Movie night with mom

Self esteem

Its heart breaking when you see how little a person only 8 years old thinks of himself. Right now Cody's self esteem is at an all time low. Sadly he has been branded a bad kid who is too hyper as many ADHD kids are. He now thinks everything that goes wrong is his fault. It really breaks my heart and i am very emotional about this topic. I know he is different, special in my mind is how i look at it. It's hard for me to watch something simple as an argument really get him down. A lot of kids can shrug off a disagreement in minutes. It takes Cody longer and he feels like a failure all together. I am sure he will start adjusting as he is continuously exposed the daily disagreements he may encounter and the everyday small failures but its hard to hear from his teacher at school that he cries in class when he gets overwhelmed because he wants to do a good job but is afraid he will fail. What do you do when your child has no self esteem? We are doing our best to reassure him that he does many things well and that everything that goes wrong is not his fault but that failures are very normal and that it is part of learning to survive in this world. It still breaks a Mom's heart to see her son's heart breaking. I think I have sheltered him too much as he's been growing up. I guess the Internet will be my best friend over the next few days to find a way to solve this issue.

Back in the swing of things.

Since my last post things have gotten better. I met with Cody's teacher last week and we went over his IEP and some things that could possibly be added. Cody's teacher has a son with ADHD so she understands my concerns. Cody is facing the fact that he has to go to school whether he wants to go or not. Once we get on campus he is usually fine. His teacher says that he is getting all of the concepts they are learning. Our big obstacle is going to be those darn timed math tests. It drives me crazy that they have to be timed and its not much time that they have. Wish I could change that. But things are looking up.

Discouraged

We started third grade last week and already Cody is doubting himself. He took a addition, subtraction, and multiplication test last week. He stressed about it big time after I picked him up that day. I reassured him that he did fine as long as he tried his best. I hate to start the new school year like this. He has complained that third grade is too hard. I am doing my best to be positive and give off a positive vibe so he doesn't know that deep down I am stressed that he's stressed. Not to mention I spoke to his teacher and they don't have access to the district files and they don't have a written copy of his IEP...what...seriously!!!?? I spent this morning talking to the office and the RSP teacher to let them know he qualifies for services. I have to bring in my own copy of his IEP to show his teacher. Needless to say, I am stressed.

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!

Audiology

A couple of weeks ago we took Cody out to Laguna Niguel to see an Audiologist. The recommendation came from the psychologist who performed his Psycho-Ed eval. Sometimes there are other factors that can affect the child's focus on top of the ADHD. Hearing problems have shown to contribute to hyperactivity and loss of focus. We were very anxious to have this testing done. This ADHD thing has really opened a new world to us that we didn't even know existed. It seems that we are lead from one thing and then another and sometimes feels like there's never an end.
Okay, so back to the Audiologist appointment. Her name is Maria Abramson, Au.D., CCC-A, FAAA (what all of those initials mean...I have not a clue) She was extremely nice and really seemed to know what she was doing. She had two sound proof booths, one for Cody and another where we remained to see how Cody performed for the first test. The first test was just your every day...push a button when you hear the sound test. He did fine with this one. Next Daniel and I went back to the front office while she continued with more tests. She took his snack and some water that I had brought with them and said, "he's going to need this".(luckily I brought something) About and hour and half later she appeared at the door to call us back to her office to discuss the results.

So we all know that the brain is an amazingly complicated organ. Luckily I had an good anatomy class in college so I understood everything. Most of us know that the right side of our brain controls the left side of our body. The same goes for your ears. But your speech center is on the left side. Cody has a left ear weakness which means that when he hears out of his left ear it takes more time to process the info. When you hear out of your left ear the sound has to go to the right side of the brain and since the right side of the brain doesn't "talk" the info has to be sent back to the left side of the brain to speak and process. If you have a left ear weakness and someone/teacher is talking fast or softly the right ear may be picking up noises from another source while your left ear is picking up what your teacher is teaching. The info takes longer to process and in that time you are already distracted by the other noise and therefore miss what your teacher is saying because you processed the right ear noise quicker and was distracted by it.
It sounds confusing the way I say it, but the Dr. managed to explain it very clear.
                                                             As you see in this picture the sound goes in the left ear and is

sent to the right side of the brain and then sent back to the left side to the speech center.

This condition is not caused by ADHD, but is it's own disorder that is added on top. There are ways to strengthen his left ear and we plan to try our best to correct this issue. But some reports have shown that this issue improves as the child matures. Like I said, the brain is a crazy, complicated organ.

Next step is to have Cody tested for sensory issues. We are going to cover all of our bases.

Finished with a smile!

Friday was Cody's last day of camp. He completed 5 weeks of "Therapeutic Camp" and I can report that he's made good progress and has learned some coping skills for when he gets frustrated. All of the counselors were sad to hear that Cody wasn't taking part in the 6th week Adventure week. I didn't think he was old enough to do the things they were going to be doing. Anyhow, all of them gave him a big hug or did their special handshakes. It was good to see what good relationships he built with them and a few of the kids there. This is a big accomplishment for Cody. Mostly everyday I picked him up he had a huge smile on his face. Daniel and I feel that paying the money that we did for this camp was well worth it.

 When campers have a good day they give them the award of Camper of the Day. He was pretty stoked to get this along with an Eagle award which is a big deal. I guess not a lot of campers get this. It means that the camper is making huge steps in the right direction and that they can tell. It took us by surprise but we were very proud of him and tried to make him know that it was a big deal. We celebrated with icees!!

 This is a cologe of the many activities they did in the 5 weeks. It consists of rock climbing (which by week 3 he was doing it blind folded), played soccer, went to the beach, had karate lessons by a trained Occupational Therapist, Cody was an Eagle in the short movie they put together. They went to Knott's Berry Farm and Boomers. They also met in groups and talked about the many ways they could make friends and cope with frustrating time.

We can't express enough how proud of Cody we are and how we can see changes here at home in the course of the 5 weeks. Besides having to drive to Huntington Beach everyday (most days in traffic) it was a good experience. I love my little man and I will do anything to make life as an ADHD child easier. I am really hopeful that this camp will continue to help him when he starts school again.

Week three

I am happy to report that Cody is doing very well at camp. The first two weeks were okay with a few issues but now he's a champ rock climber, happy soccer player and master at arts and crafts. They have gone to the beach were he rode a boogie board for the first time and loved it...Daddy wants to take him surfing already. They've gone to Knott's Berry Farm and this last week they went to the Science and Discovery Center. He is now having a lot of fun and getting really good reports from the counselors that his attitude has become much more positive and that he's progressing very well. I am also happy to report that things at home are running smoother as well. We are experiencing much less fits, he's doing chores, listening better, getting along with people better, and being much more independent. We've established new house rules that he's attending to very well after enforcing them very consistently. We are ecstatic with the results we are seeing. We love our little guy and always have, but now things around the house are much more peaceful and positive.

Day three

Day three of Summer Camp Quest, and thus far we are doing well. He was very scared the first day but was soon put at ease by the camp counselors. He had a good report that day. They receive points during the day that at the end of the week they get to use towards a treat from their store. The second day was the first rock wall climb day and Cody was having nothing to do with it no matter what I said or how I said it. I told his counselor that he was very apprehensive to do the rock wall. But turns out he did extremely well (he got bonus points!) and now has said that it is awesome! I was so relieved to hear that he did well and really liked it since they do the rock wall once a week. They also participate in physical ed. through a karate instructor. Another thing that Cody has really enjoyed. So, thus far, things are going in the right direction. We, as parents are also involved in the point system. He has the opportunity to earn 20 points a day at home by working towards his "at home goals". His at home goals are things such as doing his chores, and doing things independently like getting dressed, and starting his own shower water, etc...
We are so glad this is going to be a positive environment for him this summer to learn and have fun.

Cody had his first visit to the hospital (not counting the ER visits). He had to have an EKG to check his QT interval to make sure it isn't prolonged. We should hear back today to see what his results are. We are expecting everything to be fine and hopefully start some new meds to control the hyperactivity. Cody was very nervous but he did a great job. Poor kid has been through so much lately.
We also got the results of his Psycho Ed Analysis and all results point to a focus problem which we pretty much already knew. He did really well visually but auditory he struggled. Overall she said that Cody is a very bright kid but is going to need help learning. I've committed myself to working with him almost every day of the week this summer to keep him at grade level.
We were also referred to an Auditory Center which I am going to get an appointment as soon as his camp ends in August. They will be able to tell us if he's hearing things/sounds differently and how we can help him learn.

another med...

Well, just a short note to say that we went to the Dr. yesterday for Cody's annual physical/well check and spent the whole time discussing his meds. Cody now needs to have an EKG to see if he has a long QT wave length...or something with the QT and seeing if he has some heart problems before adding new meds. We may be adding a new med to tame the hyperactivity that his meds (Strattera) now is not controlling. We also discussed turrets disorder and how it's a motion disorder. We spent about 30-45min. going over what meds control what symptoms. It kind of made my head spin because there are so many different symptoms lumped under ADD disorder. I am grateful that I have Daniel to talk calm me down when I leave the Dr.'s office. He processing things quicker than I do. I need some time to let all the info sink in and then I am ready to start doing more research on the new info.
Daniel and I are also going to Cody's psychologist tomorrow to discuss the results of his Psycho Educational Analysis. I will admit I am a bit overwhelmed and am hoping we get good news that he's on track and should be prepared for the second grade. I will update after we have our parents meeting tomorrow.

We made it!!

Celebrate good times...COME ON!!

Oh what a relief...1st grade is done! Second grade here we come!!

After a short break of course!

Here is Cody's awesome 1st grade teacher Mrs. Deegan.

I felt a deep need to make a big deal of Cody's accomplishment since he hates school and struggled so hard. Cody finally stopped playing with the kids he was having trouble with. The last few days of school Cody behaved very well and his teacher said it was because one specific boy in the class that bothers Cody wasn't there. I am hoping that Cody will have a new group of kids in his second grade class to see if his behavior improves.

 I spent most of the last day of school with Cody at his class while they played in their mini gym and had a pizza party for lunch.

Cody had a spirit assembly at his school today. The kids get awards if they've accomplished something in the past few months. Cody received an award for his Perseverance. He has worked pretty hard this year and we are very proud of him. All but one reading test is done for this school year. Next we are having Cody get a Psycho Educational Evaluation. These are subject specific testing to address behavior health problems and to see exactly where he's at in his academics so we know what to work on this summer and be prepared for come next school year. We were also informed that his principal will be retiring this year. We really loved our school principal and she has helped Cody out so much. We can only hope that the next one will be as flexible and loving towards Cody. We are anxious to find out who Cody's second grade teacher will be. I have been doing my research and hope I don't annoy his teacher too much. Daniel and I have continued helping out in Cody's class and we really enjoy it. The kids are very loving and are always excited when you show up to help. It's been a great experience this year. A lot has happened. We are very grateful for everyone who has supported us!

Cody getting his award from the principal

Back to school

I've spent two mornings at Cody's school this week helping out in the classroom. It has been so much fun but a huge eye opener to what this next generation could be like. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful teacher this year. She does an amazing job and believe me, she has her hands full!! What really surprised me, and I guess it really shouldn't but there are some kids in Cody's class that have real issues and it doesn't seem like the parents help them. I am in no place to judge others but I just know how important early intervention is. Some of these kids have real emotional problems. It's sad and makes you want to give them a big hug and help them in any way you can. It's a bit overwhelming. One of my jobs was to help one child with his spelling test. He totally shut down and kept saying that he didn't study and doesn't know his sounds. When I heard that it made me a bit angry towards his parents. I know that parents these days have a lot of their shoulders but if you choose to have children you need to help them be successful. I know what it is like to have a special needs child and how much support and studying he needs to do.
Any how, I will definitely be back to help out and am glad that I have the time to do so. My plea...parents, please help your children be successful!