Re: Therapy? - Janice

[Guest guest]

Dana, Newbies and all of you who are 'just beginning',

Let me give it to you straight... YOU are the only one who can truly rescue

your child! This means that you must become a biochemist, a doctor, a speech

therapist and an ocupational therapist. It really is up to you to perform these

tasks.

The 20 sessions that insurance cover are only a band-aid of relief. The system

therapy is the same; you get your allocated sessions 1 or 2 times per week for a

very short duration and then you are given the boot until the next year; and

once more, you're at the back of the bus. In the meantime, your child is

getting older and further and further behind his peer group.

So..... those of you in therapy right now....

#1) Make sure that you're sucking every possible peice of that therapy and

putting that speech therapist or OT to really effective use. Insist on lots of

homework! This is key. Whatever the OT/SLP gives you, triple it! Redo the

homework, over and over again throughout the day. Make this time count. In

addition, keep all of the leaflets and notes on the homework so that you can

continue the exercises after the sessions are complete. If you have a sympathic

therapist, see if she/he will give you a 'going away' present of additional

exercises and therapy ideas.

#2) Once you've exhausted your resources, research for more! POUND VIGOROUSLY

on the door; you will find it firmly nailed shut and you'll need a crow-bar to

pry open the door of resources! Keep trying and working for more therapy. It's

out there, especially for little ones. You just have to find it and badger

(nicely or you'll never win) the administrator incessently to help your child.

I laugh at myself. I was so naive. I really believed that the therapy my son

received was all that I had to do. I was soooooo wrong. He was so cute and

outside of a few itty-bitty troubles, seemed so normal. By the time he got to

grade 1, he was years and years behind. Such a tradegy; so avoidable. The

system and the insurance company does not care on whit about your child's

future. Only you do and thus it is up to you to advocate on behalf of your

child. This means persistance and a whole lot of research; and then the work

really begins. You must become a therapist.

So.... this brings me to home therapy. In truth, this is the only thing that

really works. Daily therapy administered by mom or dad that works those

neuronal connections and gets them strong. The connections of the brain listen

to 3 things: frequency, intensity and duration. Thus we need great frequency

and intensity if we want to shorten the duration times to create a neural

connection and thus 'catch our children up'. So we do an exercise in a really

intense, uplifting way, over and over again throughout the day and POW, the

brain responds.

You all know by now that I bring my child to NACD (www.nacd.org) and they design

a home therapy program for me. If at all possible and you can afford it, find a

program like this. If not, then home therapy is still doable. You just have to

research and find the pieces on your own.

I am going to repost a message from " Kim and 4 Cuties " who successfully designs

her own home programs and works with her child daily as well. We do a lot of

the same things (not all) and we are both getting truly great results.

Thanks Kim... for writing all of this out so that I can repost it for everyone!

Anyway, here's Kim's orginal post with a lot of great ideas. Feel free to ask

questions about any of them!

Janice

Kim with 4 cuties wrote:

As for what we are doing to help my kids, I would just like to give the

disclaimer that I am by far not an expert. I'm just another mom looking for

answers. Fortunately I have been lucky enough to find a few helpful ideas

(though I continue to search). But if there is any chance my info will help

anybody else, I am more than willing to share. You should understand, though,

that I homeschool and incorporate hours and hours of therapy into our day every

day. I don't know if I could do it any other way. However, many of the things we

do could be worked in before and after school if you and your child are super

motivated.

One of the books we have gleaned many, many therapy/exercise ideas from is

called A Perceptual Motor and Visual Perception Handbook of Developmental

Activities for Schools, Clinics, Parents and Pre-School Programs. (How's that

for a title?!) It is by Belgau of balance board fame, but relatively few

of the exercises in this handbook actually involve balance boards. It is 82 full

size pages long and packed with hundreds of exercises to improve balance,

coordination, crossing the midline, strength, visual perception, left/right

awareness, tracking, body awareness, interaction between brain hemispheres, etc.

We still haven't even tried all the exercises! We incorporate at least some of

these activities into our therapy every day. Most of the exercises are very easy

to do and many require little to no special equipment. Some things you will

probably want to make or purchase are beanbags, a chalkboard, a swinging ball

(we just threw a volleyball in a mesh laundry bag and hung it from our

swingset), a balance board (you can get these at Target) and/or balancing

stones, and a good playground ball. We happen to have a trampoline which is used

for some of the exercises. Anyway, there is a lot to choose from and you could

easily make this program work on a tight budget. The book itself will run you

about $37. Here is the link:

http://www.balametrics.com/products/handbook.htm

We also do a lot of things which aren't in the book. Here is a very brainstormed

list which probably isn't complete but will give you an idea:

AUDITORY PROCESSING:

- The Listening Program - 1 hour every day - If you don't have an approved

therapist to order this for you but feel your child would benefit, I have seen

this sold on e-Bay occasionally. It isn't much cheaper, but at least you can get

your hands on the program. We use the basic program (as per what the therapist

recommended) but I know Janice uses a newer version.

- Brain Builder (digit spans) - 2 sessions per day auditory and preferably 2

visual, but often just 1 visual (because my son HATES it and I'm pushing the

auditory more)

- Earobics by Cognitive Concepts

- At night we do " copy reading, " which is of our own invention I suppose. I read

a passage to him and he has to repeat it back. He has gotten much better at this

of late, but to be perfectly honest, it is probably due to the digit spans.

- Games where he has to work hard at listening and following directions - keep

this light and fun. Lately I've been rather maxed out on time so I count all the

instructions he has to follow at horseback riding and karate for this. He is

doing great in this area!

- In the car and at night we listen to books and stories on CD - anything to

work those ears.

- We read to him every day.

- We also do 60 beats per minute classical music whenever we can.

- We used to do the mood/Belle program, but quite frankly, it is very time

intensive and I'm a little short on the time commodity right now. It is a good

program, though, and I hope to be able to pick it up again some day (or just not

need it anymore ). I should probably make a greater effort to get it out

because it would probably help with speech issues, as well.

EXERCISE PROGRAM:

- My husband and I take turns running with Garrick each morning.

- Throughout the day I have him do exercise periods, usually about once an hour.

- Aerobics is great for kids with dyspraxia issues! We do this as often as

possible in our living room.

- We also try to swim as often as possible, ride bikes, skateboard, scooter,

jump on the trampoline, go across monkey bars, roller or ice skate....anything

to keep him moving in a productive way!

DIET:

- Garrick is on an all-natural (no chemicals), high protein, GFCF diet (due to

leaky gut syndrome and dairy sensitivity).

- Like just about everybody else here, we do lots and lots of supplements, many

of which I've already seen listed on the boards. One we use that I haven't seen

mentioned as often is magnesium. This is a good one for those dealing with

sensory integration problems, especially bed wetting. You also need extra

magnesium if you are doing extra calcium. Selenium is also good for nerves/the

brain. The guide we initially started using for supplements came from the book

Children with Starving Brains. I still think this is a great place to start when

looking at supplementing for neurological issues.

SENSORY INTEGRATION:

- Pressure and light touches on the joints, arms, and legs.

- We also do therapy on his head, ears, and bladder because these are problem

areas with Garrick. This has been very successful.

- We try to do all of this twice a day, but very frequently only get it in

before bedtime.

- Weights and pressure, like heavy blankets, weighted vests or neck massagers,

etc. He hasn't needed this lately, but they are still great for sensory

integration.

HANDWRITING/DYSGRAPHIA:

- We use Write from the Start, which was designed with dyspraxic kids in mind

- Along with Garrick's other chalkboard activities from the Belgau handbook, I

also have him do the lazy 8 alphabet from the Brain Gym book in hopes this will

help with his letter reversal problem. Haven't seen much improvement yet, but

I'm trying to be more consistent with this.

- Lots of fine motor skill work, like scissor cutting, mazes, peg boards,

tracing, Legos, etc. - anything to work on his fine motor skills and strength.

In all honesty, we are still struggling with the speech apraxia the most, which

is why I joined this group. Like I said, I am still searching for answers just

like everybody else.

In regards to motor development/strength/coordination, I would just like to say

we try to keep all of our activities as fun as possible and I'm always looking

for fun, new ideas. For instance we play

crawling/creeping/marching/galloping/skipping tag all over the house and have a

blast. We also play follow the leader with these activities or I make up some

silly scenario to get the kids to fall in line behind me to do these exercises.

I bought a cheap dance mat at Toys R Us to work on gross motor/coordination

skills. We play Monkey in the Middle (or Keep Away) with beanbags to practice

catching and throwing. Karate has been wonderful for all of my kids'

coordination and they practice at home as well as attending class twice a week.

They love it! One of their latest favorite activities is kicking a target while

swinging, which is an idea I got from the DyspraxiaFamilies group. I am

hoping this helps both with language and visual issues. The jury is still out

on the effectiveness of this one, but they sure have a good time doing it. The

bottom line is keep it as fun as possible! If you asked my son how many hours a

day he spent doing therapy, he would probably tell you he just does his

listening (The Listening Program) and Brain Builder (which he continues to

hate). Everything else is just play to him or time he gets to spend alone with

Mom or Dad. With 4 kids in the house that is a great bonus!

Anyway, this post has gotten unbelievably long. I guess the bottom line is we

have made " therapy " a way of life for our family. Fortunately it is a way of

life we all enjoy. I hope somebody can glean a few ideas from all this. Thanks

in advance for letting me pick your brains in return!

Kim with 4 cuties

[sPAM] [ ] Re: Opinions on vision therapy?

I am fairly new to this site. Please forgive my ignorance here. My

son is 24 months and verbal/oral apraxic. Should I get his eyes

checked? I dont think he has a vision problem. I have had every

hearing test known to man including and unsedated ABR.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

> >

> > Please write SOMETHING! I have asked questions previously and I

> > rarely get an answer. ly I'd like to know why... did I

offend

> > someone??

> >

> > We took to Lions Eye Clinic in Albany Med and they saw

> > nothing wrong. Mind you, we have pics of the strabismus, her doc

has

> > seen it, and all her therapists have observed the latest

variation.

> > On to another eye Dr..... well, she couldn't complete the exam

because

> > won't stay still enough. Okay. Anyway, we want to take

her

> > to Dr. Fox, a Behavioral Optometrist specializing in vision

> > therapy and rehabilitation. Letters after his name: O.D.,

F.C.O.V.D.

> > He is very well known to the therapists around here for his work

with

> > children, especially when other optometrists and ophthalmologists

see

> > nothing wrong with the childrens' eyes. He does not take

insurance but

> > will gladly give you a receipt suitable for filing with a claim.

> > Our pediatrician called today to tell me he cannot recommend this

Dr.,

> > he WILL NOT write any note to the insurance company trying to get

them

> > to authorize payment, he does not believe in vision therapy, it's

all

> > a waste of too much $$, is just a " false hope " , and never works

> > anyway. Okay, consider yourself fired!

> >

> > We had already decided to go ahead and pay the $250 initial, $92

for

> > follow-ups, and any therapies involved. Whatever.

> >

> > The ped who will not write the note and does not want us to go is

Dr.

> > Grattan in Cohoes, NY. I have a witness as 's

speech

> > therapist was here when I took the call.

> >

> > I can also add that our therapists all know of at least a few

children

> > who have been to traditional eye docs and even the Lions Eye

Clinic

> > here at Albany Med., who have been told they are fine and Dr. Fox

has

> > found, treated and completely corrected their vision issues.

> >

> > We think a depth perception or other perceptive type issue may be

the

> > reason she isn't running yet, still has trouble with puzzles

(parts

> > get lost on the busy background - ?), and can't seem to " find " a

step

> > down or the edge of the curb.

> >

> > It all just seems so obvious to us I cannot fathom a dr who

wouldn't

> > want to look further. His response to the question, " Well why

does

> > she have the strabismus then?', was that it is probably a nerve

issue.

> > What the hell does that mean? Does he think we're stuck with it

and

> > should quit??

> >

> > He doesn't know me very well.......!

> > Darlene

> >

>