| Oh where do I possibly begin??? Let's see .... Tony is currently 4 years old and attends special school district preschool. Two years ago he was, without exageration, a 100% uncontrollable wild child. After spending most of his life between the age of 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 at home (in fear of taking him out of the house), I couldn't take it anymore! I knew his language was far behind where it should be. My pediatrician didn't seem to think anything of it - nor had any suggestions on taking him somewhere for testing. I was frustrated that I knew something was wrong, but he just blew off my concerns and didn't seem to want to help me figure out what it was. A friend of mine had told me about a program called Parents-As-Teachers. She said that through that program her own daughter was able to get help with language. We contacted them immediately. Since he was shortly going to be turning 3 years old (and they stop testing at age 3) - our coordinator said that she would like to get me in touch with the special school district (they begin working with kids at age 3). For the next month or so Tony was put through a series of tests in different areas of development (hearing, sight, gross motor, fine motor, social, language, and one other I can't think of). These people were amazing. I couldn't even get him to sit on my lap for more than 2 minutes, but they had ways to not only have him sit still - but pay attention well enough that they were able to do whatever testing they needed. At the end of it all, Tony was diagnosed with something called "Sensory Processing Disorder". Basically what it meant was that his senses were all out of whack. His muscles craved the 'squeezing feeling' you get when you tighten them. This explained his need to do things like: pull his twin size mattress off his bed and move it around his room; push my living room furniture across the room; climb and hang from anything he could ... all things that his muscles craved. His sight was fine & his hearing was fine. But for example, if he heard a loud noise ... sometimes it would cause him to cover his ears and other times it would cause him to cover his eyes. His social skills were non-existant! The worst part of it was his language. He is still to this day, about 2 years behind in language development. So when he was just about 3, he was only able to communicate at a 1 year old level. The lack of ability to communicate with us was over-the-top frustrating for him. This explained the horrible behavior (screaming, kicking, banging his head on the floor, etc) OK, now we knew what was wrong. Many parents may have been really upset to hear these results. Not me! I was so very very happy to finally know there was a reason for his behavior - and that we would now have the tools to help him ... and us! Within 1 week we had installed a mini trampoline, tire swing, and trapeze in the middle of our family room. The swinging in circles had an amazing calming effect on Tony. Before we would leave the house to go out we would be sure to let him swing for a while -- it worked! The trapeze worked wonders for his arm muscles. He could hang and swing until his muscles had enough. And the trampoline was great for his leg muscles. Our family room may look like a playground, but we noticed an immediate difference in Tony's behavior. The next step was going to school. His classroom has about 6 children and more sensory toys than you could ever imagine. His teacher Ms Amy, and her assisstant Ms Carol are in my opinion, angels straight from heaven! From the first day we were taught how to help with Tony's language. Everything they do in school ... they have small picture cards to coordinate with the activity. Everything from standing in line, to going potty, to washing hands, to reading books, etc. They made us an entire set of picture cards for us to use at home. This way Tony could see exactly what it was that we were expecting him to do at that particular time. And we were not to budge on our plans. If we told him it was bath time ... we showed him the card, said what we were doing, and did it. It did not matter if he screamed or kicked or ran away. We were to calmly pick him up, bring him back, and have him continue with whatever it was. Again, the changes in his behavior were almost instant. After about 1 week, he knew we were not playing and that this is how it was going to be. Tony began school in November '07. It is currently March '09. Tony, the little boy that would not allow us to hug or kiss him, much less hold him on our laps - now is such a loving little boy that loves to cuddle! We still have the swing, trapeze, and trampoline in our family room - and until he is too heavy that the ceiling will fall in - I'm not moving them! We can take him anywhere with us now without fear of having to leave because of his behavior. His social skills are amazing. He loves to joke around and make people laugh. Anywhere we go people fall in love with him. He idolizes his big brother and will follow him anywhere. He will still spend a lot of time alone - but at least when he feels like being with other kids he is now able to accomplice that. His one big hurdle left to overcome is his language delay. Although we see daily improvement ... he is still about 2 years behind. But, with Ms Amy on his side - I have every confidence that by the time he is ready to leave her class, he will have tightened that gap!! |