Worthy of a nice long break to play with him, no? ;)

Well, that didn't work...one more try! Hey, I did it! I did it! My day is complete!!

Sweet puppy's name is Max, and he is currently covered in mud from digging in my yard! ;). I'll make an attempt to post a pic where he is only slightly covered in mud!

We started Christmas break this morning! Feeling like a bit of a weenie for doing so early, but their big gift came last week...a new golden retriever puppy! We are getting NOTHING done between middle of the night potty breaks (a very tired mommy!), cleaning up after said puppy and his big sister around the house and, of course, playing with the cute little bugger! So, I caved and went on break. At least this way, I can manage to get caught up on grading and get ready for Christmas!! Learning to care for a new puppy is educational, isn't it? :)

I say run, run away fast! Not only is the doctor condescending, he's obviously not up to speed on treating asthmatics. Singular is a commonly prescribed maintenance drug for asthmatics...to be used for many of them sick or not. IME, regular peds often go for the rounds of steroids rather than the longer term, preventative maintenance meds that a true asthmatic child needs to use. You need a pulmonologist, stat! :) Not mention the fact that this guy sounds incredibly full of himself. Concerns such as yours warrant a phone call from him, not his office manager. An "invitation" to come in and talk to him about your concerns would be a much more welcome choice than, "if you want to remain in the practice, you'll do it my way." Geez. Run and find a good pediatric pulmonologist, then ask him for a recommendation to a new pediatrician that has some manners and a better understanding of preventative care for asthma.

As a comparison, here is a paragraph he dictated to me using four of his red words. My spelling and punctuation, his composition: Once upon a time, a sad mom found a boy. The boy was called Ben. He is nine years old now and he pulled his mom up when she fell down. She said of Ben, "Don't be sad!" You are almost ten! I wrote this out for him with extra spacing between the lines and had him use it as copy work. He could copy it verbatim and his handwriting was acceptable but not beautiful. Just out of curiosity, what does all this look like to you guys? A symptom of his developmental and fine motor delays or more like dsygraphia? Something else?

That's interesting. I'd have no problem with it if it were just that! Dictation is not a problem, though the writing won't be very pretty. We already spend a great deal of time memorizing the spelling of OG "red words," using them in original sentences, etc. Of course, unless I sit beside them and help them with each sentence, they can't get through writing them, but hey, at least they are writing! Now, adding additional composition is just tipping the scales for me. I have a lot of other things planned for them educationally during the day...OG is obviously not their entire schooling, nor is it their entire language arts program. We are doing the best we can, but if I push them too hard I am afraid I will make them hate school. I'll give an example here of what one of them wrote in response to a writing prompt she gave them yesterday, just to show how much of a delay we are talking about here. He did this completely on his own, without any input from me. Had I scribed for him, I'd likely have had a paragraph or more talking about his new puppy, all the things we do, etc. Geting presents for christmas geting candy That's his independent spelling, capitalization, punctuation and composition about his favorite part of Christmas, save the capital G at the beginning that autocorrect won't allow me to remove. This is a developmentally delayed 9 3/4 year old, granted unmotivated at the moment, but still...wow. Compositions on his own? Just can't see it. Dictation all the way right now, I'm thinking.

Extremely addictive and became a depressant in my DH's case! He really struggled to get off it, even at a very low dose. Run, run away, IMHO!

That's mine, too! Love it.

That's pretty much the issue here, plus the fact that I just generally don't like the OG therapist entering into the writing debate. I want to work on that as I think they can handle it, not have the OG therapist telling me they need to be in some sort of formal writing curriculum. It's not like I have nothing else to do with them, ya know? We are busy morning till night just getting through what we do now, not to mention the fact that I have two other special needs kids and a traveling husband to contend with! I'm not going to beat my head (or theirs, for that matter) against the wall for something they are not developmentally ready to do. Hope I am making some sense...I am seriously sleep deprived today! New puppy=no uninterrupted sleep for a few days now!

Lecka, I do scribe for them frequently. It is a good thing. They have lovely imaginations and can tell me elaborate stories. We do copy work and when we do dictation, sometimes we even slow down to a letter at a time. It's just that when you have to concentrate on simple letter formation, it is difficult to take the next step and be able to compose something. Separate skills, ya know? Spelling...oh, my goodness. That is entirely another story! Elizabeth, I will look into some of those programs you mentioned. Some good ideas there! They have processing issues vs not being able to express themselves, if that makes sense. They can talk your ear off! So, the thoughts are in there but the step by step of getting them actually onto paper is the problem. One of them has following directions and sequencing issues directly related to his CAPD...I don't want the OG addressing them because he is doing the Hear Builders stuff on that and will be getting it in speech therapy...I want the OG therapist to concentrate on reading because her time with them is short and she is expensive! ;). So, we are hitting some of those things while we wait for more OT and for speech to start, but having her do them as well is duplicating effort and taking time away from the phonetic work and reading fluency work that I hired her for, IYKWIM. Seems like she will stretch her time too thin if she is doing it, too. She is sending much of it home for homework, so she is really making me do duplicate work here at home, anyway. Their grammar program is addressing some writing. We've had a section on paragraphs (it was like pulling teeth to get them through it!), and we usually have sentence writing in the midst of the grammar assignments. So, there is something there...perhaps not enough, but at least it is something. Their doc says their brains are functioning as second graders, so I generally think that they are doing well if they are somewhere in the second grade range of skills and advanced if they are on grade level. Hope that makes some sense!

My 9 year old twins have been diagnosed with a developmental brain delay due to prenatal meth exposure. Along with this comes a host of other diagnoses, such as SPD, CAPD, dyspraxia, significant fine motor delays, etc. They have not yet been diagnosed as dysgraphic, but that may be coming. They have had a series of therapies, including speech, OT and CAPD interventions, but their current major intervention is only Orton Gillingham tutoring. It is cost prohibitive to do too much at once, not to mention the fact that it is overwhelming to the twins. All this to say, I have some concerns about our OG therapist's insistence on having the boys do expository writing. I have told her not to put too much focus on this, but rather to concentrate on phonics and reading fluency and let me deal with writing at home...we've had this conversation multiple times, yet she keeps circling back to it. I have managed to get her to agree not to pursue several areas that really should be covered by a speech therapist (following verbal directions, sequencing, etc,), but this is a real sticking point for her. I managed to get her down to a simple journal (which I have told her I will not force them to do nor in which will I correct their grammar or spelling usage) but she insists on something, as she says that they are significantly delayed in this area and I should have a formal writing program in place. Uh, they struggled with even WWE at a second grade level...why do you think they are ready to compose? These are kiddos who are still struggling mightily with writing mechanics, so we have not pursued much further with writing skills than simple sentences and dictation. Yes, we try to follow the WTM method as much as possible with respect to their learning differences...writing composition is an area we don't push right now, but plan to after we can afford some additional remediation and testing for their fine motor issues. However, after listening to her go on and on about this, I am beginning to doubt myself. Should I be pushing them harder in this area? Should I find a way to afford more OT right now even if we are stretched too thin affording OG? Is she off base or am I? She is a former public school teacher, so I know she looks more carefully at the state standards than do I, but she is so good at OT that I do value her opinion. What do you think?

I sit silently with my panicking child. Seriously, just sit there and be present with her. There are no magic words to stop a panic attack. I may say a few calming words here or there, but generally I just hold her or sit with her, and perhaps distract her with a television show. That does seem to help her get "out of herself" and chill out. The best thing we've ever done for her, though was a combination of medication and neurofeedback. Those two things did more for her than my mere presence could ever do alone.

I also love my Bodum!! Got mine on Amazon, too. If you are are big coffee drinker, go for the biggest size possible. Small ones empty fast, IMO. Also, you might want to get an insulated carafe to pour the coffee into once it has steeped. It will get too strong if you leave it sitting in the French press all morning!

"All ears" here, too...since I can't find the smilies, etc. on my iPad, either! DD13 broke my laptop, so I am stuck figuring out how to use the new forums on the iPad...

Jennifer, I'd start with auditory memory. It is really the core of several of the other skills! Our audiologist says that if you have auditory memory issues, you can't easily remediate the other issues. So, if only for the sake of playing it safe, I'd start there! FWIW, our next module will also be following directions for Twin A! Bless his heart, the kid can't figure out what we want most of the time!

I don't mind telling about our NF experience at all, with apologies to the OP! If this is too off topic for your thread, let me know and I'll create a new thread. We paid around $15,000 to send four family members through a 50-60 session round of NF. We did get a small group discount, though. It was worth every penny, despite the fact that most of it is still sitting on a credit card! ;(. For us, it was a game changer...completely altered our family makeup! When you have three kiddos with unbalanced brains (another long story) and a DH with chronic sleep deprivation as a result, you have to do something drastic if you want to have your family start to heal. We threw everything we had at NF with the best provider we could find, even though it meant a 3hr round trip with a 2 hr session twice a week. School got delayed, everything else was put on hold and we focused solely on tx. It took a few months to see a change, but then all of the sudden the lot of them started to improve. The dynamic of our household began to change, we began to see calmness and focus begin to develop in our kids, grades improved, DH began to sleep again...hope returned. All three kids who did the treatment had issues that were not identified until we had the Q. Two had been diagnosed severe ADHD and borderline IQ, due to prenatal drug exposure...the Q clearly showed that their issues were developmental in nature, could be managed without drugs and the neuropsych could offer us hope that they would eventually catch up to their peers. He also believes that they have normal range IQs but have a brain maturation delay that makes IQ testing fallible...his rec was to try testing them as two years behind and see how they do! Not necessary after we saw them start making dramatic improvements...his diagnosis proved correct. The third kiddos had been diagnosed conduct disorder, generally defiant, needing a kick in the behind, whatever you want to call it! This despite the fact that she had known LDs and SPD...people were giving up on her. The Q showed an abnormal EEG in her working memory area...this led to the discovery of a mild anoxic brain injury from birth (meconium, we believe), that caused her brain to overcompensate with a severe anxiety disorder. The defiance was actually panic! Good anxiety meds and a round of NF later and we have a functioning child. She has a way to go, but she is well on her way to a normal life. We have also thrown in some additional therapies that I've not mentioned here...we've been through OT, Speech, VT, Orton Gillingham, etc. All have made a difference, but the key to our success finds its root in it the underlying brain work we did in NF. All the therapies worked to develop new pathways, but NF worked at what seemed like light speed, giving us the jumpstart we needed to make real change. HTH!

Elizabeth, I've used both programs and both are good. The biggest difference between the two is probably what my audiologist said: Hear Builder can be done in 4-5 weeks of 20-30 minutes a day, Earobics can go on much longer than that. Most likely the reason for this is that HB breaks skills down into separate units whereas Earobics has everything in one program. This is an advantage cost-wise, but I prefer HB's more targeted approach for individualizing programs for each of my children. Also, Earobics drove them crazy! Took too long, I think. My audiologist says that is common...kiddos can see an "end" coming with HB, Earobics seems endless. Both are HARD work for the kids on the upper levels. This is even more critical with my kiddos' developmental delays, as they need longer than the typical 4-5 weeks to finish each CD-ROM. I'm always really glad to hear of someone considering a QEEG! For us, it was the one piece that brought it altogether. It also saved us a lot of trouble! During the Q wrap up sesson, we learned that with the way that Twin A's brain "overreacts" in the area around the brain stem (too complicated to fully explain...I'm not feeling well!), ADHD medications would have been a serious mistake, possibly resulting in a permanent disability.

In our case, it has been great. It does improve attention, but not substantially...certainly not enough to justify the cost! In our case, we have kiddos with one ear functioning at a significantly lower level than the other ear. Happens sometimes with APD and an FM receiver can really help! It improves sound quality in that ear significantly, so it helps retrain the brain to "hear" sounds in that ear. It is also helping significantly with phonemic understanding, especially because we have our Orton-Gillingham tutor wear the mike during tutoring. It is a nearly $4,000 item without insurance. For us, we managed to get it covered and had a co-pay of around $740, primarily going towards the audiologist's time in fitting and training. It is definitely NOT something to run out and get unless you have had a full eval and are certain it will be useful!! Oh, and FYI...we were initially told that our twins were severely ADHD and needed heavy drugs. Turned out to be a combination of CAPD and mild developmental brain delay. We'd have missed the main issues if we had not gone for that APD eval and had a QEEG run! ADHD is often the go to diagnosis for kids whose APD has not be recognized...for what it is worth!

If you think she has auditory processing disorder, I'd start with a full APD eval with an audiologist. However, that said, the twins' audiologist promptly suggested HearBuilder after diagnosing my twins with APD. There are several different programs, which is why having an evaluation is important. We started with the auditory memory program and will be branching off from there to different programs with each twin based on the specific problems that were found during the evaluation. We are also using an FM receiver and will be starting speech therapy after the first of the year...also recommendations from the eval. If you can't do an eval right now, HearBuilder is a great place to start, as is Earobics. I'd wait on something expensive like FastForWord until you can have it "prescribed" by someone who is sure you need it! HB is low cost, low commitment for someone getting started with APD treatment.

Wow, that was fast! Thanks!!

Can this thread get moved to the new chat board?

My DSS has a brand new baby boy and is struggling financially. If anyone has gently used baby boy clothes in sizes 6-12 months, I'd love to get my hands on them! They are good for 0-6 months clothes, but are worried about what they will do when he outgrows those! Sweet boy is going to be a little chunk! ;)

My kids all climb on my lap at some point...my 13 year old is the most likely one to do it! :D

I have two boys with CAPD and we are doing SOTW successfully. I have chosen to do all the story reading myself, as they couldn't keep up with the videos. So far, it is going well. We are adding in some historical videos as a supplement since the visual aspect helps them quite a bit. All our videos are easily available at our small public library.