Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Weekly Update -- 5 - 11 July 2010

Yay, I'm 183 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty typical week. At Speech he once again practiced his pretend play skills with a tea party and baby dolls. He played with the Duplos with the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore pieces again too. He also read Polar Bear, Polar Bear and Catch the Ball again. He really enjoys both books and has now memorized them. I didn't realize it but we had a copy of Brown Bear, Brown Bear at home and he has been reading that all week. Last but not least his therapist worked on having him identify boy or girl using cards and added the pronouns he or she.

During OT Masinja tolerated the trampoline better than he ever has. He rode the horsey swing and afterwards he spotted the basketball hoop so his therapist let him shoot baskets for a few minutes. He then climbed the ladder to go down the slide but instead of using turtles/frog bean bags his therapist let him roll the basketball down the slide before him. We then moved to the smaller room and he played with the activity center for a few minutes while standing on big wedge to work on his balance. For fine motor skills his therapist had him work with alligator clips or large clothes pins as well as spring loaded scissors.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 28 June - 4 July 2010

Yay, I'm 182 weeks old today!!

Masinja had an eventful week. At Speech he practiced his pretend play skills again with a tea party and caring for baby dolls. He also played with blocks. Masinja -- read two books this week: Polar Bear, Polar Bear and Catch the ball both by Eric Carle. He really enjoyed Polar Bear, Polar Bear and has been quoting parts of it all week! Masinja's therapist tried something new. She used cards that had pictures on them and attempted to get Mason to use yes and no correctly by asking him if there was a particular object pictured on the card. After about a dozen tries he finally caught on!!

During OT Masinja once again practiced climbing the ladder and it was a little easier for him to do so. He was rewarded for all of his hard work by getting to go down the slide afterwards. He really enjoyed it because he get to let the bean bag turtles slide down before him. He also rode the horsey swing. His therapist has been swinging higher each week and he has been tolerating it quite well. Masinja used - scooter boards for the first time this week. His therapist had him lay on his tummy and pull himself across the floor with his hands. Her main objective is to try to improve his upper body strength in an attempt to help with his fine motor skills. She attempted to do a 6-month re-evaluation this week as well so she can assess what progress he has made. Masinja did well with stringing beads and unscrewing and screwing a tip back on. He's still struggling with scissors though and has regressed some with drawing horizontal lines; however, he now draws vertical lines very well. He wasn't able to stack very many blocks but I believe that was due to his distractibility.

Masinja had his 37th ECI session this week. His teacher and I discussed the use of the picture schedules as well as potty training. We also discussed various activities that I can do with him at home to help with the sensory processing issues such as finger painting with shaving cream and pudding as well as making homemade playdoe with cornstarch, water and food coloring. Lastly we discussed which type of scissors would be best for Masinja. His teacher was going to check with the OT on his team and have her take a few different pair to parent connections so he can practice.

Last but not least, Masinja went to Parent Connections this week. He did get to try several different kinds of scissors with the OT and it was decided that he works best with spring-loaded loop scissors. His OT have us a pair to practice with at home.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 21 - 27 June 2010

Yay, I'm 181 weeks old today!!

Masinja had a pretty uneventful week. He went to Speech as usual and worked more on pretend play. He made a "cake" and we had a tea party as well. He also played with baby dolls, duplos,and read a few books. He worked on identifying emotions and imitation. While working on those skills his therapist discovered that Masinja has difficulty using yes and no correctly. It has now become one of his goals.

Masinja didn't have OT this week because his therapist took the week off.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 14 - 20 June 2010

Yay, I'm 180 weeks old today!!

Masinja had an interesting week. He didn't have speech because he had appointment at the Monroe Meyer Institute for his autism screening.

The visit at Monroe Meyer was 4 hours long. It consisted of a meeting with the psychologist, a meeting with the speech therapist, a play session, and then a final meeting to review their findings. We spent an hour with the psychologist and discussed some of Masinja's behaviors as well as his medical history. We spent about half an hour with the speech therapist and discussed Masinja's communication skills as well as his development. During the play session I observed while T.M. went into the play room with Masinja. Two women attempted various pretend play activities with him including playing with cars, dolls, bubbles, blocks, a telephone and having a pretend birthday party. We had a short break before meeting with the psychologist once again to review the findings. Based on the observations of everyone involved in the screening Masinja, was diagnosed with PDD-NOS which stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified. Basically, in order to qualify for a diagnosis of Autism a child needs to meet 3 different criteria. Masinja only meets 2 out of the 3 criteria, hence the diagnosis of PDD-NOS. It is sometimes referred to as atypical autism.

During OT this week Masinja worked on more sensory stuff. Once again his therapist put him on the trampoline. He still wasn't impressed with it and pretty much refused to stand so his therapist just let him sit while she bounced. He also rode horsey swing again and loved it. The last sensory skill he worked on involved the playground equipment. He climbed a ladder and slid down a slide. It was a bit difficult for him to climb the ladder since he had never done it before. He loved going down the slide though. There wasn't much time left when he finished all of the sensory stuff so his therapist had him work with easy putty as a means of strengthening his hands. All in all it was a productive session.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 7 - 13 June 2010

Yay, I'm 179 weeks old today!

Masinja and I got back to our normal routine this week.

At Speech he worked more on pretend play. We had a tea party and he fed a few baby dolls and brushed their hair and rocked them to sleep. He also played with some mega blocks that had pieces with Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore on them. He hasn't really shown much interest in anything other than Sesame Street characters but he certainly was interested in the Pooh characters. Masinja's therapist tried to get him to listen to a story and then retell it but it didn't go over very well. He listened just fine but he was not interested one iota in the retelling part!

At OT Masinja's therapist started working on more of the sensory issues. She got on a trampoline with him and held his hands while she jumped. He wasn't impressed to say the least. As soon as she started bouncing he said, "Do you want to get down?"He tried to get off immediately. He also rode on a horsey swing and crawled through a tunnel several times. He did really well with both. Masinjha worked on fine motor skills using small pop beads and easy putty. He got a special treat at the end of the therapy session when his therapist gave him some chocolate pudding. She wanted to see how well he could use a spoon. I have to admit I think that was the highlight of his day! He definitely has a sweet tooth :o)

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 17 May - 6 June 2010

Yay, I'm 178 weeks old today!

Masinja and I had a very eventful 3 weeks. We made the trip to NY so we could be there when Masinja's grandpa had surgery. Masinja got to see all of his great aunts and uncles and even some of his second cousins. We were originally only going to stay in NY for a little over a week but we extended our trip. We went to go visit Masinja's grandpa in the hospital as often as we could and we also visited with Uncle Vin several times. The first week we were there we spent a lot of time with Masinja's Uncle Sean, Aunt Joyce, and Uncle Gary and Patty. Gary and Patty had to go back to Ohio though so we spent even more quality time with Sean and Joyce when we weren't visiting with other family members and friends and making multiple trips to Friendly's :o) Gary and Patty came back to NY for Memorial Day weekend and brought Masinja's cousins Taylor and Jordan with them. We had a great weekend and Masinja had a blast playing with his aunts and uncles and cousins. The plane ride home wasn't a pleasant experience though. It rained most of the trip and there was quite a bit of turbulence. Considering Masinja's issues with gravitational insecurity the turbulence was a BIG problem. He cried for most of the first flight and I was seriously concerned that I wouldn't be able to get him back on a plane for the second one. He was a trooper though and I'm sure it helped that the second plane was a big jet. We made it back home safe and sound. We'll go back to our normal routine next week.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Weekly Update -- 10 - 16 May 2010

Yay, I'm 175 weeks old today!

Masinja had an interesting week. I would like to report on Speech and OT but due to the events of the week and the fact that I have fallen behind on updating the blog, I honestly don't remember what activities he did this week. About the only thing I can report on is that Masinja had his 36th ECI session. His teacher, services coordinator and I discussed the differences between an IFSP and an IEP because Masinja will be transitioning to an IEP in August. We also discussed preschool placement. Masinja will start prechool in September and will go 3 days a week. He will be going in the morning from 9 to 11:30. We have the option of having him ride the bus but T.M. and I decided to drive him ourselves. He will also be eating lunch at home instead of at school because he still has feeding issues.

Masinja got to fly on an airplane for the first time this week. My father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April and started having complications this week. We flew to NY bright and early Saturday morning to spend time with him and to be there when he has surgery next week. We were planning on going to NY for a visit next month but the circumstances speeded things up a bit! We'll be heading back to Nebraska next Sunday.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 3 - 9 May 2010

Yay, I'm 174 weeks old today!

Masinja had his first appointment with his new OT this week. His original OT went on maternity leave so he was transferred to another clinic for the summer. The new clinic is set up a bit differently and has some pretty neat equipment that the clinic at the hospital doesn't have. One of the pieces of equipment is an Activity Center. It's located in the treatment room and is made up of a variety of fine motor activities. Masinja was fascinated with it. His new OT worked on some of the sensory issues that were identified by the sensory profile that we filled out a few months ago. She started by putting him on a balance ball which he was not impressed with to say the least! He kept saying, "Do you want to get down!" He started crying after a few minutes and broke my heart because he was looking at me as if to say, "Why are you letting her do this Mommy?" He most definitely has gravitational insecurity!! The OT also introduced Masinja to shaving cream. She put a few dabs of it on the mirror and then had him rub it around. He wasn't very impressed with that either and kept saying, "Wipe it off!" Once he calmed down Masinja worked on stringing large and small beads and played with Mr. Potato Head. Neither T.M. nor I had even thought about getting Masinja a Mr. Potato Head but he loved it so much that we will be going to the store this weekend to get him one!

During Speech we had another tea party with cupcakes. While Masinja enjoys making the cupcakes he still hasn't gotten the hang of the tea party concept. He tends to get distracted and would rather play with the spoons or take the top off the sugar bowl. Masinja also worked with the boy and girl identification cards. He was 100% correct in his identification for the first time!!

I met with Mason's ECI team this week to go over the results of the school psychologist and vision consultants' evaluations. The school psychologist was not able to attend the meeting but Masinja's teacher explained the results to me. The psychologist does not feel that Masinja has any form of autism, but rather that all of the behaviors in question can be attributed to the damage caused by his brain bleed. She said that based on the copies of his medical records that I provided, the area of the brain that was affected would have an impact on language development, attention span and time management.

The vision consultant confirmed that Masinja has depth perception issues. She explained that it was due to his right eye being lazy. She also said that at this time he doesn't meet the criteria to be classified as visually impaired. I was shocked when she mentioned that because I wasn't even aware that they were considering that classification. I was under the impression that the reason for the evaluation was to get her input on strategies to use with Masinja. It was decided at the end of the meeting to add the vision consultant to Masinaja's team and for him to be re-evaluated by her when he has his 3 year evaluation next fall. I guess we'll see how things go with that evaluation.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Weekly Update -- 26 April - 2 May 2010

Yay, I'm 173 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty busy week. During Speech he continued to experiment with pretend play. We had another tea party and we also go to make and eat pretend cupcakes. He seemed to really enjoy making the cupcakes. He got to put the paper cups in the pan, followed by the cupcake, and then he got to put the frosting on and decorate them with icing as well. They have the coolest toys at Children's Hospital! The only bad thing was he kept asking for chocolate afterwards :o)

Masinja continued to work on stringing shapes during OT. He seemed to do a much better job this week but it's most likely due to the fact that we were in a room with minimal distractions. He also copied pictures again this week but he used magnetic shapes instead of foam shapes. He also worked with Duplos. He seems to be getting much better at putting them together and pulling them apart although he still struggles on occasion.

I attended two Parent Connections trainings this week. The first was entitled Handwriting Without Tears. The OT that is on Masinja's team was the presenter. Handwriting Without Tears is an actual writing curriculum that is used as an alternative to traditional handwriting curricula for children with special needs. It incorporates a lot of really cute activities and materials to help make handwriting a pleasant experience for both the child and the parents. I am definitely going to be asking more about this curriculum once Masinja enters school. The second training that I attended was on Separation Anxiety. I went more for myself than for Masinja! He doesn't seem to be having any issues at the moment but I wanted to be prepared for the fall when he will begin preschool. I'm pretty confident that he will be just find but I can't say the same for myself :o)

Masinja had his 35th ECI session this week as well. His teacher brought the vision consultant along to do an evaluation. We will be meeting again next week to go over the results as well as to discuss the results of the school pyschologist's evaluation that was conducted a few weeks ago.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 19 - 25 April 2010

Yay, I'm 172 weeks old today!

Masinja didn't have Speech or OT this week due to a quarterly meeting. They try to rotate the meeting to a different day of the week each quarter so that the same patients aren't always missing therapy and this quarter the meeting was on a Tuesday. I did take him to the doctor this week though and it is now confirmed that Masinja has seasonal allergies. He is now on Zyrtec. Hopefully he will get some relief soon!!

Masinja had his 34th ECI session this week. We discussed the use of the picture schedule and how well it is working. We also decided to include additional pictures since the original ones have been working so well. Masinja's teacher also suggested doing more gross motor imitation with him at various times of the day such as between activities, as part of play, or as part of mealtime. In addition to this, she suggested alternating active play with quiet time. She feels this will help Masinja increase his attention span.

We participated in the March of Dimes walk again this year. We weren't able to participate last year because of severe thunderstorms. Thankfully this year it wasn't raining but it was cloudy, windy and really COLD!! Our friends Nick and Holly and their two little girls, and Patricia and her husband and their two little boys did the walk with us. We finished the entire 3 miles in just over an hour because it was so cold. It meant a lot to T.M. and I to be able to do the walk this year though because it is our way of honoring Maddie. The walk is held during the same week as the anniversary of her passing so that makes it even more meaningful for us. Of course we also do the walk in honor of Masinja and how far he has come!!

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 12 - 18 April 2010

Yay, I'm 171 weeks old today!

Masinja had a good time at OT and Speech this week. During OT he got to sit on the edge of the slide again because all of the rooms were occupied. He worked on stringing shapes instead of beads. The shapes had two holes and typically would require putting the string through both holes, but the main objective was for Masinja to practice stringing something other than a bead or pasta. He struggled quite a bit with it because he was more interested in trying to collect the shapes. There were all different sorts, (i.e. airplanes, apples, cars, etc.), and he just wanted to hold as many as he could! He also had a hard time concentrating because there was a maintenance man changing light bulbs. After he reached his frustration level, his therapist moved on to having him copy pictures using foam shapes. He seemed to really enjoy it and was able to complete the task without too much trouble. When he was done, he got to eat some chocolate pudding which is one of his favorite treats. His therapist is still trying to work on getting him to eat with a spoon independently. He's still having a lot of difficulty grasping the spoon correctly though and ended up wearing more than he ate :o)

During Speech Masinja continued to experiment with pretend play. His therapist gave him a baby doll and showed him how to feed her, rock her and brush her hair. I don't think he knew what to make of it and he didn't seem all that interested. T.M. was relieved when he heard that :o) He doesn't want his little boy playing with dolls! Masinja also worked on putting the boy and girl cards into piles. This week his therapist had him using the word "is" to describe what the boys and girls were doing. The goal is to broaden his vocabulary in an effort to help him form different sentences. He tends to be very rigid in his sentence structure and only uses sentences that he has heard repeatedly.

Masinja also had his 33rd ECI session this week. We put the picture schedule together and talked about how best to utilize it. We also talked about the progress he has made with the adaptable spoon as well as some of the other skills that he has been working on during OT.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 5 - 11 April 2010

Yay, I'm 170 weeks old today!

Masinja's week was pretty typical. During OT he worked on copying patterns with Duplos again. He also spent quite a bit of time working on drawing vertical lines. He got pretty frustrated when his therapist wouldn't just let him scribble!

Masinja continued to experiment with pretend play during Speech. His therapist had a tea set and we all had a tea party. Masinja go to practice pouring the tea and cream, as well as scooping the sugar and stirring his tea. He was fascinated with the spoon and stirring! He even offered to stir his therapist's and my tea :o)

I attended another Parent Connections training this week entitled Parent Child Communication. The presentation was very informative and dealt not only with toddlers but also with teenagers. It certainly made me reflect on my communication skills! Hopefully I will actually remember some of the information and be able to use it as Masinja gets older. Some of the techniques might even come in handy in dealing with T.M. :o)

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 29 March - 4 April 2010

Yay, I'm 169 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty good week. At OT we had to sit on the slide in the play area because there weren't any rooms left. His therapist had him work with some easy pegs this week instead of the blocks or Duplos. He kept building on top of her structure instead of copying it like he was supposed to :o) She also had him work on drawing vertical lines by having him draw from one dot to another. He did really well considering!

During Speech Masinja read a book with his therapist. He has gotten much better as far as his attention span is concerned. He also worked on separating the boy and girl cards into piles again. His therapist wants to work with Masinja on pretend play so she introduced a house play set. She gave Masinja two men, a table and chairs, two babies and a double high chair, plates, an oven, cupcakes and pizza. She helped Masinja set everything up and pretend to cook the pizza and cupcakes and have the men eat it. He did a really great job considering he hasn't really been interested in pretend play up until now. He was mostly interested in playing with the boy and girl twin babies and putting them in and taking them out of their double high chair. It was great to see him pretending!! His lack of interest in this type of play has made it very hard to play with him. Hopefully he will continue to engage in this type of play.

Masinja had his 32nd ECI Session this week. His teacher brought the adaptable spoon that the OT sent to help Masinja become more proficient at feeding himself. It is a regular spoon that has a hinge built in and if he tries to turn it upside down it swivels back to the upright position. Hopefully this will help him understand how to hold the spoon correctly. Masinja's is going to schedule a visit for the vision consultant. The remainder of the session was spent discussing ways to help Masinja communicate better with the use of a picture schedule. Masinja's teacher gave us pictures depicting various routines throughout the day. Hopefully this will hep him to process things better as well as be more flexible.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 22 - 28 March 2010

Yay, I'm 168 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty average week. At OT he did several different activities that centered on fine motor skills. Instead of stringing beads, this week he put them on dowels. His therapist made several patterns with the beads that Masinja had to copy. He struggled a bit at first because he just wanted to put as many beads on the dowel as he could, but after a few tries he got the hang of it. Masinja also had to copy patterns with the Duplos. His therapist made towers and he was supposed to make his look the same. He has been having a hard time with this for a few weeks now. He tends to do the exact opposite, i.e. if the order of the blocks in the tower is red, blue, green he tends to build his green, blue, red. Masinja also practiced drawing lines. He's gotten pretty good at horizontal lines but he just can't seem to figure out how to draw vertical ones. He got to finish up by eating some applesauce. He's been struggling with using a spoon but he's starting to get the hang of it!

During Speech Masinja worked with the boy and girl cards by separating them into piles. He stills get confused on a few of them but he's doing a pretty good job; I'd say about 85-90% correct. He also worked with the vocabulary cards and did more gross motor imitation. His therapist rewards him with bubbles and he gets the biggest kick out of them. Every time she blows a whole bunch he says, "Look at all these bubbles!!!" He then proceeds to watch each of them pop before he will do any more imitations :o)

I attended a Parent Connections training this week on Behavior Strategies. The school psychologist that evaluation Masinja a few weeks back was the presenter. She gave us a lot of good information about the correct way to discipline as well some strategies to correct behavior problems. It was a very good workshop and it certainly gave me a lot to think about!

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 15 - 21 March 2010

Yay, I'm 167 weeks old today!

Masinja didn't have Speech this week. His therapist's little ones were sick so she had to stay home with them. He did have OT though and it was interesting to say the least. His therapist had him take a break from beads and instead had him put washers onto dowels. She tried getting him to copy patterns by using big and little washers but Masinja was too distracted by the fact that the washers were shiny! She also tried working on horizontal and vertical lines again. They have a neat board with a black light behind it that you can draw on with special crayons. Masinja didn't really cooperate with that either though because he was too busy trying to switch colors constantly. I guess it's a good thing that he didn't have to go to Speech afterwards because he probably wouldn't have done very well!

Masinja had his 31st ECI session this week. His new OT and her student teacher came to observe Masinja eating lunch. She wanted to see how he grasps his utensils and give us some strategies on how to help him. He did a pretty good job with his fork although she did notice that he has a hard time seeing the food and often misses. She said it is most likely due to his vision. He didn't do very well with the spoon at all. He doesn't hold it correctly and every time she tried to correct his grasp he would change it right back as soon as she took her hand away! Masinja doesn't hold the spoon upright either but instead turns it upside down so obviously he winds up wearing most of his food. His OT is going to send an adaptable spoon with his teacher next week so we can give that a try.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Weekly Update -- 8 - 14 March 2010

Yay, I'm 166 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty calm week again. He did very well in OT. He has made quite a bit of progress with stringing the noodles so his OT decided to kick it up a notch and move on to beads. It is a bit more challenging for him because the holes are smaller and he tends to cover them with his fingers while trying to hold the bead. He's still struggling with drawing vertical lines but he has pretty much mastered horizontal lines. He is doing much better with the Duplos now too and even managed to copy the patterns that the OT made with them without too much trouble. His OT was finally able to track down his Sensory Profile and clarified that he does have some tactile and auditory sensory problems. Not too sure yet how she is going to address those issues but I would imagine she will incorporate it into his therapy sessions.

Masinja did really well in Speech today too. He has made a great deal of progress with identifying boys and girls. In fact, we went to Target the other day so I could buy some more workout clothes. While I was trying some things on in the dressing room Masinja climbed up onto the bench and said clear as a bell, "Masinja is a boy." I couldn't wait to get to Speech this week to tell his therapist. She switched to a new deck of cards that has various occupations depicted and the "boys" and "girls" are actual people instead of cartoon characters. Masinja did a pretty good job of differentiating between boys and girls with the new deck of cards so his therapist decided to take him for a walk around the clinic and see how he did with real people. He was about 75% correct which is pretty good considering there weren't any boys. I think sometimes it throws him off if there isn't enough variety so he decides to make his own! He did really well with gross motor imitation and copying the structures his therapist built with the wooden blocks too. He has made a ton of progress and his Speech therapist can't wait for his 6-month review so she can determine just how much!

Masinja had his 30th ECI session which was also his 6-month review. He has made a lot of progress so we were able to remove some of his goals and add new ones. For the next 6 months we are basically going to focus on getting Masinja to feed himself with a fork and spoon and drink out of an open cup. He hasn't been able to use utensils independently because of his issues with grasp. We are also going to focus on helping Masinja learn to play with others as well as engage in pretend play. As far as language development is concerned the goal is to help Masinja become more proficient at verbally making his needs known. We discussed again that he will be starting preschool in August. The goal is for him to go at least 3 days a week. Once he starts preschool he will be transitioned from an IFSP to an IEP. The biggest difference is that with the IFSP his goals are set based on our concerns whereas the IEP goals will be set based on the concerns or recommendations of his teacher. We still have input with the IEP but not as much as we do with the IFSP. The last thing that we discussed was the possibility of adding the vision teacher to Masinja's team. Both his OT and his Speech therapist at Children's mentioned to me last week that in addition to PT, OT and Speech, the ECI program also employs a vision teacher. When I told them about his ophthalmology appointment a few weeks ago they both asked me if the vision teacher was on Masinja's team. In light of his "wobbly" vision Masinja's teacher, or primary provider, is going have the vision teacher come out and do an evaluation and see if she can give us some additional strategies to help him.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 1 - 7 March 2010

Yay, I', 165 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty calm week for a change. About the only things to report on are OT and Speech. During OT he worked on stringing noodles once again. He still gets frustrated with it when the string doesn't go in on the first try but he seemed to have improved a bit since last week. He also worked with beads and dowels. Instead of using the Duplos, his therapist tried to get him to copy the pattern that she was making with the beads. Masinja didn't quite understand the concept at first but I think that was because he was too distracted by the beads. He kept trying to put his beads on the same dowel as the OT. After a few tries he finally understood what he was supposed to do although he still didn't quite get the pattern right. He kept doing the opposite. For example, if the OT put a red bead, blue bead and then purple bead on her dowel Masinja would put the purple bead first, then the blue bead, and lastly the red bead. He has been doing something similar with the wooden blocks that his Speech therapist uses. I guess he just sees things backwards. Masinja's OT also began working with him on undressing and dressing. He has quite a bit of difficulty with this task. He understands that his shirt needs to go over his head but he doesn't quite know what to do with his arms. When he tries to take his shirt off he winds up getting stuck! He doesn't really understand how to pull his pants on or off either. This is something that we are really going to have to work on at home. His OT still has not been able to track down the Sensory Profile. Hopefully next week she will have located it so we can address the sensory issues.

Speech was pretty uneventful. Masinja is still working on the same skills he has been working on for the past few months. While his vocabulary has grown quite a bit, he is still struggling with some basic concepts. We are still working on getting him to differentiate between boy and girl. This is important because the goal is for him to add more nouns, pronouns and verbs to his vocabulary so he can start to form his own sentences. Most of the sentences that he says now are just repetition of the things that we say to him on a daily basis. We are also continuing to work on gross motor imitation. His therapist decided that since he likes the vocabulary cards so much she would try to get him to imitate some of the actions depicted. He did fairly well on some of them. Imitation is extremely important for him not just for language development but also in terms of learning how to play.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 22 - 28 February 2010

Yay, I'm 164 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty busy week. He had an Ophthalmology appointment on Monday. The good news is that his prescription hasn't changed. The bad news is that the doc said his vision is "wobbly." He didn't elaborate and I was a bit taken aback so I didn't really ask too many questions. He has to go back for another exam in June and have his eyes dilated which is a few months earlier than he would normally. We will be sure to ask lots of questions at that appointment!!

Masinja got to go to Parent's Day Out twice this week. T.M. had to go TDY to Hawaii and so I decided I could use a little extra "mommy" time. He really enjoys it though and he didn't even notice that I was gone! I guess separation anxiety isn't going to be a worry, at least not for Masinja. I on the other hand may need an intervention when it's time for him to start preschool!!

We got the results of Masinja's OT evaluation from last week. Right now he is functioning at a 15-month old level as far as his grasp is concerned and a 23-month old level as far as vision is concerned. His OT wasn't able to find his Sensory Profile so we are waiting to hear more on that. He will be going for OT once a week for about a year to work on various fine motor skills. This week he worked on stringing noodles. He got a bit frustrated with it because he just couldn't seem to get the string into the noodle. He tends to shut down when things are too hard for him and often yells. Typical 3-year old! His therapist also worked on trying to get him to draw horizontal and vertical lines. Masinja still has difficulty holding a crayon correctly and tends to just scribble all over the place. He seemed to really like the sound effects that his therapist made as she was trying to get him to draw the lines though so maybe that will motivate him. Lastly, she used Duplos and tried to get him to copy what she built with them. The Duplos are much harder for him to manipulate than the Mega Blocks that he has at home. He didn't do very well with this task but it wasn't a big surprise. His Speech therapist uses wooden blocks and has him copy what she builds. As I've mentioned before, Masinja has a really hard time with imitation and this task certainly falls into that category.

Last but not least, Masinja had his 29th ECI session this week. His teacher brought the school psychologist so she could do an evaluation. Based on what she saw and the information I gave her about Masinja's birth and subsequent medical history, the psychologist does not believe that he has autism. She said that most, if not all, of the "red flags" that have come up in the past few months could be explained by his grade IV brain bleed. I am going to get her copies of his cranial ultrasounds so she can determine which side the brain bleed occurred on and if it could indeed be the cause of the behaviors in question. We will certainly let you know what her conclusions are when we find out.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update - 15 - 21 February 2010

Yay, I'm 163 weeks old today!

Masinja had an extremely eventful week! He had his first OT appointment on Tuesday. He saw a therapist who is very familiar with him. In fact, she was the therapist that he saw originally when he started having feeding issues. She did an evaluation to determine where he was developmentally and will give us the results next week. She had him try to do basic tasks such as putting a bead on a string, stacking blocks, drawing a line, cutting with scissors and putting small items into a container. We also discussed the Sensory Profile so she is going to take a look at it and give us some feedback on that next week as well.

Masinja did well in Speech again this week which was kind of surprising considering he went directly from his OT evaluation. We were afraid he would have some kind of melt down or something from being over-tired. He didn't miss a beat though. His therapist kicked it up a notch with the gross motor imitation by introducing a ball and trying to get Masinja to kick it. We have been working on this for a while now but all he seems to want to do is throw the ball. She also tried to get him to jump but he just couldn't quite grasp that concept. I'm sure these skills will come in time.

Masinja also had his 28th ECI session this week. There has been some turnover in the school system so some of the members of Masinja's ECI team have recently been changed. T.M. and I were able to meet the new Services Coordinator and OT. Both were very personable and we are especially looking forward to working with the OT. She seems to be more in tune with Masinja's needs and our concerns than his regular teacher. It seems like she is going to be a bit more hands on than the old OT as well.

Masinja's Aunt CC (Cindy) and Uncle Robert came for a visit this week. He hasn't seen them since July when we went to Shreveport for a visit. We all went to watch one of T.M.'s hockey games which is one of Masinja's favorite past times. We also went to the Train Museum but I think the highlight for everyone was ice skating. It was Masinja's first time as well as Cindy and Robert's. I can honestly say that a good time was had by all despite the fact that our legs were very tired afterwards! We had a great time spending time with the Funny Bunnies and I know they enjoyed spending time with Masinja as well.

Masinja Ice Skating

Aunt CC and Uncle Robert Ice Skating

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 8 - 14 February 2010

Yay, I'm 162 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty busy week. Speech went well. His therapist has added a few more goals for him, one of which is to increase his attention span. She read him a very long Dr. Seuss book today, The Foot Book. Masinja actually sat still and paid attention for over ten minutes!! His therapist and I were very impressed. He is still struggling with imitation but he's getting better. He now puts his fingers in his mouth and touches his tongue when he is supposed to be sticking it out. This is a big improvement because before he would just look at his therapist with a blank stare. At least now he knows where his tongue is and that she is trying to get him to do something with it!

Masinja also had his 3-year checkup this week. He weighs 31.8 pounds and is 36 inches tall. T.M. and I mentioned the recent concerns about autism that were brought up by both his speech therapist and his ECI teacher. Masinja's doctor is going to put in a referral to have him evaluated by a local clinic that specializes in autistic disorders. We'll keep you posted on how things go.

Last, but not least, Masinja went for his first Parent's Day Out this week. It is part of the ECI program and Parent Connections. Basically, he gets to go and play for two and a half hours and I get some time for myself. T.M. and I were really concerned at first that Masinja would throw a fit or have separation anxiety but he didn't even notice I was gone! I was supposed to drop him off around 9:00 and pick him back up around 11:30 but I couldn't hold out that long. I went back and got him around 10:45 but we stayed a few minutes and chatted and played. It's a good thing he did so well because it will make transitioning to preschool that much easier. If only I had done as well as Masinja!!

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 1 - 7 February 2010

Yay, I'm 161 weeks old today!

Speech went well again this week. Masinja continues to make progress on a weekly basis. His therapist is looking forward to his 6-month review so she can measure just now much progress he has made. Masinja is still working on most of the same skills as he has not mastered them yet. Imitation is his biggest weakness. His therapist spends several minutes each week trying to work on gross motor imitation. He does really well with most of the actions but he still has a lot of difficulty with anything involving his mouth, i.e. sticking out his tongue, smiling really big, blowing kisses, etc. This is obviously a really important skill because eventually it will be necessary in order for Masinja to speak correctly. He has made a ton of progress in only a few months though so I'm sure the imitation will come with time.

Masinja got to play at Parent Connections again this week while I attended a training entitled Transitioning to Preschool. Even though I am in denial of the fact that my baby boy is growing up, he will be starting preschool in August. This training was definitely beneficial in preparing me for that eventuality. He can ride the bus but since the school that he will most likely go to is literally two minutes away I will most likely just drop him off and pick him up. Masinja will probably be attending preschool three days a week. He will be going for two and a half hours a day. Thank goodness it's only February so I still have several months to adjust to the idea!!

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update - 25 -- 31 January 2010

Yay, I'm 160 weeks old today!

Masinja had another eventful week. Speech went well again and he continues to make progress on a weekly basis. His therapist did mention something this week; however, that T.M. and I have been wondering about for a few months now. She brought up the possibility of autism or pervasive developmental disorder. Some of the behaviors that Masinja exhibits are questionable and she said that several of them could be explained by either of these disorders.

Masinja had his 27th ECI session this week. When I told his teacher about his quoting Sesame Street last week when we were playing with his letter puzzle, she said that she would like to have the school psychologist come out and do an observation. She is concerned because some of the things I have reported as well as some of the behaviors that she has observed are considered "red flags" for autism. I told her that his speech therapist had also mentioned autism or PDD in passing recently and that T.M. and I had been having some concerns. T.M. and I weren't too sure how to go about having Masinja evaluated but I guess we've gotten the ball rolling now. We are also going to mention it to his pediatrician when we go for his 3-year checkup next month.

On a not so pleasant note, Masinja had an accident this weekend. We were at T.M.'s hockey game and Masinja fell off of a chair and hit his head on the rim of the plexi glass enclosure. He had a huge goose egg and T.M. and I decided that it would be best to take him to the ER just to be on the safe side considering his history. We spent 2 hours in the ER and then we had to wake him up every 2 hours for the remainder of the night to check for signs of a concussion. It was a long night to say the least!!

Goose Egg

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 18 - 24 January 2010

Yay, I'm 159 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty eventful week. Speech went fairly well again this week. His therapist is very pleased with the progress he has been making and is going to start introducing some new concepts soon. We finally got the results of the Sensory Profile that we filled out back in November too. Apparently after it was scored it got put back in his original file instead of being passed on to the occupational therapists. Masinja scored significantly so the next step is for him to have a formal OT evaluation. We will have to wait a few weeks for that though because they are short staffed right now.

Masinja celebrated his 3rd birthday this week. We were planning on having a skating party for him this past weekend but the rink required a minimum of 10 people to be in attendance. We would have had enough, but one of our so called "friends" decided that she and her husband and son wouldn't be able to make it. They had another birthday party to attend that weekend and she didn't want her son to miss his nap two days in a row. We have decided to just postpone until next month when Masinja's Aunt CC and Uncle Robert come for a visit. We just had a small family celebration here at the house. T.M. and I helped Masinja open his presents and then we all had some ice cream cake. It was more like ice cream cake soup because I took it out to thaw a bit too early but it was still yummy!

Ice Cream Cake pic

Eating Cake pic

Opening Presents pic 1

Opening Presents pic 2

Opening Presents pic 3

Opening Present pic 4

Opening Presents pic 5

I know Masinja might have a different opinion, but I think the best present he got on his birthday was not have to take phenobarbital anymore!! The weaning process went off without a hitch and we are praying that he remains seizure free from here on out.

Masinja had his 26th ECI session this week. His teacher is going to have the OT on his team come out for a joint visit to see if she can give us some strategies. Masinja is still having difficulty feeding himself with a utensils and he still has a fit when his fingers are dirty. His teacher suggested having him play with Play Doh to try to get him used to different textures and such. I guess it's a good thing that we gave him a huge Play Doh set for his birthday then huh? :o)

On a final note, I thought I'd give y'all a laugh as well as demonstrate why T.M. and I are convinced that Masinja does in fact have a photographic memory. Masinja and I were playing with his letter puzzle yesterday. He likes to go through the alphabet and say what each letter goes with, i.e. A goes with apple, B goes with basket, etc. When he got to the letter O he said, "O goes with octopus." He then proceeded to say, "I have an octopus stuck on my head. Hi, my name is Jake and I'm here to tell you about the word separate." This was a direct quote taken from an episode of Sesame Street that he hadn't seen in over 2 weeks. Needless to say, T.M. and I were both impressed!!

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 11 - 17 January 2010

Yay, I'm 158 weeks old today!

Masinja did well at Speech again this week. He has made a ton of progress with the boy/girl cards and differentiating between the two. He still gets stuck on a few, but it's completely understandable because even I would be hard pressed to identify a few of them as girls :o) He gave his therapist and I a good laugh though. He was about 85-90% successful in identifying boy/girl with the cards but when asked if his therapist and I were boys or girls he said we were both boys. Also, when we asked him if he was a boy or girl, he said girl!

Masinja got to play at Parent Connections again this week. I attended a training titled "The Power of Play." I was hoping it was going to give us some ideas of how to play with Masinja since T.M. and I have been having such a hard time. Masinja tends to be very rigid when it comes to his toys and how to play with them. The training was a waste of time though. The presenter basically emphasized how important play was to a child's development and outlined the different types of play. Being that I was an elementary school teacher for 9 plus years, I already knew all of that information. She also emphasized the importance of staying away from drill like activities. She said that play should not be centered around academic skills such as the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes. When I told her that Masinja is obsessed with all of those things and asked her specifically for suggestions on how to get him to focus on other types of play she had no idea how to answer me! Oh well, T.M. I will just have to figure it out on our own I guess.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 4 - 10 January 2010

Yay, I'm 157 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty productive week. He worked really hard at Speech and made a lot of progress. He did a little bit better identifying boys and girls. He has started to throw the boy/girl cards on the floor just like he does with the verb cards. It is pretty funny to watch because if they don't land exactly like he thinks they should he will go and adjust them!! He is still doing an excellent job with the verb cards. In fact his therapist had to move on to another box of cards. There are about 40 cards or so per box and she has introduced about 10 cards per week. Masinja has pretty much memorized all of the cards from the original box though. T.M. and I are seriously starting to wonder if Masinja has a photographic memory. He even did an awesome job with the blocks. This was the first week that he actually paid attention and copied a few of the towers that his therapist created. We were both very impressed!

Masinja was supposed to have his 26th ECI session on --- but it got cancelled due to inclement weather.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 28 December 2009 - 3 January 2010

Yay, I'm 156 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty uneventful week. About the only thing to report on is Speech. He is still working on the vocabulary cards, but in addition to verbs, his therapist is trying to introduce pronouns. She is starting out slow by getting Masinja to identify boys and girls. So far he is having a hard time differentiating between the two. Another skill that his therapist is working on is imitation. Masinja has a hard time with this as well. His therapist has been working on gross motor imitation with him from the start but she has also incorporated the use of blocks. She uses two different color blocks and tries to get Masinja to build a tower just like hers. He struggles with this quite a bit but I think it's because he just wants to play with the blocks :o) Every time she builds her tower and asks him to make one just the same he either reaches over and grabs her blocks or tries to stack his blocks on top of hers! It will take some time, but I know he'll get the hang of it eventually. Thank goodness his therapist is very patient :o)

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.

Weekly Update -- 21 - 27 December 2009

Yay, I'm 155 weeks old today!

Masinja had his final appointment with the neurologist on Tuesday. Since he has been seizure free for over 2 years now we finally get to wean him off of the phenobarbital. It will take a little while as we are gradually decreasing the dosage amount week by week, but if everything goes well he should be phenobarbatol free on his birthday! The neurologist did caution us that he could possibly have a relapse. She said 60% of patients never have seizures recur and that if he falls into the 40% that do, it will most likely happen within the first 6 months. Please pray that he remains seizure free!!

Masinja seemed to enjoy his third Christmas. He had a little bit better understanding of presents this year. He knew that they were for him and that he was supposed to unwrap them. In fact, we had a hard time making him understand that he had to wait until Christmas morning to open them :o) We still had to help him unwrap his presents because he got preoccupied with the paper as he ripped it off, but that's par for the course. All in all he seemed to appreciate his loot.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.