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.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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