An interesting observation I've had recently is that Demi seems to be initiating more interaction with me than previously. She's never been averse to affection, but she typically does not seek it out. The other night, she requested that I rock her in my lap. While a normal and frequent occurrence for Dana (she DEMANDS is regularly!), it was unusual and welcome from Demi. She has also asked me to pick her up recently. She may have been imitating Dana, who does that on a regular basis, but Demi typically does not ask that I pick her up, especially not "just because."
Demi has also been pretending "normally" lately. She regularly crawls on the floor pretending to be a cat or a baby. Again, she might be imitating Dana, but she does it on her own without Dana present, so it's not initiated by Dana.
On her note home from school today, Demi's teacher was excited that Demi had asked a friend if they wanted a (pretend) bite of pizza. While she does that regularly at home while playing with Demi, she rarely initiates play with her friends at school.
I procrastinated ordering the fish oil, so we've run out before the new stuff came. :( Hopefully it will come soon. When we ran out before (10-12 days without), she got quite spacey. I also ordered some Threelac, which I read was effective for yeast, which gets kicked up by liquid zeolite. Once I have all my ducks in a row, I'm going to start the Threelac to make sure yeast is firmly under control, then increase NCD slowly. She's been on 3drops, 3x for quite a while now. After raising the NCD dosage, I'd like to try increasing the fish oil. Perhaps she'll be able to absorb more (and build more myelin sheath) with more NCD. We'll see.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Need New IEP Goals
Demi is continuing to do well. Last Friday, I had a conference with her teacher, a routine sit-down to discuss how she's progressing at the half-way point through the semester. She had already checked off half of the IEP goals that had been set to cover Demi's whole school year! Granted, many of those goals were carry over from last year, but she's finally making steady progress.
We've recently started a new intervention as well - Therapeutic Listening. I've heard it called different names - she listens to special music for 30 minutes, twice a day. The music is specifically engineered to stimulate her auditory processing and vestibular system, both of which influence her body awareness, balance, environmental awareness, focus & attention, and much more.
We've been doing the process for 4 wks now. When we first started, the therapist mentioned that some children saw an increase in emotional tone (e.g. more crying), but that was usually for kids who were mostly "flat" emotionally. Since I didn't consider Demi "flat", I assumed she would not be in that category. Boy, was I wrong! She definitely did have an "increase in emotional tone" - a euphemism for meltdowns to drive a family insane. She would meltdown in a split second over the most minor issues. In the presence of a meltdown, it's often difficult to think straight - you just yearn for silence. In retrospect, I believe most of them had to do with extreme and immediate frustration in communication.
My husband was ready to toss the (very expensive) headphones out the window. After talking to the therapist at the 4wk point, I convinced him that we should continue on the program, at least for another 4 wks. The therapist said the crying normally subsided within two months. She also recommended moving to certain CD's which focus on language development, hopefully to mitigate the language frustration I believe she was having.
Strangely enough, she's only had one uncontrolled meltdown this week, as opposed to about five last week.
Since the listening therapy started, I've noticed clearer speech and improved eye contact. According to the therapist, we'll need to continue the therapy for a long time in order for the gains to "stick." If the meltdowns stop, I can deal with the rest of the program.
Little to do with cellular zeolite, but I still believe the Natural Cellular Defense, along with nutrition (fish oil, Juice Plus+), is the foundation on which the therapy and other interventions succeed.
We've recently started a new intervention as well - Therapeutic Listening. I've heard it called different names - she listens to special music for 30 minutes, twice a day. The music is specifically engineered to stimulate her auditory processing and vestibular system, both of which influence her body awareness, balance, environmental awareness, focus & attention, and much more.
We've been doing the process for 4 wks now. When we first started, the therapist mentioned that some children saw an increase in emotional tone (e.g. more crying), but that was usually for kids who were mostly "flat" emotionally. Since I didn't consider Demi "flat", I assumed she would not be in that category. Boy, was I wrong! She definitely did have an "increase in emotional tone" - a euphemism for meltdowns to drive a family insane. She would meltdown in a split second over the most minor issues. In the presence of a meltdown, it's often difficult to think straight - you just yearn for silence. In retrospect, I believe most of them had to do with extreme and immediate frustration in communication.
My husband was ready to toss the (very expensive) headphones out the window. After talking to the therapist at the 4wk point, I convinced him that we should continue on the program, at least for another 4 wks. The therapist said the crying normally subsided within two months. She also recommended moving to certain CD's which focus on language development, hopefully to mitigate the language frustration I believe she was having.
Strangely enough, she's only had one uncontrolled meltdown this week, as opposed to about five last week.
Since the listening therapy started, I've noticed clearer speech and improved eye contact. According to the therapist, we'll need to continue the therapy for a long time in order for the gains to "stick." If the meltdowns stop, I can deal with the rest of the program.
Little to do with cellular zeolite, but I still believe the Natural Cellular Defense, along with nutrition (fish oil, Juice Plus+), is the foundation on which the therapy and other interventions succeed.
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