Rubber Gym Ball and Earphones

Finding out about Jnr's sensory issues was such a blessing. For the first time in our lives, we could see Jnr seizing back control over his impulsiveness. He no longers complains about having no control over his brain. Doing things he knows not to, but yet cannot stop himself. Or crying in anguish about having an evil brain inside him, egging him on.


The past 2 weeks have been nonstop busy busy busy. It is almost like Jnr's suddenly got switched on inside. Supporting him with all my knowledge and understanding of therapies, I see my son growing and expanding his world, rapidly. He can focus now. He wants to do things that he never used to want to do. He wants to socialised, he is keen to do everything. I don't know which part of this is naturally unschooling, or is it because his therapies has calmed him down so much, that he can actually asked for something to do, plan for it, and follow it thru.


Today, I am SO PROUD! We were at the shoe shop and the shop manager asked Jnr why he was not at school. Jnr replied loud, calm and confidently ... "I don't go to school. We're homeschoolers. I do my lessons at home" For the first time, my son was able to answer someone's query, clearly and confidently, without me having to help with words.


Who would have thought, rolling a big rubber gym ball over Jnr, and slipping a pair of earphones over his ears, can make such a huge difference to our lives. And he is very excited and looking forward to practising his writing, when his pencil grip arrives. Everyday, he goes riding on his little canary yellow bicycle, giving him the much need joint compression exercises.


In saying that everything is going swell, Jnr is beginning to show signs of set backs. Maybe, tiredness is finally setting in; or maybe as Jnr always predictably do, for every step forward, he takes 2 step backwards, before pushing forth again.


I have always view my son's regressions as a good sign indicating posititve development going to happen, or sometimes, already happened.


We have always embraced Jnr's diagnosis positively. I think we welcomed it, becoz finally, we have confirmed idea of what we're dealing with. It has made life so much more easier and predictable to a certain degree. We have used it to guide us positively thru all his challenges.


Which is why it gives me a rather rude shock when faced with another mum, who refuses to acknowledge thier child have obvious challenges. Why?


BWS
SharonBugs.

June 2009 - another milestone in our lives and.....

What have we been doing recently? Well, nothing much other than Jnr is really keen on company and desperate for friends. He has been constantly complaining that he is lonely....baggering me for a sibling.....a dog....even suggest that we adopt one of those poor kids in Africa LOL!! I think he must have been reading my Grazia mags about Angelina and Madonna LOL!!

So we have been busy, diligently attending each and every homeschooling gathering...and Jnr have truly been enjoying himself playing with other children.


But the recently milestone achieved in our lives has nothing to do with lessons.

We are becoming more aware of Jnr's challenges as he grows another year older. We've finally found the last puzzle to his erratic hyper active behaviour. It is not the diet, it's not gluten, it is not about lack of structure, it is not sugar tho aspartame is still very much an enemy. It's now confirm - it's his sensory intergration.

Jnr suffers from multisensory intergration dysfunction (SID or just SI as it's commonly known).

This explains his constant tripping over his own 2 feet, him constantly flinging himself and rolling on the floor; banging and jumping on the bed and sofa; his headaches and his many erratic moods. Now we truly understood why his hyper activeness switches on and off like a light switch. It is his sensory re-action to his environments.


The occupational therapist have managed to resolved Jnr's issue with writing IN ONE SESSION!!! It's a tri-angular special rubber grip that is slipped onto the pencil. Jnr amazed me and his dad with the most perfect, straight, even-sized and shaped alphabets as he copied off what therapist wanted him to.

While he thorougly enjoyed and and thrived on the challenge and breeze thru his speech assessment 2 months ago, this time round was a totally different story.

He really struggle thru his occupational assessment, doing simple task like drawing and writing and walking and jumping; stopping halfway refusing to continue. Jnr very immediately repond to his stress environment by being comical and started flopping and dropping himself onto the ground, launching and flinging and rolling himself on the soft padded floor. It was his sensor requiring extreme feelings to help himself digest what is goin on.

This has help me see why and how he used to struggle in school, in the fair group and in the mall or supermarket.

So I've learnt deep pressure therapies. Him wanting to chew gum is supposed to be beneficial for his hypo sensors in his mouth. And when he starts to constantly jump and bounce on sofa and the bed, then it's time to do some deep pressure therapy. This requires Jnr to lie down on his tummy, on a long cushion and me bouncing and rolling a rubber gym ball over him, applying pressure. Amazingly, this child can actually lie still, absolutely motionless for 20 minutes. With regular sessions, my beloved genius child will soon learn to face and accommodate his world better.


So, with this in perspective...we've been busy learning to help Jnr learn and manage himself better. Being so used to the erratic hyper active child...life is so strangely calm and complacent...so much so that I am beginning to wonder if we will ever be doing anything new, exciting and different ever again LOL!!


But then this calmness has allowed my body to fall back and relax and all my tiredness is coming to the surface and manifesting itself under the guise of flu-like symptoms. Yeah...maybe it good too that we're not doing much exciting and new stuff....perhaps that will surface when I'm healed and ready.


For the time being now...we're just focusing on Jnr's sensory needs, growing stuffs in the garden...Jnr practising his skateboarding...RC Car driving...and simply just enjoying these sunny summer days.