Week 149

Week 149

Over the past few weeks, we have commented about how Ryan has been losing his patience.  A perfect example of this is when he was on Raz-Kids this afternoon.  This is an online reading program that his elementary school uses to promote reading.  The program lets you select a book, listen to it, read it aloud, (but if you get stuck on a word, you can sometimes click on it and have it read that word back to you) and then take a quiz.  The better you do on the quiz, the more stars you get.  You can then trade in those stars to build a space ship.  Ryan usually loves this program but today was not the case.  He got so frustrated not knowing the word that he stormed out of the room, screaming that he quits Raz-kids and started slamming different objects with his fists in the living room.  We had to send him to his room to calm down.

Last week, we spoke to his counselor at school and she is noticing an increase level of frustration on Ryan's part, and said that she noticed his anxiety level is much higher this year than last.  She gave us a recommendation of a therapist that works with children to see Ryan outside of school.  We called on Friday and hopefully they will call us back early next week.

We have also noticed that Ryan seems to be bouncing from one thing to the next more frequently.  He will come to me to download a game on the IPhone or IPad then 5 minutes later come back to download a different game.  But on the flip side, he sat this weekend with Dawn's mom and made 24 craft crosses that say God/Love, and also watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory 7 times. He was obsessed with it.  The moments of repetitiveness verse moments of ADD is all so confusing to us and hopefully we can get Ryan to see someone soon.

However, it was not all bad news this week.  A few times this week, Ryan came home from school only to play school with Julia.  He made up several math problems for Julia to do "in class".  He was very good at teaching and congratulating Julia when she got the answers correct.

Happy 7 months Jack!

I want video games. Mom won't let me play video games. I love video games. I hope to get them for my birthday.

Math problems for Julia by "Teacher Ryan".

More math problems for Julia by "Teacher Ryan".

It was a week of ups and downs and hopefully we can figure out what is causing Ryan to have such high anxiety outbursts.  We will keep you updated.

PC

Week 126

Now that we are back to school, Ryan needs to get reaquainted with socializing appropriately with kids his own age.  Last year his counselor reported that Ryan has difficulty at times playing with other children.  He wants them to do things his way and has meltdowns when they don't. I saw a taste of that this week as he played with our neighbor, who is just a year older than him.  Ryan became so frustrated and bossy with how they needed to play a game, that the little boy ended up playing with Julia instead.  Phil has noticed this as well with Ryan on the soccer field.  Many of the players now notice Ryan's erratic behavior and shy away from him.  Behaviors he used to get away with as he was younger and playing with younger children do not go over so well with kids who are more mature than he is.  He draws a lot of attention to himself and most kids his age do not know how to react to him, and they certainly don't understand or know enough to have the patience to deal with his disability.  I can say the same for many adults as well.  I continue to fear that he will have a difficult time keeping friends.  Ryan attends a small group counseling session once per six day cycle at school, but I don't know if it is enough.  Maybe it is okay for now, but I think at some point we may need to plea for an increase, or bring him for sessions to a counselor outside of school.


A few pictures from this week...

Marching with their soccer teams in the Community Day parade.

 

DC