Week 81

Happy Halloween and Happy Snow Days!

We were able to take the kids out trick or treating to a few houses while it was still light out and before the real cool chill set in.  Ryan ate a couple of pieces of candy that evening but happily packed the rest into a brown paper bag to bring into school to donate.  His school was collecting kids' Halloween candy as part of a healthy initiative and the candy was sent overseas to our troops.  By the way, it had to be in a brown paper bag because that is what Mrs. Allen held up to show the kids as an example.  I know this because we happened to be in the classroom the day after Halloween. 

With all of the snow and power outages in the area our schools were closed on Monday, 10/31.  Ryan went back to school on Tuesday, but Phil and I had another snow day.  We were grateful to have the opportunity to volunteer in Ryan's classroom for their postponed Halloween party.  Ryan was so excited to see us there.  The kids made some crafts and enjoyed the food sent.  Ryan of course wasn't able to eat the cupcakes so I sent in one of his special cupcakes.  He ate this first, and also ate some of the fruit and vegetables the other kids were eating at the party.  Then a mom walked in the room with cupcakes for the kids and Ryan was already finished with his.  But his teacher distracted him by giving him a special job to do.  He had to help count the candy corn in the jar that the kids had took guesses on.  Then he got to deliver the prize to the winner.  Phil and I were so happy to be able to volunteer since we will be working during the other parties this year.  Here are some pictures of Ryan doing his crafts.

And speaking of crafts, Ryan also worked on his November Family Project at home that evening.  We had to decorate a turkey in a disguise.

The next day Phil had to go back to school, but I was on my 3rd snow day.  Since Ryan was Star of the Week in his class, I went in to be a guest reader and read a book that I read to Ryan at home.  He was excited and surprised to see me in his classroom a second day in a row.  Julia was excited also, as I picked her up from preschool and brought her with me so that she could see Ryan's classroom.  That evening and the next morning we had to prepare Ryan to not expect any of us in his classroom on Thursday!

Ryan had another soccer game this weekend and was super excited to see Uncle T arrive with Amelia and Alyssa.  No goals were scored by Ryan but he had fun.  Later on in the afternoon the kids had fun at the playground.

You may recall from a blog post in September that when Ryan met with Dr. Cowan he was diagnosed with Systematic Pragmatic Language Disorder.  This was certainly not a surprise to us, or probably anyone who has a conversation with Ryan.  All of his speech and language tests score low in this area, and each of his teachers' reports over the years mention that Ryan has difficulty with the pragmatics of language.  We don't believe the school supports this area of weakness but now that they have had a chance to pull out all of the kids for routine speech screaning we will be in touch with them to see what, if anything, can be done to help Ryan.  We are not expecting much, and we may even need to request a meeting to update his IEP with this new diagnosis.  Our next step will be to contact our insurance company to see how many sessions, if any, are covered if we hire a private speech therapist.  Friends of mine who have done this for their own children have had 30 sessions per year covered.  Then we'll have the difficult task of finding a good speech therapist that would be willing to meet with Ryan at his after school program or at our house to provide him with sessions.  If anyone has any insight into this, please share!

Below I've provided some information gathered from the SLHA (Speech-Language-Hearing Association) website if anyone would like more details about Ryan's difficulties with the pragmatics of speech. 

An individual may say words clearly and use long, complex sentences with correct grammar, but still have a communication problem - if he or she has not mastered the rules for social language known as pragmatics . Adults may also have difficulty with pragmatics, for example, as a result of a brain injury or stroke.



Pragmatics involve three major communication skills:

1. Using language for different purposes, such as

-greeting (e.g., hello, goodbye)


-informing (e.g., I'm going to get a cookie)


-demanding (e.g., Give me a cookie)


-promising (e.g., I'm going to get you a cookie)


-requesting (e.g., I would like a cookie, please)


2. Changing language according to the needs of a listener or situation, such as


-talking differently to a baby than to an adult


-giving background information to an unfamiliar listener


-speaking differently in a classroom than on a playground


3. Following rules for conversations and storytelling, such as


-taking turns in conversation


-introducing topics of conversation


-staying on topic


-rephrasing when misunderstood


-how to use verbal and nonverbal signals


-how close to stand to someone when speaking


-how to use facial expressions and eye contact

These rules may vary across cultures and within cultures. It is important to understand the rules of your communication partner.


An individual with pragmatic problems may:

-say inappropriate or unrelated things during conversations


-tell stories in a disorganized way


-have little variety in language use

It is not unusual for children to have pragmatic problems in only a few situations. However, if problems in social language use occur often and seem inappropriate considering the child's age, a pragmatic disorder may exist. Pragmatic disorders often coexist with other language problems such as vocabulary development or grammar. Pragmatic problems can lower social acceptance. Peers may avoid having conversations with an individual with a pragmatic disorder.
 
I will end with a link to a video called The Greater Good.  It is a documentary that weaves together the stories of three families whose lives have been forever changed by vaccination.  It is over an hour long but so worth watching, especially if you have young children or are planning to have children.  Thanks, Jimmy, for sharing it with us!
 
DC

Week 75

Dr. Kolker

Ryan went for his checkup at the ENT.  Dr. Kolker said his ear is healing nicely.  Phil gave Julia his IPhone to keep her occupied during the appointment and here are some pictures she took of Ryan during his check up.

Ryan came home with a story he learned from school about a hen, a mouse, a cat, and a dog.  He colored the paper and cut them out and used the pieces to tell a story about a hen who plants seeds, grows wheat, and turns it into flour to make a cake.  The animals don't want to help the hen do any of the work but all want to participate in the eating of the cake.  Over the course of the week Ryan has proudly told us and others this story.  Each time it changes slightly in regards to the words he uses, but the gist of the story stays the same.  Here's the video on You Tube.





In last week's blog entry Phil talked about the visit to Dr. Cowan and how he showed that Ryan thinks in pictures.  We repeated this activity with my parents this weekend and this time got it on video. 



Ryan's behavior has been up and down this week.  We even got our first "bad" report from Kindergarten that Ryan was unwilling to do his work one morning.  It was the day after an evening soccer practice and Ryan had numerous mosquito bites on his face and he was itchy and fidgety.  However, that very same day when I went to pick up the kids from their afternoon school, his teacher there said Ryan did an excellent job in the writing center that afternoon. 

I think Ryan has been struggling trying to get back into the swing of a routine and he is so busy that he is tired.  I can certainly relate as this past week was a difficult one for me as well having a full week at school with lots going on.  And I don't think it is going to get any easier in October or November as we have numerous events going on each and every weekend.  I guess it is better to be busy than bored, but I don't think any of us would mind a little down time now and again!

And I'll end with what happened at bedtime last night.  Ryan says to me, "Mommy, I love you a lot."  Me: "How much is a lot?"  Ryan, opening his arms wide, "All the way to my back." 

DC

Day 54

Today Ryan did something that he never would have been able to do before the diet.  In the afternoons at his day care facility they combine classes as other children get picked up.  One of the activities that they do is a child is selected to "read" a story to the class.  This usually involves one child picking a book, sitting in the teacher chair, and "reading" the story to the class.  Before this diet, Ryan would never have been able to handle everyone looking at him, sitting long enough, or having the vocabulary to explain the story.  However, today he was selected and he went right up and did great.  He turned the book around to show everyone what was happening in the pictures and explained what was happening.  They told us that he he acted like the teacher.  He told other children to sit down, pay attention, and called on others to count the clouds in the picture.  What a difference in such a short amount of time.  The two teachers in the room still can not believe the difference in him. 

When I went to his room to pick him up he was playing with four other boys racing cars around a small track.  He was playing with the children and interacting with them.  In the past, he would be playing in the same area but playing alone with no interaction with the other children.  Today was a different story and it was great to see him playing with other children.  In the past, the other children in the program would not play with him because his meltdowns were so unpredictable.  Now he is right in the middle of things and having a good time. 

A good day for Ryan.  The only down side is that Dawn caught what Ryan, Julia, and I had, she is so sick! 

PC