Dobela
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Posts posted by Dobela
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Dobela, my brain is fried from our science labs this morning, so I'm gonna be blunt. A good VT place can treat a totally non-verbal child. They don't need to be able to read. They can do VT on infants. The place you've got has idiots who don't know how to help her. Go somewhere else. Drive further and go to the better place. You already know I do that myself. I drive almost that far (2 1/2 hours) for ST, and we've been doing it a lot more frequently and for a lot longer than you'd have to do VT. Don't screw around with unqualified, disorganized idiots. Put your money in the great place and go a lot less often. They'll work with you by email between sessions to keep you going, I promise. You'll be REALLY glad you went to the better place.
Now to eat my lunch. I'm clearly way too opinionated and irritable. :D
PS. I'm fascinated that you had multiple regular doctors in various fields telling you to get the VT. Stuff that cotton in the ears of the VT naysayers.
Thank you for verifying what I know but needed someone else to hear. How crazy it is that this place has gone from one I would wholeheartedly recommend to one that I can't wait to avoid!
And, I like clearly opinionated and irritable. It eliminates all that nice polite nonsense that solves nothing yet drags on forever. :D
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Our first ever neurology appointment started something like this...
Dr F (doing his Fellowship, Harvard Med School): "Why are you here?"
Me, taken aback: Um, because she "failed" her EEG? I don't know, you tell me!
Him: Well, I read the geneticist's report, she said you don't need to see Neurology.
Me: She wasn't aware she was having some type of seizures.
Him: Well, she says you are doing everything, we can't do anything, so why are you here?
Me: About the EEG....
Him: ::: more of the same :::
Dr S, the Division Chief walks in: So, I assume Dr F has explained to you about B's EEG results and what we need to treat?
Me: No, actually he hasn't.
:banghead:
Dr S apologized the next time we saw him - he read the email I sent the geneticist about the visit. He had no idea.
IF anyone happens to live in a state that starts with an I, and isn't Illinois - PM me for his name! LOL!! I can't remember where he ended up. Wait, maybe it was North Dakota? I just remember thinking - I hope he freezes to death.
ANYWAY, 1, long time no talk. And 2 - i'd be totally confused as to what you should do, and possibly talk to the regular neurologist about it? I can sympathize with the fuel price concerns. I've driven 5000 miles since July 19 to medical appointments. My budget is shot, even with the car getting 35-40mpg on the highway.
And the VT peeps are even grasping that she might not be able to learn because her vision is causing the issues?!?!
::hugs::
Boy, I am glad I am not the only one! I don't know if the VT people are grasping anything at this point honestly, and that really concerns me. You would think that they *should* grasp it, but I don't think the assistant does. She even called me back later asking for my copy of any reports the geneticist and neuro gave me. When I explained there were no reports, then she says, "So, now I am confused. You don't have any reports. What makes you think again that your dd needs VT?"
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This also varies from provider to provider. Some come to the home, but others will ask you to come to their center. If you would prefer that, then I would ask for it.
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About 2 weeks ago my dd had an appointment at the local children's hospital with a geneticist and some kind of specialized neurologist. These were referrals from about a year ago from the entry neurologist we have been seeing.
DD currently receives 8 hrs weekly in PT, OT, Speech. She qualified for VT but was put on a waiting list in April.
First, we were somehow scheduled in the autism clinic day of scheduling and the geneticist was quite confused about our being there when "obviously this child is not even close to the autism spectrum". I had nothing to do with the scheduling. But he kept observing dd, asking me lots of questions, read all the current reports, and says, "I think her primary issue is vision. Look at her reports, with the exception of stuttering everything can be a sign of vision issues or be seriously compounded by vision issues. I can start my other developmental evals but they will be useless information until we correct her vision. Even if you have to stop all the other therapies to do it, I would stop them to do vision therapy ASAP." Then it was, "I will have my office call you in a few months. If you have been doing Vision therapy, I will schedule a follow-up."
The new neurologist came in. His focus was different, but he was equally concerned about her vision. He emphasized dd starting vt right away, but is also scheduling a sleep study and wants me to increase her fish oil, vitamin c, and add in vitamin E to her daily multivitamins.
I called the VT right away. It took her assistant until yesterday to return my call even though I asked for Dr. R to be the one to return the call. The assistant called, and I explained the situation and what happened at the appointment. She then starts telling me how she and Dr. R already did the developmental eval in April and couldn't understand why I was looking somewhere else for one. :confused: I just told her that I knew we were on the waiting list and was wondering if we could be moved up on the list or not after dd's other appts. The assistant tells me that dd was put on the list because during her 'developmental evaluation' dd was unable to name all of her letters or numbers and was found 'too cognitively delayed' to benefit from the program. She would consider taking her more regularly if dd had progressed academically. But even then, they only had a few slots and finding time for her would be difficult. I then explained we homeschooled and were available before 3, or that I could change other therapy times to make time for VT. Eventually I was given a 30 minute time slot every other week.
Besides the obvious issues above, I know that there are 3 and 4 year olds in the VT program already. And not all of them know all their letters and numbers. I am frustrated, and furious. But my dd also needs VT. They sent me home with a patch in April that we have been using, but also with a packet that was way too difficult for her to do, if I could even understand what we were supposed to be doing. They were no help when I called with questions about that. Now I am concerned that VT will be more of the same. Or that dd has been judged as incapable somehow and the effort will be minimal from the assistant (who is the one doing the therapy) and the doctor who has now taken a very hands off approach to the whole thing.
Sigh, what would you do? Suck it up and drive 3 hours one way to the most respected one in the state? I don't even know how I would begin to pay for the gas involved and still educate my son. There are a couple listed about 1 1/2 hours away, but I have never heard of them. On the covd website their emails are hotmail accounts LOL and no webpages.
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How about Her Name Cleaning Services. We receive mail regularly for the previous owner of our house and she was simply known as Stacy's Cleaning Company. She didn't use her last name in case she married ;) Another choice may be to use the name of your town or area such as Garland County Cleaning or LA Cleaning company.
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Honestly, I would leave that church. No way would I allow my kids to participate in anythign that wasn't transparent. I agree that sometimes the ages should be separated, but never behind locked doors. Too many things could be wrong about this than I want to even list. I get it that Bible Quiz is fun and all that, but it doesn't make all the rest acceptable or right.
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I would definitely check for tongue-tie and reflux. I agree with seeing a lactation consultant certified by the IBCLC. I also agree that supplementing is usually necessary when baby loses more than 10%, at least short-term.
Yes, tongue tie can run in families. My dd was 3 before a dentist told us that hers was 'mildly tied'. Not enough for a notice, but enough to cause mobility problems for her. He discovered it after noticing that she was unable to lick her teeth when he asked. She had been in feeding therapy, speech therapy, and all sorts of other oral motor therapies and interventions before this and no one else saw it. She was also Failure to thrive as an infant. We kept being told it was reflux when in fact it was actually silent aspiration, which we now believed was connected to the tongue tie. She didn't have good tongue control so if milk came to fast then it would first go into her lungs before backing back up and entering the esophagus. She would cry, arch her back, refuse food/milk but reflux meds didn't work. She was a year old before we could get a swallow study referral but I wish we had one sooner. By that time she was actively refusing food on a regular basis.
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I have considered hand sewing panels into a bag for my daughter. Another mom found a great beach bag on clearance that has all those dividers - but the bag was too big for my dd to handle.
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It depends on the area I guess. Here I would have paid about $5 an hour knowing that most likely I would have to go back out and finish or redo parts of it. $5 an hour is what my friend who owns a landscaping business pays her teen age boys when they are working for her. For them that is an improvement because they start at $1 an hour and have to work their way up. Just mowing, definately not morte than $5 an hour. If the kid was supurb, cleaned up all the grass thet blew everywhere, trimmed everything, and more, then I would do more money, but not more than $10.
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Yeah, those are the names we were thinking of, but wondering if they would work. Well, except for Imps. Imp, I like the Home Work Convention of Diva's
Any more ideas?
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Another local homeschool leader and I want to have a vendor fair of sorts for homeschool families in our area. The idea is to showcase and network families who have cottage businesses or are business owners in our area. We have a church with a large gymnasium and family center that will provide space and tables for free. The family business could be anything from hand made items to Avon to other businesses. Those who want to sell at the event could sell, or they could just talk about their business to interested people and network that way. It could be a parent owned or child owned, it could provide a service or a product.
Booth space would be first come, first serve, with a no competition clause - for example only the first Avon rep to registure could have a booth so that we don't end up with 10 Avon people and no one else. Also, the family must be current homeschoolers to receive priority consideration.
We would like to invite anyone to visit the event who would like to support homeschool families or local small businesses.
The event will most likely be on a week day evening from 5-9pm, but we would also consider part of a Saturday. We realize there is no perfect time to plan this.
The other leader has lots of small business connections and is already arranging door prizes.
We hope to make it an annual event in November. We do not plan on charging anyone for booth space as long as we can use the church for free.
What would you call this? Homeschool does not have to be in the name although we will initially advertise heavily to homeschoolers and homeschool groups.
Thank you!
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I would teach this but emphasize that this is MAN MADE, not a way of classifying created by God. Because it is man made, there are flaws and mistakes. It was desgined by someone to help sort out all the ways creation is alike, and different.Me too. I wasn't fundamentalist, but I was Christian. I have to say I'm especially surprised to hear it from classical educators. Are there classical educators who don't teach the following?Kingdom: animalia
Phylum: chordata
Class: mammalia
Order: primates
Family: hominidae
Genus: homo
Species: sapiens
:iagree:
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My son *might* have been able to do that in the 3rd grade. I would take the matching and break it up into 2 or 3 sections with fewer choices. When you give too many choices, it can be overwhelming. I would possibly test for all those choices though by having some students match the word to the picture (like for compass rose and map key). A lot of kids are still thinking in concrete pictures at this age. Instead of "A map tool that can assist in translating map distances to
actual distances" I would put a picture of scale from the map legend and have the child identify it with one of the vocabulay words I give in a list. The multiple choice I might also give fewer choices-just 3. As far as the essay, that is asking for a lot of detailed information. Since most 3rd graders, even some advanced ones, would have difficulty writing multiple grammatically correct sentences, I would not take off points for that, although I would definately encourage complete sentences. When I taught in public school, paragraph writing was really introduced in the 4th grade. My son would have been so focused on spelling and grammar that he would have never given all the information he knew. Instead of having correct grammar emphasized, I might ask them to give me a list or say that I want them to write 3 ways that weather is effected, for example.
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:grouphug::grouphug: My grandmother fell while in the nursing home and broke her neck as well. Due to her age and the poor condition of her bones, the doctors decided against surgery. She had to wear a neck brace for a very long time (3 months??) but eventually her neck was healed enough and strong enough to remove the brace. :grouphug:
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My son didn't like the smells of cetaphil or the others mentioned. I took him to the local health food store and he found a couple of great cleansers there that smell 'manly' and also work well. One is called Desert Essence, the other I can't remember because we are out, but I would recognize it if I saw it. I put it in the shower so he can do it while in the shower. Otherwise he never remembers to use it.
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I had a hysterectomy and everything was removed. I was experiencing nearly a migraine every day before, and now they are rare. My hysterectomy was for other reasons though.
MSG and hydrolized anything in food ingredients will give me a migraine every.single.time. Those are my promary triggers. Allergies will also trigger a migraine as will fatigue. But, I would also look into rebound headaches. It really sounds like you can be having those.
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The google stuff creeps me out to be honest. One of the images has my child in it. Another is so recent it shows changes made to the house and property this summer.
Our tax assessors regularly take pictures of properties for their purposes. Sometimes it is every house, sometimes just one or 2 if someone has asked for their property to be reassessed.
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There are some cool crafts I found while cruising the web last year for handmade Christmas Ornaments that used book pages. Some decopaged, some folded... Some were made by cutting the book into a shape, then fanning it out and gluing the covers together to make a 3D ornament. I saw some that were left simple, others that were then painted.
http://somethingcreatedeveryday.blogspot.com/2010/12/recycled-book-christmas-ornament.html
http://www.sillyeaglebooks.com/2010/12/christmas-crafts-made-from-book-pages.html
http://icraftdaily.com/how-to-make-fleur-de-lis-medallion-christmas-ornament/
http://icraftwithlove.blogspot.com/2011/11/diy-book-page-trees.html
http://www.feminagirls.com/2010/12/10/a-small-burst-of-christmas-crafting/
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In our state, the ps only has to offer the minimum as far as therapy. I inquired this year for my dd and learned that while in private outpatient therapy she can receive up to 3 hours per week (and is currently scheduled for 2 hours per week), the ps would only offer her 30 minutes per week for the same eval scores. Also, the public school therapy would most likely be in a group setting with up to 5 other children compared to the outpatient therapy that is private. She has insurance that will pay for outpatient therapy so we did decid to stay on that path rather than involving the school.
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Some people are just not happy. I have a family member like that. The glass is nearly empty if it doesn't completely reach the top. She is unhappy because nothing ever goes the way she dreams it will. She holds resentments from 50 years ago but can't remember why she was mad. She just knows that everyone is out to cheat her, or worse. If she could live life without ever being around another person, she would. It has nothing to do with the other person, it is a personal problem. A Narcisist if you wish. You can't make them happy because nothing will ever be just the right thing. Something will always be wrong. Unfortunately you moved into her neighborhood. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I am so sorry you are dealing with this.
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If the mother is deaf, that may also explain her non smiling behavior. When I was working in special ed, many of the deaf parents didn't smile much. Because facial expressions are often a part of the comunication, they are very sparse with facial expressions lest they be misinterpreted somehow. I know that a friend is often frustrated with her step daughter (who has been deaf since birth) because they cannot seem to get her to understand how to read facial expressions/emotions or how to project her own. She can read lips just fine, but not the other nuances. She is an adult now.
The screaming child may also be over compensating, which makes me wonder if the mom has some speech. Yes, there are likely other behaviors there, but if one is only able to communicate with most people by screaming, or hasn't been taught that it is inappropriate (a deaf parent wouldn't necessarily recognize that the child is yelling or inappropriate in speech), it may be that the child just needs lots of social skills training in that area, particularly if the child has been homeschooled only. Sometimes children with hearing issues of their own also can't 'hear' their own voices to regulate them.
As far as the church thing - that have also been as a shock tactic. Could she have been trying to get attention any way possible and only knows how to do it in a very dramatic way? I can totally see a kid thinking, "They don't know me, I don't know how to make friends, but I want the girl to notice me so I will say this crazy thing".
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Every open adoption is different. Every one. I have friends that have had 2 open adoptions. One birthmother keeps in regular contact, the other gradually had less and less contact until they have now not heard from her in a long time. This child is sometimes jealous that he doesn't get to see his biological family, but as he gets older, he understands more. My friend wonders if the difference in contact has to do with the ages of the birthmothers. One was a young teen, the other was in her 20s. The older birthmom has been the one to stay in touch.
My son's birthmother wanted the adoption totally closed but did give us information in a gift after he was born. I have saved it. He knows her first name (he asked and I told him) but we have never had any contact with her. When he is 18, or later if he doesn't want it then, I will give it to him. In 18 years her mind may change, or there may be siblings who want contact, or so on.So...a question. Dd just adopted a newborn through Bethany and the birthmom wanted the adoption totally closed. She received his hospital records today and the hospital left the birthmom's name and a good bit of info still intact.She's thinking she should save this info- but since the mom doesn't want contact, would it be wrong to let dear grandson use it in the future if he wants to find his birthmom? It sounds like most of you have contact with the family-so I'm guessing you think it's the best choice when raising an adopted child.
Enlighten this grandma- I'm new to this whole adoption world.
I have limited contact with my dd's biological family thru a social worker. Maybe twice a year they ask about her or I email a picture to the social worker who knows them. But that is all.
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My ped has told us to go a couple of times. I trusted him as he is a Dr. We don't go now. I find the atmosphere at an ER's is often very rude and incompetent. A few year ago my newborn started bleeding anally. They wouldn't use the diaper I brought for testing, made us wait until he went to the bathroom again and then said that there was an error with testing and sent us home with no answers. We had been there like 6 hours. It was horrid.
My son did that as a toddler. We went to our regular pediatrician though who saw us right away. They couldn't use the regular disposible diaper though because of the chemicals in it. They actually wrapped his rear in plastic wrap, put on a cloth diaper (so it wouldn't soak up too much fluid) and waited until he went again to run the test.
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I began reading at age 3. I began wearing glasses at age 12, when adolescence did one of those funky things to my eyes and nearsighted became my view of the world. My son began wearing glasses at age 8, he was barely reading at that age, for tracking issues but otherwise has perfect vision. My daughter is 5, not yet reading, and wears glasses. She has multiple issues from prematurity. My dh was on the average age of 6-7ish when he began reading and began wearing glasses in high school. At nearly 50, he just moved into bi-focals.
Ok, help me talk thru this. Frustrated.
in The Learning Challenges Board
Posted
Yes. For one she was born at 26 weeks gestation, drug positive weighing less than 2 pounds. She was diagnosed with Retinopathy of Prematurity and is followed for that, has a diagnosis of Developmental Coordination Disorder (which the above geneticist and neurologist agreed with), and most likely has learning issues yet undetermined. Right now her pediatrician has her listed as developmental delay since we are no further.