Re-evaluation news

We had our re-evaluation a little over a week ago. I'm happy to report that things went much better then I had imagined. We've made huge neurological progress and we are moving on to the next step. We've been assigned a new set of patterns, and they are very do-able. I must admit, they look a bit strange, but we are going to do them. We know what we have been doing has caused big changes, so we're going to do everything we've been told. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but S's emotional guard is coming down and I can see her falling in love. If I look at her and smile, a change overcomes her entire face and she smiles back at me. She is giving hugs to everyone. I got my first real kiss last week. I ask her for a kiss before she goes to bed and never get one. Sometime she'll press her cheek to mine, and that's good enough for me. I get huge hugs, and I know she is dealing with oral sensitivity, so it's always been okay not to get kisses. It's a different world for her, and I'm happy to be a part of it and understand how she feels without trying to force her into anything. Well, this night was different. She pressed her little lips to my cheek and gave a long kiss. I was totally in shock, not even knowing how to react, and then she moved to the other cheek and did the same thing! I squeezed her and gave her another kiss and put her in bed. She has since given a few more, it has been wonderful. Her baby cousin who is 6 months old was over the other day. She kept walking over to her and touching her on the head. Then she touched her arms, legs, head and was labeling all of her body parts, it was so cute. The baby coughed, and she kept asking her, "Are you okay?" I finally realized that she was expecting the baby to answer, because she kept asking if she was okay. So I answered for her and she stopped. This was the first time she really took an interest in a baby for more than a second. This time last year, I remember being so excited at how far she'd come. I had no idea that she would get to this point one year later. When you have your children by birth, you always marvel over each new thing that they do. With S, each new thing that she does is cause for celebration because we see her unfolding. All of this is in her, she just lets it out very carefully and slowly. We are always in anticipation of what will come next, and it's not always in the order you expect.

We hope to be traveling in the next couple of weeks, so I'll try to keep up as best as I can. We are on an exciting adventure, and I would love to share it so others like us can experience the same joys that we have achieved through NR.

May 14, 2009

I've just got a short update because it's nearing the end of school and things are crazy around here. We have our re-evaluation in 2 days. I'm a little worried because we have lapsed with our program. S doesn't really respond to bribes or incentives, so it's been difficult to get her motivated. The good news is that doors are still being opened and connections are being made. S uses mommy and daddy all of the time now. She also uses the names of her sisters. Yesterday at OT, daddy was holding her while I went to another room. She asked, "Where's mommy?" Today, after her sisters went to school and her daddy went to work, she asked where one of her sisters were by name. I explained that she went to school and then she asked, "Where is everyone?" Her sentence structure is continuing to improve. She pedaled a bicycle last week, which the OT said was a 3 year old skill. She is doing a lot of singing, she doesn't know many of the words, but instantly recognizes the tune. Yesterday, I got some big hugs. On Mother's Day, when I put her to bed, she gave me the equivalent of a kiss. She made the sound out loud, Mwaaaa! That's the sound she says when she blows a kiss. She's letting go a little bit at a time. I'm actually really happy that she is progressing this way, I feel it's genuine and what she is comfortable with. I'd rather it come slowly than for her to go through the motions but feel absolutely nothing. One of the goals we have for her is to feel empathy. She doesn't really realize when she hurts someone and doesn't give much reaction to others being hurt. Today, she was eating Cheerios and I asked her to give me one. She answered no, which was okay, but I wondered why she said no. She usually has no problem sharing, either with me or another child. I asked her again, and she didn't say no, but she didn't give me one either. So I told her I was sad and was going to cry because she wouldn't give me one. She studied my reaction for several seconds and much to my surprise, she ran over and fed me one! After that, she kept feeding me Cheerios.

I honestly don't know what goals to set for her for our re-evaluation. There were so many thing that were completely absent that I wanted to see and she has exceeded all of my goals. We need to expand on the one's we've gained, but I just don't have the same type goals to set. I'll post after our evaluation. I've been told that this blog has been shared with people who are considering NR. I'm so happy you are reading along and I hope this is encouraging to you. I started out a sceptic and turned into a believer. When the opportunity came up to be evaluated, I needed to make a quick decision or lose out. I read as much as I could before we went, but didn't have enough info going into it. That's the main reason I was a sceptic. The remarkable thing I've found is that I can't find anyone who said it didn't work for them. The hardest part is sticking to it and finding new ways to stay motivated. From what I've read on the neuro group, my daughter is one of the youngest doing it, and I think that is the best time to do it. Right now, even with our lapses, she's young enough that this could just be a part of her life. Even if it takes twice the amount of time, it is incorporated into her life so that it will feel very natural and a part of her everyday life. If you are following along, please leave me a comment. You can keep the comments private if you don't want everyone to read it. It always helps to know others are counting on you, it will keep us motivated.

May 1, 2009

We're getting a huge expansion in vocabulary and words used everyday. The word combinations are increasing also. Yesterday, S was climbing on her swingset/play set, and she climbed to the top of one part of it. As she was getting to the top, I heard her say something I didn't understand. She repeated it several times and I figured out she was saying, "Big girl". She knows when she accomplishes something she hasn't before, we say she's a big girl. When one of her sisters is out of sight, she asks, "Where is she?" I thought this was sort of a learned repetition, but when 2 sisters left, she asked, "Where are they?" She continues to surprise me with things she has learned a long time ago but takes a while to express it to me. I had a Disney shirt with many of the Disney characters and scenes on it and she pointed to the teacup and said, "Spin" It's been a while since we've been to Disney, and she's only been on that ride once or twice. I didn't even think she enjoyed it, but she obviously remembered it. It's just so darned exciting to see her unfold. Everyday is a new surprise. She is saying, "Mommy" with a whole lot more enthusiasm, and even says it very endearingly. I got a big hug the other day where she gave me a huge squeeze. I've gotten hugs before, usually with a running start and slamming into me, but this was from a standing position and then a big squeeze. At school the other day, I told her I was leaving the room for a minute and that I'd be right back. I've done this before and she lets me leave without even watching me go. This day was different. She turned away from what she was doing and looked up at me and watched me leave. Her teacher told her I'd be right back and she still looked toward the door. The teacher turned her head away and distracted her. This was a big moment for her and I. She showed me that she cared that I left. Ever since she first came home, she would always be looking at me when I wasn't looking at her. She very secretly keeps her eye on me without me knowing. When she's at school, she glances over to make sure I'm there. She has no problem clinging to me when she is scared, so it's not like she's to proud to cling to me. All of the classrooms have one way glass so you can spy on the kids from the outside. I waited to go in to see what she was doing. They put some music on and she was dancing around the room. It was so nice to see her having so much fun. She has just started to move to music since we started the program. She really let loose this day, and she was actually dancing. At school, she did another really mature thing. She had 2 bowls she was playing with. A little girl started carrying one of them away. S took the pther bowl and started following her, spouting off a string of words I didn't understand. It looked and sounded like she was pleading with the girl to give it back. When the girl took off faster with it, she just said, "Okay, bye bye." I can tell you from being in that classroom with her everyday, if it were one of the other kids, they would have just grabbed it back from them.

She is catching up at a rapid pace and I'm so excited for her. Our last hurdle is getting her to eat, that will come. I'm just so happy with her progress, and it's so nice that I don't feel the need to get her to do anything before she's ready. Most of what she needs to know is in there already, she just isn't ready to let it out. The teacher that comes to the house once every other week thinks she can't do a lot of things because she can't get S to do them for her. She matches colors at school every time, yet she won't do it for anyone else. Now I know why some people try to mainstream their kids in regular schools. The special needs schools and providers seem to concentrate on what the kids can't do as opposed to what they can do. I thought we'd gotten further than that by now. I do have to say, our OT is S's cheerleader, always being positive and never expecting her not to do something. He always likes to be pleasantly surprised whe she does something he's challenged her with. She may be cautious, but she's also curious. Today she was stringing beads and then she realized by holding the bead and pulling the string, she'd made a pulley. She kept pulling it up and letting it down to see how it worked. She loves to see how things work, she turns all of her toys over and around to see how they work. If she can find an alternate way to make a toy do the same thing, she'll do it that way for a challenge. She's always been that way. Only 2 weeks until her re-eval, can't wait to see how she's doing.