knocked over filing cabinet

We just sat down with the student success team this past week and found out that Cody does qualify for Speech services. Instead of the 504 plan he now is on an IEP which I think will run just as smoothly as the 504 plan. Cody has made huge progress ever since he received the sit and move seat but we've been concerned now for a little while about his progress with expressive speech. He will start a sentence and not know how to say what exactly he wants to say so I have to help him by throwing out words that he may be thinking. The speech teacher explained it as though your mind is a filing cabinet. When organized you know where everything is but with expressive speech problems it like your filing cabinet was knocked over and everything was mixed up. You know that everything was in there but don't know how to find what you are wanting. I am glad that the problem is getting addressed. He already had his first speech session and seems to like it. I am sure he will be a lot less frustrated once he can say what he's thinking.

April and doing well

The months have gone by so quickly. Soon after the district OT came to observe Cody he was given a special sit and move seat. Ever since then he has been doing great. His teacher says she is witnessing a whole new Cody. A happy one who is getting all of his school work done and understanding everything so much better. I don't know if it's maturity or the seat that is helping him but we are ecstatic. He's been passing all of his benchmarks and is on his way to graduating the second grade! He's feeling pretty good about himself now as well. It has really boosted his confidence...but the attitude lives on. I think that's pretty normal for his age though. I am not worried.

Skinny boy still doesn't eat much as we'd like him too. But he thinks he's tuff.

O.T.

We had Cody tested for Sensory Integration disorder and recently received his results. She did recommend Occupational Therapy with a specialist. She also gave us some ideas to help him focus at school. I meet with Cody's SST every 6 weeks to check his progress. I brought a lot of these ideas to the table and they basically told me that the district O.T. had to evaluate him to get any services. Well, you can imagine how well the District O.T. has been cooperating....AS IN NO HELP AT ALL. She sat in on his class to observe him one day. First of all she came in the morning when of course he's well behaved because his meds are in his system strong. She told his teacher that he's doing fine and she doesn't know why he would need services. If she's a professional, then why would she come observe him in the morning. She's going to come observe him again about an hour later than she did the previous time. We shall see what happens next. I doubt the district is going to be too helpful. It's frustrating though as a parent, usually you know what's right and needed for your child's success. We may have to find and OT that specializes in this in our area now and hope that insurance will help pay...
But Cody is doing pretty well in school. Tons better than last year. He's beginning to like Math and getting better at it so it gives him some confidence where he had zero confidence about 2 months ago. Overall he is progressing in the right direction so we are pretty happy. We love his teacher who is so helpful and goes out of her way to help Cody.

Sensory Integration

What is it you ask? Good question. I didn't know much about it either but I have an Aunt that suggested we have Cody tested. It's the way we respond to our senses from out body and environment and how well they work together. They say that it is the foundation for learning and productive behavior. We took Cody to an Occupational Therapist to have some testing done on this subject. I will be very interested to see his results in a few weeks. Daniel and I sat and watched him do the testing, and I have to admit that we learned a lot ourselves just by watching him. It's very interesting. I will keep updating when we get his results.

Upcoming events!

SST and Sensory Processing testing in a couple of weeks. More info to come...

Long time no post

Cody is doing well. He's lost both his front teeth in the last two months, both being knocked out by himself!! One by jumping over a swing in Utah and the next he was playing with an umbrella. But school wise he's doing very well. They are seeing huge improvement in learning and behavior. He's reading better and has pretty much accepted the fact that he has to go to school everyday. But he has an awesome teacher and had two wonderful student teachers.

We are now getting ready for Christmas. I am excited to see him open his gifts. We tried to buy less gifts this year. We tend to spend too much on him since he's our only child. We are very grateful for him and the cute things he says and does. He may be a bit high maintenance but he's my little man and I couldn't imagine life without him. He's going through a funny phase right now. He has a cute, funny personality. He loves to make Daniel and I laugh and is trying to be very independent lately. He will be 8 in a couple of months. Hard to believe but he's getting so old...and so am I (but that's another story).

Kiai!!

Cody practiced Karate with an Occupational Therapist at the camp he went to this past summer and loved it. He kept telling us that he wants to do karate with Sensi Wayne (that's the OT from the camp). I contacted him to see if there was a program like his in our area and I quickly received a call from him. He told me that he didn't know of any other program like his anywhere. The program he runs is karate for high functioning Autism and ADD kids. He's been in the paper many times and received all sorts of awards. He's also a really good surfer and has a surfing camp during the summer. We thought about it and decided that it was something that Cody would have fun doing. We signed him up...only one problem...he's all the way out in Tustin. We did a trial class and we were amazed at how powerful Cody is and how karate really keeps his focus. We were stunned. Of course they teach the kids that it's only for self defense and sport/health so that they don't start doing karate on everyone they know!! He also emphasizes respect and love for parents to the kids. We are three weeks into it. He only goes on Saturdays right now but after seeing the confidence it gives him and the focus we couldn't deny him this experience. Plus it wears him out which nothing else does. It's worth the 35-40 minute drive.

If anyone is thinking about karate for their child and the child has some focus and attention problems I really recommend this program. Cody is testing in two weeks to receive his first stripe and we are very excited. Watch out world, this kid is already talking about getting his black belt!