because Lil Bro got a shot. I let my Mr. have one. It was just a tiny yellow lolly pop, what could it hurt?
The dark circles and the behavior started 20 minutes after he ate the darn thing!
Anyone that has a child with aggression and hyperactivity issues please explore food dye allergies. We have determined that Mr. is allergic to yellow #5 and #6 and red dye #40, although we just aim to avoid them all. Miss M is allergic/reactive to red dye #40 but she doesn't have a problem with the yellows or other colors.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Rescheduled
So our clinician at the university called to reschedule our testing appointment for tomorrow because she had not obtained the information from Dr. Psychiatrist or Mr. CBA and her supervisor wants her to have that information for a more clear picture before she proceeds forward.
I guess that is good and them being thorough which is what we expected from the university but for some reason it kind of has me freaked out. Did my story of my kid freak them out? Do they suspect that I'm nuts? I mean I whole heartily embrace the fact that we are all a little "different" over here in loo loo land but that's not Miss M's problem. And this testing is specifically for academics and possible learning disabilities.
Any thoughts out there? Help a stressing Mama please!
I guess that is good and them being thorough which is what we expected from the university but for some reason it kind of has me freaked out. Did my story of my kid freak them out? Do they suspect that I'm nuts? I mean I whole heartily embrace the fact that we are all a little "different" over here in loo loo land but that's not Miss M's problem. And this testing is specifically for academics and possible learning disabilities.
Any thoughts out there? Help a stressing Mama please!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Testing - intake day
The Fabulous Miss M and I headed over to the university to start the process for a FULL psycho-educational evaluation. FULL as in the size of the clinicians eyes as the intake of information was underway. I kind of love how every clinician looks at the angel baby in front of them and then the process that's going on in their head as to how the kid I am talking about is supposed to be this angel in front of them. Never fear I have video footage and you can talk to the various professionals who have witnessed it.
The clinician took the FULL history down. Pages and pages this lady was writing. I also gave her permission to get information from the Psychiatrist and the CBA. I told her what I had observed regarding Miss M's learning struggles, took her report cards and interim reports, told her about all the extra help she is receiving in school and still struggling, showed her the testing that we had done by the Linda-Mood Bell center, gave her Miss M's latest test scores from class and the weekly state assessments.
Miss M's demeanor was that of a traumatized unsure kid. She was offered toys, she refused. She was offered crayons and paper, she refused. She stuck close to me and looked at the clinician with big scared eyes when addressed and otherwise she picked at her skin and clothes and looked off into space. She had a bug bite on her arm that she picked until it was raw and then right in the middle of the intake she let me know that the bug bite hurt. I offered her itchy cream and she said that would make it sting. I offered her a band-aid and she accepted that and the we went on with the intake and she went back to looking off into space.
I asked her when we left if she felt uncomfortable at that place and she said no that it was fine. That's not true and so I am guessing that it will surface a little later. I asked her later in the evening if she wanted to talk about any of the things that were talked about in the meeting. She said no. I told her that everything that we talked about was okay things to talk about and that this was just something that kids do for school. She said okay.
I wanted to address it but needed to keep it simple and say it in a way that I thought would best sink in for her. We are scheduled to go back next week and begin the actual testing which will be video taped as well. (PS I forgot to say that the person doing the intake and I spoke in "code" so while Miss picked up on some minor things she did not understand the big words that we used, mainly she was bored. I did not give any info on birth mom and that situation because I don't want memories to be implanted for Miss. I will give that info to the clinician at another time. I did inform her of the "flashback" which touches on trauma history but that is what Miss had shared with me.)
This evening as we drove home I thought about all the help we have sought to deal with the issues at hand
The dog is sick again and back on antibiotics too.
The "twins" have had special 'guess what Mom you get to do extra stuff for class this week because it's the last 3 days of school and the teachers have to keep them busy' - Pajama Day, Bubble Day, Pizza Party Day and and and times 2.
The 4 year old is being a MAJOR toot toot who does not want to take his antibiotics so I had to take him back to the doctor but this time we had to go to the Urgent Care doctor because his doctor is on vacation this week so insert snarky looks from the Urgent Care doctor when I describe that he will NOT take his meds, then she had a go at him and understood what I meant. I explained that I had put the CBA on the job the night before and that I was making more progress with the 4 year old then the CBA was. He noted that we don't have an easy kid in the bunch. Question Mark.
Today Big Sis had a dentist appointment 1 hour before Miss M's appointment. Mr. C had his routine disrupted which does not and did not go well. I actually threatened to have his CBA come to the dentist office. The man next to us was getting really tired of the twerpy kid (Mr. C) who seemed way to big to be having this baby fit. He tried to back me up and had over heard the threat and so piped up, "She's going to call him!"
Mr. C quieted down so it was Lil Bro's turn to go bananas over being told he could not turn the stupid bead game upside down on it's wire top. The thing is big and heavy and he was clearly going to break it so no you may not do that. Insert the wham-o! I had to take this child out to the bench in front of the dental office while he through a major tantrum. He was all sweaty and snot faced and a complete crazed person. Then Big Sis comes out and tells me I have to sign her out so I had to drag the sweaty snot faced banshee into the dental office so I could sign her out. I so do not love those looks of 'why is your child such a whacko you must not know how to parent.' I should however be used to them by now, shouldn't I?
As my dear friend stated the other dear, "motherhood is not for sissies!"
The clinician took the FULL history down. Pages and pages this lady was writing. I also gave her permission to get information from the Psychiatrist and the CBA. I told her what I had observed regarding Miss M's learning struggles, took her report cards and interim reports, told her about all the extra help she is receiving in school and still struggling, showed her the testing that we had done by the Linda-Mood Bell center, gave her Miss M's latest test scores from class and the weekly state assessments.
Miss M's demeanor was that of a traumatized unsure kid. She was offered toys, she refused. She was offered crayons and paper, she refused. She stuck close to me and looked at the clinician with big scared eyes when addressed and otherwise she picked at her skin and clothes and looked off into space. She had a bug bite on her arm that she picked until it was raw and then right in the middle of the intake she let me know that the bug bite hurt. I offered her itchy cream and she said that would make it sting. I offered her a band-aid and she accepted that and the we went on with the intake and she went back to looking off into space.
I asked her when we left if she felt uncomfortable at that place and she said no that it was fine. That's not true and so I am guessing that it will surface a little later. I asked her later in the evening if she wanted to talk about any of the things that were talked about in the meeting. She said no. I told her that everything that we talked about was okay things to talk about and that this was just something that kids do for school. She said okay.
I wanted to address it but needed to keep it simple and say it in a way that I thought would best sink in for her. We are scheduled to go back next week and begin the actual testing which will be video taped as well. (PS I forgot to say that the person doing the intake and I spoke in "code" so while Miss picked up on some minor things she did not understand the big words that we used, mainly she was bored. I did not give any info on birth mom and that situation because I don't want memories to be implanted for Miss. I will give that info to the clinician at another time. I did inform her of the "flashback" which touches on trauma history but that is what Miss had shared with me.)
This evening as we drove home I thought about all the help we have sought to deal with the issues at hand
- first our child's physician
- then a child psychologist that had already worked with our son, who advised us to seek out a
- therapist who specialized in RAD
- then a psychiatrist was added
- then the local child services was added, insert Social Worker # 1
- and 2
- then a child psychologist who came to our home to work with our family was added
- then a Certified Behavior Analyst was added (all before she was 6 years old)
- and we are still at this ... now with a University involved doing FULL psycho educational testing
The dog is sick again and back on antibiotics too.
The "twins" have had special 'guess what Mom you get to do extra stuff for class this week because it's the last 3 days of school and the teachers have to keep them busy' - Pajama Day, Bubble Day, Pizza Party Day and and and times 2.
The 4 year old is being a MAJOR toot toot who does not want to take his antibiotics so I had to take him back to the doctor but this time we had to go to the Urgent Care doctor because his doctor is on vacation this week so insert snarky looks from the Urgent Care doctor when I describe that he will NOT take his meds, then she had a go at him and understood what I meant. I explained that I had put the CBA on the job the night before and that I was making more progress with the 4 year old then the CBA was. He noted that we don't have an easy kid in the bunch. Question Mark.
Today Big Sis had a dentist appointment 1 hour before Miss M's appointment. Mr. C had his routine disrupted which does not and did not go well. I actually threatened to have his CBA come to the dentist office. The man next to us was getting really tired of the twerpy kid (Mr. C) who seemed way to big to be having this baby fit. He tried to back me up and had over heard the threat and so piped up, "She's going to call him!"
Mr. C quieted down so it was Lil Bro's turn to go bananas over being told he could not turn the stupid bead game upside down on it's wire top. The thing is big and heavy and he was clearly going to break it so no you may not do that. Insert the wham-o! I had to take this child out to the bench in front of the dental office while he through a major tantrum. He was all sweaty and snot faced and a complete crazed person. Then Big Sis comes out and tells me I have to sign her out so I had to drag the sweaty snot faced banshee into the dental office so I could sign her out. I so do not love those looks of 'why is your child such a whacko you must not know how to parent.' I should however be used to them by now, shouldn't I?
As my dear friend stated the other dear, "motherhood is not for sissies!"
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Roger That, The Eagle Has Landed
Dad is home and back on duty!
He has some beautiful pictures from his journey but they are all trapped in his laptop so I will have to wait until I have access to that computer to post those. It was a reminder of just how BIG he owes me! :-)
Yesterday I posted about the Talkies and V/V program with Lindamood-Bell. I went by and saw my teacher friend and got the manual and dove right in and started making notes and then Miss M came home with a note from the teacher that read as follows:
Dear Parents,
I am so proud of your child Miss M and pleased to announce that she raised her reading and comprehension level from a level 2 to a level 6 (grade level is level 6). She also raised to a green level which is the top level on the Fair Reading Test.
Thank you for all that you do at home to help with your child's education. It is a pleasure to work with your child.
Mrs. Teacher
So that's great news that she is doing better but honestly what is with the dag-gum inconsistency? Literally one week I receive the she may be retained talk and the next week the note home saying how great she is doing.
She has been getting assistance with the inclusion teacher for reading and following our IEP meeting the teacher was instructed to give Miss M 20 to 30 minutes of individual help in the classroom daily. That is super because I think she needs one on one instruction and maybe her improved scores are a reflection of the one on one help. My concern is the one on one instruction is not part of the IEP, it is simply being done of the schools choice. So she needs the help but there is nothing to legally hold them to the help that she is getting. With out the help she is lost in class but I am concerned that since she has tested so well on this latest set of test that she is not going to qualify for any resource services as was indicated during the IEP meeting.
Any who, what to do? I am going to do what I can to use the talkies program at home with her, it can only strengthen her skills, and hope for the best! Also we may need to find the money to have her evaluated independently.
Monday, December 14, 2009
(Mr. C's first day of Pre-School 11-2005)
An individual in our adoption group on a visit trip with Miss M point blank asked, "What are you doing for your son's special needs?" She was a Nurse Practitioner and had special needs children herself. I was kind of like duhhhhh I don't know, nothing I guess. She noticed that he walked on his tiptoes all the time. I said well some kids tiptoe right? She said not like that, that it would be her guess that he had Mild CP and he needed a MRI to diagnose that and then he needed to be put in AFO braces. I started taking notes at this point because it was clearly divine intervention.
She told me about the federally funded Early Steps program that every state has to evaluation children birth to age 3 who may have delays. I immediately contacted the program when we arrived home and set up the evaluation. I contacted the pediatrician and made an appointment with him, our last appointment. He evaluated Mr. C and said that he did appear to have Mild CP and that he needed to see a Neurologist and have an MRI preformed. He was not a good pediatrician, he did not take enough time with my children when he examined them and he did not listen to my concerns about Mr. C and in fact had said to me, "If you are going to worry about things I can't make you stop." These comments had led me to believe that I was over reacting to the things that I saw and the concerns that I had.
Anyway, we changed doctors and Mr. C did see the Neurologist who did have the MRI done and did confirm that Mr. C had, "Brain changes associated with pre-mature birth that are causing the tight heel cords."
The Early Steps Program determined that Mr. C was developmentally delayed and the Psychologist noted that he exhibited signs of Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Hyperlexic type. I did not know what any of that meant but googled and realized they thought my kid was on the Autism Spectrum.
Mr. C turned 3 October 27 and entered the special ed pre-school program for ages 3 to 6 the first week of November. His teacher was amazing. She recognized his limitations and picked him up and cuddled him when he needed that and pushed him to move forward with development when he needed that. She realized that even though he could read the phone book at 3 if you put it in front of him he never understood one thing he read unless it was a fact or a direction. For instance he accessed the default information on the parental control on the cable box and learned what the default code was and rented $50 worth of Chicken Little the movie. He did not even like the movie. I thought there was a Chicken Little marathon because it was on every TV in the house.
But he had no interest in stories unless they were about the alphabet, his obsession at that time. He struggled with any self-care and because it was a struggle he did not want to do it. He was nowhere near potty trained and truly did not possess the needed skills to begin to learn to potty train. He was only interested in parallel play and the only imagination that he expressed was imitation of what his sister or the TV did and said.
His teacher "The Toddler Whisperer" began working with him in the Lindamood-Bell Talkies program and in the years that followed they moved into the Visualizing and Verbalizing program. This program did amazing things for Mr. C and he still uses those skills to this day. He will say that someone is, "Picturing that in their mind" when something is indicating imagination. Most importantly the program that 'aligns with a theory of cognition, Dual Coding Theory, and through sequential steps brings the nonverbal code of imagery to consciousness.' with 'the goal is to engage the individual to consciously create and access mental representations and stimulate his or her awareness of the imagery-language connection.' did just that!
I have posted their site over on the right under Help With Learning. I would encourage anyone to check it out!
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